MP launches petition to save specialist disablement benefit service from closure
The MP for Barrow and Furness, Simon Fell, is today launching a petition to call on the Government to explore other options to house a specialist disablement and industrial injury benefit department from closure in Barrow.
Phoenix House in Barrow currently hosts a team of industrial injury and disablement benefit specialists within the Department for Work and Pensions. The team support people with specific industrial injuries such as asbestosis and mesothelioma, which is a form of cancer that lines the lungs, heart, stomach and other organs causing painful coughing, respiratory difficulties, and abdominal pain and weight loss.
With more than forty jobs set to be lost in September 2023, Mr Fell is leading the campaign to secure the long term future of what he calls ‘specialist’ jobs, and the service in Barrow.
Commenting, Mr Fell said:
“The team at Phoenix House in Barrow are specialists in administering very niche benefit claims and support to some extremely unwell people, not just in Furness, but nationwide.
“They carry out their work in an extremely efficient manner, with compassion, empathy, and the upmost professionalism.
“I’m working together with the staff’s union representative, the staff, local charities and third sector organisations and service user groups to make the case to the government that we want this service to remain here in Barrow.”
The MP said he hopes to get hundreds of signatures on his Parliamentary Petition, to demonstrate the weight of feeling towards keeping the service in Barrow.
Mr Fell said that he hopes to present his petition to the House of Commons in September, after the summer recess. MPs can present a petition in the Chamber, before the Adjournment debate (the half-hour debate at the end of the day). The title of the petition will appear in the Order Paper, and MPs will have a chance to speak about the petition in the Chamber. The Government are obliged to respond to petitions, and this usually happens in writing.
Commenting, Simon said:
“Working together, we’re hoping to get hundreds of signatures on my Parliamentary Petition to save the team at Phoenix House from closure.
“The more signatures we get, the louder the message. To make the petition as accessible as possible to as many people as possible, I will be making a paper copy available at my office on Cavendish Street in Barrow, on my website, and to all of the partner organisations that I’m working together with on this campaign. I’ll also be taking my petition out with me on my summer surgery tour in August. If you see my petition, please sign it, so that together we can send a message to the government that we want this service to stay.”
