The voter who took PM to task over cuts
THERESA May was confronted by an angry woman about cuts to disability benefits while out on the campaign trail yesterday.
Calling out from the crowd, Cathy Mohan told the Prime Minister that changes to the payments had left her with just £100 a month to live on during the walkabout in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
Complaining that ‘fat cats’ were keeping their money while others were being ‘crippled’, Miss Mohan – who said she had ‘mild learning disabilities’– told Mrs May: ‘I want you to do something for us.
‘I’m angry...I’m talking about everybody, not just me, I’m talking about everybody who has got mental health and who has got learning disabilities, I want them not to have their money taken away from them and being crippled. The fat cats keep the money and us lot get nothing.’
The encounter came after it was claimed earlier in the campaign that Mrs May has ordered aides to give her more time to knock on doors and meet ordinary voters, claiming she was a ‘doorstep campaigner’.
Disability allowances were replaced by Personal Independence Payments (PIP) from April 2013, a move which some people with disabilities say has left them struggling to survive. Confronting Mrs May, Miss Mohan, said: ‘I want my disability living allowance to come back, not have PIPs and get nothing. I can’t live on £100 a month. You better help me, please.’
Mrs May replied: ‘What I can do is ensure we are giving more help to people with mental health problems and learning disabilities.’ She added that the Government was focusing on ‘those most in need’.