The Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC), a network of over 100 organisations with an interest in disability and social security, has called for an emergency increase in benefits in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
In March of this year, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government announced an emergency increase of £20 a week for both Universal Credit and Working Tax Credits. However the same increase has not yet been extended to other out of work benefits, such as Employment and Support Allowance, which – says the DBC – leaves many disabled people without this urgently-needed support.
The DBC is calling for the emergency increase to be extended immediately to Employment and Support Allowance, on the grounds that anything else would be discriminatory; that disabled people already face additional costs and reduced benefits; and that disabled people in particular are facing increased costs as a result of the Covid-19 emergency.