John Major was social security minster 1989 sick and disabled and those who care for them must stand near the top. This motion makes that point most eloquently. We do have a special responsibility to them and it is a responsibility that we shall meet. Our new Income Support scheme will introduce a special disability payment for the disabled and a higher payment for those with severe needs. There will be more help for families with disabled children and new rules to help those in work. But that is not all. We are also undertaking the largest ever survey into the special needs of the disabled. We still know far too little of the scale of difficulties they face. We wish to know more – so that we have the knowledge to match our support to their needs. This Government has no doubt that disabled people have the same right to fulfil their potential in society as anyone else, and we accept the obligation to enable them to do so. In the meantime our new Social Security system will be simpler. Better, more understandable and simpler. And the benefits for the disabled are better. Although rates are not yet finalised, most disabled people under pension age will gain over 200 pounds a year with many gaining much more. That is not a pie in the sky promise of the Meacher variety. That is a practical result of the Social Security reforms that Norman Fowler and Tony Newton have fashioned. And it illustrates graphically the priority I set out earlier, that is also in this motion, help first to those who need it most. Nor is our record simply one of action tomorrow. We might recall a little of what has happened already under the past Labour Government and our record since 1979. It is instructive particularly for those who accuse us of not caring, for under Labour disabled people paid tax on mobility allowance. We removed that tax. Under Labour, tens of thousands of disabled women were humiliated by a household duties test. We abolished that test. Under Labour, tens of thousands of sick and disabled were caught in the invalidity trap. We removed that trap. The tax has gone. The test has gone. The trap has gone. How dare they say we don’t care for those people in need? And we have raised benefits for the long-term sick and disabled by 55%; doubled the blind tax allowance; increased the therapeutic earnings limit. And, as Margaret Fry reminded us, extended invalid car allowance to more carers, including those married women to whom the Labour Party specifically disallowed that particular benefit. That is a substantial record of achievement and we need no lectures from any other party about how to care for those in need.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 15:47:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015