Currently blind people are only able to claim the lower rate of the mobility benefit, called Disability Living Allowance, paid at £18.65 per week. Following a three year parliamentary campaign, the government has agreed to pay blind people the higher rate of the benefit at £49.10 per week. This extra money will kick in from April 2011.
Sir Nicholas Winterton DL MP said: “I am delighted to be celebrating this victory for blind people. I have campaigned in parliament for the last three years to end the injustice that saw blind people unable to claim the higher rate of mobility support, worth an extra £30 a week.”
Steve Winyard, Head of Campaigns at RNIB, said:
“This extra money will make a huge difference to the lives of blind people across the country. Most of us can only begin to appreciate the massive barriers blind people face to getting around- busy roads without safe crossings, wheelie bins and advertising boards on the pavement, or public transport that is impossible to use. Now blind people will be able to pay for safe door to door transport by taxi or minicab, which is what they tell us they want.”
On 17th March, Minister for Disabled People, Jonathan Shaw MP accepted an amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill that will end blind people’s exclusion from being able to claim the Higher Rate Mobility Component of Disability Living Allowance. Over 20,000 people will be eligible for the extra £30 per week available through the Higher Rate Mobility Component. During the debate on the amendment MPs from all parties paid tribute to the tenacity of their blind and partially sighted constituents, who lobbied for over three years to get the change made.
