the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues
The deputy prime minister’s promise to make mental health one of his party’s top policy priorities in fighting the next general election has sparked praise and anger from disabled campaigners. Nick Clegg said mental health would be “smack bang on the […]
Liberal Democrats have rejected calls for their party to pledge rises in social care spending that match those on the NHS, if it wins the next election. During a debate at this week’s Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow on the “core […]
A disabled peer could be set to become the first wheelchair-user to head a major UK political party. Baroness [Sal] Brinton is campaigning to become president of the Liberal Democrats, and is up against three other candidates. One survey of party […]
The disabled activist who chaired the committee that drew up the Liberal Democrat’s raft of new equality policies has told the party that they offer a “vision for a fairer society with opportunity for all”. Belinda Brooks-Gordon told her party’s annual […]
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 […]
Conservative ministers and MPs have attempted to persuade visitors to their annual conference that the party’s sweeping welfare reforms are helping to support disabled people back into work. Welfare reform minister Lord [David] Freud even bragged at one fringe event that […]
A disabled Conservative campaigner who is battling to save the Independent Living Fund (ILF) has accused her own party of avoiding the “hot potato” issue of social care. ILF-user Mary Laver travelled from her home on the edge of Newcastle-upon-Tyne to […]
A disabled charity boss has described the “uphill battle” she has faced in trying to persuade the NHS to improve its wheelchair services for disabled children. Ruth Owen, chief executive of Whizz-Kidz, told her charity’s fringe meeting at this week’s Conservative […]