Thursday 8 November 2012

Frame a Directgov e-petition question

Through a friend I made on Twitter I got involved with a move to write PatsPetition2. 

Pats Petition called on the government to
 
"Stop and review the cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families"

This petition attracted 62,645 signatures as at 11am on the 8Nov2012 but is now closed.

Since this petition the Disabled Community has been asking what comes next.

To this end "Napoleon Wilson" (a nom de plume!!) organised a mass tweet on Tuesday night to brainstorm for new ideas. I have collected ideas left on two Blogs set up for comment.

  • Lubottom
    • Want a review enquiry Not a debate.
    • Cuts fall disproportionately on women. (Evidence)
    • GPs should be involved in WCA.
    • 32 per week in WRAG dying.
    • Benefit reduction equates to lost taxes.
    • Cuts to medical services (MH, OT etc)
  • 10 percent
    • Repeal WRB
      • Causing death and stress.
      • Call for a free vote on abolition.
  • Mike Sivier
    • Current assessment system not fit for purpose.
    • Engage wth all dis orgs including charities.
  • Angus Curruthers
    • See Irish rejection of WRB
  • Lynn
    • Point out what loss of DLA/PIP will practically mean to people.
    • MH sufferers cannot handle the assessments.
  • Gracie
    • Approach Paralympians and 38Degrees and get them to do everything.
  • PatWalker
    • Free vote to repeal WRB
  • Jane
    • Engage with people on case study to get people to understand.
  • Diane Maxfield
    • Debate and discussion of how equality of opportunity could be achieved is way forward.
  • Coffeecup
    • Dame Carol Blacks report in 2008 outlines ideology behind finding people fit for work but the support she suggested is not being provided.
  • Ambir
    • Aim for 100k signatures
    • Promote more realistic view of sick and disabled people.
  • Gavin Saunders
    • Welfare decisions should not be in the hands of a private company.
  • EdwinMandella
    • Equality of treatment is not enough. We want equality of opportunity.
  • RickB
    • Free vote in repealing the Welfare Reform Act to save 30-70 lives per week.
  • Kimmie Stuckinscared
    • Doctors… should be enough.

The trick now is to distil these ideas into an Action!

The rules of the e-petition are as follows:-
  1. All e-petitions must call for a specific action from the government.
  2. If an e-petition does not include a clear statement explaining what action you want the government to take, it will be rejected. 
  3. If you collect 100,000 signatures, your e-petition could be debated in the House of Commons.

Personally, I suggest that the questions coming out of these ideas are as follows. There is a comments section below this Blog. If you think I'm wrong, please tell me.


My Interpretation of Suggested Actions following Brainstorming session.
 
  1. Call for the repeal of the Welfare Reform Bill.
  2. Call for the Work Capability Assessment  process to be re-engineered with a greater emphasis on professional evidence based assessment.
  3. Call for the process to be "softened" for vulnerable people.
  4. Call for serious discussion on how Equality of Opportunity can be encouraged.
  5. Call for the Government to Provide the support identified and required to get people found fit for work back to work.
 I am very sorry if I have missed any that were Tweeted alone. Use the comments section to correct. Also, IMO, lots of the ideas and comments would feature as evidence given to support the e-petition specific action. The better the request for action, the more evidence we could load into the e-petition.


There were also many points about how the current process operates ("welfare decisions should not be in the hands of a private company" and calls for various people to front this campaign). My personal opinion is (and again use the comment section if you disagree!) this is all about getting the right requested action. An action so powerful, incisive, emotive and obvious that it cannot be ignored. Once you have the right requested action, to quote from "Field of Dreams", "Build it and they will come".



I have just glanced at Twitterand picked up this Tweet, which to me is very pertinent.


What we need to do is smash a few of the myths which surround benefit claimants, correcting public perception is key

If we build the right request for Action with the right evidence I believe we will smash the ConDem lies and change Public Perception.


My final point is, we need to construct the killer request for Action  which may be one or an amalgamation of the suggested Actions above (or may be completely different if I got it wrong!)

You know where the comments section is! 



Links

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