SWALLOW members work with MP Anna Sabine on bus pass issue

We were delighted to welcome our local Liberal Democrat MP, Anna Sabine, to SWALLOW recently.  Her work with one of our members has since contributed towards a fantastic change made to bus pass restrictions that will help hundreds of disabled people locally - read on to find out more.

Two of our tenants, both of whom are in paid employment, were keen to speak with Anna about the issues around their bus passes.  Currently, in most areas, the Diamond Bus Pass, which is for older and disabled users, does not permit free bus travel during peak times. This means that the people we support cannot use their bus passes to get to work in the mornings.

This can be seen as penalising working people who have a disability as it assumes that disabled people won't need to travel at those times.

Following her visit, Anna Sabine wrote a letter to Simon Lightwood, the Minister for Transport, asking that bus pass restrictions are reconsidered to allow disabled users to get to and from their jobs. In her letter, she says the restrictions during typical commuter hours “imply that those who are disabled don’t have jobs or need to travel before 9am”.

Anna says that councils “should look to make these travel cards 24 hours, or at least make the time in the morning earlier, as it would allow people to access their workplace”.

Since Anna's visit, Hetty, one of our members has been featured on BBC Points West, as part of her campaign for extending the bus pass for use before 9.30am (see the video clip above).  We are absolutely delighted to share that within in the WECA region, people with disabilities can now use their bus passes throughout the whole day, which is fantastic!

Hetty is so pleased with this change and says "It's great because I will be able to save some money now."

During Anna’s visit to SWALLOW, some of our other tenants took the opportunity to let her know that there are many other SWALLOW members who want to live independently with SWALLOW support, and we would love to be able to offer more supported housing.

One tenant said 'It was great to meet Anna and I'm glad that she was picked as she is a lovely lady. We told her we want more housing for our friends so that they can be as happy as we are. We love SWALLOW and all the staff.'

Anna also took note of the huge impact that the upcoming National Insurance hikes and National Minimum Wage rises will have on our charity, so we are feeling hopeful that she will act on this as well.

We are so grateful for the support that Anna Sabine has given to SWALLOW to help make our members' voices heard and take action to help improve the lives of other people with learning disabilities too.

You can also read the BBC News feature here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2g4z0je7ro