Michal Chantkowski talks about the potential impact the Government's proposed benefit cuts for people with disabilities will have on him and his partner.
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00:00Okay then Michal, can you just sort of set the scene first about the situation with your partner in terms of her health?
00:06So my partner has a number of health problems and health conditions.
00:10She has bipolar, she has fibromyalgia and she has asthma as well as diabetes unfortunately.
00:17And if these benefit cuts are brought in for disabled people, how much does she stand to lose and just what is going to be the impact on her situation?
00:25Well it's currently about £80,400 per year, I think stand obviously benefits change every year due to inflation etc.
00:33In terms of her standard of living, getting the basics, would she be able to afford to still do that?
00:38No, because currently it's already difficult so if she loses so much of her income she's probably going to be in debt or potentially evicted.
00:48I mean obviously one of the reasons the government are doing this is trying to get more people into work.
00:53I mean would your partner be in a position to go back to work and to work?
00:57She can only work up to 12 hours because of her mental health issues and because of the fact that she cannot deal with pressure for a long time.
01:07So this is not going to have any positive impact on her chances of getting into work.
01:12It might actually decrease those chances because she will lose the money that she could use for travel and she might end up with a worse mental state again.
01:24And just how bad is a mental health girl?
01:26So a couple of years ago she was sanctioned and as a result of being sanctioned obviously she also went into debt.
01:36And she's getting out of this but the welfare reforms or the proposed cuts are really having a negative impact on her.
01:44So she's worried about this and it's making her worse.
01:48I understand Parliament's going to be voting on this in June. So what would your message to the government be?
01:54We must do better as a country. The UK is one of the 6th or 7th richest countries in the world.
02:01And there is no reason why in the UK people who are disabled and have health problems should be suffering from poverty.
02:09Already about 50% of people in the UK, 50% of poverty in the UK is caused by disability and health problems.
02:18So we don't...