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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has extended the contracts of three discredited outsourcing giants blamed for much of the discrimination and failings within the disability benefit assessment system. DWP had been planning to start a contract procurement exercise for […]
The three companies that carry out disability benefit assessments for the government have made almost no progress in the last year on alerting local authorities to concerns about claimants whose safety is at risk, according to a disabled campaigner. Last year, […]
Jobcentre staff have told a Conservative MP of their “grave concern” about the healthcare professionals who carry out disability benefit assessments on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Anthony Mangnall, the MP for Totnes, learned of the concerns […]
Ministers are poised to hand more than a billion pounds to discredited private sector outsourcing giants so they can continue to provide disability benefit assessments for another three years. The plans will apparently see a huge rise in spending on the […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has caused confusion after refusing to say if a newly-announced trial will test the idea of merging assessments for its two main disability benefits. Justin Tomlinson (pictured), the minister for disabled people, announced this […]
A disabled man took his own life after describing how a paramedic ignored the “sheer amount of pain” he was in during a face-to-face assessment, leading the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to remove his benefits and plunge him into […]
Ministers have given the transport industry permission to use inaccessible vehicles for rail replacement services for another three months. In December, it emerged that the government was allowing the industry to continue to use older buses and coaches that do not […]
Thousands of disabled people could have had their benefit claims stopped unlawfully, campaigners believe, after a judge found that letters sent out by government contractors were failing to stress the serious consequences of failing to attend a face-to-face assessment. Upper tribunal […]
A new business that charges benefit claimants £100 to record their disability assessments has been accused of exploiting disabled people’s fears about social security reforms. Disability News Service (DNS) was contacted this week by the Liverpool-based business, which says it provides […]
A company paid to assess disabled people’s fitness for work was put under “immense pressure” by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to find claimants ineligible for out-of-work disability benefits, official records have revealed. DWP has insisted for years that […]