An angry
voter has confronted Tory Prime Minister Theresa May about cuts to
Disability Living Allowance (DLA), telling the PM the “fat cats”
get all the cash.
The woman,
who identified herself only as Cathy, approached the prime minister
during a walkabout in the town of Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
The PM
appeared surprised when the woman blasted her about cuts to
disability benefits, which Cathy claimed has severely restricted her
life.
The exchange
was caught on film by Channel 5 news before spreading on social
media.
“I
haven’t got a carer at the moment. I’m angry and would like
somebody to help me because I can’t do everything I want to do,”
Cathy told the PM. “I’m talking about everybody, not just me,
I’m talking about everybody who’s got mental health and anybody
who’s got learning disabilities, I want them not to have their
money taken away from them and being crippled.”
May then
asked Cathy what it was she wanted.
“Do you
know what I want? I want my DLA [Disability Living Allowance] to come
back, not have PIPs [Personal Independence Payments] and get nothing
– I can’t live on £100 [US$130] a month, they took it all away
from me,” Cathy said.
May, who has
encountered very few members of the general public in the course of
her largely stage-managed election campaign, said the government is
trying to change disability benefits so that they are “particularly
focused on those most in need.”
On May 1,
the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) reported that the £4
billion in savings that Tories had promised would result from
disability allowance cuts would not be achieved.
The OBR
reported that rather than cuts reducing annual spending to £13-14
billion, the likely bill for 2017 would be around £18 billion.
Frank Field,
chair of Parliament’s Work and Pensions Select Committee, told the
Independent the government had been “over-optimistic.”
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