Government To Answer For Its DLA Cuts In Court

Neil Coyle of Disability Alliance has launched proceedings against the UK government´s Department for Work and Pensions over their failure to meet the UK and EU requirements in its plans to make the proposed cuts in the DLA support that is currently awarded to people suffering from disabilities in the UK. In an article written for Left Foot Forward, Coyle says that: [caption id="attachment_1059" align="alignleft" width="199" caption="Neil Coyle of Disability Alliance"]

[/caption] �Disability Alliance is concerned that welfare cuts will disproportionately disadvantage disabled people and their families, including proposals in the Welfare Reform Bill to: � Abolish low rate care DLA support which is received by 652,000 people who have provided evidence of impairments/health conditions and are acknowledged to be �disabled´ by DWP; � Reduce projected DLA expenditure by 20 per cent or �2.17 billion; � End DLA mobility support for disabled care home residents without clarity on how potential losses in support for the 78,000 people directly affected, and their families, will be mitigated.� When the government promised to review the DLA mobility support in care homes it did so without the public being able to see how the decision making process was carried out, this process led to the decision that care home residents were uniformly ineligible for mobility allowance. The charity has been involved in warning the government that their plans may contravene UN policies on human rights as well as British disability discrimination law including the disability discrimination act s49a so, he says, the legal proceedings should come as no surprise. Along with the action taken by the Disability Alliance a joint select committee has been investigating the government´s commitment to the rights of the disabled holds up against international conventions on rights and welfare. The government´s claims that it wants a system which is more cost effective, will weed out benefit cheats and encourage those who are capable of work to get employment should be lauded, however, the department of Work and Pensions, under Ian Duncan Smith claimed, without being able to offer figures to validate his assertions, that he would be cutting the DLA and disability benefit bill by 20%, equivalent to �2.17 billion pounds. The reforms, it is feared, will force those who have disabilities which aren´t obvious or are intermittent to be forced into work which they are unable to fulfil under the threat of losing their allowances. Under the government´s proposed changes to disability allowance those under working age will continue to receive DLA, those from 16 to 64 will receive a Personal Independence Allowance or, if their disabilities are perceived to be mild enough, Job Seekers Allowance which is available to every unemployed adult in the country on proviso that they are available for work immediately and that they actively seek work, applying for a minimum number of 3 posts per week. If there simply aren´t 3 jobs in the local area which are suitable for a claimant´s condition then it´s conceivable that their JSA can be suspended, a knock on of which would be for housing benefit also to be stopped resulting in the country´s most vulnerable members of society under threat of being homeless and jobless thanks to being unable to receive a benefit which is poorly suited to their requirements.