DUNEDIN: Members of the disability community and their advocates held a small but committed protest in Dunedin on Saturday against planned changes to disability support and services.

It comes as the government is pushing the Disability Support Services Bill (DSS Bill) through Parliament.

Louise Upston, Minister for Disability Issues, has said the Bill would bring ‘‘clarity and stability’’ to the system that supports thousands of disabled people.

Many disabled people and advocates disagree, and about a dozen attended the protest outside the Meridian Mall on Saturday.

In particular, the Bill declares any hours a family carer provides above their funded allocation not to be ‘‘work’’ under the Minimum Wage Act.

Disability advocate Dr Amy Taylor said these measures were cruel, and did not acknowledge the ‘‘round the clock’’ work family carers do without pay.

‘‘Our carers are workers and if you isolate and put pressure on family care workers it’s going to end up costing the government more because those people are going to have real mental health struggles.

‘‘It’s going to lead to isolation of the disabled community and their caregivers and it is going to lead to deaths.’’

Dr Taylor was also upset about changes to state housing subsidies and total mobility transport.

‘‘Total mobility is what disabled people depend on for their transport. It is taxi funding for people who are not able to use buses.

‘‘The cuts seem to be small on the surface, but they are not small when you do the maths.’’

The government had also quietly abandoned the goal to build 15% universally designed social housing, she said.

‘‘Which means that people that need homes like wheelchair users are not going to be able to access accessible homes.’’

Dr Taylor said as this was an election year she was hopeful of change.

‘‘We need to change our priorities so that disabled people are on the top of the priority list and not at the bottom.’’

Fellow advocate Chris Ford said the DSS Bill treated the community as ‘‘conditional’’.

‘‘What’s conditional about our existence?’’

While the Bill did not extend means testing, Mr Ford said he was worried the government would do so if people did not campaign.

‘‘We are not done. We must push back.’’

The Social Services and Community Select Committee will consider the Bill.

Also present at the gathering were Dunedin city councillors Marie Laufiso and Mickey Treadwell.