A woman who travelled from Greater Manchester to London to protest against the government’s controversial welfare reforms has said ministers were trying to save money “at the expense of disabled people’s lives”.
Jacqueline Robinson, from Whitefield, joined about 300 people in Parliament Square to signal their opposition to the new bill, which is set to be voted on in the Commons later.
In a bid to win over 120 rebel Labour MPs, the prime minister softened the package by limiting disability benefit cuts to only new claimants, among other revisions.
But Ms Robinson said the amended bill does not go far enough.
“People with disabilities don’t need anymore cuts. We need more support, not less,” she said.
“There are too many who think we’re super-scroungers but we’re not, we just want the right to live.”
Dozens of Labour MPs are still expected to rebel over the amended bill, with Ms Robinson saying several had expressed support for the protesters.
“Quite a lot of people are speaking out for us,” she said.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said the government’s plans would provide “record levels of support”.
As part of the revisions to the reforms, ministers are also expected to fast-track a £1bn support plan to get people into work, which was originally scheduled for 2029.
But Joann Taylor, who travelled to London from Salford for the protest to be a “voice for the bedridden”, said restricting eligibility for new claimants of the personal independence payment would make it harder for people with disabilities to get into work.
Ms Taylor, who has a debilitating condition that affects her joints and prevents her from working, said she was particularly worried about the proposed halving of some benefits and “the great distress and hardship that causes us through no fault of our own”.
She said; “This bill is rushed and the concessions still downplay certain disabilities. There’s a lot of ignorance regarding people who are disabled and it’s distressing to them.”
Ms Robinson added: “You can’t get people back to work by punishing them and then making them more ill.
“How you get people back to work is by investing in things like back to work schemes – so adaptations at work, programmes that will benefit employers to employ people with disabilities.”
