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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 […]
The number of disabled people on the main out-of-work disability benefit who are being sanctioned by the government for failing to meet strict conditions has fallen close to zero, following years of criticism of the harsh regime. Department for Work and […]
A regulator failed to find a single nurse “not fit to practise” despite more than 220 complaints about face-to-face disability benefit assessments carried out for government contractors, its own figures have revealed. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) figures show it […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been planning for years to move more benefits onto the hugely-troubled IT platform that hosts universal credit, documents released through freedom of information requests appear to show. DWP deposited a substantial number of […]
Disabled activists have called for a boycott of the UK’s first accessible shopping day because of its close links with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and fears that CCTV footage could be used to dispute disability benefit claims. Purple, […]
A minister has suggested that the government would be doing a “great disservice” to disabled people if it stopped sanctioning their out-of-work benefits. The comment by Alok Sharma, the employment minister, came in correspondence with the Commons work and pensions committee […]