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Two senior Liberal Democrat ministers have refused to criticise the Conservative chancellor for misleading voters about how he would protect disabled people from his planned benefits freeze. Both Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury, and Steve Webb, the pensions minister, […]
A Liberal Democrat minister has cast doubt on Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) claims that it does not collect or analyse accounts of disability benefit-related deaths. The comments of pensions minister Steve Webb at his party’s annual conference in Glasgow […]
A Liberal Democrat government would aim to reduce the stress caused to disabled people by multiple assessments, ensure ministers stop talking up the issue of benefit fraud, and provide more personalised, locally-based employment support. The party wants local authorities to be […]
The chancellor has been accused of misleading voters, after he pledged that disability benefits would not be affected by a two-year “freeze” on social security. George Osborne told a delighted Conservative party conference in Birmingham this week that working-age benefits would […]
The new Conservative minister for disabled people has insisted that his department is right to ignore reports of deaths linked to the loss or non-payment of disability benefits. Mark Harper said he did not accept that the Department for Work and […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has admitted making no effort to collect – or learn the lessons from – reports of disabled people whose deaths have been linked to the withdrawal or non-payment of disability benefits. The admission came […]
At least 150,000 disabled people have been waiting longer than four months for the government to decide on their claims for the coalition’s new disability benefit, new official figures suggest. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures show that about […]
New official figures appear to have borne out fears that misleading information used by the IT company Atos to win a disability assessment contract would lead to longer queues for disabled benefit claimants. Disability News Service (DNS) revealed last year that […]
Campaigners have reacted with a mixture of anger and bemusement to government figures that appear to show disabled people are more likely to be successful when claiming employment and support allowance (ESA) than the benefit it is replacing. The figures were […]
Some disabled people forced to transfer across to the government’s new disability benefit are missing out on thousands of pounds of backdated payments, thanks to “grossly unfair” rules, say campaigners. Under the new personal independence payment (PIP) rules, existing disability living […]