the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues
Three separate user-led groups have questioned the government’s “unforgivable” failure to ensure that disabled people with underlying health conditions are treated as a priority for the COVID-19 vaccination programme. They fear that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of disabled people in […]
The care regulator has admitted failing to track vital details about scores of care homes that are being allowed to accept patients infected with COVID-19, while older and disabled people not yet infected occupy other parts of the same buildings. The Care […]
Investigators who examined the death of a visually-impaired man who fell from a railway platform that had no tactile strip to warn him he was approaching the edge say only half of UK mainline stations have such markings. The Rail Accident Investigation […]
The government has sat for more than a year on a report that is set to expose the barriers faced by disabled people in accessing elected office, and the discrimination they face at the hands of political parties. The report, commissioned by […]
The government has made no progress since 2010 in closing the disability employment gap, MPs were told yesterday by academics. Ministers have long bragged about their success in reducing the difference between the proportion of disabled people and non-disabled people in work. […]
Two of the government’s flagship disability employment schemes have been heavily criticised by a pair of disabled campaigners in a parliamentary evidence session. The Commons work and pensions committee was hearing evidence for its inquiry into the disability employment gap, the difference […]
Government welfare reforms introduced in 2016 have had a “devastating” impact on disabled people and others in low-income households over the last five years, according to a new report by a group of MPs and peers. The report (PDF) by the All-Party […]
Official figures have provided the first statistical evidence to suggest that unfair practices or discrimination within the NHS may have caused disabled people to be at a higher risk of death from COVID-19 during the pandemic. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) […]
Government records have shown that the minister for disabled people significantly misled fellow MPs about his supposed engagement with a network he and his fellow ministers set up to hear disabled people’s “real lived experiences”. The newly-published records of ministerial meetings show […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has finally agreed that all disabled people being assessed for personal independence payment (PIP) will be able to have their face-to-face assessments recorded. The promise has come in a letter to the Right to Record […]
Nearly 100 disability organisations and allies have called on the government to scrap its rushed, inaccessible, over-long and poorly-planned national survey of disabled people. It is the third letter sent to ministers by disabled-led organisations in the last month to raise serious […]
Disabled campaigners have given a guarded response to the government’s new health and social care white paper, with particular concerns about the continuing social care funding crisis and ministers’ failure to pledge proper co-production and engagement with service-users. Much of the Integration […]
Campaigners are seeking “urgent” support for their attempt to increase the rights of disabled survivors of domestic abuse through new government legislation. They say time is running out to secure support in the House of Lords for two key amendments to the […]
The government’s continuing failure to address the harm caused to disabled people during the pandemic has led to “anxiety and hardship” and a “continuing bleak picture of marginalisation”, according to user-led research. In a new report, Inclusion London says that “loss of […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been unable to explain why its secretary of state continues to insist that it has no legal “duty of care” to disabled benefit claimants, when one of its own secret reports states clearly that […]
The government has been accused of a “shameful manipulation of reality”, after its Disability Unit sent out desperate emails to its regional disability networks, begging for positive accounts of how its policies have improved disabled people’s lives. The note was sent out […]
A disabled activist has told MPs that the government’s failure to replace the broken system of crisis support means sectioning, detention and abuse in assessment and treatment units (ATUs) remains a constant threat to her and other autistic people. Alexis Quinn described […]
Disabled activists have spoken of their growing frustration and even anger with Labour’s failure to engage properly with user-led organisations, after the party announced a new roadshow aimed at hearing from individual disabled people around the country. Vicky Foxcroft, Labour’s shadow minister […]
Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people has been unable to explain why she and her party have stayed almost silent about a young disabled mother whose death was linked by a coroner to fatal flaws in the disability benefits system. Last month, […]
There is a clear gap between the “words and actions” of the voluntary sector when it comes to including and recognising disabled people as employees and leaders, according to new research. The research found that disabled people in senior positions across the […]
Planning for a post-COVID Scotland must include a commitment to incorporate the UN disability convention into law, and fully involve disabled people’s organisations (DPOs), according to a leading Scottish DPO. Announcing its own manifesto for the upcoming elections to the Scottish parliament, […]