Blind people intend to lose thousands of benefits and still cannot read details of Labor's welfare reform plan
With Labour’s £500 million reform, thousands of disabled people face losing their welfare, still unable to read the details of what the minister plans to do.
Nearly two weeks after get off work, Pension Secretary Liz Kendall released her green book on welfare reform, an accessible version of the document is still available.
The Ministry of Work and Pension has guaranteed that audio versions of blind, braille and other accessible forms will be ready in early April, but with the speed of consultation, anger is out of service from the start.
Lib Dem MP Steve Darling was registered and revealed the delay, and he hit it, saying it was “a shame”.
Liz Kendall is the Work and Pension Secretary (EPA)
James Taylor, executive director of the strategy for the scope of equality of disability, said: “This is one of the many wrong things about these catastrophic proposals.
“These are the biggest cuts in disability benefits on record. However, nearly two weeks after publication, people with disabilities who face thousands of pounds of supporters each year still cannot read the full plan.
“The government needs to rethink these recommendations and start listening and working with people with disabilities.”
Lib Dem Work and Pensions spokesman Steve Darling, a parliamentary question answered by welfare minister Stephen Timms, broke out and the bank said the accessible version would be published “in the appropriate course.”
The Minister went on to say: “We have published this green book before all accessible versions to consult in the public domain for the earliest opportunity to consult details on the matter”. The government has not yet produced an accessible version of the subsequent impact assessment.
Mr Darling, who was blindly registered himself, said: “I have personally experienced difficulties with people with vision impairments in this system, trying to browse the maze of paperwork and information that needs to be understood. The government is now putting forward these major changes in some way that many people can't even access them, which is a shameful deficit.”
People with disabilities are the first to be brunt, largely through the redevelopment of the Individual Independent Payment Standard (PIPS), which aims to ensure that only people with severe disabilities are eligible.
Government impact assessments show that 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, will fall into poverty due to changes. Some of them are blinded or partially seen by 340,000 people in the UK who have not read the details of the document.
Liberal Democratic MP Steve Darling is a registered blind person (State of Commons/UK Parliament)
Liberal Democrats claim that delays could put the government in the potential to undermine its own accessibility regulations. Accessibility and part of the requirement for public institutions is that “you must be more accessible by making it perceived, actionable, understandable and stable website or mobile application. You need to include and update the accessibility statement on the website”. They continue: “If your public sector website or mobile app does not meet accessibility requirements, you may violate the law”.
Accessible versions of documents can include: Large Print (font 16 or larger), Braille (printed haptic documents), Audio, MP3, Daisy (audio only) (audio only) Multimedia, Electronics, Microsoft Word or other processor files, PDF, Daisy, Daisy (Audio and Text), HTML and Close for Multimedia.
The bank also followed the ridicule of Chief Treasury Secretary Darren Jones, claiming that the cancellation of benefits is like removing pocket money, which he apologized for.
Mr Darling said: “First, they compared the removal of important support with taking away the children’s pocket money, and now they don’t even give those dignity that potentially affects those that may ignore the details to see how much they will lose. The government is indeed in real danger of losing the moral compass.
“Ministers need to release an accessible version of their Green Book and an impact assessment immediately.”
“We have carried out comprehensive reforms for health and disability benefits that really support people back to work while making the welfare system more sustainable so that safety nets are always there to protect those who need it most,” a DWP spokesperson said.
