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A record number of disabled people received employment-related support through the government’s Access to Work (AtW) scheme last year, new Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures have revealed. It is also the first time that spending on AtW has exceeded […]
The disabled author of an acclaimed new investigation into the impact of austerity on disabled people has backed calls for an independent inquiry into links between the government’s policies and the deaths of benefit claimants. Frances Ryan (pictured) said there was […]
A senior Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) official has told MPs that a highly-critical UN report on poverty in the UK was “factually correct” and “made a lot of good points”, despite ministers repeatedly attacking its accuracy. Donna Ward, DWP’s […]
A minister has failed to apologise after he was caught misleading an influential committee of MPs about the impact of his government’s cuts on disabled people. Justin Tomlinson, a former minister for disabled people, was being questioned by the Commons work […]
The experiences of disabled people whose lives have been devastated by austerity-related cuts were discussed in parliament last night as MPs took part in a long-awaited debate on the impact of eight years of cuts to disability support. The backbench debate […]
The minister for disabled people is refusing to apologise to MPs for misleading them about a report by a UN human rights expert on the UK’s record on causing and addressing extreme poverty. Professor Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on […]
The UN expert investigating the government’s record on eradicating poverty has described how he has heard “pretty horrendous” evidence from disabled people while conducting a 12-day factfinding visit to the UK. Professor Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty […]
A UN expert has heard how a man with learning difficulties died a month after attempting to take his own life, following a move onto the government’s “chaotic” universal credit benefit system that left him hundreds of pounds in debt. An […]
A new exhibition is charting how artists have fought back against attacks on disabled people’s rights and financial support over the last six years. Shape Arts’ retrospective, Cumulative Effect: Disability and the Welfare State, looks at how that work has reacted […]
Disabled Labour supporters have described some of the ways in which left-wing activists could push back against years of government austerity, oppression and attacks on inclusion. They were speaking at two events taking place on the fringes of this week’s Labour […]