Responses from The House of Lords

As part of the Spartacus Report campaign I e-mailed all members of the House of Lords with surnames starting "M to O" who had a publicly published e-mail address (not all of them do!! (They work for me??)) the following e-mail on Friday the 13th January 2012. Responses received (2) so far are posted after it!




Dear Lord/ Baroness ____________

We were delighted with the outcome of the ESA votes - finally some hope that we are being heard. It was, therefore, with great concern that we heard that one of these amendments may have essentially been overturned - especially because of the circumstances surrounding the vote which to an outside observer seemed somewhat underhand. I'm sure that by now you will have seen a copy of Reponsible Reform the 'Spartacus Report' and we would ask you to read it if you haven't already. It outlines a number of concerns surrounding proposed reform to DLA. While we are not opposed to reform of DLA in its own right, we are concerned that the motivation behind these particular reforms are primarily financial. Whilst we understand efforts to eliminate fraudulent claimants, we are worried that the negative effects of these reforms on genuine claimants will significantly outweigh any benefit to the economy. Removal of support for disabled people and carers is also often a false economy, because the costs get shunted to another part of the system (for example to the NHS if reduced support causes health crises). I am disabled but able to work and want to work. However, it seems the workplace does not want me to work. My disabilities primarily cause me problems in interacting with strangers which obviously disadvantages me at interview. I have also experienced bias against my applications and one of your colleagues, Lord Coe, is aware of my case and of the fact that LOCOG testimony at Tribunal can only be interpreted as an admission that they failed to make reasonable adjustments for me at a job interview. Please remember sick and disabled people and carers in the continuing debates and votes - you have our future wellbeing in your hands. Thank-you Ian M Jones



RESPONSES


From Baroness McIntosh

Dear Mr Jones,

Thank you for your message. You’re right that we had a good day on Wednesday, but also right that the fight is far from over (not least because of that late-night vote…). You can be sure that all of us in the Labour group will continue to do what we can to overturn the government’s plans, but of course we need the support of crossbenchers and others if we are to succeed.

Best wishes


Genista McIntosh




From Lord MacLennan

To 'Ian Jones'

Thank you.


Robert Maclennan