Comment: Unkind cuts

As if the blind and the partially sighted don't have enough concerns without the news that they may lose £30 a week and support to find work under new benefit rules from April.

The Royal National Institute of Blind People sees the phasing out of incapacity benefit and the likely qualification of the blind and partially sighted for the lower-paid jobseeker's allowance as a major assault on the incomes and independence of tens of thousands of people with sight loss. It points out that blind people will be less likely to meet the requirements of the two levels of the new benefit - the support group where claimants are judged too disabled to work, or the work-related activity group who are capable of working provided they are helped into employment.