Writing to my MP - LIZ KENDALL

Excellent letters, I hope as this debate gets going, they ( Kendal, and co) will break away from the pre scripted responses which get us nowhere ie getting people back to work, knowing full well pip has got nothing to do with work, it’s about the extra costs of having a disability. As if they don’t know this!
It’s always been the case in the debate over pension rates, that special case is given to pensioners, in that they can’t change their circumstances. For the most part an 80yo can’t just turn up to work on a building site on a Monday morning, if they get short of money! But for many disabled people this is equally true, if you can’t walk, get yourself up, or whatever, you can’t just change behaviours, because a new Secretary of State declares cuts are coming!
There may well be some people on the margins, with support who could be helped to leave the benefit, but the assessment system is poor, the design of pip suspect, and its often pot luck what you end up with, as the assesors seem to record what they want. In many parts of the country the nhs is on its knees. I’m sure if you assessed me with 5 different assesors, you would get 5 different results!
This idea of insisting you get 4 points, to me is totally ridiculous. It’s just a ploy to knock out many of the applicants. Why is someone who gets 2+2+2+2 less deserving than someone who gets 2+2+4? Their needs are wider if anything.
A lady phoned into lbc tonight, who applied to get a job in the offices of Matt bishop, labour mp for Forest Dean.she has a disability with pip (6*2 points) and requested hybrid working due to her disability. He refused her in the grounds, he insisted she could only have job if she worked in the office all the time.
He happens to be my mp too, and has yet to respond to my email about the cuts.
Well so much for labour helping you back into work, and rather proves the sceptics viewpoint. I’m off to the consultation next month, so lets keep fighting!

Hello Source44,

Wow! Way to go! I hope you receive a comprehensive response to your queries - we'd all like to know the real answers.

Best wishes,

Wendy Woo

Awesome letters Source44. Thank you for your efforts. I hope you get more meaningful response.

I just wanted to give a quick message for those who saw this earlier post about MP Liz Kendall and the emails I’ve sent her raising concerns about the welfare reforms. I’ve shared her only response to my initial essay on this within this thread, as well as my immediate follow-up. Since that, her Bill has officially been announced, but I have sadly very little personally to update.

Since sending the reply I copy and pasted here, I’ve followed up for an actual response and answers from Liz, with a further 2 additional emails. All 3 have sadly been completely ignored. Each of my 4 letters/emails to her this year have been well structured, evidence based, written with great care and came at a physical and emotional cost. They all address the very real consequences of her reforms being pushed through, including freezing essential support like LCWRA, the new four point rule for PIP, and the exclusion of private diagnoses from the severe conditions criteria. I’ve raised concerns around lack of consultation, lack of transparency, and the total absence of legal safeguards for things like the Right to Try. Each of my emails have made a clear and respectful request for direct answers and for proper representation.

I’ve also pointed out that she must know these changes will cause unprecedented harm, (real unknown harm), to our disabled, sick and already poor people. I’ve asked, repeatedly, how this aligns with Labour’s promises of compassion, dignity and opportunity.

Still nothing! No reply, no acknowledgement, not even got a holding response to the most recent 3 contacts I’ve made.

Now that the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill has been officially published, we can all plainly see that many of the concerns raised here (with thanks to the B&W team), have been confirmed.
These reforms are scary, deliberate, and already moving too quickly through Parliament. This has made Liz Kendall’s silence even more uncomfortable and worrisome. We’re not talking about speculation or worse case scenarios anymore. This is about forced legislation that will shape the lives of too many.

Due to her silence on domestic issues, I’ve also raised concerns with her about her silence on international humanitarian issues, particularly Gaza, and the UK’s complicity in global injustice too. True leadership requires moral courage, integrity and deep values, not avoidance just glorified soundbites. Her ongoing complete silence on important, life shaping history really matters! and will never go unnoticed by those who care. Liz was one of the only MPs that did not vote for the ceasefire in Gaza last year, which was a heartbreaking reality as her constituency is one of the most multiethnic and cultural communities in the UK (and we’re proud of our multi-diversities!).

My latest email has been a final point. It was sent after the bill was announced and I’ve made it clear that unless I receive a full and honest response ASAP, I will have no choice but to make our correspondence and timeline public. Not because I want to, I’ve explained in length that even just thinking about doing this brings me complete panic.

But it will be necessary if she continues avoiding any real accountability. I don’t even know how I would go about making it truly public?! But feel it would be the only way to show the rest of the UK, that the leader of these reforms has no care or time for her direct constituents effected by her reform and new bill.. let alone the many others that will also suffer.. all throughout the UK!

I’ve spent over 3 months putting together evidence, writing detailed letters, and asking fair, valid questions, all whilst recovering from surgery and caring for my mother. Despite multiple efforts, I cannot get or secure a reply! I have been left feeling even more worthless. What hope is there for those who can’t write or find this energy at all.. people like my mum?! My efforts have been out of pure fear, anxiety and complete helplessness. I’ve felt all my emotions channel into those letters, (and truly only empowered for the sake of us all), trying to desperately share our voice and experiences. But it really means nothing to her.

It’s now about the real message Liz Kendall’s continued silence sends to all of us. It makes clear that these policies are being advanced without meaningful listening or engagement. While MPs are not legally required to respond to every constituent, ministers, including Liz as Secretary of State, are expected under the Ministerial Code to uphold transparency, honesty, and accountability. Values that are clearly very absent in this case. Refusing and avoiding engaging with vulnerable constituents on life-altering legislation is not just irresponsible, it truly continues to undermine the very trust public service requires.

I’m still somehow hoping for a change of her heart and a reply in this next week or so. But I’m also preparing for the very real reality that I probably won’t get one at all. I’ll update here if anything changes and in the meantime, thank you again to all of you on here who’ve supported, messaged, or simply read.

We shouldn’t have to fight this hard to be heard, but I take strength knowing me and my mum are not alone in this.

Take care and keep safe 💫