Defeat of plan to slash disability pay welcomed

SARAH Champion thanked the House of Lords for defeating Government plans to cut welfare payments to disabled people.

The move to reduce employment and support allowance by £30 a week would affect about 1,020 Rotherham residents.

MP Ms Champion said: “We have to be thankful to the Lords once again for stopping the Government from pushing through more pernicious legislation that unfairly targets the disabled and the very ill.”

Earlier this week, 30 charities wrote welfare secretary Iain Duncan Smith, warning that the ESA cut would push sick and disabled people “further from work and closer to poverty”.

Peers voted by 283 to 198 to send the plans back to the House of Commons. Ministers had argued that the cut would give an incentive for people to return to work.