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Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary has attacked the “totally unacceptable” number of disabled people who return to work after being found not fit for work by the government’s assessment system. In a major policy speech, Jonathan Ashworth (pictured) said that […]
The new disability minister has failed to express any concern over figures showing Access to Work waiting-times have almost doubled, while more than 20,000 people have been waiting over six months for a decision on their disability benefit claims. Tom Pursglove […]
A disabled barrister says she could have to abandon vital family law work in court because of the bureaucratic incompetence, complexity and delays within the Access to Work (AtW) scheme. Christina Warner (pictured) has told Disability News Service (DNS) that her […]
New research shows why tens of thousands of disabled people every year are being “managed out” of their jobs by disablist employers. The researchers concluded that the Equality Act was “failing to live up to its potential”, with many employers failing […]
Government plans to cut 91,000 civil service jobs over the next three years are a “travesty” and “another nail in the coffin for decent public services”, disabled campaigners have warned. The cuts would return the civil service to the staffing levels […]
Backlogs in the disability benefit assessment system are having significant knock-on effects on disabled people’s ability to live independently, new evidence has shown. It is showing how lengthy delays in reviewing people’s personal independence payment (PIP) claims are having a substantial […]
The government’s Access to Work (AtW) scheme is in crisis, with new figures showing the number of disabled people waiting for decisions on their applications has more than quadrupled in a year. By 22 March, there were 20,909 disabled people waiting […]
A disabled university lecturer says her job was put at risk by the failure of the Department for Work and Pensions to deal with a huge backlog in Access to Work (AtW) applications. Daisy Higman, a freelance voice teacher and theatre-maker, […]
Disabled people’s organisations and allies have joined together to issue a series of demands to the government that they believe would help to end employment discrimination against disabled people. The new Disability Employment Charter makes demands of the government in nine […]
The new minister for disabled people has refused to comment on figures that show how spending on Access to Work (AtW) plummeted during the pandemic, despite ministers plugging the programme during this week’s Conservative party conference. Chloe Smith highlighted the scheme […]