Welfare Bill Concessions – FTWW Statement

As a member disabled people’s organisation (DPO) of Disability Wales, FTWW supports their statement published today in response to the Welfare Bill concessions (see below).

The UK Government must listen to the evidence and testimonies from disabled people and their organisations, and commit to co-producing any future welfare reforms with those affected from start to finish. Disabled people must be equal partners in any decisions made.

Assessments undertaken by a range of stakeholders have demonstrated that the changes proposed will have a catastrophic impact on disabled people, carers, and families, local authorities, and health and social care services.

This impact will be felt even more here in Wales, where there is a higher than average disabled population, and potentially even more-so for women and people registered female at birth, who live with health issues that have been historically under researched, have longer than average diagnostic delays, and experience further disabling barriers such as a lack of access to specialist healthcare.

Indeed, just today, The Times has published findings from the Hologic Global Women’s Health Index, an annual league table based on surveys of 78,000 women worldwide, which shows that Britain now has dropped even further down the rankings for women’s health for the fourth year in a row, at number 41 out of 142 countries.

As quoted in Frances Ryan’s article for the Guardian, ‘Labour’s benefit cuts will have ‘devastating’ impact on disabled women, say charities‘:

“The proposed changes to the Pip assessment criteria ignore fundamental aspects of women’s health and dignity,” said Dharshana Sridhar, campaigns manager at the Spinal Injuries Association. “By failing to recognise the distinct and disproportionate impact of these changes on disabled women, the proposals risk breaching the Equality Act 2010, both in terms of sex and disability discrimination, and the Public Sector Equality Duty. A benefits system that systematically disregards menstruation, personal care, and continence management for disabled women cannot credibly claim to meet its legal obligations to promote equality and eliminate discrimination.”

If you haven’t already written to your Member of Parliament (MP) to ask them to vote against this Bill, please do so as soon as you can – the first vote is due to take place on Tuesday 1st July. If you’re not sure what to say, Disabled People Against Cuts – Cymru has a template letter which you can find here.

Here is Anabledd Cymru’ statement in full:

“The derisory concessions offered by the UK Government on the Universal Credit and PIP Bill are totally unacceptable.

 

“While protecting current claimants for now, it will create a two tier system and condemn future generations of disabled people to poverty and exclusion.

 

“The only way forward is to scrap the bill, engage meaningfully with DPOs and disabled people to develop a welfare system that fully supports independent living while tackling longstanding barriers to employment, including discriminatory working practices.

 

“We urge all MPs to reject the Bill.”

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