A disability activist has issued a dire warning over Reform UK’s plans to overhaul Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) benefits if they win the next General Election.
Speaking to GB News, Kerry Riches said that “people will die” if Nigel Farage’s party slashes benefits in efforts to deliver £50billion in savings to the public purse.
Reform’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said the package would be the most sweeping overhaul of Britain’s welfare system in a generation.
According to the party’s own estimates, close to three million recipients could have their disability and sickness payments either removed or altered under the plans.
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However, Ms Riches said the policy would have a devastating impact on claimants like her.
“I’m going to go in with the harsh truth on this: people will die if PIP payments are removed,” she warned.
Ms Riches, who has multiple sclerosis, said she relies on support linked to her disability to remain independent and in work, including an adapted vehicle.
“You remove PIP, and people will be isolated. People will die. People will stop working, and then they will need more help from the government.”
“PIP is an in-work non-means-tested benefit that keeps people in the workplace,” she said.
“You remove PIP, you remove adapted vehicles. I get no money from the government. I get an adapted vehicle because I’ve got multiple sclerosis and I cannot feel my legs from the knees down.”
She warned that cutting support could leave disabled people unable to travel to work, with mobility scooters and wheelchairs also potentially affected.
“You remove their mobility scooters, you remove their wheelchairs,” she said.
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Ms Riches also criticised the difficulties disabled people can face accessing public transport, saying she is sometimes forced to book adapted taxis because she cannot use a bus.
The activist said she had never expected to become disabled at the age of 24, having previously worked full-time.
“It was not on my bingo card to get multiple sclerosis and become disabled at the age of 24, but here I am,” she said.
Ms Riches argued that the benefits system needed reform, but said PIP was the wrong target.
“But let’s not forget here that less than one per cent of PIP cases are fraud. This is the wrong benefit to target. I cannot stress that enough.”
Ms Riches instead called for an overhaul of the assessment process, including ending what she described as unnecessary reassessments for people with lifelong conditions.
“Stop reassessing me,” she said, adding that claimants should have qualified professionals carrying out assessments.
“I’ve never met someone who’s on PIP that thinks the actual PIP process works,” she said, adding: “It is an incredibly difficult process to get. You do not get PIP lightly.”
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