Meeting on Sept 10th About Disabled People and Cuts Following Week of ATOS Protests

Banner at the Closing ATOS Ceremony in London

This week, during the Paralympics, Disabled People Against the Cuts and UK Uncut teamed up for a week of action, dubbed the ATOS games. The occasion was chosen because ATOS are one of the main sponsors of the Paralympics, an association which led the TeamGB Paralympians to hide their ATOS branded lanyards during the opening ceremony earlier this week.

Tuesday saw protests take place outside ATOS assessment centres around the UK, and today there was a big protest outside their HQ in London, which then moved to occupy the DWP offices in Westminster. All of this is in protest at the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) which is supposed to test people who are claiming disability benefits to see if they are fit for work, but is being used to push people off disability benefits, with targets to find 89% of people fit for work.
This has led to many deaths, with 32 people a week dying after being found fit for work, and a host of tragic stories such as the Birmingham dad who died from his heart condition just three weeks after ATOS told him he was fit for work, or the cancer patient who died earlier this week just a few days after finding out her appeal was succesful.
The British Medical Association has condemned the WCA as being unfit for purpose, and called for the government to radically overhaul the process so that it takes into account medical advice from doctors.

ATOS Protest in Birmingham

This week’s protests have attracted a large amount of media attention, and brought the issue to a wider audience. Join us on Monday 10th September, at 6:30pm at the Unison Offices for a meeting about cuts and disabled people, with Linda Burnip from DPAC speaking followed by a discussion.

The Unison offices are wheelchair accessible with accessible toilets. If you have any accessibility needs please contact us by email at BirminghamAgainstTheCuts@Gmail.com and we will do our best to ensure that you can fully access our meeting.

The Unison Offices are on the 19th Floor, McClaren Tower, Priory Queensway, B4 7LR. The nearest train station is Moor Street which is around 200m away, with New Street about half a mile from the offices. Many buses stop along Moor Street Queensway, near the McClaren Tower.