MPs vote to go ahead with cut to disabled children’s benefits

2 February 2012

Campaigners welcome Government commitment to review which families will receive higher rate

The House of Commons has today (1 February 2012) overturned an amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill that protected many low income and out of work families with disabled children from a 50% cut to their benefits.

The decision comes one day after the House of Lords voted in an amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill to ensure that all low income and out of work families are able to continue to receive the same levels of support that they do within Child Tax Credits. This had sent a powerful message to the Government that cutting benefits from families with disabled children, most at risk of living in poverty, would have a devastating effect.

Laura Courtney, EDCM Campaign Manager says:

"We are extremely disappointed that the Government has overturned this House of Lords amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill. The amendment would have made sure that families with disabled children on low incomes continued to receive support to meet the costs of their child's disability. The current proposed rates are badly targeted and will mean that there is likely to be a sharp rise in the number of disabled children living in poverty when Universal Credit is introduced.

"We do, however, welcome the Government's recognition of the high level of concern surrounding this policy. We particularly welcome Lord Freud's commitment to re-examine the way in which the benefit is targeted. We hope that the Government will ensure that the higher rate is accurately targeted at families with the highest unavoidable costs."

This decision comes after 5100 people have written to the Prime Minister since December asking him to think again about these cuts.

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Notes to editors:

1.Every Disabled Child Matters is the national campaign to get rights and justice for every disabled child. It is run by four leading organisations working with disabled children and their families: Contact a Family, Council for Disabled Children, Mencap and the Special Educational Consortium.   Find out more at www.edcm.org.uk

2.The Government was defeated in the House of Lords and the amendment to Clause 10 was won by 246 votes to 230 against. The transcript of the debate and vote in the House of Lords will be available from http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201212/ldhansrd/text/120131-0001.htm#120131109000253

3. Read EDCM's briefing on the proposed cut at ow.ly/8MYGM

4. During the debate on Clause 10 on January 31^st 2012 Lord Freud, Minister for Welfare Reform said "It may very well be that the concern of the House actually boils down to a discomfort with the dividing line between severely disabled and disabled. If that is the case, the way to do it-and I pick up what my noble friend Lord Newton was saying-is not to look at aspect or concrete ratios but at the precise issue that noble Lords are actually worrying about, which is the relationship. I will commit to having a very close look at this. It is clearly tied up with DLA definitions, which are under constant review and are being reviewed. If we move the children from DLA to PIP, we need to look at this and there will be a real consultation process. I will review this dividing line and look at that very closely, and when we come to the regulations on this, I will report back to noble Lords on exactly what we find."

5.EDCM's supporter action emailing the prime minister asking for him to think again about cuts to families with disabled children can be viewed at: http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=6&ea.campaign.id=13027