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Staff working for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) repeatedly ignored crucial rules on how to respond when benefit claimants disclose that they intend to self-harm or take their own lives. New documents published quietly by DWP after a freedom […]
New official figures published alongside this week’s spring statement have again disproved claims that spending on “welfare” is “spiralling out of control”. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) published its latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook report on Tuesday, and it showed […]
Campaigners have warned a minister that the decision to change how the Warm Home Discount Scheme is funded will discriminate against disabled people with high energy needs. Ministers decided last month to “rebalance” the costs of the scheme by moving them […]
One in five staff employed by contractors who carry out disability benefit assessments on the government’s behalf have not had vital safeguarding training, MPs have been told, despite years of deaths and serious harm linked to the tests. Members of the […]
Activists say the government’s decision to slash disabled people’s out-of-work benefits is a “recipe for greater hardship” and will risk claimants’ lives, as ministers this week pushed through cuts agreed last summer by MPs. Regulations laid in parliament this week implement […]
A local authority has admitted discriminating against a disabled couple who were left with a significant new council tax bill after they were forced to move onto universal credit. The legal victory could have significant implications for many other disabled people […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is refusing to explain which disabled people it expects to lose out from nearly £2 billion in new cuts to disability benefits, six weeks after the “savings” were quietly revealed in budget documents. Despite […]
The information commissioner has dismissed attempts by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to describe a disabled journalist as “vengeful” and “vexatious” after he tried to obtain information about its years of safeguarding failings. Disability News Service (DNS) editor John […]
Labour ministers considered the possibility of means-testing personal independence payment (PIP) last year, but then ruled out the option, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has admitted. A decision notice issued by the information commissioner reveals that ministers considered means-testing […]
The work and pensions secretary has bragged about cutting disabled people’s support, three days after launching a child poverty strategy which warned that more than a million children in families where someone was disabled were living in “deep material poverty”. Pat […]