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Andy Burnham has edged further towards clarifying his policy on work and pensions reform, taking a step away from blaming disabled claimants but still failing to acknowledge the safeguarding risks of the sanction-heavy approach he appears to favour. In his first […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has admitted it has no figures to show how many disabled people who cannot work are having their benefits “sanctioned”, just as the government announced reforms that will expose many more to strict conditions. […]
The academic tasked by ministers with leading efforts to tackle “spiralling” levels of “economic inactivity” has said he wants to “rethink welfare” by “ramping down” the use of strict conditions and sanctions on sick and disabled people. The comments by Professor […]
Nearly four years after announcing plans to reform support for disabled people, work and pensions ministers have published proposals for sweeping changes to disability benefits and employment support. Some of the proposals – including plans to scrap the work capability assessment […]
The government abandoned proposals for an independent review of its much-criticised sanctions policy, the latest example of how a minister watered down plans to prevent suicides and learn lessons from the deaths of benefit claimants. The decision to further limit the […]
The “aggressive attitude” on benefit sanctions that was taken by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in the coalition years of 2013 to 2015 is “back with a vengeance”, MPs have been warned. A debate on DWP’s policy on benefit […]
Disabled campaigners have described the government’s decision to reintroduce benefit sanctions – in the middle of a pandemic – as “barbaric” and “life threatening”. The decision meant an end to the three-month suspension of benefit sanctions and conditionality* in England, Scotland […]
The number of disabled people on the main out-of-work disability benefit who are being sanctioned by the government for failing to meet strict conditions has fallen close to zero, following years of criticism of the harsh regime. Department for Work and […]
The government’s mainstream benefit sanctions regime has been discriminating against disabled people throughout nearly the whole of the last decade, according to new figures secured by Disability News Service (DNS). The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures, obtained through a […]
The minister for disabled people is refusing to apologise to MPs for misleading them about a report by a UN human rights expert on the UK’s record on causing and addressing extreme poverty. Professor Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on […]