Response to Secretary of State Liz Kendall’s benefit reform announcement

In response to today’s announcement by Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall, Community Union’s President Steve McGurk said:

“We strongly support the Government’s ambition to get more people back into work, including the ‘Right to Try’ reform, but the wider reforms can’t come at the expense of disabled people.

“Community is deeply concerned by the impact that these benefit reforms will have on disabled workers across the country. In fact, the Government risks driving disabled people out of the workplace because of a lack of benefit support negatively impacting their health. Community understands that this Government has inherited a deeply challenging financial situation from the previous Conservative Government. However, we must ensure that the burden of solving that challenge does not fall on disabled people in our society.

“I work at RSBi, Europe’s biggest supported workplace, and I see day to day disabled people making significant contributions to our work. We should be supporting people to stay in work, not throwing up barriers. PIP is a vital benefit for disabled people and Community will engage with the Government’s PIP review to ensure that it continues to deliver for disabled people as part of a wider benefits system that gets people into work and keeps them in work.”

The National League for the Blind and Disabled (NLBD) is part of Community Union and is the world’s oldest organisation for disabled people.