universal credit

Benefits and Poverty

April 19, 2018 0

DPAC’s universal credit ‘crime scene’ protest is fresh call for action to disabled people

Disabled activists are hoping their latest protest in the heart of Westminster will empower other disabled people to follow their lead and fight the government’s social security cuts and reforms. The action by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), which involved scores of disabled protesters, focused on calls for the government to scrap its new

Benefits and Poverty

March 8, 2018 0

DWP ignores freedom of information laws in bid to hide universal credit impact

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has breached freedom of information laws by refusing to explain how its new universal credit system of working-age benefits will affect disabled people. Campaigners have been warning that the introduction of universal credit will see tens or even hundreds of thousands of disabled people with high support

Activism and Campaigning

A protester holds up a banner saying Disabled People Against Cuts, Rights Not Charity

January 18, 2018 0

DPAC calls national day of action to demand universal credit is scrapped

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Disabled activists are organising a national day of action to push for the government’s new universal credit benefit system to be scrapped. Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) believes that the “punishing” universal credit (UC) regime, which is slowly replacing six working-age benefits, is “rotten to the core”. DPAC says UC is too flawed to

Benefits and Poverty

David Gauke speaking to the party conference, with his picture on the screen behind him

October 5, 2017 0

Tory conference: Gauke’s universal credit silence on debt-ridden disabled people

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The work and pensions secretary has refused to say what he will do to help the hundreds of thousands of disabled people and other benefit claimants left in rent arrears and other debt by the botched introduction of universal credit. Campaigners have been warning David Gauke that the rollout of universal credit is leaving

Benefits and Poverty

A woman in a pink jacket at the conference in Bournemouth

September 21, 2017 0

Lib Dem conference: Universal credit rollout ‘will ruin lives of hundreds of thousands’

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The lives of hundreds of thousands of people will be ruined if the government does not halt its rollout of universal credit, according to a disabled Liberal Democrat MP. Stephen Lloyd, the party’s shadow work and pensions secretary, told this week’s annual conference that the rollout of universal credit was increasing rent arrears and

Benefits and Poverty

September 14, 2017 0

Welfare reform ‘will see £50 a week more cuts to 900,000 disabled people’

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About 900,000 disabled people will see their weekly incomes fall by at least £50 a week by 2020, because of the continuing impact of the government’s welfare reforms, according to new research. The research by the consultancy Policy in Practice found that, of 7.2 million working-age, low-income households, more than two-fifths of those containing

Education

August 10, 2017 0

Ministers ‘failed to consider impact of rules that would cut university access’

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Ministers have effectively admitted introducing a policy that will prevent many disabled students from entering higher education, without knowing how much money it would save or how many young disabled people would be affected. The admission came in response to a freedom of information (FoI) request that sought to clarify the potential impact of

Education

Lord Addington speaking in the House of Lords

August 3, 2017 0

Universal credit rules ‘could bar many disabled students from university’

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Many disabled students could effectively be barred from higher education because of the introduction of the government’s new universal credit, according to MPs and peers who have written to the minister for employment. The seven MPs and peers, all members of the all-party parliamentary group for disability, have joined the new chief executive of

Benefits and Poverty

June 1, 2017 0

BMA ‘will be complicit in future deaths’, after silence on ‘fit note’ rules

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Appalled disabled activists have warned the British Medical Association (BMA) that it will be “complicit” in the future deaths of patients, after the doctors’ union refused to speak out about “very dangerous” new benefit rules affecting severely-ill claimants. Disability News Service (DNS) reported last week how the rules can force people applying for the

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