The House of Commons has met its promise to distribute hundreds of copies of a book about Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) “bureaucratic violence” to MPs, just as Labour’s chancellor was warning of difficult decisions on “welfare” in the budget.
Disabled activists raised thousands of pounds to buy 650 discounted copies of The Department through a crowdfunder so the book could be delivered to every MP in the new parliament.
They believe it is vital that all MPs – particularly those on the Labour backbenches – are aware of how decades of “slow bureaucratic violence” by the Department of Social Security, and then DWP, eventually led to countless deaths of disabled benefit claimants in the post-2010 austerity years.
One disabled activist said yesterday (Wednesday) that reading the book would help MPs understand “the human cost of poor policy-making” on social security, particularly for disabled people.
The House of Commons confirmed to Disability News Service this week that the vast majority of the books have been delivered to MPs.