I am glad to say that the charity campaign against plans to means-test employment and support allowance (ESA) payments for disabled people after only a year were rejected by peers.
The means test would have applied to cancer patients and stroke survivors, and was denounced by Lord Patel, a crossbencher and former president of the Royal College of Obstetricians, ( they are acevo members) as an immoral attack on the sick, the vulnerable and the poor. "If we are going to rob the poor to pay the rich, then we enter into a different form of morality," Patel said.
The other defeats in the Lords were over plans to time-limit ESA for those undergoing cancer treatment, and to restrict access to ESA for young people with disabilities or illness.
I would urge the Government to rethink. There is no popular support for these particular changes. I really hope the Prime Minister and Ian Duncan Smith will review this and support the changes made by the Lords. It is the right thing to do.
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