TRAGIC victims of the Tory Government’s welfare cuts regime were remembered last night with a candlelight vigil in Edinburgh.
People with disabilities and campaigners gathered outside Edinburgh’s St Giles Cathedral and Edinburgh City Chambers to pay tribute to dozens of people who have either taken their own lives or died as an alleged result of benefit cuts.
The event was hosted by Scottish disability campaign group Black Triangle as a mark of respect for those who have died, as part of Disability History Month Scotland, which runs until December 22.
On its website, the organisation lists dozens of people from across the UK it alleges have been “killed as a result of welfare reforms”.
Alongside the names it has written in eulogy: “They shall be remembered forevermore.
“Avenge the dead. Resuscitate the living. We must fight on for freedom from Westminster’s murderous policies and support the struggle of all Britain’s sick and/or disabled people simultaneously.”
Statistics released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) revealed that during the period December 2011 to February 2014, 2,380 people died after their claim for employment and support allowance ended because a work capability assessment found they were found fit for work.
UK ministers say that the data cannot be used to link claimant deaths to its welfare reforms, but the figures have turned attention on the government’s fit-for-work assessment process, which has been dogged by controversy in recent years.
Victims – including disabled Michael O’Sullivan from London, whom a coroner ruled had killed himself after being wrongly found fit for work following a DWP assessment and warned of a risk of further deaths – were remembered during the emotional vigil.
Black Triangle co-founder John McArdle said: “The Black Triangle, Disability History Scotland and many disabled people were gathering to commemorate the people who have lost their lives through welfare reform.”
McArdle vowed that disability groups would not give up fighting against the cruel cuts and for justice for those who have died.
He praised SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson for continuing to raise the issue with David Cameron and calling on him to publish reports into the deaths of 60 people who took their own lives after being told they were fit to work. McArdle said it was politicians like him who kept the battle for rights for disabled people on the political agenda.
He said:“We cannot forget that disabled people are still suffering under the welfare regime. Disabled people continue to die because of these cuts. I got news last night of another man who died of multiple organ failure.”
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