Disability benefits: Cuts in Norfolk could make life 'very difficult'

Proposed cuts to disability benefits in Norfolk could make life "very difficult" for some families, campaigners have claimed.

Norfolk County Council is proposing to reduce the Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) as part of measures to save £52.2m in the next financial year.

The authority said it is having to make extremely difficult choices.

But Judith Taylor, whose son has Down's syndrome, said: "It will affect people's wellbeing."

The MIG is the amount of money people with a disability can earn before they have to start paying for their own care.

According to the county council, in Norfolk MIG is currently set at £187 a week.

But the county council is considering lowering it to £171.25 a week, to bring it in line with neighbouring authorities such as Suffolk, Essex and Hertfordshire.

Mrs Taylor and her husband Nick, who live in Buxton, Norfolk, set up the Disability Network Norfolk Group which represents people with disabilities and their carers.

"It will cause social exclusion and I do not think the public understand how people with disabilities have so much more to spend," she said.

"We all know what it felt like to be locked in during lockdown. Well, that is what it is going to be like for disabled people if this goes ahead."

This will be the second time the county council has attempted to lower the MIG, having previously reduced the benefit in February 2019.

Yet, in December 2020, a High Court judge ruled that the council had been discriminatory by making people contribute more for their own care.

The authority agreed to pay about £1m to approximately 3,200 "severely disabled" people who had been affected by the changes.

Mr Taylor said: "Under its present circumstances with the cost of living and the way services have been cut, people are having to provide more and more for themselves.

"If the council is leaving them with less and less to do that with, then things are really difficult for some families and individuals out there."

The proposal to reduce the MIG is one of a series of measures being considered by the county council to save money.

Other savings being considered include closing recycling centres across the county on Wednesdays, as well as turning off around 1,000 street lights.

Andrew Jamieson, the council's cabinet member for finance, said: "In Norfolk, we have maintained a level of income for some of the most vulnerable people in our society over and above that which the government regards as the minimum that we should be providing.

"The nature of the challenge facing local authorities now means that I find it difficult to continue to be able to guarantee an income higher than that of neighbouring councils."