Making rights a reality for disabled people - new Labour Party discussion paper

Liam Byrne, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and Anne McGuire, Shadow Minister for Disabled People have published a discussion paper to “to generate debate about the priorities for disabled people here and now, and in the next Parliament”. They say that the “government is forcing disabled people to pay for its economic mistakes” and that “As a consequence of government decisions, disabled people are carrying a heavier load than bankers in bringing down this debt. In the final year of this Parliament, cuts to disability benefits will be 40 per cent more than the amount taken off banks.”

They criticise the performance of the Work Programme, and the government’s handling of the Remploy factory closures, before going onto raise concerns about DLA reform, ESA/WCA, time-limiting of ESA(cont), social care, the bedroom tax and the lack of disability payments under universal credit, and more.

Finally, there are various questions which they raise about how improvements could be made to all of the above.

To see the discussion paper, see Making rights a reality for disabled people