Tory treatment of this Down’s Syndrome teen shows their attitude to disability is as evil as ever
Whenever the Conservatives tout new policies they claim will help people with disabilities, I’d like you to think about their treatment of Declan Kemp.
For me, it is reminiscent of an image I used to run on This Site, of a quadruple amputee. The caption stated that the DWP would interview the subject of the image every few months, “in case they’ve grown back”.
That is the level of ignorance and idiocy that the Conservatives show to people with disabilities, every single day.
No wonder so many disabled people have died.
Now we have Declan Kemp. He’s 19 and, besides Down’s Syndrome, he has cerebral palsy, a hole in his heart and scoliosis of the spine.
He visits a day centre three times a week and sometimes has to go into respite care.
His family applied for Universal Credit, making it clear that he would need a home appointment. He didn’t get it.
Instead, heartless DWP authorities summoned him to Job Centre interviews – two so far.
They said Mr Kemp, who could not speak for himself and fell asleep within 15 minutes of the first interview’s start, had to provide evidence from a doctor that he could not work.
He had already provided this evidence for a prior – successful – claim for Personal Independence Payment.
As his family members asked: why should he have to provide this information again?
Worse still, his mother was told to fill in a Universal Credit journal for him – an online record of what claimants are doing to find a job.
He has multiple – progressive – conditions that mean he will never be able to work, as any DWP employee working with people who have disabilities should know.
Challenged to justify its behaviour, the DWP has apologised for mishandling the case and said there was no delay in processing the claim.
That’s what the department says when its habitually harmful treatment of the UK’s most vulnerable people is discovered.
And we’ve had a succession of Tory ministers, who have announced policy after policy they claimed would make it easier for people with serious disabilities to navigate the benefit system and live in comparative comfort.
And nothing has changed.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has been asked to investigate discrimination against disabled people by the DWP – and in This Writer’s opinion, it can’t happen soon enough.
We’re currently in the run-up to a general election, and the Tories have already announced a plan for a £10 million fund to help disabled people claim Universal Credit – that, it seems, is only open to those who are capable of holding down a job.
Declan Kemp would not benefit from it at all.
We have a government that deliberately persecutes people whose health is perceived to be less-than-perfect.
I have stated before that it is as though the Tories were running their own eugenics policy – a plan to remove what a certain kind of people still call “useless eaters” from the benefit system by depriving them of the financial means to survive.
Back in 2015 I managed to force the Tories to publish figures – incomplete figures – that showed an average of 99 people claiming incapacity benefits died every day between January 2011 and February 2014.
The full details were likely to have been much, much worse, even then. Can you imagine how shocking they must be by now?
And the Tories are seeking re-election so they can continue this grisly work.
Anybody who votes for them is supporting this cruelty.
Source: Disabled teen with Down’s syndrome made to attend Jobcentre assessment | Metro News
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No surprise than that we have candidates like this standing for election for the slimeball Tories:
‘A Conservative General Election candidate has apologised for a Facebook post in which she said people on a TV show needed “putting down”.
Francesca O’Brien, who is running for the Gower seat in December’s election, made the comments about Channel 4’s Benefits Street in January 2014.
Ms O’Brien said her comments were made “off the cuff” but admitted her “use of language was unacceptable”.
She is still set to run in the General Election on 12 December.’
In the past, this level of bareface stupidity, ignorance and total vacuity would have disqualified someone -now it is an asset. There is something rotten in the State of UK.
I’m ashamed to even be obliged to be on the same planet as these moronically irredeemable beings.
Aktion T4 rolling along with out much of a ado yet those who do the government work will say we only following orders where have we heard this before.
It beggars belief. The DWP are running amok, it’s out of control.