Survey warns life’s essentials will be unaffordable due to cuts
Survey warns life’s essentials will be unaffordable due to cuts
Disabled people will not have enough money for everyday essentials like food and transport, due to government cuts, according to new evidence revealed recently by the charity Papworth Trust.
31/08/2011
Disability Living Allowance (DLA) was introduced in 1992 to contribute to the extra cost in daily living that disabled people incur. However, the government plans to abolish Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and introduce Personal Independence Payment (PIP), for those of working age from 2013. The proposals involve a reduction of 20% in both the total amount spent on the benefit and the number of claimants.
Based on a sample 2,200 people from across Britain, the Papworth Trust survey reveals disabled people’s concerns that ‘if they were not eligible for a Personal Independence Payment or if their benefit was reduced after the assessment’ 74% ‘would not have enough money for everything they need’ and 64% ‘would be less independent’.
Papworth Trust Chief Executive Adrian Bagg says: ‘Disabled people's daily costs are typically 25% higher than those of non-disabled people’. Adrian Bagg goes on to say that the cuts would ‘further disadvantage many disabled people’.
For the summary of survey results and more information go to: www.papworth.org.uk/news
