Welsh disability campaigners reject invitation to be “glorified doorstaff” in controversial DWP review.

A Welsh disability group has today rejected a direct invitation from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to help “co-host” part of the controversial government review into the PIP disability benefit as part of a workshop in Bangor, North Wales.

In a statement (see below or via dpac.uk.net) Disabled People Against Cuts Cymru (DPAC Cymru) explained that the invitation amounted to “a request for glorified doorstaff.”

DWP documents [seen by publication name] reveal that selected workshop co-hosts would be excluded from “deciding or designing workshop content” or “facilitating discussions during workshops” as these were “out of scope.”

Instead, the responsibilities on the day would be to “provide additional staff” to “welcome participants to the venue and help them settle in”, “set the scene” at the start, and “thank participants at the end.”

A DPAC Cymru spokesperson said “the Timms review has repeatedly failed us as disabled people, and as Welsh people. It is not the ‘co-production’ that was promised to parliament. What’s needed is an independent review, democratically led by disabled people and our organisations including our trade unions.”

“We are not boycotting the review. We want to take part and put our views on the record, even as we protest outside. But we will not be there to smile and take people’s coats.”

DPAC’s call for an independent review was recently backed by the Welsh Government, which said that the “level of co-production has fallen well short of what disabled people in Wales have a right to expect.”

END

Please consider clicking on the Buy Me a Coffee link below and donating a small sum -equivalent to a cup of coffee -to this writter. Thank you in advance for any support you can give as it means so much to me that I am supported by the good people that are left in the world.