Welfare Reform Bill

I join everyone else who has spoken this evening in paying great tribute to the tenacity of my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, North-West (John Robertson) and also to that of the RNIB. I and fellow Fylde MPs were similarly lobbied in a sustained fashion—and quite rightly so—last October. Tonight's discussion about making a change to the disability living allowance is interesting if we reflect on the number of times we have had discussions in our constituency surgeries about DLA issues, and how often we have had to explain that it is not an automatic benefit. It is something given to people to allow them to get on with their lives despite their disabilities. It is an empowering and an enabling mechanism. That has been the whole thrust of the RNIB's campaign, which it has put to us as it has to so many others. Despite the organisational aspects, much of importance of the higher rate mobility component of the DLA comes back to the impact on individuals. I would like to speak briefly about one of my constituents, Carole Holmes, who is the chairman of the Blackpool Fylde and Wyre Society for the Blind. She is, in fact, the first visually impaired chairman of that society in its history. Last week she came to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE medal for her services to visually impaired people. Let me share with the House what she wrote to me and, indeed, wrote in her local newspaper, in explaining why the change was so important. She wrote:""I am blind and a guide dog owner. Some years ago I was mugged at a railway station by 3 men. I've also had accidents and injuries when trying to get about with my guide dog. I'm unable to use public transport to reach some of the venues that I visit regularly… I need to use taxis as these venues are not on a bus route… If I had the higher rate of mobility component of Disability Living Allowance.. I would spend it on taxis."" I am sure that taxi drivers in my constituency will be particularly pleased to hear that.""I would be pleased to be putting something back into the economy while feeling a lot safer.""I… enjoy visiting the theatre… attending monthly book clubs and W.I. meetings. As most of these social activities are in the evening, once again I need to use taxis as the buses only run every half hour and are not always reliable. These days I don't feel safe stood at bus stops after dark."" That is just one individual's experience, but it has been replicated in the numerous representations received by many Members on both sides of the House in the last few months. I know—not least because I heard what he said to the lobby last autumn, and not least because of his sensitive and sympathetic response to my Adjournment debate on Workstep a few months ago—that my hon. Friend the Minister has inherited from my right hon. Friend the Member for Stirling (Mrs. McGuire) the honourable tradition of thinking long and hard about these issues, and caring about them deeply. I hope that, on the basis of the strong and persuasive arguments advanced by Members in all parts of the House, the Government will feel able to proceed with this matter. The words with which Carole Holmes ended the article about her campaign in the Blackpool Gazette underline the empowering and enabling aspects of the new clause:""I don't want to climb mountains. I just need it to get on with my life and be safe."" Those are very humble but very noble aspirations, and I hope that they are aspirations with which the Government will find themselves concurring tonight.