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Disabled activists say government-funded research, which concludes that the programme to reassess people on incapacity benefit through the work capability assessment (WCA) was linked to 590 suicides in just three years, is both “damning” and “timely”. Campaigners, doctors and psychiatrists have […]
Disabled activists have called for ministers to face a criminal investigation, over their apparent failure to hand a crucial coroner’s report about the discredited “fitness for work” test to their own independent expert. Earlier this week, a Disability News Service (DNS) […]
Disabled activists have explained why they needed to hold the government to account over its “sickening” and “degrading” cuts by protesting outside this week’s Conservative party conference in Manchester. The protest, organised by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), saw disabled people […]
A national disabled people’s organisation is to provide disability equality training workshops to staff from the controversial US-owned company that won the government contract to assess people’s “fitness for work”. Disability Rights UK (DR UK) will provide training to about 1 […]
Disabled activists have greeted the election of Jeremy Corbyn as the Labour party’s new leader with huge optimism, and as an opportunity to fight back against government austerity. Many campaigners recognised his past commitment to disability rights, and his record of […]
Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith appears set to scrap the “fitness for work” test championed by successive Labour, coalition and Conservative governments, but there are fears that its replacement could prove even more damaging to disabled people. Duncan Smith […]
New evidence proves that the controversial outsourcing contractor Atos should be stripped of all of its disability benefit assessment contracts, say disabled campaigners. Fresh concerns about the behaviour of Atos and its assessors emerged after Disability News Service (DNS) revealed last […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has sparked new concerns after releasing “bizarre” figures that suggest ministers plan to cut the number of people eligible for out-of-work disability benefits by a third in 2017-18. The statistics were provided by employment […]
Leading disabled figures have warned that the chancellor’s “ominous” failure to mention disability or social care in this week’s budget could be a sign that he plans to target disabled people’s support and services for fresh cuts. George Osborne promised £12 […]
The government has admitted that more than 30 secret reviews carried out following the deaths of benefit claimants called for improvements in how the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) operates locally and nationally. The “appalling” statistic has added to pressure […]