Benefits and Poverty

August 16, 2018 0

Disability charity’s appointment of Unum boss as new chair ‘is truly disgraceful’

A disability charity’s decision to choose as its new chair the head of a company closely linked with the government’s hated “fitness for work” test has been branded “a betrayal” of disabled people and “a truly disgraceful appointment”. United Response, which provides a range of support services to about 3,000 disabled people across England

Benefits and Poverty

August 16, 2018 0

DWP repeatedly breaches FoI laws ‘in bid to hide secret jobcentre reports’

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has repeatedly breached freedom of information laws in an apparent attempt to prevent the release of secret reports written by disabled people recruited to work within its jobcentres. Two years ago, DWP published a work, health and disability green paper, Improving Lives, in which it revealed plans

Benefits and Poverty

August 9, 2018 0

DWP figures provide fresh evidence to explain PIP claim rejections

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New figures show that Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) civil servants are questioning only a tiny proportion of the benefit assessment reports written by discredited government contractors Atos and Capita. Campaigners have been trying for months to secure evidence that would explain why such a high proportion of personal independence payment (PIP) claims

Benefits and Poverty

A protester in a crime scene outfit crouches by a sign saying universal credit is a crime

August 2, 2018 0

DWP agrees to pay thousands to disabled duo in universal credit court case

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has finally agreed to pay compensation to two disabled men who saw their benefits drastically reduced when they were forced onto the new universal credit. The high court had ruled in June that DWP unlawfully discriminated against the two men, known as TP and AR for legal

Benefits and Poverty

Paul Litchfield giving evidence to a Commons committee

July 19, 2018 0

Four opposition parties demand DWP answers over WCA deaths ‘cover-up’

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Two opposition parties are writing urgent letters to work and pensions secretary Esther McVey – while a third is demanding an investigation – about a possible cover-up over documents linking the “fitness for work” test with the deaths of benefit claimants. Senior figures from both Labour and the Liberal Democrats said this week that

Benefits and Poverty

July 19, 2018 0

Watchdog’s ‘issues of concern’ over regulator’s treatment of PIP complaints

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A regulator has been told there are “issues of concern” about the way it deals with complaints against health and care professionals, including those who write dishonest benefit assessment reports. The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) agreed in January to look at concerns about the way regulators deal with complaints about nurses, physiotherapists and paramedics

Benefits and Poverty

July 19, 2018 0

DWP is asked why ‘not fit for work’ universal credit claimants are being sanctioned

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A minister has been asked why the benefits of hundreds of sick and disabled claimants are apparently being sanctioned, even though they should not have to meet any of the strict conditions imposed by the government’s new universal credit system. Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures show that more than 1,100 claimants of

Benefits and Poverty

Esther McVey speaking in the House of Commons

July 19, 2018 0

McVey’s U-turn means DWP will pay at least £100 million more to disabled claimants

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Disabled people will be paid more than £100 million extra in backdated benefits owed by the government, after a U-turn by work and pensions secretary Esther McVey on the eve of a court hearing. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had previously only agreed to offer a partial backpayment to an estimated 70,000

Benefits and Poverty

July 12, 2018 0

DWP silence over ‘thousands of ESA claims lost in IT black hole’

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has told a disabled woman whose benefit claims repeatedly went missing that thousands of other claimants have lost their applications in the same departmental black hole. Vicky Pearson, from Lincolnshire, had to survive for nearly two weeks without food over Christmas and the new year, a distressing

Benefits and Poverty

Esther McVey giving evidence to the committee

July 12, 2018 0

MPs raise concerns with McVey over ‘stress and poverty’ caused by WRAG cuts

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Cross-party MPs have raised a series of concerns with work and pensions secretary Esther McVey about the government’s treatment of disabled people on out-of-work benefits. Members of the Commons work and pensions select committee were questioning McVey (pictured) more than a year after her government introduced cuts of nearly £30 a week to payments to

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