Stop the Cuts Campaign organiser Shaun Harkin has urged people to join a protest calling for halting of Universal Credit and benefit cuts tomorrow in Derry.
The protest will be held tomorrow, Saturday, at 2pm on Newmarket Street, between Foyleside and the Richmond Centre.
"Vicious welfare reforms are hitting the most vulnerable in our society the hardest. The roll-out of Universal Credit has begun across the North. It is scheduled for Strabane and Lisnagelvin on January 17 and Foyle for February 7. For many people Universal Credit means a cut in their benefits. More people are being forced to turn to food banks as a last resort.
"The Tories should never have been given the green light by Stormont parties to inflict their anti-working class policies here.
"Thousands of people receiving Disability Living Allowance have seen their applications for Personal Independence Payments rejected by the private company Capita. Many people with disabilities are being thrown to the wolves by these policies.
"What's become known as the Tory 'two-child' policy means families won't receive any additional financial help if they have a third of fourth child unless the mother reports it as the outcome of non consensual sex. This is a disgrace. The benefit cap should be abolished and these horrendous clauses should be removed. This is about punishing and demonising the poor and the vulnerable.
"The hated Bedroom Tax has also begun to be introduced across the North. When mitigation's run-out in 2020 the number of of people who can be hit with it rockets to 30,000.
"Benefit sanctions are pushing people into debt and homelessness. We already have a mental health emergency and these cuts will exacerbate it.
"This is happening while our health service, fire service and schools are being destroyed by austerity. It's not the case there's no money. Theresa May found £1 billion for DUP dinosaurs to prop her toxic government. The Panama and Paradise Papers revealed how the super-rich stash their wealth in tax havens around the world.
"The protest on Saturday is part of building a people power movement that can lead to the scrapping of policies hurting the most vulnerable. We need people power on the streets to demand the super-rich are properly taxed and our public services properly funded."
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