An MP who suffered a stroke aged 28 has blasted “woeful” Universal Credit rates in a powerful return to Parliament.
Amy Callaghan gave her first in-person speech for almost two years after a brain haemorrhage left her in hospital for four months.
The SNP MP underwent two life-saving surgeries after collapsing at home in June 2020.
She returned to politics in a virtual contribution to the Commons in March last year, but appeared on the green benches in person today.
It came hours before MPs were set to wave through a 3.1% rise in benefits that will hike the Universal Credit standard allowance by just £10.07 a month.
The rise from April 11 is less than the 4.8% rate of inflation after prices soared.
Pensions are also only rising by 3.1% on April 6 after the triple lock - which would have raised them by more than 8% - was suspended.
The state pension will rise by just £5.55 a week to £185.15.
Labour said a couple on the state pension would be £355 worse off next year due to the below-inflation rise - wiping out the £350 in help for energy bills.
Ms Callaghan said: “In July 2020, I met my constituent Stacey, not at a constituency surgery but at the PDRU at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
"We recovered from our strokes alongside each other and I got to hear her story.
"Too many people like Stacey have survived catastrophic life events only to be let down by this Government's woeful welfare system, unable to work and unable to pay for basic necessities many of us take for granted.”
Addressing Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey she added: “Will she commit to revisiting the current levels of Universal Credit so that stroke survivors like Stacey can truly live their lives instead of barely getting by?"
Ms Coffey replied: "I do know that generally we are trying to make sure... that this is the right approach in order to try and make sure that people have that access to work."
Earlier, Ms Callaghan said her return was "definitely against doctor's orders" - and called for the House of Commons to reform its procedures to allow for proxy voting.
The MP, whose seat is 420 miles from Parliament, told the Daily Record: "Westminster should have adapted to people with my kind of condition, so I could still represent my constituents.
"It should never have reached this point.
"It's definitely against doctor's orders. If this was a constituent travelling to London, I would be telling them not to go.”
