Benefit disablement

To the Richmond Informer, 15th January 2008

Dear Sir,

I write in relation to Vince Cable's column in your recent edition of The Informer, which discusses benefits to disabled people.

Unfortunately, the thrust of his column misrepresents the Conservative Party position on this matter. Our policies, as written in our Responsibility Agenda,  are designed specifically to get people back in to work within the critical 2-year time period, using the successful models found in other countries.

We have specifically talked to disabled groups in our policy work, who do not want to see our disabled communities being stuck in the benefits trap.

his is not just about money - it is about dignity, quality of life and integrating more within mainstream employment, rather than being left in poverty on the sidelines.

Employers should not discriminate against the disabled when recruiting. If they are doing so, the answer does not lie in handing yet more benefits, but in tackling that problem at its source.

Recent polls in the Sunday papers show that 80% of people agree with us - having 2.6 million people on incapacity benefit is an unsustainable figure in the long run, but compassionately, we can help everybody in the long term.

Deborah Thomas
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Twickenham

Deborah Thomas Contact me
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