Are the disabled being demonised?

RISHI SUNAK’S speech on welfare was just the latest step in the demonising of the disabled. In 2016, a UN report stated that the Government was committing ‘grave and systematic’ violations of the rights of disabled people. It added that ‘British compassion for those who are suffering has been replaced by a punitive, meanspirited and… callous approach’. This year, in a further report, the UN stated that the Government was still making disabled folk suffer through a ‘traumatising’ benefits system.

We need to completely reconsider the way we support the disabled in this country. Along with adequate benefits, there needs to be a wide-ranging programme of improved health and personal care.

ANDREW MCLUSKEY, Ashford, Middx.

MY 21-YEAr-OLd grandson was born with cerebral palsy and had been claiming the higher rate of personal independence payment (PIP). The DWP has now taken that away from him, after a phone interview and a form-filling exercise. He has a lot of medical evidence in support of his claim and previously attended a face-to-face appointment in order to get his benefit. Now he has been refused PIP twice and is waiting to go to a tribunal (which he has been told probably won’t be held for at least 12 months).

He is not workshy and was determined to find employment. He worked in the same job for three years and goes to a gym to try to maintain his ability to move as best he can. But without the motability car he had (he is unable to use his legs at all to drive), getting to work or the gym is extremely difficult. I know the Prime minister wants to crack down on ‘sicknote Britain’ but why take away disability benefits from someone who has never taken a penny in sickness or any other handouts and is determined never to do so?