Member News
By Lord Low of Dalston - 5th May 2011
Lord Low of Dalston calls for greater attention to be placed on the impact of government policies on disabled people.
In the same month that the coalition government marks its first anniversary, the biggest ever lobby by disabled people will take place in Westminster.
May 11th will see thousands of protesters march and lobby their MP as part of the 'Hardest Hit' campaign, organised by over 40 of the leading disability organisations. The choice of name indicates the very real feeling that disabled people are being unfairly targeted by the measures the government is introducing to reduce the deficit by cutting welfare. The Campaign for a Fair Society, one of the many groups which have sprung up in response to the situation, is campaigning against an approach which it sees as leading to "a loss of basic human rights" through "unfair cuts focused on the most vulnerable".
So there is a lot of anger out there. That is why I have put down a motion for debate in the House of Lords on May 5th to call attention to the impact of government policies on disabled people.
The impression is often given that the welfare budget is out of control as a result of unfounded claims of sickness and disability. But in reality the greater part of the growth in the welfare bill seen over the last ten years has been on pensions, families with children and low-income workers. The link between disability and poverty, through lower incomes and higher costs, is well established.
The government has promised to protect the most vulnerable from its austerity measures. Its avowed aim is to do this by moving people off benefit and into work. But the reality is all too likely to be that people will lose their benefit without ever finding work. £1.4bn is to be saved from the Disability Living Allowance budget by 2015/16, which could mean up to a fifth of recipients losing their benefit. At the same time, support from local authorities is being cut back hard.
Contributory Employment and Support Allowance is to be time-limited to one year, when it is known that the great majority of disabled people take longer than this to find a job. By 2015/16, 700,000 people could be affected; 280,000 of them losing as much as £89 a week.
These are just a few of the issues which I hope will be probed on Thursday, when I hope we will be able to get across to government the damage some of its policies will inflict on disabled people.
Colin Low is a crossbench peer, president of the European Blind Union and vice-president of the Royal National Institute of Blind People.
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