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There are fresh calls for an inquiry into the way the government assesses eligibility for a key disability benefit, after claimants with mental health conditions described how they had been asked in assessments why they had not taken their own lives. […]
The information commissioner has questioned why the government failed to keep track of whether it had implemented recommendations on improving the safety of “vulnerable” disabled people that had been made in its own secret reports into benefit-related deaths. Elizabeth Denham said […]
A disabled woman is seeking a judicial review by the high court of the errors she says were made in dealing with her claim for personal independence payment (PIP), and which she believes put her life at risk. Angela Kennedy, from […]
Healthcare professionals who carry out disability benefits assessments for the government complete as much as 60 per cent of their reports before they meet the disabled person they are supposed to be assessing, according to a disgraced former assessor. Paramedic Alan […]
A disabled woman who took her own life after being told she had lost a benefits appeal had written a letter to civil servants describing the unfairness of the face-to-face assessment that had led to her losing her support. The Department […]
A system that allows barristers who are paid by DWP to prosecute benefit fraud cases to also sit as judges on tribunals that decide social security appeals is “unquestionably wrong” and a “direct conflict of interest”, say welfare rights experts. The […]
A disabled woman who lost her disability benefits because of a controversial reassessment process took her own life just two days after being told her appeal had failed. The body of Susan Margaret Roberts (pictured) was discovered by a care worker […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has denied there is any dishonesty among the healthcare professionals who carry out its benefits assessments, even though Disability News Service (DNS) has now collected 100 cases where such allegations have been made. Disabled […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is facing questions over why it failed to release the results of a pilot project that was supposed to correct a fatal flaw in its “fitness for work” test. DWP had promised a judge […]
The Green Party has written to work and pensions secretary Damian Green to demand an independent inquiry into benefit claimants whose deaths have been linked to the failings of his department. The letter has been signed by the Green Party’s co-leader, […]