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The UK government appears to have bowed to months of pressure from disabled campaigners and allies, after quietly revealing that it is considering taking “further action” to protect disabled people from the pandemic. It comes alongside an admission that disabled people have […]
Benefits for disabled people are set to rise by just 0.5 per cent next year, the government has announced, despite the increasing costs and cuts to support many of them are facing as a result of the pandemic. The announcement by work […]
Disabled activists hope to build a new social movement that will campaign for a “bold and brilliant” national independent living service that would be available free of charge to anyone in England who needs it. They used an online meeting to relaunch […]
The minister for disabled people has added fresh confusion to the government’s planned social security reforms after apparently misleading a second parliamentary meeting about proposals to merge assessments for disability benefits. Last year, the government confirmed it was pushing ahead with plans […]
A minister has been told by a former member of the UN’s disability rights committee that the government must end its unacceptable opt-out from the duty to ensure inclusive education for disabled children under the UN disability convention. The demand from Diane […]
A disabled woman who is at significant risk from COVID-19 was told to visit her local GP surgery in person – and pay £18 – to pick up a letter that she can use to show supermarkets she is shielding from the […]
A disabled peer and retired Paralympian has warned that she has lost patience with progress on disability rights, and will scream in the face of the next person who tells her London 2012 changed the world for disabled people. Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson […]
Autistic campaigners have described the decision of singer-songwriter Sia to cast a non-disabled performer to play an Autistic character in her new film as “insulting” and “demeaning”. The trailer for Music (pictured), released by Sia last Thursday, has caused frustration and anger […]
Labour’s first elected representative of its disabled members on its national ruling body has called on the party to take the opportunity to address the years of discrimination they have faced. Ellen Morrison won an historic but narrow victory on Friday (13 […]
Disabled activists have spoken out over “absolutely shocking” new figures which show that younger people with learning difficulties in England were more than 30 times more likely to die from coronavirus than non-disabled people of the same age. Two leading campaigners with […]
The government is risking lives and discriminating against MPs with health conditions by refusing to allow them to perform vital parliamentary duties online, according to a Conservative MP who has been shielding from coronavirus for months. Sir Roger Gale, who has a […]
Opposition MPs are supporting a bill that would force the government to allow all MPs who have been shielding from coronavirus to take a full part in parliamentary proceedings. The ten-minute rule bill was devised by Labour’s Geraint Davies but had to […]
Tech giant Apple could be facing multiple legal cases by disabled people who have been ejected from its shops for failing to wear a face mask, despite government guidance stating that they were exempt from the rules. Two legal firms – one […]
Campaigners have written to the BBC to express the “outpouring of hurt and distress” felt by disabled people over its decision to broadcast a disabled-led drama that mirrored years of deeply damaging government rhetoric about benefit cheats. The Real Deal (pictured) was […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has repeatedly breached data protection regulations by failing to provide benefit claimants and others – including Disability News Service (DNS) – with the information it holds about them. The huge backlog dates back months before […]
A petition signed by nearly 120,000 people who want to see a £20 a week uplift given to universal credit claimants extended to those on other benefits has been handed to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak. The increase, which also applies to those […]
A disabled woman, who apparently took her own life in despair at the way her benefits claim was being dealt with, left a note that “directly implicated” the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in her death. Philippa Day, who had agoraphobia, […]
A disabled woman’s sister who blames her sibling’s apparent suicide on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has called for ministers and senior civil servants to be held accountable for their repeated failure to learn from similar deaths. Philippa Day (pictured, […]
Furious disabled activists have questioned the “sickening” and “utterly bizarre” decision to put disabled people seen as extremely vulnerable to coronavirus far down the queue for a life-saving vaccine, when it eventually becomes available. They have begun to speak out after the […]
Disabled campaigners this week celebrated the activists whose efforts helped lead to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), while highlighting the continuing flaws in equality legislation and the need to continue the fight for comprehensive civil rights. They were speaking out on this […]
The mother of a disabled woman who took her own life after her benefits were wrongly stopped has won a legal victory that could lead to a full examination of whether the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) caused her daughter’s death. […]