Stephen has heard how a decision to deny some disabled people £20 per week to help to survive the COVID-19 crisis has left growing numbers unable to pay for rent, food and heating.
For ten months the Government has refused to give emergency funding to over 2.2 million people on legacy benefits – including those on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Jobseeker’s Allowance. This is despite the fact that Universal Credit claimants in the same circumstances are receiving a financial lifeline of an extra £20 per week.
The launch of the report ‘Pandemic Poverty: Stark choices facing disabled people on legacy benefits’, was hosted by the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) – a network of over 100 organisations including the MS Society, Z2K, Disability Rights UK, MND Association, and Inclusion London, which has been campaigning on this issue for ten months.
To date, the Government has given a number of excuses for not extending the £20 uplift to those on legacy benefits, but they are at best feeble and at worst actively insulting to the people involved. Excuses have ranged from blaming the computer system for making it hard to process an uplift, to saying that people have had an uplift of 35 pence per week already and implying that should be sufficient.
Speaking afterwards, Stephen said: “Disabled people in East Ham have told me how they are bearing extra costs in the pandemic, but are getting no extra help. For people claiming Universal Credit, the £20 per week uplift has been a lifesaver. The uplift needs to be maintained, and extended to people claiming the legacy benefits too.”