A SOMERSET parent and carer and company director has written to Somerset MPs raising concerns about government plans to cut disability benefits.

Mark Blaker, from Wiveliscombe, is the father of 32-year-old Joe, who has learning disabilities. He claims his son is among around a million disabled people up and down the country at risk of having financial support cut if proposals in the government’s ‘Pathways to Work’ green paper become law in June.

Mark says he is incredibly concerned about the impact this will have on local people and has written to five local MPs highlighting what he sees as flaws in the plans.

He said: “The Government line is to take support from people and hope paid work will magically appear in its place, no matter what barriers people face.

“Most people agree that better opportunities for disabled people to participate in their community, including through real-world paid employment, are long overdue and we’d all welcome them, but this is simply not the way to do it.

“The infrastructure isn’t there, the support programmes aren’t there, the jobs aren’t there. This is a short cut to increase poverty and exclusion, not lessen it.”

Mr Blaker is a director of Reflect Day Service, which supports adults with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD) at bases in Taunton, Bridgwater, Burnham-on-Sea, West Hewish and Hornblotton (near Shepton Mallet).

Mark says he hopes his letter will encourage his own MP and others, representing constituencies in which his support service operates, to demand the Government reconsider their decision. As of Tuesday, April 22, Mark is yet to hear back from the contacted MPs, which include Rachel Gilmour, Ashley Fox, Gideon Amos, Tessa Munt and Anna Sabine.

In his letter, Mark wrote: “At my place of work, a big part of our job is founded on the principle that everybody has value and everybody is capable of progress if supported and nurtured. This principle of valuing progress should apply equally to the most profoundly disabled people as it does to the most physically and intellectually proficient.

“We need a widely recognised and understood hierarchy of development where everyone has a place, where achievement at every level is fostered and celebrated, instead of penalised.

“We need a society where all are valued from the very top down.”

A DWP spokesperson said: “Helping people into good work and financial independence is at the heart of our Plan to Change, but the broken social security system we inherited is failing people who can and have the potential to work, as well as the people it’s meant to be there for.

“That’s why we’re delivering a £1 billion employment support package to break down barriers for disabled people into work. We’re also rebalancing Universal Credit payment levels, so the benefit’s main rate rises permanently above inflation for the first time, in a boost for low-income families.

“We will continue to deliver a social security system for those with severe health conditions and we will protect the income of those who will never be able to work.”