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A leading psychiatrist who helped the government draft guidance that protected mental health service-users who were threatened with forced work has refused to criticise major changes to the guidelines that have risked the lives of thousands of benefit claimants. Disability News […]
Documents the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) tried to keep hidden for more than a year have revealed some of the tactics civil servants have used to manipulate media coverage on welfare reform. The “DWP media evaluation” reports have been […]
Two ministers have refused to apologise after they both misled MPs about the impact of the government’s new disability benefit on disabled people. In the space of just 20 minutes, work and pensions secretary Damian Green and minister for disabled people […]
Disabled activists have called for a boycott of the mental health charity Mind, and called on its chief executive to quit, after one of its managers agreed to spend a year working with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). They […]
Mental health survivors and psychologists have joined forces for a conference that has highlighted the extreme damage caused by welfare reform, and has suggested how mental health professionals can help in the fight to improve the benefit system. The Psychologists and […]
A disabled activist has told a parliamentary committee that the Scottish government should “speak out more forcefully” about disabled benefit claimants who have died as a result of the “fitness for work” test. John McArdle, co-founder of the Scottish grassroots campaign […]
The government has confirmed that sick and disabled people who will soon be spared reassessments for out-of-work benefits will still face repeated testing for personal independence payment (PIP). Work and pensions secretary Damian Green’s one key announcement during this week’s party […]
Government ministers know their “fitness for work” system is making disabled people’s health worse, and is increasing the risk of suicides, the award-winning film director Ken Loach has told Disability News Service (DNS). He was speaking ahead of the national release […]
The government has secretly made major changes to guidance given to “fitness for work” benefits assessors that has put the lives of thousands of disabled claimants at risk… and then “lied” about what it had done. The changes appear to show […]
A Labour government would replace the “discredited” fitness for work test with a new assessment but it would not scrap benefit sanctions, the party’s shadow work and pensions secretary has admitted. Debbie Abrahams told a delighted party conference in Liverpool this […]