Scope
Government overturns House of Lords on welfare reforms.
Following news that the MPs in the House of Commons have overturned amendments made in the House of Lords on employment support allowance in the Welfare Reform Bill, Richard Hawkes, Chief Executive of disability charity Scope, responded:
“For months disabled people and their families have been telling the Government that plans to restrict contributory-based employment support allowance to just one year will make it impossible for them to live their lives.
“But this issue does not just affect disabled people today.
"People who have paid national insurance all their working lives but become sick or disabled and take longer than one year to recover will now be denied this support.
“The Government says it's committed to ‘making work pay’ but it is effectively penalising hardworking Britons who are doing the right thing by going out and earning a living in order to support their families.
“The Lords recognised the dire financial situation this would create for thousands of disabled people but the Government has chosen to ignore this.
“With today’s decision the Government has effectively chosen to condemn thousands of disabled people and their families to a future of poverty.”
