Labour Manifesto 2017

DIGNITY FOR
THOSE WHO
CANNOT WORK
Poverty in Britain is rising due to
the Conservatives’ attempts to
balance the books on the backs
of the poorest. They have slashed
social security over the last seven
years, leaving more people in
poverty, subject to a punitive
sanctions regime, and reliant
on food banks.
Labour will act immediately to end the
worst excesses of the Conservative
government’s changes. We will:
• Scrap the punitive sanctions regime
• Scrap the Bedroom Tax
einstate Housing Benefit
for under-21s
• Scrap cuts to Bereavement Support
Payment.
The cuts to work allowances in
Universal Credit (UC), and the decision
to limit tax credit and UC payments
to the first two children in a family,
are an attack on low-income families
and will increase child poverty. Labour
will reform and redesign UC, ending
six-week delays in payment and the
‘rape clause’.
With nearly four million children
currently living in poverty, the majority
in working families, we will
commit to tackle child poverty
with a new Child Poverty Strategy.
The Tories have completely failed on
their promise of making work pay and
on tackling the barriers to work faced
by people with disabilities.
Labour supports a social model of
disability. People may have a condition
or an impairment but they are disabled
by society. We need to remove
the barriers in society that restrict
opportunities and choices
for people with disabilities.
We will build on the previous Labour
government’s commitment to people
with disabilities in 2009 as signatories
to the UN Convention on the Rights
of Persons with Disabilities, and
incorporate it into UK law.
Labour will repeal the following cuts in
social security support to people with
disabilities through a new Social Security
Bill published in our first year in office.
We will:
• Increase Employment and Support
Allowance (ESA) by £30 per week
for those in the work-related activity
group, and repeal cuts in the UC
limited capacity for work element.
• Increase Carer’s Allowance by £11 to
the level of Jobseekers’ Allowance.
• Implement the court decision on
Personal Independence Payment
(PIP) so that there is real parity of
56 FOR THE MANY NOT THE FEW