DCC Joint Letter on Welfare Reform
In response to growing concerns about the impact welfare reforms might have on disabled people, RNIB (as part of the Disability Charities Consortium) has signed a joint letter urging the government to pause current processes and engage in a full public consultation.
The letter expresses deep concern over proposals in the Pathways to Work Green Paper and wider social security reforms, which are being rushed through Parliament without meaningful engagement with disabled people. The proposals risk sending up to 400,000 more disabled people into poverty—widening the already unacceptable gap between disabled and non-disabled people’s life chances.
Poverty and disability are deeply connected and the extra costs of living with sight loss expose a deeper injustice. Recent research found that people with sight loss face unavoidable costs of between £65 and £174 per week. For a pensioner with severe sight loss, living costs are estimated to be 73 per cent higher than for someone without sight loss.
Reform of the welfare system is needed—but it must be rooted in fairness, inclusion, and a cross-government strategy to lift disabled people out of poverty, not plunge more into it.
