Petitioners call on DWP to end appeal against publishing benefit death totals

Gesture of defeat: Let's hope public pressure forces Iain Duncan Smith to surrender the death statistics he has been guarding so jealously (not to mention suspiciously).

Gesture of defeat: Let’s hope public pressure forces Iain Duncan Smith to surrender the death statistics he has been guarding so jealously (not to mention suspiciously).

A petition demanding that Iain Duncan Smith withdraw the DWP’s appeal against publishing death statistics relating to disability benefits has been launched, in support of Vox Political‘s efforts to get the information out to the public.

It has been created by Maggie Zolobajluk on the Change.org website, and asks:

“Why does the DWP not want to publish these figures after being told that there is no valid reason why they should not do so?  Mr Ia[I]n Duncan Smith and the DWP are public servants whose salaries are paid for by the taxpayer.  He should publish the figures and stop wasting public money.”

It seems likely that it was created in response to a piece on Ros Wynne Jones’s Real Britain page in the Daily Mirror, in which she reported that the DWP has appealed against the Information Commissioner’s ruling that this blog’s FoI request is reasonable and should receive a full response.

The petition has nothing to do with this blog; Maggie Zolobajluk created it on her own initiative. That being said, This Writer obviously wants it to succeed.

If you support Vox Political‘s demand for the death figures to be published – free of DWP spin – then please visit the Change.org site, sign the petition and share it with your friends, along with a few words explaining why it is important to you.

Let’s make this happen.

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13 Comments

  1. Joan Edington June 4, 2015 at 11:12 am - Reply

    Signed.

    • Mike Sivier June 4, 2015 at 11:33 am - Reply

      Cheers, Joan.

      • pat June 4, 2015 at 7:03 pm - Reply

        signed

      • joanna may June 4, 2015 at 10:58 pm - Reply

        I have signed it ! If I could sign it more than once I would!!!

  2. Tony Dean June 4, 2015 at 11:21 am - Reply

    Mike there is fault when I try and sign the petition, is anyone else having the same problem?

    • Mike Sivier June 4, 2015 at 11:33 am - Reply

      I don’t know. Anybody?

      • Tony Dean June 4, 2015 at 11:41 am - Reply

        I solved it by putting the link as allowed in my browser settings.

  3. Robert Fillies June 4, 2015 at 11:24 am - Reply

    This information, as requested must be made public, there are no valid reasons for it not to be. Please sign this petition.

  4. Rupert Mitchell (@rupert_rrl) June 4, 2015 at 11:29 am - Reply

    I can only imagine that the reason IDS doesn’t want these figures revealed is because they are even worse than we have feared; what other possible reason could there be?

  5. amnesiaclinic June 4, 2015 at 2:39 pm - Reply

    Excellent! I hope this does the trick. It’s such a waste of taxpayer’s money for him to appeal.
    Well done.

  6. Shaun Gardner June 4, 2015 at 4:17 pm - Reply

    Signed and left a message as to why I signed.

  7. Tony Dean June 4, 2015 at 4:44 pm - Reply

    As per usual I am getting a lot of offensive stick in some of the forums I have posted a link to the petition in.
    Has ANY of the media/press picked up on the story yet?

  8. thelovelywibblywobblyoldlady June 4, 2015 at 5:18 pm - Reply

    The WCA cost the public purse £112.4 million; it is only right and proper that the public have access to this information in order to determine if it is fit for purpose, value for money and more importantly NOT killing sick, vulnerable and disabled citizens. If he’s so “proud” of his reforms then he should publish these statistics. That’s why I’ve signed the petition!

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