You can’t trust Labour

SNP Parliamentary candidate for Na h-Eileanan an Iar Angus MacNeil has said that Labour cannot be trusted. Last July Labour proposed  to cut the Attendance Allowance however, shortly before the election, those plans were dropped.

The Labour Government had plans to do away with Attendance Allowance payments to fund planned changes to the social care system in England. This would have affected payments to 1,240 people in the Western Isles who are in receipt of Attendance Allowance , which is a non means tested tax free benefit paid to people over the age of 65 requiring help from another person due to severe mental or physical disability. Figures from the Institute for Economic and Social Research suggest that nearly 500 people in the constituency would have been below the poverty line if Attendance Allowance was scrapped.

“Social Care System”

Angus MacNeil commented:

“The figures emphasise the scale of the huge problem that would arise if the Attendance Allowance was scrapped. Here in the Western Isles we have 1,240 people on the Allowance, and nearly 500 of them would be pushed below the breadline if the cut was implemented.

“These plans which were initially put forward by the Labour Government, were suddenly scrapped by Labour just weeks before the election. It also proves that Labour cannot be trusted when they even contemplated in the first place withdrawing Attendance Allowance to fund the cost of the Social Care System in England.”

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