A few days ago my constituency office was vandalised in response to my recent vote to approve changes to the Employment Support Allowance (ESA). This was not an isolated attack as other MPs offices were targeted by individuals involved in a social media campaign.
I’m disappointed that some individuals choose to do this instead of making an appointment to see me to discuss their concerns. Sadly all these individuals achieved on Saturday was to create an inconvenience to my of...fice staff, local residents, and the Police. There are lots of ways to communicate to convey concerns but criminal damage just isn’t an option.
There has been a lot of miscommunication about this vote which I want to put right. A decision was taken by MPs to change the benefit awarded to a specific group of people who receive Employment Support Allowance. These people are in the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) and they do have a disability or illness but are considered able to work with support in the future.
The overwhelming majority of people in this group say they want to work, and so I think it is right that we do all we can to help them get back into work. The changes mean that this group will now access the same level of benefit as those on Job Seekers Allowance, but will be given better tailored support to help them into employment. It doesn’t affect anyone who is already claiming ESA, they will receive the exactly the same amount of benefit as they do now.
The truth is that not all disabilities prevent people from working. A great many disabled people get enormous fulfilment from being in work. They would be extremely offended not to be considered equal in the job market, and this benefit change means that more people will be able to take these important steps from being benefit-dependent to the workplace.
Of course we absolutely continue to protect those who are ‘too ill to work’. There is no question about that. Those with the most severe health conditions and disabilities will quite rightly continue to get a higher rate of benefit and support. And despite the political banter from Labour, the disability budget is actually going to be rising by more than £1 billion over the next 5 years which means that more money is being spent in real terms on support for disabled people than at any point under the previous Labour government.
I can see that there have been a few comments on this page and I encourage people to email me directly if you would like a personal response from me. I don’t always have time to reply to every comment on Facebook as I am busy working on constituent casework via the telephone, email, letter and face to face appointments. If you email me, I will always provide a response to people who are living in Preseli Pembrokeshire. I cannot respond to people outside of the area and suggest they contact their own MP directly.
Note: This post has been updated, as it previously contained a factual inaccuracy.