Teesside disability campaigners urging rethink on planned welfare reforms
The Government's due to vote on the bill tomorrow
There are concerns from disability campaigners across Teesside that the Government's planned welfare reforms could lead to vulnerable people slipping through the cracks.
Tomorrow, MPs will vote on the Bill, which was changed late last week to try and get it through
Dozens of Labour MPs had said they planned to vote against it, including Hartlepool's Jonathan Brash, Durham's Mary Kelly Foy, Bishop Auckland's Sam Rushworth and Middlesbrough and Thornaby East MP Andy McDonald.
Heather Whyman, chief executive of MAIN in Middlesbrough, said: "The emotional toil is significant, even if anything's formally changed. We need to do more. We need to listen to people.
"We're particularly concerned about measures that would tightened eligibility for certain benefits or require more assessments. For example, many of the people we support live with invisible disabilities which are often misunderstood or missed entirely by assessors.
"The uncertainty alone has caused anxiety among the people we support and their families. Many already feel they're living on the edge, whether that's financially, emotionally or in terms of accessing services."