The new minister for disabled people – a former spin doctor who idolised Margaret Thatcher – has received a mixed welcome from disability campaigners. Mike Penning, the Conservative MP for Hemel Hempstead, was until this week the minister responsible for trying […]
McVey gets caught out on stats for the third time
A Conservative minister has again been caught out using misleading statistics to try to show that the government’s policies are not damaging inclusion and equality for disabled people. Esther McVey, who until this week was minister for disabled people, used government […]
‘Crisis meetings’ over shortage of doctors for Atos assessments
Crisis meetings have taken place across the country because the government contractor Atos Healthcare has a serious shortage of doctors able to carry out disability benefits assessments, Disability News Service (DNS) has been told. The meetings came as the government prepares […]
‘Huge appetite’ for personalised work support
Campaigners are calling for a “radical re-think” of employment support that would sweep away the government’s sprawling, centralised programmes and allow disabled people to decide for themselves how to spend the money allocated to help them into work. In a new […]
Couple’s tribunal win adds weight to bedroom tax campaign
A tribunal’s ruling that a disabled man and his wife do need to sleep in separate bedrooms has added fresh weight to the campaign to defeat the government’s so-called “bedroom tax”. The couple’s local authority Herefordshire council, decided last year that […]
No room for disabled people among 21 Paralympic ‘team leaders’
There is not one disabled person among the “team leaders” who are heading the high-level preparations of 21 Paralympic sports in the lead-up to Rio 2016, the British Paralympic Association (BPA) has admitted. The admission came as BPA began the induction […]
Scope set to close homes and ‘put its money where its mouth is’
The disability charity Scope is to “put its money where its mouth is” by closing a third of its remaining residential homes over the next three years. The plans to close or “change significantly” the 11 institutions have been under discussion […]
Council can spy on support spending thanks to new ‘gold card’ accounts
Disabled people who receive direct payments to pay for their support have been forced to close their bank accounts and transfer their funding to new accounts controlled by their local council. York council is now able to spy on every spending […]
Government’s new workfare scheme is ‘unethical’ and ‘unworkable’
New government plans to force long-term unemployed people to attend their local jobcentre for 35 hours a week in exchange for their benefits have been branded “unworkable”, “unethical” and “cranky” by disabled campaigners. The plans were announced by the chancellor, George […]
McGuire to quit Labour’s frontbench
Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people has told Disability News Service (DNS) that she is resigning from the party’s frontbench. Anne McGuire has been shadow minister since October 2011, and was previously a well-regarded minister for disabled people for three years […]