Disability News Service

The national charity representing psychologists failed to speak out about the serious risks caused by placing work coaches in GP surgeries, just weeks after it was awarded a £640,000 contract by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). There was alarm among […]

Government plans under controversial new legislation to give some Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) staff “morally dubious” powers to use force against benefit claimants have been derailed by peers. The public authorities (fraud, error and recovery) bill was set to give […]

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to withdraw a misleading and inaccurate statement that scapegoated disabled people and other benefit claimants for the country’s economic problems. In an interview with Channel 4 News, Reeves (pictured) repeated the false claim that welfare spending was […]

The disability minister has gone back on his word by refusing to provide crucial information that would help expose a “perverse”, secret programme to restrict grants made by the Access to Work disability employment scheme. Sir Stephen Timms told Disability News Service […]

Disabled people have described their anger with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for failing to warn them of the significant hidden costs – which can be more than £2,400 a year – of transferring onto universal credit from their old […]

The continuing refusal of ministers to raise the upper limit on a scheme that helps disabled people make access improvements to their homes is discriminating against some of those with higher support needs, a secret government report has admitted. The internal review […]

The government is set to push ahead with a long-delayed new system of safeguards that could have a significant impact on service-users who are unable to consent to restrictions placed on their liberty in health or social care settings. There have been […]

Prosecutions of disability hate crime plummeted again last year, with less than 300 cases taken forward by prosecutors, despite police forces in England and Wales recording more than 10,000 offences. It is now the seventh year in succession that Disability News Service […]

Official government figures have shown the first signs that ministers have been engaged in a “perverse” programme to secretly restrict grants made by the Access to Work disability employment scheme. The new Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures show that the […]

Disabled people have suddenly become up to £200 pounds a month worse off because of unexpected impacts of being moved from their old “legacy” benefits onto universal credit. Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) has been hearing from disabled people who have been […]

A disabled MP has failed to persuade ministers to show exactly what progress they are making towards ensuring there are enough community services to halt the “scandal” of disabled people being inappropriately detained under the Mental Health Act. Current mental health laws […]

Campaigners say it is “deeply worrying” that there does not appear to have been a single disabled peer appointed to a new House of Lords committee set up to consider proposed new laws that will legalise assisted dying. Peers this week agreed […]

The next Scottish government needs to listen to disabled people and take action to ensure the systemic change needed to realise their rights, according to a new manifesto drawn up by a national disabled people’s organisation (DPO). Inclusion Scotland says in its […]

The government has been accused of “hiding behind false claims” and failing disabled people who are being targeted by disability hate, while dodging a meeting with a leading disabled people’s organisation. The Home Office’s commitment to tackling disability hate crime has been […]

A trio of leading Tories have used misleading and offensive statements at their annual conference in Manchester to scapegoat disabled people who rely on support from the benefits system and whip up hostility towards them. The Conservative party made it clear this […]

The government has been accused of losing its way on accessible housing, after refusing to explain why a report by its “taskforce” on delivering a series of new towns across England does not include a single mention of disabled people. The independent […]

The government’s decision to commission a review of alleged “over-diagnosis” of mental health conditions and neurodivergence has caused alarm among many disabled people, with fears that it will allow ministers to justify further sweeping cuts to disability benefits. There is also concern […]

A coach operator that passed on defamatory lies about a well-known disabled activist who exposed the inaccessibility of one of its coaches will have to pay him substantial damages, and make a humiliating apology in open court. A driver for Bolton-based Tyrers […]

The Access to Work scheme is failing Deaf and disabled people, and its “decline” in the last two years has caused them “real harm”, with some support packages cut by 80 per cent, according to a detailed dossier of evidence prepared by […]

The Green Party is set to continue to contrast its policy approach on disability with other political parties by supporting disabled people who rely on benefits and have already experienced years of austerity cuts. The newly-elected leader of the Green Party of […]