Labour party members have been urged to support protest events being led by disabled people who are “fighting back” against the government cuts and reforms that will push them deeper into poverty and exclusion. The call from the party conference platform […]
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Labour conference: Party ‘blocked attempts to debate work tests’
Labour has been accused of blocking attempts at its party conference to discuss the problems caused by the government’s controversial “fitness for work” tests. Following successful moves by Liberal Democrat campaigners at their conference last week to overturn their party’s policy […]
Labour conference: Shadow minister calls for action on harassment
A shadow minister has backed calls by disabled activists for new measures to tackle the harassment of disabled people. Fiona Mactaggart, Labour’s shadow equalities minister, spoke out following the publication of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) major report into […]
Labour conference: Labour ‘will not match Liberal Democrats on welfare reform’
A shadow minister has pledged that her party will continue to push for changes to the coalition’s welfare reform bill, but has suggested that Labour will still back key parts of the government agenda. Margaret Curran, Labour’s shadow minister for disabled […]
Labour conference: Legal aid cuts will ‘decimate’ social welfare legal system
Government cuts to the legal aid budget will lead to the “decimation” of the civil law system and cause huge problems for disabled people, Labour party members have heard. The cuts are part of the government’s legal aid, sentencing and punishment […]
Crown Prosecution Service to look again at abuse allegations failure
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is to investigate why it refused to prosecute any of the NHS staff accused of abusing 18 disabled people at a day centre. The decision not to bring any charges over the alleged abuse at the […]
Festival will put disability arts and rights near the centre of London 2012
Disabled people are to hold a major international disability arts festival to run in parallel with the London 2012 Paralympics. The free festival will take place in and around a park in east London, less than two miles from the main […]
Research questions improvements to ‘fitness for work’ tests
New research has raised doubts over whether changes to the government’s “fitness for work” tests have made the assessments any fairer for disabled people. The survey of welfare advisers by the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) comes nearly 10 months after the […]
Inclusion fears over SEN pilot projects
Campaigners will try to convince local authorities testing out new government policies on special educational needs (SEN) to take an inclusive approach, despite the coalition’s “hostile” stance on including disabled children in mainstream schools. Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat children’s minister, […]
Figures raise fresh concerns over work of Atos
New research by disabled activists has produced fresh evidence of poor performance by the company paid to test disabled people’s “fitness for work”. The results come from an online survey form hosted by the campaigning website AfterAtos, and cover responses from […]