Demand that your MP calls for an independent inquiry into the impact of the Covid pandemic on Disabled people.

1. Follow this link to find and contact your MP.
2. Use the template copy below to send to your MP.
3. Edit the email to include your MP's name and your name, and to include any additional comments.

Dear [Your MP’s name] MP,

I am writing to ask you to act urgently to call for an independent inquiry into the impact of the Covid pandemic on disabled people, which also includes an analysis into the impact that gender has on outcomes for disabled people.

A study carried out by the Office for National Statistics and researchers at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine , issued a report in June of this year. The report’s findings included the following: 

[D]isabled people were at higher risk because they are disproportionately exposed to a range of circumstances that actually disadvantaged them, as no single factor explained the results. In addition, we found that disabled people were at higher risk of death from all causes during this period, only a fraction of which involved COVID-19. This finding implies a need to improve services and access to healthcare for disabled people, and tackling the drivers of disadvantage and excess mortality, both during and after the pandemic.

Over a decade of austerity that has targeted disabled people, a fundamental lack of funded social care and multiple barriers to accessing education or work have led to higher mortality rates. While disabled men have also seen a huge disparity in outcomes, the additional discrimination faced by women puts disabled women at higher risk. 

Key facts from this study include:

• People with learning disabilities were approximately 4-5 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19, and 7-8 times more likely to die.
• Working-age disabled women with higher support needs are 91% more likely to die then their non-disabled counterparts.
• Working-age disabled women with lower support needs are twice as likely to die as their non-disabled counterparts. 
• 58% of those who died from COVID-19 in England were disabled people.

When Dominic Cummings shared the whiteboard picture with the words “Who do we not save?” We knew the answer was Disabled women. 

In the summer the Women’s Equality Party Disability Caucus protested for 91 hours at Parliament square to highlight these shocking findings and to demand an inquiry The caucus also held local protests and an online rally to demand change.

Disabled women are not just a statistic you can ignore, but women with full and ordinary lives. We are your sisters, mothers, grandmothers, aunties and friends. We have careers and degrees, and we have hopes and dreams just like everyone else. Disabled women should not have been more at risk of dying from Covid.

As your constituent I am asking you to please join calls demanding an inquiry into the impact of the Covid pandemic on disabled people

Yours sincerely,

[Your name and address]