Louise Nousratpour in Westminster
Tuesday January 17, 2012
The Morning Star
Disability campaigners and anti-cuts activists staged a noisy protest outside Parliament today calling on MPs and Lords to throw out Con-Dem ministers' attack on Britain's welfare state.
As the government faced a fresh rebellion in the House of Lords over its controversial Welfare Reform Bill, the protesters gathered outside chanting slogans and displaying banners that read: "No poor mothers = no poor children" and "Time limit on sickness benefits = assisted dying."
"We want the entire Bill dropped," said Kim Sparrow of the Single Mothers' Self-Defence campaign.
She warned that sole parents, such as herself, and children with disabilities would be badly hurt if the proposed benefit cuts went ahead.
"At a time of high unemployment this government wants mothers with children aged five and over to become jobseekers or lose all their benefits.
"And as soon as the child is one year old, mothers who may still be breast feeding or recovering from a traumatic birth will be forced to do work-related activities or lose their benefits.
"We are already at the bottom of the wage scale and these changes will plunge more of us into destitution."
Ms Sparrow was also outraged at plans to cap family benefits at £26,000 a year and abolish the social fund - used for family emergencies such as homelessness and domestic violence.
Hammersmith and Fulham Coalition Against Community Care Cuts chairman Kevin Caulfield, who is wheelchair-bound due to a long-term neurological condition, said the coalition is waging a "systematic attack" on disabled adults and children.
"You have to question ministers' morality when they even suggest cutting benefits for youngsters with disabilities," he said.
Mr Caulfield, who receives the disability living allowance while working, warned planned changes to the benefit could stop people like him from continuing to live a healthy and independent life.
The government wants to tighten the eligibility criteria by replacing the £69 a week benefit with the stingier personal independence payment.
"I use the extra money for the additional needs I have as a disabled person. If I didn't have these benefits, I wouldn't be able to go to work," Mr Caulfield warned.
Last week the Lords threw out some of the nastiest parts of the Bill, including restricting payments for young people with disabilities or illnesses.
But Con-Dem ministers have vowed to overturn the amendments when the Bill returns to the Commons.
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