Cuts, Cuts and more Cuts!

Today MP’s voted in favour of cutting benefits for new claimants of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) as part of a new Welfare Bill.

This government cut has been defeated by the House of Lords over plans to cut £30 a week from the benefits of sick and disabled people who are unable to work. Some of these ministers have said they believe it would provide a good incentive for people to return to work.

There are currently 500,000 people in the work related activity group (Wrag), who have been formally diagnosed as to ill to work, but well enough to undergo work related training. This cut to Wrag would see payments go from £102.15 a week to £73.10. This would give a government a saving of £1.4bn over the next four years.

Some ministers have promised to get a million more disabled people into work, but campaigners have said the ESA cut will push hundreds of thousands of people into poverty and further away from jobs.

More than 30 national disability charities wrote to the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, to say that the practical and psychological effects of the cut to ESA would make people less likely to turn to work. Some of the charities who were among these were, Macmillan Cancer Support, Mind, RNIB, Rethink Mental Illness, as well as many others.

If you want to know more of the details go to: http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/your-stories/what-does-todays-esa-vote-mean/#.VtRWWfmLSJB

And if this does affect you then please comment above and let me know your story.

#mentalhealth #budgetcuts #esa #wrag #30aweek #audiodocumentary