The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) has been running a campaign to ensure that blind people and people with severe sight loss are awarded the higher rate of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) because of the challenges they face getting around.

The institute also wants partially-sighted and sight-impaired people to receive some mobility DLA.

Under the mobility component, people with disabilities who can drive can claim the DLA higher ‘mobility rate’ of £46.75 a week. People with serious sight loss are only eligible to claim the lower rate of just £17.75 per week.

Every day in the UK around 100 people start to lose their sight, and 2m people in the UK suffer from significant sight loss.

There are around 8,000 blind or partially sighted people in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Mr Trickett, who plans to lobby parliament about this on October 15, wants local people to get in touch if they are planning to attend.

He said: “It seems unfair that people with severe sight problems are not eligible for the higher disability allowance payment.

“In Britain there are more than 350,000 people who are registered as blind or partially sighted, that is a large number of people who struggle to get from A to B on a daily basis.

“Action is needed so that people with sight problems are able to live full and rounded lives.

“If every time you want to visit friends you need to take a taxi – which could be the case in an area like ours that is very spread out – it gets to be a very expensive business.

“DLA was designed to help people in these kinds of circumstances, and in the case of sight-impaired and blind people it seems some changes are needed to make it work for them.”