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Four of the country’s nine specialist residential training colleges for disabled people are facing an uncertain future after the government announced a huge shake-up of specialist employability support. The contracting process, completed in less than 15 working days after years of […]
Government plans to restrict how much support any individual can receive through the Access to Work (AtW) scheme are a “huge concern” and will damage efforts to encourage Deaf people to become teachers, lawyers and politicians, campaigners have warned. They spoke […]
The parliamentary ombudsman is dealing with more than 40 complaints about the management of the government’s Access to Work (AtW) scheme. It is just the latest evidence of serious failings within AtW, despite reassurance from ministers that administrative problems and delays […]
Ministers have failed to implement recommendations made nearly two years ago by their own advisers on how to improve the Access to Work (AtW) employment programme, including a vital call to double the number of people using the scheme. The recommendations […]
A minister has been accused of trying to cover up an embarrassing fall in the number of disabled people in work, after he issued a misleading press release about the government’s “jobs miracle”. Mark Harper, the Conservative minister for disabled people, […]
The prospect of a discredited US outsourcing giant achieving a near-monopoly of employment support and assessment services for disabled people has caused alarm, after it emerged that it is bidding to buy what remains of Remploy from the government. Only two […]
Nearly all of the disabled people whose Access to Work (AtW) entitlement is reviewed by the government are having their support cut, according to evidence being compiled by disability organisations. The evidence suggests that the government is only managing to increase […]
Disabled people are being threatened with legal action by a company exasperated by the government’s failure to pay invoices agreed through its Access to Work (AtW) scheme. One self-employed AtW claimant, Jane*, has told how ergonomic office furniture suppliers Back Care […]
The government has agreed to publish secret guidance that shows who is eligible for support under its under-fire Access to Work (AtW) scheme, after it was threatened with legal action by Deaf and disabled campaigners. Lawyers for the Stop Changes to […]
New moves to scrap the role of specialist disability employment advisers (DEAs) in some jobcentres risk “dismantling” the support available to help disabled people into work, campaigners fear. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) confirmed this week that a pilot […]