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Disabled activists have accused the doctors’ union of being “complicit” in deaths connected to the work capability assessment (WCA), after a report concluded that a Scottish woman probably killed herself as a result of being found “fit for work”. The Mental […]
A disabled woman almost certainly killed herself because she had been found “fit for work” and stripped of out-of-work disability benefits, according to a mental health watchdog. The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland concluded that the work capability assessment (WCA) process […]
A controversial budget measure is set to increase even further the number of disabled people living in poverty. The Conservative chancellor, George Osborne, announced last week that a new cap on social security spending would be set at £119.5 billion in […]
A disabled man waited months for the result of his assessment for the government’s new disability benefit, only to discover that the woman who had assessed him had quit her job without ever filing her report. Stanley Kaye’s case was lost […]
MPs have used evidence provided by Disability News Service (DNS) to accuse the outsourcing giant Atos of lying in the document it used to win a £184 million disability assessment contract. Members of the Commons public accounts committee were quizzing senior […]
MPs and charities have publicly shamed the government, and two of its contractors, over the botched implementation of the coalition’s new disability benefit, and its impact on disabled people. Representatives from three charities – DABD (UK), Citizens Advice and Mencap – […]
Government plans to cap the annual amount spent on social security – including key disability benefits – have been criticised by disabled campaigners. The Conservative chancellor, George Osborne, announced in this week’s budget that the spending cap would be set at […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) must act urgently to deal with the “dire situation” and “unacceptable” delays facing claimants of the government’s new disability benefit, according to a committee of MPs. The work and pensions select committee said in […]
The government must improve the way it contracts out services such as disability benefits assessments to the private sector, according to an influential committee of MPs. The public accounts committee said that an absence of competition for companies such as Atos […]
A seriously-ill man on a waiting-list for a liver transplant has told how he is struggling to survive because of the lengthy delays in assessments for the government’s new disability benefit. His case is one of two reported on this week […]