LABOUR accused the government yesterday of turning its back on disabled people after claiming ministers had hidden a £70 million cut to disability benefits in the Autumn Budget. 

Shadow secretary of state for women and equalities Anneliese Dodds sent a letter yesterday to Disability Minister Chloe Smith demanding she “come clean” over alleged moves to reform disability benefits. 

The Budget confirmed the government would be adopting two proposals raised in its health and disability Green Paper which relates to benefits. 

These proposals, which change the way some disability benefits are awarded, will amount to cuts of £70m over the course of three years, Labour has said. 

In her letter, Ms Dodds called on the government to release details of the plans, and not to try “to sneak yet another cut past” disabled people. 

“With a vital consultation on these matters having closed just weeks before the Chancellor delivered his Budget, the government seems to [be] going behind the backs of disabled people and pushing on with its own preferred plans regardless,” she said. 

She made the call ahead of the International Day for Disabled People. 

Research released to coincide with the day shows that a lack of support is driving loneliness among many people with learning disabilities. 

A poll of 1,000 people after lockdown by learning disability charity HfT found that one in three people said they felt lonely nearly always or all of the time. 

HfT policy and public affairs manager Victoria Hemmingway said: “For many people with a learning disability, loneliness hasn’t been restricted to the pandemic; it is a chronic and long-term experience.”

The charity said its findings highlighted the vital role that social care plays in supporting people with a learning disability to participate in everyday social activities.