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Disabled campaigners have described the government’s decision to reintroduce benefit sanctions – in the middle of a pandemic – as “barbaric” and “life threatening”. The decision meant an end to the three-month suspension of benefit sanctions and conditionality* in England, Scotland […]
Disabled people’s organisations have demanded an inquiry into the reasons behind the disproportionately high number of deaths of disabled people during the pandemic, following the publication of “shocking” and long-overdue official figures. They have also called on the government to take […]
The government’s decision to further ease measures that have been protecting hundreds of thousands of disabled people from coronavirus since late March has left many of them “stunned and anxious”, say campaigners. The 2.2 million people currently described as “clinically extremely […]
Disabled activists have called for opponents of universal credit (UC) across the country to help mirror the campaign that led to the poll tax being abandoned in the early 1990s, by joining a new national alliance that is demanding UC is […]
Disabled people have attacked the government’s decision to start lifting the lockdown that has been in place since March, and have warned that some people with long-term health conditions could pay for that move with their lives. The prime minister, Boris […]
A second NHS trust in England has refused to provide people with neuromuscular conditions with the replacement ventilator filters that help keep them alive, because they were being reserved for patients with coronavirus. Last week, there was outrage on social media […]
Significant numbers of disabled people in Scotland have had their care and support packages cut or stopped because of the coronavirus pandemic, new research by a national user-led organisation suggests. Inclusion Scotland said that 30 per cent of those who responded […]
NHS England has agreed to change its policy on hospital visitors so that it no longer discriminates against disabled people, in the face of at least two legal challenges. It was facing the threat of legal action after refusing to update […]
Retailers have brushed off a call from the equality watchdog for supermarkets to ensure that disabled people can shop for food and other essentials during the pandemic crisis. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said a mass legal action being […]
Disabled women have described how the COVID-19 crisis has forced them to increase their dependence on others and has placed them more at risk of domestic abuse, while the need for social isolation has increased their levels of mental distress. Their […]