The achievement means the issue must be considered for debate in the House of Commons.{jcomments on}

In a Mirror report, a hundred thousand people have signed a petition calling on the Department for Work and Pensions to look again at all cuts affecting sick and disabled people.

Led by comedian and campaigner Francesca Martinez, the War On Welfare or WOW e-petition asks the government to carry out a Cumulative Impact Assessment looking at the overall effect of cuts to sick and disabled people, as well and their families and carers.

It also asks for MPs to be given a free vote on the repeal of the Welfare Reform Act.

Campaigners are demanding an end to the Work Capability Assessment, and an independent inquiry into issues including charges for care homes, ATOS, and the closure of Remploy factories.

They also want to put a stop to "forced work under threat of sanctions for people on disability benefits".

The petition has achieved its target of 100,000 signatures with 12 days to spare before it closed.

Celebrities including Stephen Fry, Russell Brand, Yoko Ono and Bianca Jagger have endorsed the campaign.

This means it now must be considered for a debate in the House of Commons.

The Leader of the House of Commons will now write to the Backbench Business Committee to notify them that a petition has collected the necessary 100,000 signatures.

A backbench MP must then come out in support of a debate at the Committee's weekly meeting.

If the Committee agrees, then a debate will be scheduled in the House of Commons and televised.

A spokesman for the WOW campaign said: "We would like to thank the Mirror for its unwavering support for the petition and highlighting the draconian cuts to the sick and disabled and carers.

"We hope the Labour MP John McDonnell will take this forward to a hearing in the House of Commons calling for a cumulative impact assessment of cuts to support set to be around £28.3 billion as suggested by DEMOS report.

"We are delighted, overjoyed and very tearful, this was a petition for and by the disabled. With less than 1% fraud in welfare claims we see the recent cuts as chasing Tory ideology not cutting costs in the long term."

Our thanks to Jim Allison for spotting this news article for us

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