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The minister for disabled people pulled out of a meeting with MPs, peers and disabled campaigners, days after agreeing to be questioned about her government’s disability employment strategy. Sarah Newton had promised to attend this week’s meeting of the all-party parliamentary […]
The civil servant who leads the government’s work and health unit has sparked fresh concerns that the new disability employment strategy could be heavily influenced by the discredited “biopsychosocial” (BPS) model of disability. Tabitha Jay told a meeting of the all-party […]
Disabled campaigners, MPs and peers have come together to celebrate the “wise counsel, charm and achievements” of the “remarkable” Sir Bert Massie, the former chair of the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) throughout its seven years, who died in October. The memorial […]
Disabled activists are organising a national day of action to push for the government’s new universal credit benefit system to be scrapped. Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) believes that the “punishing” universal credit (UC) regime, which is slowly replacing six working-age […]
Five user-led organisations have secured £150,000 for a research project that will set up what it is believed will be the UK’s first cooperatives for disabled people who receive care funding through personal budgets. The project, led by Cheshire Centre for […]
Three leading disabled campaigners have backed a petition that calls on the government to force all new large buildings to include a Changing Places toilet. The petition, launched by Lorna Fillingham, who has a disabled child, has now been signed by […]
The minister for disabled people has refused to apologise for misleading MPs about a court of appeal judgment that was highly critical of her new boss, Esther McVey, just a day after her appointment as the new work and pensions secretary. […]
Campaigners have reacted furiously to the decision to appoint Esther McVey as the new secretary of state for work and pensions, calling it a “heartsink moment” and a “terrible insult” to disabled people. McVey (pictured), who served as both minister for […]
Nine MPs on a Commons committee are refusing to explain why they failed to ask the minister for disabled people about shocking figures that suggest attempted suicides among people claiming out-of-work disability benefits doubled between 2007 and 2014. The work and […]
Local authorities in England are refusing to use their own suicide prevention plans to highlight “shocking” figures that show claimants of out-of-work disability benefits are at a hugely-increased risk of attempting to take their own lives. The figures, published in September […]