MPs agree higher blind benefits

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Ministers have agreed to raise disability allowances for blind people, a move which will see thousands up to £1,500 a year better off.

The government will amend the welfare bill currently going through Parliament to extend the higher rate disability allowance to about 26,000 blind people.

More than 220 MPs from all parties signed a Commons motion calling for the move, which will cost £47m a year.

Former cabinet minister David Blunkett described it as a "historic step".

Barriers to mobility

He said it would "liberate" thousands of people who would, otherwise, have felt trapped in their homes.

The move, which will increase benefits for blind and visually impaired people by £29 a week, will come into effect in 2011.

Blind people should receive the same level of benefits as those who cannot walk, MPs from all parties argued. It is a measure which is not just right but commanded support from all sides of the House, James Purnell

The fact that they did not already was "surely a mistake", Labour MP John Robertson, who led the campaign for the measure, told MPs during a debate on the welfare bill.

"Despite facing some of the biggest and often most insurmountable barriers to independent mobility, blind people are denied the higher rate of support for mobility, which is limited to those who face physical barriers in getting around," he said.

Ministers said the economic and social benefits of giving blind people what they deserved outweighed the cost of the measure which was "not inconsiderable".

Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said the measure was in keeping with the principle of the bill, which sought to offer "more help for people who need it most".

"It is a measure which is not just right but commanded support from all sides of the House," he told MPs.

Overjoyed

The Royal National Institute for the Blind said it was "overjoyed" at rectifying what it said was a "long-standing injustice".

The government won a series of votes on its wider welfare proposals, aimed at getting more people off benefits and into work and requiring mothers to prepare for future employment.

Moves to force ministers to raise the proposed age of their children at which mothers should engage in some form of "work-related activity", in return for benefits, from three to five was defeated by 43 votes.

Several Labour backbenchers rebelled over the issue.