The Stop the Cuts Campaign held a protest on Saturday in the city centre calling for the roll-out of Universal Credit, PIP assessments and benefits cuts to be halted.
Universal Credit is being rolled-out across the North and will hit Derry on January 17 and February 7.
The protest was supported by local trade unions UNISON, UNITE, NIPSA, Aegis, the Derry Trades Union Council and Communities Against Cuts, disability rights activists and women's rights campaigners.
The protest was attended and addressed by former PBP MLA Eamonn McCann and independent councillors Gary Donnelly and Darren O'Reilly.
The protest was addressed anonymously by a person facing an upcoming Personal Independence Payment assessment who said: "As of 31st December 2017, I will no longer be in employment. The realities of my new life meant I sought out help and support from community organisations. I was advised to apply for PIP and ESA. My life, as I knew it, has completely changed.
"Instead of having the space to get my head around the huge changes in my life, I’m spending it absolutely freaking out about my upcoming PIP assessment. Instead of being able to reduce my stress to decrease the painful flare ups, literally on doctor’s orders, this heartless government are actively increasing my stress to a level that is beyond self-management.
"I am panicking and worrying about how I will be able to afford to live if I’m turned down for PIP. Meanwhile, a private company, Capita is financially benefitting from all this anxiety, despair and misery."
Derry UNITE representative and Derry Trades Union Council member Patrick Harkin said "Both UNITE and the DTUC condemn these attacks on the most vulnerable. We must stand tall and make make our voices loud so that this Tory government knows that enough is enough! They cannot be allowed to continuously and vindictively cut benefits, health, education and investment. They must be told in no uncertain terms that this will not be tolerated."
Speaking about benefit caps and the 'so-called two-child policy' women's rights campaigner Goretti Horgan said "The DUP/SF Stormont Executive could have stopped the introduction of welfare reform here. They should never have handed these powers back to the Tories to inflict misery here. Mitigations aren't enough.
"Now doctors are reporting seeing children who are malnourished; children’s mental health suffers because of growing up hungry in a cold house; babies are increasingly being admitted to hospital with hypothermia – and all this in a country that is wealthy. They can find a billion to buy off the DUP, spend billions on arms, tens of billions for the EU, so why can’t they find enough money to ensure that our children are properly nourished and can live in a warm home?"
Health worker Fiona Gallagaher said "Fifty years ago we took to the streets for our rights. I'm astonished we are going to have to do this again. The only way we are going to win our rights and end these cuts is by being on the streets. That's what we have to do. We all have to do it. We need unity and solidarity."
Disability rights campaigner Tony O'Reilly said: "Benefit cuts will make the lives of people with disabilities much harder. We need to rise up. We need people power. We need to be on the streets to stop benefit cuts and all the cuts we're facing."
Protest organiser Shaun Harkin told the Derry News: "We're going to continue to organise against benefit cuts and all the disastrous cuts to public services whether they're coming from Westminster or Stormont. We won't allow people on benefits to be demonised while the super-rich stash their wealth in tax havens around the globe.
"We want to see taxes on corporations and the super-rich increased to fund decent public services and living wages. These benefit cuts are creating more desperation and anger as people are left dependent on food banks and debt. We need a mass movement on the streets, in communities, in workplaces and in our schools can bring down austerity."
Speakers at the rally announced the Derry Trades Union Council is organising a lunchtime rally on February 7th in the Guildhall Square to oppose the introduction of Universal Credit in Foyle.
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