PRESS
RELEASE . . . PRESS RELEASE . . . PRESS RELEASE . . .
No more
deaths from benefit cuts – Gill Thompson launches legal case
for
brother David Clapson
 |
| No more deaths from benefit cuts — Gill thompson launches legal case for brother David Clapson |
Gill
Thompson’s legal case for her brother David, who was diabetic and died in
2013 after his Jobseekers Allowance was sanctioned, has just been launched.
Gill's legal team wrote to the Hertfordshire Coroner setting out why there
should be an investigation, including of breach of the right to life and of
DWP procedure sanctioning claimants (see Leigh Day press release). David’s death was
put down to “natural causes” and there was no inquest. Public support through CrowdJustice fundraising has enabled this challenge.
In
October, at the people’s premiere of Ken Loach’s film “I, Daniel Blake” in Leicester Square, Gill joined other
campaigners at an invited vigil against deaths from benefit cuts,
on the red carpet. Nichole Drury,
another bereaved relative, spoke about her mother Moira Drury, who had a head injury from domestic
violence, and developed cancer. Moira
was too ill to attend the benefit exam but her reasons were not accepted and
she was cut off. The stress of being
without benefit for months, then a Council Tax demand for nearly £2,000 resulting
from loss of benefit, hastened her death.
The banner of names of people who died from benefit cuts and sanctions
was read out by Maggie Zolobajluk.
Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, longtime opponents of the Work
Capability Assessment, gave their support at the vigil and spoke to people
individually.
Corbyn
highlighted David’s plight in Parliament at Prime Minister’s Questions, telling Theresa May and ministers
to go and see “I, Daniel Blake”.
Black Triangle
welcomes Gill’s challenge, relevant to the refusal to hold an inquest into
the death of Alan McArdle, who
died of a heart attack in 2015 within an hour of being read a letter
threatening to stop his Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). Maximus had reported him to the DWP for missing
back-to-work appointments, insisting on sanction when someone called to let
them know he was in hospital.
Many claimants say WinVisible’s
Benefit self-help rights sheet has helped them, including against sanctions. We won
exemption from the face-to-face Work Capability Assessment (WCA) exam for
many vulnerable women, and helped restore benefit to disabled women cut off
for “failure to attend”.
Despite words that people on ESA
Support Group rate with chronic conditions will no longer be retested,
on 1 November the government launched a “Work, health and disability: improving lives” green paper at disability charity Scope, which
includes the proposal to make everyone subject to sanctions, including sick and disabled
people in the Support Group who are currently protected. Disabled campaigners
are determined to fight this new attack on claimants, and recently protested
against national Mind, confronting CEO Paul Farmer against Mind sending their
policy officer Tom Pollard to work for the DWP – tied to lucrative DWP
contracts for the “work cure” for people with mental distress.
Opposition inside
Parliament is also growing. MPs
opposed to the ESA cut due in April 2017, are calling for a debate,
including Green, Labour, SNP and Tory MPs, such as Stephen McPartland, MP for
Stevenage where David Clapson lived.
McPartland’s correspondence with the DWP at Gill’s request, where the
DWP replied they knew David was insulin-dependent, forms part of the legal
challenge.
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