A campaign against the company that conducts “fitness for work” tests on disabled people achieved a major success this week after the British Medical Journal (BMJ) agreed to review its relationship with the firm. The BMJ – owned by the British […]
News Archive
Conservative conference: Four ministers evade questions on work test
Four Conservative ministers have evaded questions about the controversial work capability assessment (WCA), at their party’s annual conference. Employment minister Chris Grayling, disabled people’s minister Maria Miller, welfare reform minister Lord Freud, and a special adviser for work and pensions secretary […]
Conservative conference: Miller denies government exaggerated DLA figures
The minister for disabled people has denied that the government exaggerated the growth in claimants of disability benefits in order to justify scrapping disability living allowance (DLA). Maria Miller insisted that the statistics used by the government to explain the need […]
Conservative conference: Ministers return to same old story of benefits abuse
Ministers have used their party’s annual conference to reinforce the message that many disabled people claiming out-of-work benefits are “abusing” the system. Iain Duncan Smith told the Conservative conference in Manchester that his party had promised to “start dealing with” the […]
Conservative conference: Concerns over Work Programme transparency
The government’s new programme designed to support disabled and other people into work is excluding voluntary sector providers at the expense of the private sector, a minister has heard. Lord Freud the Conservative welfare reform minister, was told that charities were […]
Paralympic torch’s 2012 journey to begin with four national flames
The Paralympic flame for next year’s games in London will be created in a ceremony in Stoke Mandeville, the birthplace of the Paralympic movement, 2012 organisers have announced. It will be created from four separate flames lit in the capital cities […]
International Paralympic Day: Sir Philip calls for end to use of ‘disabled’
The British head of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has defended his suggestion that the 2012 Paralympics should be used as a stepping-stone towards stopping the use of the words “disabled” and “disability”. Sir Philip Craven, the IPC president and a […]
Minister asks for information on abuse scandal
A Liberal Democrat minister is to investigate why the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has refused to prosecute any of the NHS staff accused of abusing 18 disabled people at a day centre. The CPS decided two weeks ago – for the […]
BBC set to apologise over inaccessible complaints system
A disabled man looks set to win an apology from the BBC after it admitted failing to provide him with an accessible way of lodging a complaint. John Cresswell-Plant was contacted by a local radio producer last year over a press […]
Judge rules disabled woman should not be allowed to die
Campaigners have welcomed a high court judge’s ruling that a “minimally conscious” disabled woman should not have her life-supporting treatment withdrawn. The family of the woman, who has brain damage and is known as “M” for legal reasons, had told the […]