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18 November 2010
The Disability Benefits Consortium is extremely concerned about the announcements made in the Spending Review 2010 regarding Disability Living Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance.
The coalition government has proposed that people who live in residential care should no longer receive the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA), a benefit that is worth up to £49.85 per week. We believe that the removal of this important benefit will have a huge impact upon people in residential care.
DLA mobility is paid to help meet additional costs such as a powered wheelchair or accessible taxis and its removal will have an obvious and negative impact on disabled people’s independence and well-being. We believe that the effect of this policy will be to undermine the Government’s intention of promoting disabled people’s right to exercise greater choice and control over their lives, and we call for them to retain DLA mobility for people in residential care.
The announcement that claims for contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) will be time-limited to twelve months is also very worrying. This policy means that disabled people who have worked and paid National Insurance throughout their lives who lose their job while still of working age will only be able to claim ESA for a year before being directed to other benefits. However, many of these people will then not be eligible for these benefits (because they have savings or their partner works for more than 24 hours per week) and could lose their independent income.
Being excluded from the benefits system is likely to limit a person’s ability to get the help and support they may need to get back to paid work. It also ignores the reality that due to factors including discrimination and access, many disabled people can take significantly longer to move into work than non disabled people. This policy seems to contradict the government’s stated aims of supporting hard-working families and of providing real support to those who need it most, and once again, we ask that it is scrapped.
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