Disability News Service

Disabled activists have welcomed an international body’s decision to consider downgrading the status of the UK’s much-criticised and “discriminatory” human rights watchdog. The chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Baroness Falkner, decided to leak the information that its “A” […]

A disabled lorry driver is accusing ministers of hypocrisy after they called for more people on disability benefits to go back to work, while refusing to make simple changes to equality laws that would help him and many others keep their jobs. […]

The “warrior” mum of a disabled woman who took her own life after her benefits were cut has welcomed another crucial stage in her fight for justice, which is now well into its seventh year. Joy Dove (pictured) was at Teesside Magistrates’ […]

A significant proportion of disabled students are being told by university staff that their access needs are a nuisance or unreasonable, or even that they are trying to cheat the system by asking for adjustments, according to a groundbreaking survey. One in […]

The UK’s leading music festival operator has been forced to sign a legal agreement with the equality watchdog after serious access failings at events it ran both this summer and last year. Live Nation, which runs Festival Republic, has signed a section […]

A leading disabled activist has issued a call in a new book for the disabled people’s movement to rediscover its appetite for fighting oppression and transforming society. In Disability Praxis*, Bob Williams-Findlay argues that the disabled people’s movement has gradually drifted away […]

The government is to push ahead with “nightmare” cost-cutting plans to tighten the work capability assessment, which will save the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) nearly £1.3 billion a year by 2028. Confirmation of the changes to the assessment were made […]

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been ordered to release a secret report that describes the impact of its errors on “vulnerable” benefit claimants, which it admits could have a “negative” impact on its reputation. The report contains “worst case […]

Disabled campaigners have questioned government plans to tighten the benefit sanctions regime and even end access to free prescriptions for some claimants, at a time of mounting evidence of a deeply flawed universal credit system and fatal safeguarding failures. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt […]

New research has exposed the financial hardship and emotional harm caused by charging working-age disabled people for their care and support. It is believed to be the first time that research has focused solely on how care charges impact on working-age adults […]

Senior figures in the rail industry have been unable to point to a single train company that is even close to “getting it right” when it comes to providing an accessible service to disabled passengers. Iain Stewart, the Conservative chair of the […]

A new government bill should lead to streaming services having to meet strict quotas on providing programmes with audio description, subtitles and audio description for the first time, but disabled journalists say the legislation should do more to tackle inequality. MPs this […]

Disabled activists have called for action to address the discrimination and disablism faced by disabled students and pupils, and to enforce the laws that should be protecting them. They were speaking at the launch of UK Disability History Month (UKDHM), which this […]

A coroner has warned work and pensions secretary Mel Stride he needs to act to prevent flaws in the universal credit system leading to further deaths, following the suicide of a disabled man who became overwhelmed by the application process. It is […]

A “deeply troubling” government report that ministers kept hidden for four years has revealed significant flaws at the heart of the universal credit system and how the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) supports “vulnerable” claimants. The report, produced in autumn 2019, […]

The attitude of the former disability minister to engagement with disabled people during the early months of the pandemic has been described as “scandalous” and “tokenistic”, days after he gave evidence about it to the Covid inquiry. Justin Tomlinson, who was minister […]

The human rights watchdog has struggled to explain why its major report on Britain’s “equality and human rights landscape” has ignored key breaches of disabled people’s rights by the UK government. The Equality and Human Rights Monitor report*, published today (Thursday), is […]

The human rights watchdog has failed to follow through on threats to take legal action against the government over its efforts to cut the number of disabled people inappropriately detained in secure hospitals in England. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) […]

What is known publicly about the harm caused by the benefits system – including deaths by suicide linked to the actions of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – is just “the tip of the iceberg”, MPs have been told. Experts […]

A committee of MPs has called for any further cost-of-living payments made by the government to disabled people to be increased in proportion to the extra disability-related costs they face. The Commons work and pensions committee concluded in its new report that […]