The House of Commons debate came after the Government Watchdog, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) warned the Government’s current impact assessment on cuts to ESA WRAG contained “very little in the way of evidence” and “limited analysis".
Rob Holland, Parliamentary Manager at the learning disability charity Mencap said:
Despite this the Government are intent, based on little evidence, that taking away £1,500 a year from disabled people will incentivise them to find work. The mounting evidence suggests the opposite, that cutting Employment and Support Allowance will push disabled people further from work and closer to poverty.
Instead the Government should be focusing on changing employer attitudes, improving in-work support for both employers and disabled people and making the work programme work effectively.
The Government needs to give an answer as to why they are refusing to act in the face of this opposition to disability benefit cuts, and why they feel it too much to carry out the full impact assessment that disabled people deserve.