In rejecting the government’s plan this week to time limit employment and support allowance for cancer patients to just one year, the House of Lords has struck a blow for common sense and compassion.

On an astonishing night in parliament, over 220 Lords backed a crucial amendment tabled by Lord Patel exempting cancer patients from the time limiting proposals. The unexpected scale of the government’s defeat sends a very clear message to coalition ministers that they need to return to the drawing board on welfare reform.

Over the last twelve months, Macmillan, together with dozens of other cancer charities and campaigners, has been working hard to highlight the damage that the government’s proposed ESA reforms would do to people with cancer.

An arbitrary one year limit for contributory ESA payments would have a devastating impact on the lives of thousands of vulnerable cancer patients. For many people one year is simply not long enough to make a recovery. Getting to a point when you’re ready to return to work can take years not months in some cases. We have a responsibility – as the Lords have recognised – to make sure that these vulnerable patients get the financial support they need, for as long as they need it. When people have been working hard and contributing throughout their lives, it is grossly unfair to cut the support available to them when through no fault of their own they become ill.

Sadly, the coalition government has shown absolutely no sign since the vote that it is willing to think again; or even to seek a compromise. And yet we are not asking the government to find any new money.  We are simply asking them to reduce the level of savings proposed in order to maintain the same level of support that exists today for a relatively small group of extremely vulnerable people.

It is hard to see how the coalition’s determination to time limit support for cancer patients can be squared with its stated desire to build ‘a responsible society working together to improve the quality of life for those who are worst off’.

The challenge now is to persuade MPs to back Wednesday’s amendment when the bill returns to the commons in February. In particular we hope that Liberal Democrat MPs will follow the example set by their colleagues in the Lords and their party conference and vote to give cancer patients the protection they deserve.

You can help us make our case to MPs by signing our welfare reform petition and asking your friends and family to do the same. The more support we get the stronger our message to MPs will be.