Opposition Day — Disability Benefits and Social Care — 20 Jun 2012 at 16:08

The majority of MPs voted against calling on the Government to ensure their reforms promote work, independence, quality of life and opportunities for disabled people and their families; against restoring an aim of achieving "disability equality" from the Department for Work and Pensions business plan; against requiring an impact assessment on social care cuts on disabled people; against reforming the operation of the work capability assessment and against rerunning a consultation on Remploy factories.

The text of the rejected motion moved by Liam Byrne MP (Birmingham, Hodge Hill, Labour) read:

• That this House
• believes that cuts to support for disabled people and carers pose a potential risk to their dignity and independence and will have wider social and economic costs;
• regrets that the Department for Work and Pensions has dropped the aim of achieving disability equality; whilst recognising that the disability living allowance (DLA) needs to be reformed, expresses concern that taking the DLA from 500,000 disabled people and contributory employment and support allowance from 280,000 former workers will take vital financial support from families under pressure;
• expresses further concern at the Work Programme’s failure to help disabled people and the mismanaged closure of Remploy factories;
• notes the pressing need for continuing reform to the work capability assessment (WCA) to reduce the human cost of wrong decisions;
• agrees with the eight Carers’ Week charities on the importance of recognising the huge contribution made by the UK’s 6.4 million carers and the need to support carers to prevent caring responsibilities pushing them into ill-health, poverty and isolation; and
• calls on the Government to ensure reform promotes work, independence, quality of life and opportunities for disabled people and their families, to restore the commitment to disability equality in the Department for Work and Pensions’ business plan, to conduct a full impact assessment of the combined effects of benefit and social care cuts on disabled people and carers, to reform WCA descriptors as suggested by charities for mental health, fluctuating conditions and sensory impairment and to re-run the consultation on the future of Remploy factories.

Debate in Parliament | Source |