Disabled Groups Upset As Public Questions Rejected At Hove Town Hall

Disabled groups plan to protest outside Hove Town Hall before a special council meeting about benefit changes because they say that have been denied the chance to speak.

The special meeting of Brighton and Hove City Council was called by four Green councillors and an Independent and is due to be held on Monday (23 June).

They want to discuss the potential effects of government plans to reduce welfare spending by £4.8 billion a year by narrowing the criteria for personal independence payments (PIP) and reducing health condition-related universal credit.

Teaching assistant Blythe Manson, 24, is one of the people who wanted to ask questions at the meeting on Monday.

She said:

“I am a young person living with chronic health conditions which affect my mobility and daily functioning.

“I am very concerned to hear that there will be no public questions taken at the city council meeting concerning local impacts of the proposed cuts and reforms to PIP.”

The questions that she wanted to ask are:

• For those disabled/chronically ill people who rely on PIP to be able to stay in work, many of whom will then lose their jobs if these proposed changes go ahead and their PIP is taken away, how will the council support them to return to work?

• How will the council support unpaid carers so that disabled people can continue to receive care from them, in the event that those households lose carers allowance along with PIP due to the proposed changes?

• Is the council adequately prepared for the financial hit to local services (NHS, social services, etc) that will occur if these changes go ahead? As many households with disabled people will be forced to turn to these services more if their PIP gets cut.

• If the council is not adequately prepared for this financial hit, what will this mean for local services? Will this mean longer waiting times for everyone to access support or care from services like NHS clinics? Or would any particular services be in danger of being cut altogether in order to balance the budget?

• How will the council ensure that, in the event of this future scenario (where disabled people who have had their PIP cut or refused are turning to local services), disabled people’s needs are adequately accommodated for?

• Are we to expect that the Access to Work scheme will be similarly targeted to PIP (defunded, the margins for eligibility made smaller)?

Green councillor Chloë Goldsmith criticised the decision not allow public questions because people have been allowed to speak at previous extraordinary meetings, such as for school admissions.

Councillor Goldsmith said:

“The one agenda item for this meeting is to discuss the cuts to disability benefits so it’s frankly shocking that Labour are choosing to shut disabled voices out of the whole process.

“It was bad enough that notice of the meeting went out last-minute and nothing has been done to publicise it.

“Now, councillors will be debating policy which has a direct impact on a large group of residents in our city and not one of them will be able to so much as ask questions of their elected representatives.

“Labour are trying to claim this is because it’s not ‘required’ to hold public questions at an extraordinary meeting yet it’s something the council has done in the past and could be done with a simple suspension of standing orders.

“It would be so easy for Labour to do the right thing. They just choose not to. This whole thing reeks of a Labour Party that’s terrified about what it might hear if disabled people are allowed to speak.”

The council said:

“The meeting on Monday 23 June is an extraordinary Council meeting. These are meetings set up at short notice to which specific procedural rules apply.

“This meeting has been set up following a requisition from five councillors and is intended to allow a focused debate on the notice of motion (NOM) that has been brought.

“In the council’s constitution, the items of public engagement allowed for such meetings are limited to petitions relating to the business on the agenda.

“Public questions on this issue can be raised at any future ordinary council meeting in the usual way. The next scheduled meeting is on Thursday 10 July.”

The special full council meeting at Hove Town Hall is due to start at 4.30pm on Monday.

The meeting is scheduled to be webcast.