Greens’ manifesto offers rise in disability benefits, free personal care and cash for inclusive education

The Green party has promised that its MPs will push for a five per cent increase in the level of disability benefits, free personal care for adults, and more money to support disabled children in mainstream schools.

The party’s manifesto, published yesterday (Wednesday), promises that any elected Green MPs will push for policies that ensure disabled people can live “full, meaningful lives, can work if they choose, and access the help and support they need”.

But despite a series of promises across social care – including an investment of £20 billion a year in new funding – social security, education and democracy, there is almost no detail on how the party wants these pledges to be fulfilled.

And the manifesto also makes it clear that the party continues to support legalising assisted suicide.

Only last month, disabled actor and activist Liz Carr told Disability News Service (DNS) that legalisation would be particularly dangerous for disabled people at a time when “we are absolutely removing our welfare state, and we are dismantling our incredible NHS”.

On social care, the party’s promise matches that of the Liberal Democrats by calling for an end to charges for personal care, although not for other support such as housework, shopping, laundry and engaging with the local community.

But it goes further than the Liberal Democrats by also promising “investment of £20 billion per year” in adult social care.

As spending by local authorities in England in 2022-23 was already £20.5 billion, this means Green MPs would be pushing for that to be nearly doubled.

On social security, Green MPs would push for an “immediate increase” of five per cent in disability benefits such as personal independence payment (PIP), an increase of £40 a week in universal credit and legacy benefits such as employment and support allowance, and an end to the bedroom tax.

The manifesto also calls for an end to “the unfair targeting of carers and disabled people on benefits”, as well as an end to benefit sanctions, and it says its MPs would “challenge the punitive approach to welfare claimants”.

A day after the manifesto’s publication, the Public and Commercial Services Union warned in its own general election charter that universal credit was “a dangerously flawed system, the most vulnerable continue to slip through its cracks and our members are the scapegoats for over a decade of social security failures”.

In the long term, the party says, Green MPs would push for the introduction of a universal basic income.

The party also calls for an end to “intrusive” disability benefit assessments, and says it opposes at least some of the government’s proposals for reforming PIP, particularly plans to replace cash payments with vouchers*.

On education, it would push for £5 billion to be invested in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision within mainstream schools, and for free transport for all 16-18-year-old students with SEND.

It says this would mean “all schools will have fully accessible buildings and specially trained teachers, and local councils will have the funds to properly support SEND students at school and in getting to school”.

Although the manifesto says its MPs would push for a “fully inclusive” education system, it told DNS that this did not mean an end to segregated special schools, but instead it would ensure that “either option is available” as they “want to give all children the education that is right for them”.

On both housing and transport, there is almost no detail on how the party would like to address the huge barriers disabled people face in securing accessible housing and dealing with barriers to public transport.

The manifesto promises only to “champion the right to… housing under the principles of universal design”, and to push for annual public subsidies for rail and bus travel to be increased to £10 billion to make public transport “reliable, frequent, accessible [to disabled people] and affordable”.

A party spokesperson told DNS: “We are allocating large sums of money for new electric buses and investment in railway stations and other transport infrastructure. This will enable accessibility.”

The Greens say they would fund many of their policies by taxing the wealth of individuals with assets above £10 million at one per cent a year, and those with assets above £1 billion at two per cent annually.

The party says its MPs would campaign for measures “to make parliament more representative, particularly of women, people of colour and disabled people”, which could include backing job-sharing for MPs and a permanent access to elected office fund to help with the extra disability-related costs of standing for election.

The manifesto also promises that Green MPs would push for sport “to be more diverse and representative, especially for women and girls and disabled people”, and for police forces to “acknowledge the institutional racism, misogyny, homophobia and disablism that have dominated policing for so long” and “root out any officers who hold views incompatible with serving as a police officer”.

The manifesto accuses successive Conservative governments of having “undermined the limited progress made by disabled people to live dignified lives as valued members of society.

“Benefits have been cut, and access to education, work and parliamentary access schemes designed to improve the inclusion of disabled people have been decimated.”

It adds: “We need to ensure that everybody can lead full, meaningful lives, can work if they choose, and access the help and support they need.

“Disabled people have as much of a right to control their day-to-day lives and their long-term futures as non-disabled people.”

*This is one of a number of suggestions for possible changes to PIP mentioned in a DWP consultation document

Picture: Green Party co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay

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