Having looked at the major party manifestos there doesn’t seem much between them with regard to helping people with disabilities. The Conservatives & Labour want to try and get us back to work but none mention the elusive ‘Access to Work’ scheme, which if administered correctly would be of greatest help.
Conservatives: “Last year alone, 140,000 disabled people found work. But the jobless rate for this group remains too high and, as part of our objective to achieve full employment, we will aim to halve the disability employment gap: we will transform policy, practice and public attitudes, so that hundreds of thousands more disabled people who can and want to be in work find employment.” They also promise not to cap benefits for those receiving the DLA or PIP.
Labour: “We will strengthen the laws against homophobic, disability and transphobic hate crime and make sure that access to legal representation, a cornerstone of our democracy, is not determined by personal wealth, but remains available to those that need it”. “We will reform the Work Capability Assessment and focus it on the support disabled people need to get into work, with an independent scrutiny group of disabled people given a central role in monitoring it. We will commission a separate Work Support Programme for disabled people so that those who can work get the support they need.”
However if this doesn’t make you feel like voting, or the lack of accessible polling stations, take a look at what Bompas & Parr are doing to the London Eye they’ve created a giant pie chart based on conversations on the parties on Facebook.
The full schedule for the light show is as follows:
Friday 1st May: The main political parties discussed on Facebook
Saturday 2nd May: The main political parties discussed on Facebook by men
Sunday 3rd May: The main political parties discussed on Facebook by women
Monday 4th May: The top five election-related issues discussed on Facebook
Tuesday 5th May: The main political parties discussed on Facebook in Scotland
Wednesday 6th May: The main party political leaders discussed on Facebook
Thursday 7th May: TO BE ANNOUNCED