• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advice/Information
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / Archives for Direct payments

Direct payments

Coronavirus: Employers of PAs given just two days to digest vital new ‘furlough’ guidance

By John Pring on 11th June 2020 Category: Employment

Coronavirus: Employers of PAs given just two days to digest vital new ‘furlough’ guidance
Listen

Disabled people who use direct payments and wanted to take advantage of the government’s coronavirus job scheme were given just two days to digest vital new guidance. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme allows employers to claim for 80 per cent of […]

Coronavirus: Control over support is helping keep disabled people safe, evidence suggests

By John Pring on 30th April 2020 Category: Independent Living

Coronavirus: Control over support is helping keep disabled people safe, evidence suggests
Listen

Disabled people who use direct payments to pay for support in their own homes are using this control over their care to stay safer during the coronavirus pandemic than if they were in institutions, early evidence suggests. Disability News Service (DNS) […]

Coronavirus: PA guidance is finally published… five weeks late

By John Pring on 23rd April 2020 Category: Independent Living

Coronavirus: PA guidance is finally published… five weeks late
Listen

Ministers have finally published guidance that should help disabled people who employ their own personal assistants (PAs) to stay safe during the coronavirus pandemic, but activists say the delay in producing the document has put lives at risk. The guidance for […]

Coronavirus: Kendall promises to challenge minister over lack of PA guidance

By John Pring on 16th April 2020 Category: Independent Living

Coronavirus: Kendall promises to challenge minister over lack of PA guidance
Listen

Labour’s new shadow social care minister has pledged to challenge her opposite number over the government’s continuing failure to publish guidance that would help disabled people protect themselves during the coronavirus crisis. Liz Kendall, who was appointed to the role this […]

Coronavirus: Government’s continuing failure on PA guidance ‘will cost lives’

By John Pring on 9th April 2020 Category: Activism and Campaigning

Coronavirus: Government’s continuing failure on PA guidance ‘will cost lives’
Listen

The government’s continuing failure to produce accessible information and guidance to help disabled people protect themselves during the coronavirus crisis is unacceptable and will cost lives, disabled people’s organisations have warned. Disabled campaigners spoke out after the Department of Health and […]

Coronavirus: Ministers’ failure on direct payments guidance ‘will not be forgotten’

By John Pring on 2nd April 2020 Category: Independent Living

Coronavirus: Ministers’ failure on direct payments guidance ‘will not be forgotten’
Listen

Ministers have been warned that their lengthy delay in publishing guidance to help disabled people who use direct payments survive the coronavirus pandemic is risking lives across the country… and will not be forgotten. The Department of Health and Social Care […]

Coronavirus: Employers of PAs still await government guidance after nearly two weeks

By John Pring on 26th March 2020 Category: Independent Living

Coronavirus: Employers of PAs still await government guidance after nearly two weeks
Listen

The government has failed to publish guidance to help disabled people survive the coronavirus pandemic if they use direct payments to employ personal assistants (PAs), nearly two weeks after ministers provided advice for the wider social care sector. It is now […]

Coronavirus: Government ‘has abandoned’ disabled people on direct payments

By John Pring on 19th March 2020 Category: Independent Living

Coronavirus: Government ‘has abandoned’ disabled people on direct payments
Listen

The government is facing accusations that its emergency planning for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic has “abandoned” disabled people who use direct payments to employ their own personal assistants (PAs). Although the government finally produced guidance for the social care sector […]

Rates of pay set by councils ‘are so low that families struggle to recruit PAs’

By John Pring on 25th July 2019 Category: Independent Living

Rates of pay set by councils ‘are so low that families struggle to recruit PAs’
Listen

Rates of pay for personal assistants (PAs) are so low that local authorities could be in breach of their legal duties to families with disabled children, according to new research by Leeds University. Results of a survey of families found the […]

Government announces plans for extension of personal health budgets

By John Pring on 28th February 2019 Category: Independent Living

Government announces plans for extension of personal health budgets
Listen

The government wants to increase the number of people who use personal health budgets (PHBs) to choose their own health and social care support from 40,000 to as many as 200,000 over the next five years. It has approved extending legal […]

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

On the left of the image are multiple heads of different colours - white, aqua, red, light brown, and dark green - all grouped together, then the words ‘Join our campaign for a decent life for Disabled people. Campaign for Disability Justice’
Image of front cover of The Department, showing a crinkled memo with the words 'Restricted - Policy. The Department. How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence. John Pring.' Next to the image is a red box with the following words in white: 'A very interesting book... a very important contribution to this whole debate' - Sir Stephen Timms, minister for social security and disability. plutobooks.com and the Pluto Press logo.

Access

Latest Stories

Whately appears to agree social security spending is not spiralling after all… as Tories plan £36 billion-a-year cuts

Shadow minister says parents don’t ‘game’ SEND system… but Kemi says disabled adults do ‘game’ the benefits system

Level boarding pledge in government strategy is welcomed, but railways bill amendments are still vital

DWP silent after Tory member of PIP review publishes report demanding child disability benefits are slashed

Access failures at Tory conference leave wheelchair-user suspended in mid-air for more than an hour

Ministers’ decision to slash accessible housing targets was ‘unprincipled’, but Timms says they were right

Greens sideline disabled people at annual conference

National accessibility standards are crucial for addressing transport barriers, Tories hear at conference

Tories discriminate against disabled editor by blocking DNS from receiving key information at conference

Free social care is coming… but only if you’re over 65, government confirms after Burnham speech

Readspeaker
Image of front cover of The Department, showing a crinkled memo with the words 'Restricted - Policy. The Department. How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence. John Pring.' Next to the image is a red box with the following words in white: 'A very interesting book... a very important contribution to this whole debate' - Sir Stephen Timms, minister for social security and disability. plutobooks.com and the Pluto Press logo.

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2026 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web