Parliament

Early Day Motion to help blind people

(EDM 46 Mobility for Blind People)

I have been supporting the Royal National Institute for the Blind by tabling an Early Day Motion calling on the Govenrment to allow blind people to claim the higher rate mobility component of Disability Living Allowance.  Here I am pictured at the RNIB lobby of Parliament, together with the Chairman ofo the RNIB and other MPs.

Disability Living Allowance is a non means-tested, tax-free benefit, payable to disabled people uner the age of 65.  It has a care component to help provide help with personal care needs, paid at three different levels, and a mobility component to assist people who have difficulties in getting out and about independently, which is paid at two different levels, higher and lower. 

Under current legislation, most blind and partially sighted people typically get the lower rate of both the care and mobility components.  Together with the RNIB, I believe that people with serious sight loss should be able to claim the higher rate mobility component but the current eligibility criteria prevents this.

As a strong supporter of the disabled, I believe that blindness should be regarded as an impairment that has a severe impact on a person's independent mobility.  There are substantial extra costs that blind people have to pay to travel by taxi and private hire vehicle and I am, therefore, pressing the Government to reconsider the eligibility criteria which excludes blind people from being able to claim this important extra cost benefit.

The Government estimates the cost to change the eligibility criteria would be £61 million per year.  However, this is less than 0.05 per cent of the Government's social budget.

• My Early Day Motion was one of the first to be tabled during the 2006/07 session of Parliament and has attracted cross party support.  To date it has been signed by well over 200 Members of Parliament. 

• This was followed by a parliamentary lobby and campaign in support of the higher rate moibility allowance launched by the RNIB at the House of Commons.  The lobby was the biggest ever of parliament by blind people - 1,200 visually impaired people from across the U.K. went to Westminster as a result to meet their MPs.

• I was, in fact, the author of a previous Early Day Motion in 1985 which first called for a Blindness Allowance.  Before that time, the blind were not considered to be truly disabled.  Happily my campaign at that time was succesful although the Blindness Allowance did not give full allowances comparable with those received by other disabled people.

On the 2nd July, 2007, I questioned the Minister about the Higher Mobility Allowance in the House of Commons.

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