• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / Benefits and Poverty / DPOs tells new minister: ‘Disability poverty failure is shocking and unacceptable’
Chloe Smith head and shoulders

DPOs tells new minister: ‘Disability poverty failure is shocking and unacceptable’

By John Pring on 23rd September 2021 Category: Benefits and Poverty

Listen

The new minister for disabled people has been told by many of the country’s leading user-led organisations that the failure to address disability poverty in her government’s new green paper is “shocking and unacceptable”.

Chloe Smith (pictured) was appointed to the post late last week, following the sacking of Justin Tomlinson, and she now assumes responsibility for both the disability benefits green paper and the new disability strategy.

Serious concerns were raised by disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) about both the Shaping Future Support green paper and the National Disability Strategy in the days after their publication this summer.

The new DPO Forum England – which represents 21 of the country’s leading DPOs* and was set up after Tomlinson shut down his own advisory forum of DPOs – has now completed its detailed response to the green paper consultation, which closes on 11 October.

It says in its response that it is “shocking and unacceptable” that the green paper “completely fails to address the inadequacy of the financial support available to disabled people who face multiple and complex barriers to employment”.

It also says that the green paper’s repeated references to “affordability” and rising spending on disability benefits is a “major concern”, while its suggestion of a possible merger of personal independence payment (PIP) and universal credit is “unacceptable”.

And it says that the green paper’s “framework of austerity” is “entirely at odds” with the results of the government survey used to inform the disability strategy, which found that only four per cent of disabled people agreed or strongly agreed that disabled people have enough financial support to meet their needs.

The response also says that the green paper is not based in “reality”, partly because it has failed to apologise to disabled people “for subjecting them to a hostile environment” which has caused “many deaths, large scale poverty, exclusion, and human rights abuses that have been examined in detail and condemned by the United Nations”.

Any reform must ensure that the “harmful practises and culture of the institutions administering benefits are changed to be supportive and constructive”, it says.

The DPO Forum England response also stresses the important of independent advocacy for disabled benefit claimants, which it says would best be provided by local DPOs.

And it raises concerns about the Access to Work scheme, the Disability Confident disability employment scheme, and the “20-metre rule” that prevents many disabled people accessing the PIP enhanced mobility rate, and it calls for the removal of all sanctions from the social security system.

It also contrasts the UK government’s approach to reform with that of the Scottish government, which “has been framed to alleviate Disabled people’s stress and anxiety and a lack of trust in the disability benefits system”.

Meanwhile, last week’s ministerial reshuffle also saw the social care minister, Helen Whately, moved to a role at the Treasury, and replaced by Gillian Keegan, who was previously an education minister.

*Members of the new forum include Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, the Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance, Inclusion London, The Alliance for Inclusive Education, Equal Lives, Disability Positive in Cheshire, Disability Sheffield, and National Survivor User Network

 

A note from the editor:

Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations.

Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009.

Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS…

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on Reddit

Tags: Chloe Smith DPO Forum England DWP Justin Tomlinson Shaping Future Support

Related

DWP yet to sign claimant deaths legal agreement with watchdog
30th June 2022
DWP ignored ‘hugely alarming’ research that linked WCA with 600 suicides, MPs are told
23rd June 2022
DWP’s ‘failing assessment system is increasing poverty and worsening mental health’
23rd June 2022

Primary Sidebar

Image shows a man wearing glasses sitting by an open laptop The text reads: Free Career Support for Disabled People Our services include: 1-2-1 Coaching Online Career Resources Find Support near you Search for Inclusive Jobs Career Events and Workshops Visit the Evenbreak Career Hive today to find out how we can help you

Access

Latest Stories

Disabled people are playing their part in defending their country, say Ukraine activists

DPO gives stark warning to disabled people about Covid pandemic

Covid inquiry ‘must examine catastrophic impact of pandemic on disabled people’

Mayor’s ‘ultra low emission zone’ plans ‘will impact tens of thousands of disabled people’

Disabled activists will push for changes to draft mental health bill that ‘breaches rights’

DWP yet to sign claimant deaths legal agreement with watchdog

‘Huge barrier’ of care charges is forcing disabled people into poverty, peers are told

DWP ignored ‘hugely alarming’ research that linked WCA with 600 suicides, MPs are told

Transport secretary silent after misleading MPs about tactile safety markings

DWP’s ‘failing assessment system is increasing poverty and worsening mental health’

Advice and Information

Readspeaker

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2022 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web