Are cancer patients losing £94 a week?
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David Cameron and Ed Miliband have clashed in the Commons over welfare support for people with cancer.
The Labour leader said benefit changes due to be debated later by MPs could see 7,000 cancer patients losing £94 a week in financial support.
Cancer charities were angry about the move, he said, and the prime minister “did not know his own policy”.
Mr Cameron said benefits would still be paid for at least a year and Labour was “divided” on welfare reforms.
The row over proposed changes to the benefits system, stemming from the government’s current reassessment of all those on incapacity benefit to see if they are able to work, dominated prime minister’s questions.
Mr Miliband said cancer charities were warning that the changes could result in 7,000 sufferers losing vital financial support as they recovered from their illnesses.
Charities have said changes in the government’s Welfare Reform Bill would see some people being made worse off just a year after they were diagnosed with cancer.
Rather than receiving employment support allowance – the successor to incapacity benefit – as they do now, people who are reclassified following a fitness-to-work test will see their benefits means-tested after 12 months.
If their family income is more than £150 a week, the charities say these people could lose £94 a week in contributory allowance.
“These are people who have worked hard all their lives, done the right thing, who have paid their taxes and when they are in need, the prime minister is taking money away from them,” Mr Miliband told MPs.
“Britain’s cancer charities have been making these arguments for months. I am amazed the prime minister does not know about these arguments. How can it be right that people with cancer, 7,000 people with cancer, are losing £94 a week?”
But Mr Cameron said the same benefits would be available for the first 12 months as under the last government and for the most vulnerable, support could continue indefinitely.
No more Nasal Ed. Today saw the hatching of Angry Ed.
He shouts, he growls, he bangs his fist and jabs his finger.
When Miliband stood up, the Lib Dem and Tory benches erupted in cheers for Labour’s leader.
They think he’s a loser who’ll help them win.
Certainly Ed Miliband’s questioning of David Cameron last week fizzled out like many before.
The Labour leader has tended to skip between subjects each session and leave himself open to swift counterattack by Mr Cameron who tends to swat his opponent away.
Not today.
Ed Miliband drilled down into a technical but emotive welfare issue that the prime minister was clearly not expecting.
As if galvanised by the nameless critics muttering about his problems in the papers, Miliband grilled Mr Cameron with anger, focus and passion.
The arguments about the policy will go on through the day.
But when he sat down it was Mr Miliband’s team who were cheering for the first time in weeks.
Today at least, he silenced his critics.
“It is the same test as under the Labour government and it is put in place fairly,” he said.
“The whole point about our benefit reforms is that there are proper medical tests so we support those who cannot work, as a generous and tolerant and compassionate country should, but we make sure that those who can work have to go out to work so that we don’t reward bad behaviour.”
The prime minister accused his counterpart of using the issue as a “smokescreen” to hide the fact his party was “divided” over welfare reforms – a claim that drew an angry response from the Labour leader who said the claim was a “disgrace”.
Asked about the 7,000 figure later, Employment Minister Chris Grayling said it was “pure guesswork”.
But he told the BBC that the government was having to make “difficult” decision on welfare due to the size of the deficit it had inherited.
“We can’t afford to continue to provide, in difficult times financially, support for people through the welfare state who have got other financial means to depend on. That is one of the pragmatic realities of life today.”
Labour called on Mr Cameron to apologise to cancer patients for saying in the Commons that Ed Miliband was using the issue as a “smokescreen” to hide Labour’s reluctance to back welfare reforms.
Macmillan Cancer Support, who have lead the campaign against the changes, said the government’s position was “hard to understand” and it would take about £34m a year to change it and restore the assistance.
The charity said those affected were not the most seriously ill, who would continue to receive indefinite support in, but those who were on the road to recovery and who were expected to take steps to prepare themselves for a return to work – such as preparing a CV.
“We’re very hopeful that the government will look at this again, that they can’t possibly be trying to penalise cancer patients, right at the point when they’re trying to return to work,” the charity’s Mike Hobday, a former Labour candidate, said.
The issue relates to all those recovering from a serious illness and unable to work as a result – not just those with cancer.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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