on March 15, 2025, 8:58 am
Disabled people will feel forced to end their lives under new assisted dying laws because the government’s cuts to benefits will make their lives intolerable, Britain’s greatest Paralympian has warned.
Baroness Grey-Thompson said the combination of plans to cut the welfare bill by £5 billion and legislation for assisted dying was “extremely worrying”.
The crossbench peer, who won 11 Paralympic gold medals, told Times Radio: “If you are disabled and terminally ill and your benefits are cut, making life intolerable, it’s obvious more people will feel forced down this route to end their lives early.
“And when you understand that we live in a relatively able society, there will be people who sit on the panel who will decide that a disabled person has nothing to offer society and will allow them to end their lives.”
On Tuesday MPs sitting on the bill’s committee voted against an additional safeguard that would have required doctors to ask a patient why they wanted to end their life, including whether they were under significant financial strain.
The change, had it been voted through, would also have allowed the government to collect data on the reasons people were choosing to seek assisted deaths.
Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP who is leading a rebellion of about 80 MPs against the cuts to the welfare budget, said she was worried that disabled people would feel pressure to end their lives.
She said: “I’m deeply concerned about the intersection we have about hearing that the social security is going to be cut for people whilst at the same time we’re talking about legislation, and I have to say those safeguards [against coercion] still are not in the bill and I am deeply troubled by this.”
There is also concern from other MPs on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill committee, where votes are taking place on amendments designed to improve the legislation before it returns to the Commons floor for its third reading, which is expected next month.
Sarah Olney, a Liberal Democrat MP, said cuts to welfare and a new law on assisted dying coming so close together risked a “perfect storm” for the disabled.
She said: “Of course it’s a concern that if some of those people are now facing cuts to their everyday living costs … that might well contribute to their feelings that they might be a financial burden on their relatives and that will influence them in terms of how they feel about assisted dying.
“It’s absolutely a concern of the committee that people might be seeking an assisted death for that reason and this news about potential cuts to welfare can only … intensify that feeling for some people.”
Supporters of Kim Leadbeater’s proposed law dismissed the concerns.": https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/welfare-cuts-will-push-disabled-people-to-end-their-lives-ptgbf75df
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