Disabled people often have to choose between marriage and financal independance. When assessing a married or even cohabiting disabled person for means tested benefits, the claimant’s eligibility is partially dependent on the income and savings of their partner. This can result in them losing their benefits, causing them to rely on their partner financally. 

Disabled people experience higher levels of domestic violence, with disabled women being twice as likely to experience domestic violence as their non-disabled counterparts and also experience the abuse for longer before seeking help. By taking away financal independance through marriage, these statistics will not improve. 

Disabled people have to consider marriage far more seriously, and people who become disabled while married may end up trapped in a financally dependant relationship. 

Current law deprives disabled people in relationships of agency and the ability to be financially independent. Forcing disabled people to become financially dependent on a partner puts them at a further heightened risk of abuse.

LDDA is calling for an individual’s eligibility for means tested disability benefits to be based on their sole income alone, regardless of marital/cohabitation status. 

We want this motion to be passed at conference, so we can become the party of true marriage equality.