Disability News Service

Disabled voters will tomorrow make the Conservatives pay for what they have done to them over the last decade of austerity, Labour’s shadow chancellor has told a rally of party activists. John McDonnell told the pre-election rally of disabled Labour supporters in […]

Five political parties have made their final pitches to potential disabled voters on the eve of tomorrow’s general election. Disability News Service (DNS) asked the Conservatives, the Green party, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the SNP to explain in just […]

The Conservative party wants the UK to follow America into becoming a “dog-eat-dog culture” where there is no support for disabled people, a comedian and activist has told a pre-election rally. Francesca Martinez, who was speaking at a rally of disabled Labour […]

Labour has committed itself to moving back towards an inclusive education system if it wins power in tomorrow’s general election (Thursday). The pledge was made by Marsha de Cordova, the party’s shadow minister for disabled people, at a pre-election rally of disabled […]

A senior Tory minister has admitted she believes that the government’s long-awaited green paper on adult social care does not actually exist. The government has been promising to publish the green paper, which would lay out plans for addressing the adult social […]

A local authority has become the second in London to set up an independent, user-led commission to investigate the barriers faced by disabled residents. Lewisham Disabled People’s Commission (LDPC) will be led by disabled people and will examine organisational, attitudinal and physical […]

A company paid to assess disabled people’s fitness for work was put under “immense pressure” by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to find claimants ineligible for out-of-work disability benefits, official records have revealed. DWP has insisted for years that there […]

Civil servants described to colleagues how they were “ashamed” to work for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) because of the experiences of their own relatives when claiming universal credit, leaked documents have revealed. The thoughts of DWP civil servants were […]

Labour’s shadow chancellor has joined disabled campaigners in backing calls for a criminal probe into the actions of former Tory ministers and senior civil servants, following the publication of a five-year investigation into the deaths of disabled benefit claimants. The 12,000-word article, […]

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has confirmed that a Labour government would set up an independent inquiry into the deaths of disabled benefit claimants linked to the actions of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its private sector contractors. The inquiry […]

The UK is one of the worst-performing countries in the European Union (EU) when it comes to protecting disabled people from poverty, according to official figures. The EU figures show that the UK is the 10th worst of the 28 EU member […]

Not one of the seven ministers for disabled people who have served in the post since the Conservatives came to power in 2010 issued a message of support on social media on the UN’s international day of disabled people this week. Tuesday’s […]

The government’s flagship disability employment scheme has managed to sign up less than 80 private sector employers in more than three years to its highest accreditation level, new research has found. When Disability Confident was relaunched in 2016, the scheme allowed employers […]

The SNP’s general election manifesto includes just three mentions of disability or disabled people, and only one of those is related to a policy it would push for in the next parliament. Many policies that have a specific impact on disabled people, […]

Plaid Cymru is promising to push for free social care in Wales and to demand full control over universal credit, in its general election manifesto. One of the party’s five headline policies includes a pledge to offer free social care through a […]

Two disabled men have been forced to return yet again to the Royal Courts of Justice this week to fight what they say is the injustice caused by the government’s universal credit benefit system. The men, known as TP and AR for […]

The first death was on New Year’s Eve 2011, a divorced woman in her early 50s who was found dead at her home in Scotland after taking her own life. She would later become known as Ms DE. She has never been […]

A Labour government would set up an independent inquiry into the deaths of disabled benefit claimants linked to the actions of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its private sector contractors, the party has told Disability News Service. The party’s […]

The Conservative party appears to have announced just five new policy pledges – across its 62-page general election manifesto – that would specifically address the poverty, barriers and breaches of rights faced by disabled people. The party’s manifesto is silent on a […]

The Liberal Democrats have been unable to explain why several of their general election policies on disability were copied word-for-word from their 2017 manifesto. Last week, Disability News Service (DNS) reported that the party had refused to explain why it had omitted […]