The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP

Chancellor of the Exchequer

23 February 2021

Dear Rishi,

I am writing ahead of next week's Budget to urge you to increase legacy benefits for disabled people.

The covid-19 outbreak has had a disproportionate and significant impact on the lives of many disabled people and their families.  I am deeply concerned that the additional costs that disabled people already faced have been exacerbated during the crisis.

The purpose of this letter is to call on you to permanently retain the £20 uplift to universal credit and extend it to legacy benefits.  There is much evidence to support such a move, not least the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) findings from their recent report ‘Pandemic Poverty: Stark choices facing disabled people on legacy benefits’ report,

Constituents continue to raise this issue with me on a regular basis.  I know that time is short before the Budget, but I wanted to ensure you are aware of the strength of feeling that exists on this issue, as well as the DBC evidence setting out the case for disabled people to receive more help and support. I urge you to take account of this next Wednesday.

Yours sincerely,