The British Paralympic Association (BPA) has confirmed that several of the medallists who helped to transform attitudes towards disability in the UK believe the scrapping of Disability Living Allowance is threatening the long-term legacy of London 2012.
Personal Independence Payment, that will replace DLA and has been introduced for new claimants from June 2013, is estimated by the DWP to result in 600,000 fewer claimants by 2018 and a reduction in disability benefit expenditure of around £2.2 billion.
Triple Paralympic equestrian champion Sophie Christiansen, who repeatedly spoke out against PIP reform before it was introduced, went a step further yesterday by painting a bleak picture of Britain’s medal prospects in coming years under the new system.
While she felt that the current crop of elite disabled athletes had enough other sources of funding to see them through to the next Paralympics in Rio she added -
“I think, beyond Rio, it will have an effect. That’s youngsters coming up, and parents of those youngsters, they get the benefits and if they can’t afford to take their kids training because they need a specially-adapted car or whatever, they’re not going to go. I think it will affect 2020 and beyond.”
Sophie Christiansen, who has cerebral palsy, said that while funding from UK Sport helped pay for her Paralympic training, DLA money paid for everyday things, such as wheelchairs and public transport.
“The Paralympics only showed a small slither of the disability community. I’m not actually that disabled in terms of some people and they need that money to go out and achieve their equivalent of a gold medal in whatever they decide to do, whether it’s getting a job or just getting out of the house. If they don’t have the money to do that, it’s just gone backwards.”
BPA chief executive Tim Hollingsworth admitted that Sophie’s fears were shared by other British Paralympians -
“It would clearly be a concern if there was a situation outside of our control that was going to reduce the number of potential athletes for 2020.”
While he felt that it was not the BPA’s place to lobby the Government over the issue and that disability rights organisations were better equipped to “argue the case” he added that - “It is an issue and is something we need to look at.”
Source - British Paralympic athletes say the Government's welfare reforms will ruin the legacy of London 2012 @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk