Joy Dove warns DWP cuts are going to kill more disabled people – like they killed her daughter

On Wednesday 9 July, whilst we all exhaustedly waited for the vote on the third reading of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) welfare cuts bill (now called just the Universal Credit Bill), I pushed away the dread to travel to Stockton.

It’s been a fucking bizarre time to be promoting a book on the history of disability rights activism whilst history is unfolding in front of us. The hardest part of it all has been that after researching and focusing so much on how successive governments have tried and succeeded in destroying the publics trust in disabled benefits claimants, I can’t stop seeing just how many of the same old dirty tricks they’re pulling with their mates in the media.

The weirdest thing about the past week is that after weeks of both scrutiny and seemingly support from the press, we didn’t exist.

DWP cuts: pushed through by Labour and the media

Whilst the DWP PIP cuts and the Labour rebellion were the top story for the the previous few weeks, it was absolute tumbleweed around the bill once it became about just Universal Credit cuts. The week before when the bill had its first vote, there was rolling news coverage on all the top news sites. This week it wasn’t even on most of their homepages.

And I think that says it all. It was never about the press being concerned for the most vulnerable in society. Instead, as usual, they were using our fear for clicks, with the Labour rebellion becoming the juicier story.

So when the bill was rushed through for it’s third reading and second vote less than a week later, the government worked hard to cover up any signs of dissent in the ranks with half promises that won many over and saw fluff pieces in the media that even had Rachel Reeves sobbing FFS.

It was almost like the government wanted something that would lead to an untold amount of deaths from the poorest in society to pass without any uproar.

That’s why the event in Stockton was even more poignant, because not only was it happening amidst all this – but it also attended by Joy Dove:

Jodey Whiting

Joy’s daughter Jodey Whiting died by suicide after she had been wrongly found fit for work in 2017. She had missed a letter and a reassessment whilst being in hospital and recovering from pneumonia and a cyst on the brain. She died just 15 days later, surrounded by handwritten notes about how she couldn’t carry on.

Since then Joy has campaigned tirelessly to get the government to take accountability for Jodey’s death. Finally, after eight long years and a second inquest, in May this year a coroner ruled that her death was caused by the DWP stopping her benefits.

As I wrote at the time, Jodey’s case came at such a pertinent time, as the government are preparing to knowingly put thousands more vulnerable people in the same position as Jodey.

Meeting Joy was an incredibly special moment. Despite how much shit she’s been through in the past eight years thanks to the government, DWP, and at times the press she’s an unbelievably warm person who you can’t help but feel drawn to. First thing she did was give me a humongous hug and thanked me for writing about Jodey compassionately and from experience.

I was so privileged before my event to sit down with Joy and speak about not only Jodey, but how terrifying it is that the government plans to put even more disabled people who can’t work in such a dangerous situation.

The DWP will kill more disabled people

Joy told me:

It shouldn’t happen but it will happen, because there’s more and more people who are going to get desperate, like Jodey was. The DWP killed her and they’re going to kill more disabled people with their cuts.

She impressed how much she still wasn’t satisfied with the result of the second inquest, despite it finding that Jodey did die at the hands of the DWP – because the coroner ruled that she’d heard enough about the supposed changes happening within the department to not recommend any wider action be taken.

“I want to see it in black and white with changes before I believe any of it” she said.

Joy also shared her disgust and disbelief that the new Labour government are acting exactly the same as the Tories who killed her daughter:

Why have Labour suddenly come into power and just targetted the old and disabled. They want to get a grip on it or there’ll be outcry, there already is.

Just hours before the vote, I asked Joy what she thinks is going to happen if these cuts come in. She told me:

It’s gonna be pandemonium, its going affect a lot of people.

Her son Jamie interjected:

People are gonna be more tighter up cos they use this money to survive and all that’s just going to get taken off them? So they’ll just be stuck in their houses unable to get out whilst the bills go up – you can guarantee there’s gonna be more deaths. This shouldn’t be coming from Labour, it should be the opposite.

On this I asked them both what they expected from Labour:

When they got in and starting cutting benefits and heating allowance I was shocked, I expected more from them, which we haven’t got. I wouldn’t vote for them again.

This should not be happening

During my book event, we handed the mic over to Joy – where she not only spoke ardently about how the government and DWP had tried to stop the truth getting out, but also how much the media had smeared Jodey. They had labelled her a single mother scrounging benefits and equated her to the vile Benefits Street which was also filmed in Stockton.

Sitting in that room, listening to a mother who’s fought for so many years to hold the DWP to account over their part in her daughters death – whilst knowing at the same time MPs could be condemning thousands to the same fate – was absolutely devastating.

The event finished just minutes after the vote results came out, a small group of us who are all in the same activist group chat opened our WhatsApp to over 20 messages from our fellow campaigners who were absolutely crushed. Murmurs of “fuck” and sharing just how close the vote had been. Tears of frustration when we learnt just how many Labour MPs had voted for the cuts.

The host of my event, Claire, later told me Joy had previously sent her a message showing Stockton MP Chris McDonald posing with a copy of her book A Mothers Job about her fight. On Wednesday he, along with 332 other Labour MPs, voted for the cuts – which will create many more people like Jodey.

The DWP must be resisted

It’s been so incredibly difficult promoting my book whilst also actively campaigning against these horrendous DWP cuts, but everyone I’ve met along the way – from seasoned campaigners to newer, bereaved family to my friend’s kids who want to learn more – have pushed me to keep fighting to ensure that our history is not forgotten.

Because when the government is prepared to kill even more disabled people, we need to harness the stories of how we fought in the past to pull us together again.

If you have been affected by any aspect of this story, and need to talk to someone, Samaritans are here – day or night, 365 days a year. You can call them for free on 116 123, email them at jo(at)samaritans.org, or visit samaritans.org to find your nearest branch.

Featured image via the Canary