Crippen Cartoons cartoons at the cutting edge of disability

The UK Disabled People’s Movement mourns the sad passing of Micheline Mason, disabled activist, author, artist and founder of The Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE).

In a moving tribute by her colleagues at ALLFIE, Micheline is remembered as a remarkable activist who dedicated her life to campaigning for inclusive education and the rights of all Disabled people to be educated in mainstream settings. As a Disabled mother of a Disabled child, Micheline was determined that her daughter, Lucy, now an adult, would attend her local mainstream school rather than be segregated from society, as this was her own experience within the education system.

Micheline often explained how she formed ALLFIE around her kitchen table, alongside a group of parents determined to ensure their children were educated equally, and formed the pivotal inclusive education group, Parents for Inclusion. She said:

“I started the Alliance for Inclusive Education 30 years ago now. At the time I was a parent of a Disabled child who was 4. Who was coming up to school age. Having been educated myself for 14 years at home on the sofa and then 3 years in a special boarding school which brought great problems to me when I left. I was so determined as a mother that my daughter wasn’t gonna follow the same path as me. And ever feel excluded from her local community. I felt she deserved to have all the same opportunities as any other child, possibly even more because she needed, she would have limited choices because of her impairments.”

All her life, Micheline, alongside other activists, drove forward the inclusive education movement, it is now a global campaign that remains one of the most powerful tools in combating societal inequalities and discriminatory practices. Micheline played a crucial role in supporting other parents of Disabled children in advocating for their child’s right to attend a mainstream school. She was instrumental in introducing national policy changes and reshaping the language around inclusive education.

She will be sadly missed by her family, friends, colleagues at ALLFIE and Parents for Inclusion and also fellow disabled activists from around the world.

You are invited to leave your own tribute to Micheline on the ALLFIE web site.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software – A caricature of Micheline Mason from the waist up shows her smiling with a purple band holding back her white hair. A pink scalf over a purple top completes her dress.

Disabled activists and allies defied bureaucrats to ensure that the delivery of 650 copies of John Pring’s ‘DWP violence’ book was delivered to MPs.

Although they had been assured weeks in advance – both by the House of Commons Post Office and Commons security – that they would be allowed to bring in the copies through the security scanners at Portcullis House, managers refused to allow them to bring in the sealed envelopes, each addressed to an individual MP.

Using negotiation and peaceful direct action, activists – led by Disabled People Against Cuts and Black Triangle – used the books to block the public entrance to the building for more than an hour. Their action ensured that every MP received a copy of The Department, which details how DWP’s actions eventually led to the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of disabled people in the post-2010 austerity years.

After meeting outside DWP’s Caxton House offices last week, activists – including relatives of two of the disabled benefit claimants who died – carried all 650 copies across Westminster to Portcullis House, where many MPs and the House of Commons Post Office are based.

Among those who supported the event were Gill Thompson – whose brother David Clapson died in July 2013, three weeks after having his jobseeker’s allowance sanctioned – and her husband Mike. She said that the crowdfunding and action had been “quite an achievement … We have had our obstacles, but we got there in the end. That book has given me David back, it’s put him in a human light and given him back his dignity that [DWP] took away from him.”

Another supporting the action was Joy Dove, whose daughter Jodey Whiting took her own life in February 2017, 15 days after she had her out-of-work disability benefits wrongly stopped for missing a work capability assessment.

She said: “These MPs need to see the stories in the book, how each and every family has suffered the life-changing loss of a loved one. There needs to be change now there’s a new Labour government.”

She said she was encouraged that her new Labour MP, Chris McDonald, asked to meet her outside Portcullis House, and supported her campaign for justice.

The project has been led by disabled activists, including Black Triangle Campaign, DPAC and the UK Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations’ Coalition, and supported by disabled people’s organisations, allies and families of those who have lost their lives, as well as Pluto Press, which has published The Department.

Among the organisations supporting the campaign are Disabled People Against Cuts, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, Inclusion London, Disability Rights UK, Recovery in the Bin and the radical working-class media organisation The Canary.

John McArdle, co-founder of Black Triangle Campaign, whose idea it was to launch a crowdfunder that paid for the purchase of the books, said: “The Department provides a casebook of how not to run a social security system. The current disability benefit assessment system is making people even sicker. Pushing disabled people into work that medical experts say we cannot do won’t address labour shortages and more disability benefit cuts, as the government has planned, are not a common-sense strategy for ‘fixing the foundations’.

“Instead, Deaf and disabled people and our organisations call upon the government to sit down with us to co-produce a safe and efficient disability benefit system that provides a genuine safety net to those who need it.”

Author and activist Ellen Clifford, from the UK Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations’ Coalition, who has helped lead the project, said: “The success of the crowdfunder shows how important it is to people outside the Westminster bubble that our elected politicians finally address the grave injustice of DWP attacks on Deaf and disabled people. Across the UK, there is growing concern about the impact of yet more cuts. It is apparent that lessons from the past are being deliberately ignored.”

Read the full story in Disability News Service.

Note: I urge you to purchase a copy of John’s book. It contains a blow by blow account of how the DWP has affected the lives of thousands of disabled people by their use of “bureaucratic violence”.

The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, by DNS editor John Pring, was published by Pluto Press last month.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software.

The entrance to Caxton House is blocked by a giant copy of John Pring’s book ‘The Department’. A crowd of disabled people complete the blockade along with placards that read ‘No more DWP deaths’, ‘MP’s must stop the killing’ and ‘Peaceful Direct Action – no throughway until you agree to our demands’. One protester is saying: “Let’s see the MPs ignore this evidence!”.

WTF?!

Labour are once again preparing to roll out policies which are basically those started by the Tory government. These include reinstating contractors for health and work assessments such as Capita, Serco and Ingeus UK and the possible merging of benefit assessments and/or the scrapping of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) along with further changes to Personal Independent Payment (PIP).

These assessment companies will take over from disgraced DWP PIP contractor Atos. However, as reported in the Canary, these private outsourcing firms, particularly Serco and Maximus have a long history of harm towards chronically ill and disabled people.

In Maximus’s case, it has overseen some of the government’s WCAs with often fatal effect, including running the process leading to the deaths of multiple people. On top of this, Serco, Maximus, and Ingeus have all run a key government back to work programme. Not only have they failed to meet low government-set targets, but they’ve also harmed chronically ill people in the process.

If Labour stick to the Tory plan, these changes will be used as a pretext setting the stage for other harmful DWP reforms which significantly the new Labour government has failed to rule out.

Crucially though, these changes are set to deny hundreds of thousands of chronically ill and disabled claimants their vital benefits. This is because, as policy adviser Ken Butler at Disability Rights UK told the Disability News Service (DNS):

“The health element proposals will mean that around 632,000 disabled people who receive the employment and support allowance or universal credit support component will lose this as they do not receive PIP or DLA.”

Specifically, as the Canary’s Steve Topple detailed, this will most likely impact chronically ill people and those living with mental health conditions. He explained that the reason for this is that many of these people:

“Do not fit into PIP’s rigid criteria box!”

Despite calls from disability rights campaigners for the new government to ditch the Tories’ plans, Labour has yet to signal it will indeed do this. To the contrary, it has in fact somewhat rebutted their efforts to challenge the former government’s reforms.

Significantly, as the Disability New Service (DNS) revealed, government lawyers are still planning to appeal the information commissioners order to release the previous government’s assessment on its plans to do away with the WCA. Therefore, as DNS noted:

“This could add to fears that the new government has no plans to scrap Conservative work and pensions policies such as abolishing the WCA, tightening the assessment in the short term, or reforming PIP.”

Moreover, we still don’t know if Labour will continue with the merging of benefit assessments and/or the scrapping of the WCA.

Topple also pointed out how the then Tory government might use this to push chronically ill people into work. Critically, he wrote that:

“There are now over 360,000 more people who are chronically ill and not working than before the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. The government classes these people as “economically inactive”. It’s currently on a drive to get some of the nine million people who are economically inactive into work.”

Given this, he suggested that:

“By removing the WCA and just relying on PIP entitlement, the DWP will be able to strip some of these economically inactive people of their entitlements. This will leave many with little choice but to try and work.”

Of course, this rhetoric now neatly aligns with DWP PIP boss Liz Kendall’s back to work agenda which will affect 2.8 million “economically inactive” people off work due to long-term sickness.

So, it’s unclear whether any of the other Tory-instigated plans will continue. But given Labour’s rhetoric, they may well do.

Watch this space!

You can read the full story in the Canary.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

Labour’s new chancellor Rachel Reeves is standing alongside an old car wreck which has a large sold sign upon it. Written on the car is ‘Old Tory policies’, which is crossed out and replaced by ‘New labour policies’. Rishi Sunak is standing at the other side of the car with a wad of money in his hand. He is saying to Reeves: “There you go Rachel – a lick of paint and no one will know the difference!”

Disabled activists are celebrating that a final push with their crowdfunding campaign will now allow copies of a new book about the “violent” history of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to be sent to key politicians across the country.

The book, entitled The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, by Disability News Service (DNS) editor John Pring, was published by Pluto Press on Tuesday 20th August 2024.

It describes John’s 10-year investigation into how the actions of DWP, spurred on by politicians and the outsourcing industry, led to the deaths of hundreds, and probably thousands, of disabled people, and how they covered up their role in those deaths.

It includes new documents obtained from the National Archives that show how the violence inflicted on benefit claimants built slowly from the late 1980s until it exploded in the post-2010 austerity years.

It also tells the stories of some of those who lost their lives because of that bureaucratic violence, following years of dehumanisation and destitution, and the impact on their families and friends.

At the time of this blog going out the crowdfunder had reached its fundraising goal of £7,000. The original aim was to raise £3,500, enough money to send a copy of The Department to every Labour MP in the House of Commons. But the campaign was so successful that the target was doubled, and the aim extended to MPs from other parties.

Now organisers of the campaign hope to raise enough to provide copies of the book to other leading politicians across the country, including some members of the legislative assembly in Northern Ireland (MLAs), Welsh assembly members, members of the Scottish parliament (MSPs) and other key figures such as elected mayors.

They also plan to use some of the funds to organise a campaign event in parliament on 2 September, the day MPs return from their summer break and the same day the books are due to be delivered to the House of Commons.

Among the organisations supporting the campaign are Disabled People Against Cuts, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People (GMCDP), Inclusion London, Recovery in the Bin and the radical working-class media organisation The Canary.

Rick Burgess, a GMCDP spokesperson, said: “While the DWP dictates policy from Westminster, the devastating and harmful effects are felt everywhere. It’s fantastic the crowdfunder has reached its stretch goal.”

The idea for the crowdfunder came from John McArdle, co-founder of the disabled people’s grassroots group Black Triangle, who is leading the project with fellow disabled activist and author Ellen Clifford, who leads the coalition of disabled people’s organisations monitoring the UK implementation of the UN’s disability rights convention.

John Mc said: “Politicians across the country need to know the devastating impact of austerity on disabled people, so they can use that information when making their own decisions on vital local services. Successive Conservative-led governments used austerity as a justification for cutting disabled people’s support. This book shows how they did that and how it led to countless deaths.

Ellen Clifford has described it as “an expertly crafted, vigorously researched response to the gas-lighting endured by disabled benefit claimants at the hands of government and the DWP for the past 14 years” and “a powerful call to arms for all decent human beings”.

Read the full story in Disability News Service

You can also still contribute to the Crowdfunding page.

Description of image for those using screen reading software

The image is the front cover of John Pring’s book which has a torn and crumpled piece of paper on it baring the legend ‘How a Violent Government Bureaucracy killed hundreds and hid the evidence’.

As we suspected, the first report of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has shown how successive governments displayed a “criminally negligent” attitude towards protecting disabled people and other groups at risk from pandemics.

Disabled people’s organisations, speaking to Disability News Service (DNS) said this week that it was no surprise that the report concludes that years of pre-pandemic planning exercises had failed to take enough account of people with pre-existing health conditions, those living in deprivation, and those from minority ethnic communities.

The report says that emergency planning “generally failed to account sufficiently for the pre-existing health and societal inequalities and deprivation in society”.

And it says there was a failure to “appreciate the full extent” of the impact of government measures and long-term risks from the Covid pandemic on minority ethnic communities and those with “poor health or other vulnerabilities”.

It concludes: “When the pandemic struck, many of those who suffered and many of those who died were already vulnerable.

“The evidence from several voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations was that both the disease and the response to the emergency had a disproportionate impact on vulnerable people.”

The report says it will be “critical” now to “identify which groups of vulnerable people are likely to be hardest hit by a pandemic and the reasons why”.

You can read the full story in DNS.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

Three people are sat at a large table on which is a sign that reads ‘COVID Enquiry’. They are each holding up a placard that reads consecutively: ‘Vulnerable People failed’ and ‘Criminally negligent’ and ‘Total Government Failure’. On the floor is a copy of Disability News Service (DNS) which has the headline: “Report from COVID 19 enquiry that governments failed with their emergency planning”.

Disabled people are back “in the firing line” on spending cuts, disabled activists have warned, following decisions announced by Labour’s new chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

Reeves told MPs  that there would be cuts to social care and winter fuel payment to address what she described as a “£22 billion hole in the public finances” left by the previous Tory government.

Reeves also warned that she would “look closely at our welfare system, because if someone can work, they should work”.

As reported in Disability News Service (DNS) she told MPs: “We will ensure that the welfare system is focused on supporting people into employment, and we will assess the unacceptable levels of fraud and error in our welfare system and take forward action to bring that down.”

Her comments mirrored those by work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, who suggested last week that she wanted to increase pressure on disabled people to move off benefits and into work, while disregarding risks to their health, and that she wanted the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to move from being “a department for welfare” to becoming “a genuine department for work”.

Also among a series of other measures, she also appeared to suggest that cuts to benefits would be announced later in the year, and that it would “not be possible” to take forward reforms to adult social care charging that were repeatedly delayed by successive Conse­­­­­­rvative governments.

The announcement came just days after a report by the disabled people’s organisation Disability Law Service showed that disabled people across England were continuing to face unlawful discrimination and inequality on an “unparalleled” scale due to “unjust” social care charging policies.

Disabled campaigners have also raised serious concerns about Reeves’ announcements and comments.

Fazilet Hadi, head of policy at Disability Rights UK, said the chancellor’s comments on economic inactivity “were interchangeable with those of the previous government”.

She said: “The reasons for more people being unable to work due to disability and ill health isn’t down to a poor work ethic, it’s because of an ageing workforce, high levels of mental distress, lack of NHS treatments, a failing social care system and negative employer attitudes and behaviours. We heard nothing about tackling these underlying drivers of ill health and disability … This was a truly shocking move from a new UK government, which purports to be on the side of the most disadvantaged people.”

Linda Burnip, of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), said she had expected the new Labour government to be “awful” but it had so far been even worse than she could have imagined.

She added that this new Labour government did not appear to recognise the “holistic” approach that would need to be taken if it wanted more disabled people in work, including funding free social care, fixing the NHS and the mental health system, and ensuring a well-functioning Access to Work programme, accessible transport and flexible working hours.

Linda said the announcement suggested Reeves wanted those disabled people who could not work to be left without any support at all, or even deported to Rwanda.

She said: “I dread to think what else she’ll try to cut. Older and disabled people will be in the firing line, though, from the looks of things so far.”

Rick Burgess, a spokesperson for Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People (GMCDP), said of the Reeves comments on benefits spending: “This hostile rhetoric is all too familiar to us. Not only does this approach fail to solve the long-standing problems of our social security system, it is also lethal.”

You can read the full story in DNS.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

Caricatures of Rachel Reeves (Labour Chancellor) and Liz Kendall (Sec DWP) can be seen holding a large placard with ‘Disabled are workshy scroungers – they’re the ones to blame! Reeves is saying: “And the Tories even left us with a nice scapegoat … eh Liz?!” Kendall replies: “Well Rachel, the public certainly seem to have bought it!” On the floor are two copies of the Disability News Service. One headline reads ‘Chancellor Reeves says disabled must seek work’ the other one reads ‘Kendall says DWP should become a centre for work and not welfare’.

And what have we here?

Yet another example of Labour’s intention to follow the lead of the previous Tory government. This time it’s their plan to increase pressure on disabled people to move off benefits and into work, completely disregarding risks to their health!

Set around a controversial report by the Pathways to Work Commission which makes a call for Department for Work and Pension (DWP) to become a “department for work” Liz Kendall, in her new role as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, announced this week that she wanted the DWP to move from being “a department for welfare” to becoming “a genuine department for work”.

It is one of several similarities between the report and comments made by Kendall as reported in Disability News Service (DNS).

Although she did not formally endorse the commission’s recommendations, she called it a “pioneering” report and welcomed many of its conclusions, and there will be concerns that its work has already influenced her plans to reform DWP.

The report focuses strongly on the need to push more people with long-term health conditions into work and includes a controversial recommendation for DWP to introduce a “duty to engage” with employment support.

It says this should apply to all those who currently receive benefits and are “economically inactive”, which it suggests will “support more of them into work”.

This would mean disabled people who currently do not have to engage with the department and its work coaches – for health or disability-related reasons – would be forced to do so.

Is it me or isn’t that what her Tory predecessor was saying?!

You can read the full story in DNS.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

This cartoon takes place in the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). A sticker sits across the department sign and reads ‘Work NOT Welfare’. A DWP clerk sits at a desk with a laptop computer. He is saying to a young disabled woman in a recliner wheelchair: “Have you thought about what job you’d like?”. She replies: “How about a politician – I can bullshit with the best of them!” Standing alongside of them is a caricature of Liz Kendall. She is saying: “And there we have it – Labour’s new initiative to get disabled people  off benefit and into work!”

Well, that started to go pear shaped pretty quickly didn’t it?

Only a few days after Sir Stephen Timms as the new minister for disabled people stated that he would:  “… ensure disabled people’s views and voices are at the heart of all we do”, we’re already getting a strong indication that this isn’t the case.

The first example concerns The Disability Action plan which was launched in February by Mims Davies, the then Tory minister for disabled people, following a 12-week public consultation. This, they claimed would improve the lives of disabled people’s throughout the UK.

Now the new Labour government is refusing to release information that would confirm how little the last government was planning to spend on this much-criticised short-term plan.

As stated in a recent Disability News Service (DNS) article, the refusal is important, because it adds to evidence collected by them that the new Labour government is set to continue the Conservative policy of refusing to release key information about its policies to address disability inequality.

The Conservative government claimed earlier this year that its plan set out the “immediate action” it would take in 2024 to “improve disabled people’s lives, laying the foundations for longer term change, and complementing the long-term vision set out in [its National Disability Strategy]”.

However, all 32 actions outlined in the Plan appeared to be low – or zero-budget measures, and the plan was described by disabled people’s organisations as “lacklustre”, “weak”, and just a list of “empty promises”.

Hmm … empty promises, just like those made by Sir Timms earlier?!

You can read the full story in DSN.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

A group of disabled people carrying a DPAC banner are in the shadow of an ivory tower. They are looking very unhappy. At the top of the tower is Therese Coffey, Sir Stephen Timms and Kier Starmer. A large sign hanging from the top of the tower reads ‘under new management’. Coffey, who is looking down on the disabled people is saying to the two Labour politicians: “All you have to do is to just continue the Tory policy of ignoring them!” Starmer is saying: “Works for me!”

Well, there we have it. Labour has finally appointed its disability ‘dream team’ with the new minister for disabled people pledging to put disabled people’s voices at heart of government’s work.

Sir Stephen Timms has been appointed the New Minister for disabled people along with Alison McGovern as minister for disability employment and Stephen Kinnock as the new minister for care in the department of Health and Social Care whoes responsibilities include adult social care, health and social care integration, and – unexpectedly – “disabilities and SEND” (special educational needs and disabilities).

Among the responsibilities of the new transport secretary, Louise Haigh, will be “ensuring the transport network is safe and accessible”, although responsibilities of her ministers have not yet been announced, so it is not clear who will lead on accessible transport.

Quickly spotted by John Pring, Editor Disability News Service (DNS) who noticed that Sir Stephen will not be responsible for disability employment within the Department of Work and Pension (DWP), after the Labour government appears to have split that policy area from social security, a decision that is likely to be welcomed by many disabled people.

As a senior MP with decades of social security experience under his belt it is hoped that he will start to shed some light upon the shambles left behind by the Tory government. He will lead on “disability policy” and will assume “cross-government responsibility for disabled people”, as well as oversight of the Disability Unit.

Amongst his responsibilities will be universal credit, personal independence payment, ESA, housing, carer’s allowance, and the serious case panel, which was set up by DWP to examine “serious cases” and “serious systemic issues”, including deaths of claimants.

This will mean he will be responsible for long-standing concerns about claimant deaths, including those linked to universal credit. Despite repeated concerns being raised in recent months about safeguarding and deaths linked to universal credit, none of the main political parties mentioned the issue in their election manifestos.

Quoted in Disability News Service, Sir Stephen said:

“I am delighted as minister for social security and disability to be taking on the government lead for disabled people.

“I will ensure disabled people’s views and voices are at the heart of all we do.”

---

The Department, DNS editor John Pring’s book on DWP and how its actions led to countless deaths of disabled people in the post-2010 era, will be published by Pluto Press on 20 August. Visit TheDepartmentBook.com before publication for a 50 per cent discount 

Crippen’s own book ‘Crippen and the COVID years’ is also now available from his online book store with ‘Crippen and the DWP’ due to be released next month.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

The cartoon is based upon the new appointment of Labour ministers for disability matters. A caricature of Sir Stephen Timms stands alongside Stephen Kinnock MP. Another suited man is sweeping away large pieces of paper with Tory Sleaze, COVID, Party Gate and Tory Cover-up printed upon them. Timms is holding up a large card with ‘deaths of disabled benefit claimants’ on it. He is saying: “And there will be some issues that just can’t be swept away!”

I finally decided to seperate my more general artistic endeavours from my political work as Crippen.

The way I’ll be doing this will be to keep my DAO blog going but just using it as a focus for the more general art I create along with points of view and updates etc. This will provide a platform for my doggerel (I hesitate to call it poetry!) and other art projects I get involved with. For example, I’m currently re-exploring the benefits of neurographical art and its benefits with regard to including it as a medium within the workshops I run.

My work as Crippen – disabled cartoonist will continue on this blog site … enjoy!