LONDON — Absalom Ducille, a young African man who suffered a head injury in an assault on June 5, 2004, is being denied the ability to live by the British Department for Work and Pensions. After the assault in 2004, Ducille had been incapable of working and had been receiving income support, but he has been denied this support since September 2005.
This denial of support comes notwithstanding the fact that brother Ducille sent to the Department for Work and Pensions the required evidence in the form of a medical certificate dated August 27, 2005. In fact, the department rubber stamped the certificate twice (meaning it was received by both the local and national branch) and returned the original medical certificate to brother Ducille, stopping his claim without explanation.
Now Absalom Ducille and his family are under threat of being evicted from their home.
The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) is mobilizing in defense of brother Ducille’s rights. InPDUM has launched an urgent call-in to mobilize Africans in the United Kingdom and around the world to call, email and write to the Department for Work and Pensions putting forward the following three demands:
- We demand that the Department for Work and Pensions respond to the letters sent to them by Ms. Shirley Campbell, acting on behalf of her son, Absalom Ducille, with his written authorization, dated October 21, 2005 and November 23, 2005. They should be sent directly to InPDUM (as Absalom Ducille has requested), and if they have made responses to Ms. Campbell’s letters (which she has never received), they should send copies of their responses to InPDUM.
- We demand reparations to Mr. Absalom Ducille for financial hardship and emotional and psychological trauma inflicted by this ordeal.
- We demand that Mr. Absalom Ducille’s case be reviewed immediately as it has been long over due.
Those who stand for justice for the African community are being called on to phone or write to John Hutton at the Department for Work and Pensions at:
The Rt. Hon. John Hutton
Department for Work and Pensions
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London, SW1A 2NS
Tel Switchboard: +44-20-7276-1234
Email: huttonj@parliament.uk
