A LOCAL MP is urging the Government to think again on incapacity benefit.

Bury North MP David Chaytor is alarmed that many disabled pensioners with more than £50 a week in income will lose out.

He is also concerned that disabled people who had paid national insurance all their working lives have been unemployed for the two years before they became handicapped, will be penalised.

While he welcomed many of the Government's changes in the Welfare Reform and Pensions Bill, the Labour backbencher said it was wrong for people on incapacity benefit, because of disability or long term illness, to lose 50p in benefit for extra £1 of pension income above £50 a week.

He accused the Government of 'short changing' those pensioners who had built up their own income for retirement, but found themselves disabled or chronically sick.

He said it would also be unfair to hit those people who had missed out on the last two years of work by having their entitlement reduced.

Mr Chaytor said: "I am convinced that the Government will change its mind when it realises the full implications of these proposals. People who have paid their contributions and saved for their pensions should not be penalised when they fall sick."

Mr Chaytor has joined with more than 50 other MPs in signing a commons motion asking Social Security Secretary Alistair Darling to think again.

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