LABOUR have been blasted for imposing “cuts by stealth” on a benefit to help disabled people get back into work.
Social Security Minister Stephen Timms has confirmed that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has tightened up its process for approving Access to Work support payments since his party came to office.
In an interview with Disability News Service, he said it was “likely” he had approved a departmental policy change to impose the rules around the scheme to be applied “more scrupulously”.
He previously admitted in the UK Parliament that the changes were resulting in it being harder to get the payment.
Access to Work gives grants to help disabled people get and stay in jobs by covering the costs of things like specialist equipment and software, support workers and the costs of travelling to work.
Asked on September 1 by LibDem MP Steve Darling about “cuts” to Access to Work, Timms (above) said: “There has been a big increase in demand for it, and reform is needed. We are looking at the consultation responses at the moment.
“There may have been instances in the past where the published guidance was not always properly applied. It is being applied now, and that may give rise to some of the issues that have been drawn to his attention, but there has been no change at all in the policy.”
Asked about these changes by Disability News Service earlier this month, Timms added: “The way things work is a proposal goes into a submission, which comes to me, and I say, ‘OK,’ and it’s very likely that I’ve been advised that we are going to apply the guidance more scrupulously.”
SNP MSP Elena Whitham told The National: “When Labour were planning on making swingeing cuts to benefits for disabled people they claimed that they would support people to get into employment – now it turns out that they are also making cuts to the very service designed to do this.
“The Labour Minister's glib response won't wash with the thousands of people waiting for assistance through this service. Labour must urgently come clean about the scale of cuts.”
Timms was one of the key figures in Labour’s failed attempt to steer a raft of benefits cuts through Parliament earlier this year. While the Government succeed in cutting benefits for people claiming Personal Independence Payments or the health element of Universal Credit in the future, current claimants would have their benefits preserved.
Greens MSP Maggie Chapman (above) added: “These cuts by stealth will have a brutal impact for thousands of the already marginalised and left behind people across the country.
“Labour promised change. Unfortunately, and with potentially devastating consequences for many disabled people, things have changed for the worse. They have been scapegoated, attacked and seen their social security payments removed by a government that claims to be on their side.
“People should be supported and helped into work if appropriate. They certainly shouldn’t be punished into it with the threat of cuts. This decision should be immediately reversed with full compensation for everyone who has been affected.”
Shani Dhanda, co-founder of the Access to Work Collective, a group set up to help get disabled people into work, said: "Disabled people have been lied to, again. The minister and DWP have continually denied that there had been any policy change, when there clearly has.
"That is not just incompetence, it’s gaslighting on a national scale. These cuts have forced people out of work, into poverty, and in some cases into worsening ill health.
"Access to Work is meant to remove barriers, not create them. The government must come clean, apologise, reverse the damage, and start treating disabled workers with honesty and respect. Nothing short of genuine co-production with all stakeholders will fix Access to Work.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “We inherited an Access to Work scheme that is failing both employees and employers, which is why – as part of our welfare reform – we consulted on how it could be improved.
“We are reviewing all aspects of the scheme and will develop future policy with disabled people and the organisations that represent them.”
