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Lady Tanni Grey-Thompson Helps Defeat Government Cuts to Disability Benefit
Other | Wednesday 2nd March 2016 | Ashleigh-Rose
Lady Tanni Grey-Thompson, eleven-time paralympic gold medalist gave an emotional speech in the House of Lords this week to try and prevent a planned cut to disability benefits.
The Government wants to cut Employment Support Allowance by almost £30 a week, which could leave some disabled people £1500 a year worse off.
Lady Grey-Thompson used her position in the Lords debate to share her experiences of growing up with a disability. She explained to her peers how a specialist careers advisor told her that the best job she could get would be answering telephones and that she should not ‘aim too high’.
She continues ‘it almost feels to me that we are putting the blame on the disabled person and trying to fix them and not trying to understand the barriers they face getting into work’.
Thanks to Tanni’s emotional speech the Lords voted against the bill, meaning it is now up to the Government to come up with a less drastic measure to reduce the welfare bill.
