MP Sarah thanks peers

Sarah, the Shadow Minister for Preventing Abuse and Domestic Violence, spoke out after the victory, saying: “We have to be thankful to the Lords once again for stopping the Government from pushing through more pernicious legislation that unfairly targets the disabled and the very ill and threatens to plunge them into poverty.

“The Lords have given the Government the chance to reconsider these iniquitous cuts. I urge them to do so.”

Under Government plans, the Employment Support Allowance Work Related Activity Group payment, which goes to people deemed too ill to work but able to engage in work-related training, was to be cut by £30, taking it from £102.15 to £73.10 per week, leaving some with losses of up to £1,500 a year.

Earlier this week 30 charities wrote to Welfare and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, warning him that the “cut would push sick and disabled people further away from work and closer to poverty.”