The Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC), a network of over 100 organisations including Welsh mental health charity Hafal, has written an open letter to Thérèse Coffey, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to call for urgent changes to the benefits system to ensure disabled and seriously unwell people are protected from physical and financial harm during the covid-19 emergency.
The letter begins:
“Using our combined knowledge, experience and direct contact with millions of disabled individuals, people with long-term health conditions and carers, we seek to ensure that Government policy reflects and meets the needs of all disabled people.
“The DBC welcomes the recently announced measures designed to protect the incomes of large numbers of people whose livelihoods have been adversely impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. But we believe that these support measures need to go further.
“People living with a disability and those with long-term health conditions tend to have lower real incomes and higher costs than the general population and we are calling on the Government to produce a more comprehensive package of support, to better protect these individuals and their families, at this difficult time.”
Read the full letter, which includes 11 key points, here.
Matt Pearce