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The government’s mainstream benefit sanctions regime has been discriminating against disabled people throughout nearly the whole of the last decade, according to new figures secured by Disability News Service (DNS). The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures, obtained through a […]
A key piece of government legislation that slashed social security payments to disabled people and families with children has led to infant deaths, poor health and severe food poverty, activists, policy experts and academics have told a parliamentary inquiry. The inquiry, […]
The minister for disabled people is today (Thursday) facing questions over why he misled a senior Labour MP about his department’s cover-up of links between its “fitness for work” test and the deaths of disabled people. The failure by Justin Tomlinson […]
An MP has asked the equality and human rights watchdog to investigate why ministers hid documents from their own independent reviewer when they knew the information would link their “fitness for work” test to the deaths of disabled benefit claimants. Labour’s […]
A Labour MP has written to the work and pensions secretary to call for an inquiry into deaths linked to government social security reforms, and for evidence of criminal misconduct by ministers or civil servants to be passed to police. Debbie […]
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 […]
Campaigners have won their fight to persuade MPs to hold a second debate in the House of Commons on the need for the government to assess the overall damage caused to disabled people by years of austerity cuts. The announcement that […]
Work and pensions secretary Esther McVey has refused to say how many disabled claimants are likely to receive backdated benefit payments, following the latest in a series of serious legal errors by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). McVey (pictured) […]
Scores of disabled people and welfare advisers have told a Commons inquiry that disability benefit assessment reports completed on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions are filled with “lies and misinformation”. The work and pensions select committee is carrying […]
Complaints about the personal independence payment (PIP) assessment process rose by nearly 900 per cent last year – from 142 to 1,391 – apparently corroborating the results of a year-long Disability News Service investigation. The Department for Work and Pensions figures […]