the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues
A user-led commission has called for a “transformational” reboot of the social security system to replace the current “inadequate, demeaning, inefficient” structure that “deliberately scapegoats” unemployed and disabled people. In its final proposals, following more than three years of work, the Commission […]
Proposals by a user-led commission for sweeping reform of the social security system – including a new “extra costs” benefit for disabled people – have secured overwhelming support in a consultation exercise. More than 1,100 people responded to a draft plan […]
Disabled benefit claimants have been facing significant delays with their claims because of pandemic-related issues at Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) mail-handling sites run by one of its contractors, DWP has admitted. Last month, DWP blamed Royal Mail for any […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) may have acted unlawfully after potentially depriving tens of thousands of benefit claimants of thousands of pounds each in back-payments, campaigners believe. Now, after taking legal advice from a leading social security barrister, the […]
Scores of disabled people who have been brutalised by the bureaucracy of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have contributed to a new anthology of poetry and prose that describes their ordeals in “graphic and heart-rending detail”. The Brown Envelope […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has had to send out a panicked message to staff after its IT system mistakenly ordered benefit overpayments owed by thousands of claimants to the government to be written off. Last month, following a […]
The coronavirus crisis has left disabled people feeling “abandoned, ignored and devalued”, according to a new report by user-led organisations and their allies in the north-east of England. The report, Manifesto for a Better Normal, focuses on four key areas that […]
A ground-breaking group of service-users have devised a draft plan for replacing the current working-age benefits system with something that is no longer “guided by stereotypes and myths about disabled people and people in poverty”. The Commission on Social Security, led […]
Disabled people have told MPs how they have been hit particularly hard by the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the benefits system. The Commons work and pensions committee carried out a survey of benefit claimants as part of an inquiry […]
A key helpline that allows Deaf people and those with speech impairments to secure help with their disability benefit claims was out of action for at least six weeks, apparently without the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) even noticing. Campaigners […]