Disability News Service

The Labour government has launched a new cost-cutting drive aimed at Access to Work, which insiders fear could destroy the scheme and lead to disabled people being forced to quit their jobs. Leaked information from multiple sources suggests the Department for Work […]

A “sinister” government analysis of the impact of a bill to legalise assisted suicide suggests it could eventually save public bodies more than £100 million a year in health and social care costs, benefits and pensions. The figures – which the government […]

Disabled activists gate-crashed one of the government’s “sham” consultation events on its disability benefits green paper, and persuaded civil servants to let them put questions that ministers had not wanted to be asked. The direct action, led by Manchester Disabled People Against […]

The government’s multi-billion pound cuts to disability benefits will cause huge pressure on services, make it harder for disabled people to find work, and likely lead to more deaths of claimants, disabled campaigners have told a cross-party committee of MPs. They were […]

Separate reports have highlighted how years of failed government promises on reform have left broken adult social care systems in both England and Scotland. In England, MPs on the Commons health and social care committee published a report this week warning of […]

Rail companies are likely to be forced to provide more generous compensation when they fail to assist disabled passengers, thanks to the actions of an accessible transport campaigner. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has written to train and station operators […]

A new petition backed by disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) aims to unite opposition to the government’s “devastating” disability benefit cuts and reforms by calling for every one of the measures to be abandoned. While a string of petitions have focused on individual […]

Ministers could face legal action over their “absolutely disgraceful” refusal to meet people with learning difficulties and autistic people to discuss the failure of the mental health bill to protect them from being locked away in psychiatric hospitals. Disabled protesters outside the […]

The Labour government has “betrayed” autistic people and people with learning difficulties who have been abused and abandoned in mental health institutions, activists told a protest in front of the Houses of Parliament this week. Disabled people with experience of detention spoke […]

A local council, police and NHS have helped cover up the failures that led to a disabled woman’s body being found in her flat months after her benefits had been removed, Disability News Service (DNS) has discovered. Havering council told DNS three […]

Ministers have no idea how much impact their cuts to disabled people’s benefits will have on levels of disability poverty, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has admitted. DWP published figures in March that showed that the government’s decision to tighten […]

A Labour minister has dismissed a disabled MP’s warning that new anti-fraud legislation will open the door to “Orwellian levels of mass surveillance” of millions of people on means-tested benefits. Liberal Democrat Steve Darling, his party’s work and pensions spokesperson, told MPs […]

The broadcasting watchdog has refused to explain why it appears to have become so much more reluctant to stand up against disability hate speech in the media over the last 15 years. Ofcom was accused of failing millions of disabled people when […]

The right-wing populist party Reform UK has given a rare glimpse of its disability policies, after its leader Nigel Farage suggested he was strongly in favour of cuts to disabled people’s benefits. The party’s supporters have attempted to make political capital in […]

A Labour minister – the sister of chancellor Rachel Reeves – is facing difficult questions after an ombudsman’s ruling linked a constituent’s suicide with the flawed personal independence payment (PIP) system, just as her sister announced £4.5 billion cuts to PIP spending. […]

A disabled campaigner claims the disability charity RNIB has “washed its hands” of those with the most significant levels of visual impairment, after scrapping its long-established free braille transcription service. Connor Scott-Gardner (pictured), a blind campaigner from Leeds, has accused RNIB of […]

The company that runs Motability has repeatedly refused to say how much money the four high street banks that own the business are making from the £7 billion-a-year disabled people’s vehicle leasing scheme. Motability Operations, which is owned by Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest […]

At least three legal firms are examining ways in which they could support disabled people and their organisations to challenge some of the government’s proposed cuts to disability benefits in the courts. Public Law Project (PLP), Leigh Day and Bhatt Murphy – […]

Leading disabled people’s organisations (DPO) have written to work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall to express “serious concerns” about the human rights implications of her “incredibly dangerous” plans to cut spending on disability benefits. They say in the letter that her consultation […]

Disabled activists have delivered an angry and dismissive response to a government minister who has tried to justify dropping plans to put accessibility at the heart of rail reforms from a critically-important public consultation. In a letter to the Commons transport committee, […]