Quakers urged to support petition
Friends urged to sign 'Pat's Petition'
Friends have been urged to support a popular on-line petition that asks the government to review the cuts that have been made to the benefits and services provided to disabled people.
‘Pat’s petition’, which was created by a group of friends who are all disabled or carers, calls for parliament to ‘stop and review the cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families’.
Hilary Course, a Friend who lives with a long-term severe medical condition, described her experience as ‘like I’ve fallen into a novel by Kafka’ and highlighted the increasing number of ‘desperate people’ who are being affected.
The petition has received widespread support from disabled people, their carers, friends and families and Hilary is hoping that Quakers will support it.
More than 50,000 people have already signed to express their anger at the government’s reforms to welfare and service provision. When the petition reaches 100,000 signatures it will be referred to a select committee. This could trigger a commons debate on the issue.
Hilary added: ‘Like most sick/disabled people, over the years I have painstakingly built up many health, coping and survival arrangements. Successive budget cuts have already started to unravel these. Living with long-term illness means that, even at the best of times, most aspects of my life remain precariously balanced. A single, seemingly small, mishap can set off a cascade of disasters.’
She said: ‘The need for action over the cuts is urgent, for we sick/disabled people have no “undo button”. For instance, even when we win an appeal, it may not be possible to reinstate all our previous arrangements. Humpty cannot always be put back together again. We urgently need all changes to our support systems to be rational, rather than counter-productive’.
She believes that the future is bleak unless action is taken and urges Friends to sign the petition and to get ‘ten non-Friends to do the same’ before 1 November at http://bit.ly/PatsPetition.
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