Historically St Stephen’s entrance and the central lobby have seen demonstrations and protests of all kinds going back to the great Chartist petition, the women’s suffrage campaign and countless other just and proper demands where frustrated people come to parliament demanding action.

Yesterday, Disabled People Against the Cuts came and demanded protection of the independent living fund (ILF).

This group has done wonderful work over the past five years, highlighting the way in which cuts in welfare spending have hit everyone — and disproportionately damage the life chances of those with disabilities — either through fit for work tests or schemes such as the ILF.

The work capability assessments have been ruthlessly run by Atos and Maximus, who seem to have a default position of assuming that everyone is fit for work and the person involved has to prove otherwise.

Many of those who “fail” the assessments are denied benefits that are subsequently won back on appeal. Sadly there have been cases where those with mental health issues have never had these conditions recognised and in some cases people have taken their own life out of desperation.

The ILF was a huge step forward in that it continued the two-decade trajectory of support for people with disabilities to be able to live independently and maintain a supportive environment in their own homes.

The government — not having the bravery to do it themselves — has handed the entire ILF budget over to local government without ring-fencing it, so in future those with disabilities have to compete with every other pressing service that councils are trying to maintain.

It’s not just cruel and unnecessary but it also indicates an unpleasant mind-set by both the coalition and now the Tory governments.

Last Saturday 250,000 people attended the marched against austerity in London and thousands more at anti-austerity demonstrations across Britain.

The marchers came from all walks of life, all parts of the country and an enormous array of political views, but they were united in understanding that the austerity programme of the past five years has not addressed the issue of public debt or borrowing, but has actually led to greater inequality and severe poverty in Britain.

Since 2003, 95 per cent of the British public have seen a 12 per cent drop in their disposable income, while the richest 5 per cent enjoyed a substantial increase.

Oxfam asserts that the five richest families now own more wealth than the poorest 20 per cent of the population and the 100 wealthiest more than the bottom 30 per cent.

Oxfam research also suggests that with the continuation of these policies until 2020 a further 800,000 children and 1.9 million adults will be pushed into poverty, and an extra 500,000 people will rely on foodbanks — over and above the one million who already use them.

These frightening figures are a product of a long period of falling real wages — a 57 per cent increase in those working in temporary jobs but wanting to be employed full-time, and at least 500,000 people on zero-hours contracts.

The effects of this on the public finances are clear to see, with £11 billion being spent on in-work benefits to subsidise low wages, and £24bn being spent on housing benefit, the vast majority of which goes on subsidising very high rents in the private rented sector. In short, austerity has led to a rebalancing of our society and we must challenge the political agenda behind it.

After massive and very deep cuts in public spending in Greece, a succession of governments rose and fell while trying to carry out the near impossible demands of the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The resulting election of Syriza earlier this year has produced a government in Greece that is defending the poorest and most vulnerable in society. If they succeed with the massive support of public opinion in Greece, it will be a fillip to all those across Europe who are challenging the austerity agenda — Mariana Prestoulis was very well received at last Saturday’s march when she explained what the government of Greece was trying to achieve. 

The Tory government has already proposed reducing the benefit cap from £25,000 to £23,000 per year. This cap applies to a very small number of very poor and large families living in very expensive private rented accommodation mainly in London and the south-east.

The imposition of the cap is having a catastrophic effect on many children, particularly in London, who are being forced out of their communities to be moved from one six-month assured shorthold tenancy to another.

It is necessary to oppose both the cap in its current form and the newly proposed £23,000 limit.

However, the amount of money to be “saved” in this process is actually very small. Far more serious are the £12bn benefit cuts coming down the road and the devastating effect they will have on many families, a lot of whom are in work and rely on in-work benefits to make ends meet.

The so-called emergency Budget on July 12 will spell all this out and we’ll know then the level of attacks on local services through council funding cuts, as well as the benefit cuts that are already underway.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies has already forecast an rise in the number of children in poverty from 2.3m to 2.5m children living in poverty — the first rise for 10 years.

The government has done what one would expect. They have ignored the evidence in front of them and instead decided it was necessary to redefine what child poverty actually is.

Alison Garnham of the Child Poverty Action Group put it very well when she said: “The right choices that would reduce poverty include protecting child benefit with the same triplelock protection pensioners enjoy, fixing the deep cuts to tax-credit help for the low paid, tackling cripplingly high rents, high childcare costs and expanding free school meals.”

Britain is a wealthy country in a wealthy continent. We need to return to the basic principle of a welfare state that protects all against destitution. The current system does not.