Our verdict to the Spring Budget
After a challenging winter, disabled people across the UK were looking for some early spring optimism from the latest Budget.
We had some shoots of good news. But the government has left major gaps in support for disabled people in key areas.
There were some positive measures announced in the Spring Budget.
The Energy Price Guarantee will stay at the same level for another three months.
We campaigned with Martin Lewis and 134 other organisations for this to happen. Bills were due to rise in April by more than £720 a year for high energy users. Many disabled people are high energy users, so this is a welcome decision.
New Universal Support programme.
We have long called for the government to invest in more specialist employment support for disabled people. So, it was encouraging to see the government’s new commitment to a new ‘Universal Support’ programme.
The scheme will match disabled people with job vacancies in England and Wales. It will provide workplace training and support. We look forward to seeing more details on this.
The government still left major gaps in support for disabled people in key areas of the budget. We were disappointed not to see commitment to a Social Energy Tariff in the budget. And no extra money was announced for social care.