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Ministers have admitted they are considering using a legal loophole to avoid publishing the results of secret reviews into 60 benefit-related deaths. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) admitted to Disability News Service (DNS) last month that it had carried […]
A national disabled people’s organisation has called on the government to halt next year’s planned roll-out of its new disability benefit, following the publication of a critical independent review. The first review of personal independence payment (PIP), by former civil servant […]
The minister for disabled people is facing awkward questions over why he has delayed responding to concerns about the government’s pledge to close an inaccessible assessment centre. Mike Penning promised in June that the government would shut the centre used by […]
The combination of the recession and the coalition’s austerity programme is likely to have been responsible for hundreds of suicides in England, a researcher at Oxford University has suggested. Dr Aaron Reeves, a sociologist at Oxford University and part of a […]
The UK government must do more to enable disabled people to be “full partners” in the economy, according to a leading US academic whose ideas have been adopted by Labour leader Ed Miliband. Professor Jacob Hacker, a policy adviser, author, and […]
A minister has admitted that it is not government policy to warn health or social services when “vulnerable” service-users have had their benefits “sanctioned”. The admission by the Conservative employment minister Esther McVey comes just weeks after her department admitted to […]
This week’s autumn statement – the last before the general election – demonstrates the government’s “total disregard” for disabled people, say campaigners. George Osborne’s speech to MPs omitted any mention of disabled people, but there was also no mention of disability […]
An agreement between the leading political parties over devolving further powers to Scotland “falls far short” of what was demanded by disabled people, say campaigners. The Smith Commission which reported last week, secured an agreement backed by the five parties represented […]
A new user-led campaign and report aim to highlight the experiences of disabled people hit by the government’s welfare reforms, and encourage them to vote at next year’s general election. From Cuts… To Resistance, a report by the Reclaiming Our Futures […]
Disabled activists have condemned the government’s latest refusal to order a major reform of its controversial “fitness for work” assessment. Four months ago, the Commons work and pensions select committee called for “fundamental redesign” of the much-criticised process used to determine […]