Cuts to DLA will imprison disabled people in their homes
Transport for All
Government plans to cut expenditure on Disabilty...
Government plans to cut expenditure on Disabilty Living Allowance by 20% will lead to hundreds of thousands of disabled people becoming trapped in their homes, disability campaigners have warned.
Claiming DLA is one of the elegibility criteria for Taxicard, Blue Badge, Dial-A-Ride and Disabled Person’s Railcard. Disability Rights UK have estimated that between 577,000 and 835,00 disabled people will lose disability benefits as a result of Government proposals to cut 20% DLA expenditure (source: End of a Lifeline? Disability Rights UK, 2011).
While some of these people may qualify for transport benefits like Taxicard and Railcard on other grounds (e.g. being blind or partially sighted; having epilepsy), many will lose the benefits which enable them to travel.
One recent report, Reversing from Recovery, estimated that 280,000 Motability customers could lose their cars. Transport providers should expect an influx of disabled people onto the transport system – and act accordingly to upgrade transport accessibility.
One person quoted in the report said:
“I currently get the high rate mobility/DLA which I use for a Motability car and this gives me my independence. It is no exaggeration to say that without it I will be virtually housebound. Only able to get out when someone can take me…”
Disabled people are already half as likely to have a car in their household compared to the general population (60% have no car compared to 27%), and so many people rely on door-to-door transport schemes for getting out and about independently. Without these, people who cannot use public transport become dependent on the goodwill of family and friends; or have to pay full price for taxis and minicabs.
Cost is a major barrier to disabled people’s access to transport. A third of disabled people live in poverty. This figure is likely to rise if cuts to DLA proceed – at the same time as rail and bus fares rise and rise. Benefits like the Disabled Persons Railcard, as well as subidised taxi schemes like Taxicard and Capital Call, do much to enable disabled people to remain active and able to access services. Disabled transport users who lose DLA face a ‘double whammy’ as their income plummets, at the same time as transport costs drastically increase.
The net result is likely to be thousands more people trapped at home, increasingly isolated and depressed.
Similarly, many people who use their DLA for a Motability car, or to access public transport, are able to access work, volunteering and education. A 2010 Motability car report found that having a Motability car enabled 15% of Motability customers to improve their education. Of those able to work, 39% reported having a Motability car had enabled them to improve or maintain their employment.
The group Disabled People Against The Cuts (DPAC) have launched a week of campaign activity around the issue of disabled people losing benefits – which is targeted at ATOS – the private company hired by the government to conduct ‘work capability’ assesments. Further details about the ATOS GAMES can be found here: http://www.dpac.uk.net/2012/07/our-atos-games/.
