Following signals that Iain Duncan-Smith is determined to reverse the defeats his Welfare Reform Bill suffered in the House of Lords, Reading Labour Leader Jo Lovelock has endorsed the statement by his Labour shadow, Liam Byrne MP, that the Bill has really crossed the line of British decency.
“This is a Bill,” she says, “under which people receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy for cancer will be made to go out and look for work. It is a Bill under which people who are born so disabled they have never been able to work are denied benefit because they have not accumulated National Insurance contributions. It is a bill under which parents on Housing Benefit whose children leave home may be forced to move because they will no longer be able to afford the rent.
“This is not,” she goes on, “about whether the benefit system should change but about how it should change. I am sure there are changes which should be made to make the system easier and fairer, but a Government that expects cancer patients to be treated in this way has just lost any moral compass. I am sure all of us have people among our family and friends who have been treated for cancer, we know that even if the treatment is successful it is lengthy and stressful, we know that the idea of forcing someone on chemotherapy to produce evidence every two weeks of searching for jobs is just cruel.
“The Tories and LibDems always talk about how they will protect the vulnerable. That they are even considering this is an outrage – they still have time to listen and change their plans, otherwise people will make their own judgement about the morality of this coalition government.”
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