the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues
Disabled workers have faced deteriorating attitudes from employers, cuts to their legal protection, and “disintegrating” long-term job prospects under the last four years of the coalition government, according to new research. The study by the Public Interest Research Unit (PIRU), a […]
A disabled woman says her life is at risk following a “barrage” of texts and phone calls from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), threatening – unlawfully – to remove her benefits if she failed to attend a work-focused interview. […]
The Liberal Democrats’ disabled president has told Disability News Service (DNS) she is “astonished” that her party’s planned cuts to social security spending would not exempt all recipients of disability benefits. The party confirmed to DNS last week that although its […]
The information watchdog is to investigate the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over its refusal to publish secret reviews into 49 benefit-related deaths. The Information Commissioner’s Office has launched the investigation into DWP’s failure to provide information requested by Disability […]
By John Pring, editor of Disability News Service It is fair to say that the Department for Work and Pensions is not disabled people’s favourite government department, but it is the one that Disability News Service (DNS) deals with most often. […]
A terminally-ill woman was told by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that she risked being charged with an “offence” and would lose part of her benefits if she used an insurance policy windfall to pay for her own funeral. […]
MPs have called on the government to set up a new independent body – modelled on the police complaints watchdog – to investigate the deaths of benefit claimants. The recommendation for a new organisation similar to the Independent Police Complaints Commission […]
Plaid Cymru and the Green party – and a key figure in the SNP – have backed a call from disabled campaigners and carers for an “emergency ceasefire” on major parts of the government’s “fitness for work” regime. They say it […]
The doctors’ union has finally agreed to tell every GP in the country about two regulations that campaigners believe could protect disabled people facing the controversial “fitness for work” test. Activists have been trying since August 2012 to persuade the British […]
A new report has called for the “toxic” work capability assessment (WCA) to be scrapped and replaced with something that paints a more realistic picture of the barriers disabled people face in society. The Rethinking the Work Capability Assessment report, by […]