Benefits plans will punish disabled

In addition to what my Green Party colleague Sean Thompson points out about Nancy Platts's lack of research (M Star January 28), I draw attention to matters that Caroline and other Green Party parliamentary candidates are pledging themselves to that are very much in line with Green Party policy.

A classic example of this is that Caroline Lucas is the first party leader to answer the online call of family carers' organisation CarerWatch - the pledge to end carer impoverishment.

New Labour has sat on the fact that carers committed to at least 35 hours per week of caring for a loved one get just £53.10 a week "compensation" from the state, and now wants to expropriate disability benefits that are paid to people aged 65-plus. What does Ms Platt think of that?

I also point out that the weekly "earnings disregard" for jobseeker benefits has remained unchanged since 1988 and is now less than the hourly national minimum wage for single people aged 25-plus.

So assigning more disabled jobseekers to jobseekers allowance than to employment and support allowance or incapacity benefit will actually leave more people left behind, not fewer.

Alan Wheatley
Green Party spokesman on Disability and Social Care