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The national charity representing psychologists failed to speak out about the serious risks caused by placing work coaches in GP surgeries, just weeks after it was awarded a £640,000 contract by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). There was alarm […]
A minister has cast fresh doubt on claims by work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall that she is planning to send work coaches onto mental health wards to push people in severe mental distress off benefits and into work. The response […]
A huge increase in the workload faced by civil servants managing universal credit cases led to significant increases in how many of them took time off after experiencing mental distress and other ill-health, new government figures suggest. The figures, secured through […]
The agency that regulates workplace health, safety and welfare had no written contact with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about claims that multiple work coaches had experienced “mental breakdowns” due to work-related stress, DWP has confirmed. The Health and […]
Whistleblowers have raised serious concerns about safeguarding failures by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that put the lives of benefit claimants at risk. Disability News Service (DNS) reported last week how conditions at Oxford jobcentre became so stressful that […]
Job coaches with no academic qualifications could be making life-changing – and potentially life-ending – decisions on whether a disabled person must carry out work-related activity, if the government goes ahead with its plans to scrap the “fitness for work” test. […]
A high-profile network of disabled researchers are to return after a six-year pause to produce a report on a white paper that contains “nonsensical” government plans to scrap the work capability assessment. A key researcher with the Spartacus network told Disability […]
“Heartless” government reforms that will eventually scrap the “fitness for work” assessment “defy logic” and pose significant risks to sick and disabled people who cannot work, say activists who have fought for years to highlight the test’s fatal flaws. The decision […]
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 […]
New disturbing evidence has emerged that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has introduced harsher rules designed to force more disabled people with significant mental distress to attend frequent face-to-face jobcentre meetings. Last week, a work coach told Disability News […]