On January 27th, the House of Lords voted to remove Clauses 13 and 14 from the Welfare Reform and Work Bill which would cut the money people on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) and the limited capability for work element of Universal Credit receive. In current payment terms, this would represent a reduction of almost £30 a week (from £102.15 to £73.10) for recipients.
A subset of Richmond Group member charities have been independently and collectively campaigning against the proposed welfare cuts to people on ESA WRAG and the limited capability for work element of Universal Credit for new claimants from April 2017. We believe that the loss of income caused by these cuts would be really detrimental to patients and are greatly appreciative to the Lords for voting to remove the clauses.
Macmillan Cancer Support, the Stroke Association, the Neurological Alliance and Rethink Mental Illness have been working, along with Mind, to raise awareness of the proposed changes. The announcement on January 27th has been welcomed by Richmond Group members. Lynda Thomas, Chief Executive, Macmillan Cancer Support said:
“We are pleased that the Lords have recognised the deeply damaging impact these cuts would have on people with cancer who are too ill to work...This is the latest example of Lords and MPs, including the government’s own backbenchers, voicing opposition to the proposed cuts to benefits - which are a financial life line for many people... We now urge the government to uphold the Lords decision.”
We still face a significant challenge in ensuring the Government upholds the Lords' decision when the Bill returns to the House of Commons in the next couple of weeks so we will be continuing to work with MPs to maintain pressure on the Government.
There is still a lot of work to be done, but it is important to celebrate the progress that has been made so far. Brian Dow, Director of External Affairs at Rethink Mental Illness said:
“Cutting support is not the way to a fairer system, and it’s good to see that this has been recognised.”