Taskforce calls for new #disability #benefit incoming @UKLabour #government - @WOWpetition @suey2y @blacktriangle1 A report on breaking the link between disability and #poverty has urged #Labour to replace #DLA and #PIP with a new benefit which meets the extra costs of living for disabled people. Breaking the Link between Disability and Poverty, which has left activists disappointed at Labours failure to publicise its recommendations, says that disabled people are twice as likely as non-disabled people to experience material #hardship which is defined as being unable to afford two or more items from a list that includes food, clothing, furniture, household appliances and a computer. The report, drawn up by an independent taskforce of disabled people chaired by the campaigner Bert Massie said that disabled people face disability-specific costs like stairlifts, scooters, wheelchairs, specialist clothing and sign language interpretation, and the costs faced by everyone else but which are higher for disabled people who need to have the heating turned on for long periods or pay for specialist diets and accessible transport. Neil Crowther, an expert in equality and human rights who is a member of the taskforce, said that Britain can and must invest public resources more effectively than at present to create the infrastructure of support that will enable disabled people to escape and remain resilient against the prospect of poverty. He added: We also explore how disability-related extra costs of living might be reduced for example through national and local government using its buying power to reduce the costs of aids and equipment and through preventing benefits being swallowed up by social care charges. We conclude however that disability-related poverty cannot be tackled without further investment in a disability costs benefit - this will take time to development and implement, but we believe it a matter of social justice that as disabled people have borne so much of the spending cuts resulting from austerity, despite their pre-existing poverty and exclusion, that they should be priority beneficiaries of the proceeds of inclusive economic cfq76]rowth.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 18:28:33 +0000
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