the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues
“Horrific” and “sinister” plans to give the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) sweeping new powers to investigate benefit claimants could have a serious impact on disabled people’s physical and mental health, activists have warned. Just as the social security cuts […]
Two ministers have dismissed mounting evidence of a care funding crisis and have repeatedly insisted that local councils have all the money they need to “effectively” deliver social care services. Both social care minister Gillian Keegan and local government minister Kemi […]
The boss of a private sector contractor has told MPs that he gives his company a mark of seven or eight out of ten for its performance in carrying out disability benefit assessments, despite it being closely linked to the death […]
A disabled MP has accused the government of “playing with people’s lives” and warned that its new public order bill will criminalise disabled people and other minority groups. Marsha de Cordova, a former shadow minister for disabled people, told fellow MPs […]
A disabled artist is being forced to pay hundreds of pounds in clean air zone fines every month because of her council’s refusal to make reasonable adjustments for her fluctuating health conditions. Shiva Page fears she will have to give up […]
An ombudsman has warned that local authorities are frequently failing to make reasonable adjustments for disabled service-users, particularly those with invisible impairments. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Michael King (pictured), called on local councils in England to be “proactive” […]
Disabled campaigners were this week marking the long-awaited opening of London’s new Crossrail scheme by celebrating their historic success in forcing the authorities to provide step-free access to all 41 of its stations. But they have also warned that a proposed […]
The government has caused outrage after announcing that it would not implement measures – recommended by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry – that would have ensured disabled people could safely evacuate high-rise blocks of flats in emergencies. The inquiry had recommended that […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to alert GPs and social services to the “very extensive” difficulties a disabled man was facing, three months before he died in conditions of severe self-neglect. A safeguarding review of the death of […]
The government has branded Disability News Service (DNS) “vexatious” for attempting to use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain key details from more than 90 secret reviews into deaths and other serious incidents involving benefit claimants. DNS asked the Department […]