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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is facing claims that it has been running a discriminatory benefit sanctions regime, following the publication of new research. Academic Ben Baumberg Geiger has found that more than 900,000 disabled claimants of the mainstream […]
The parents of a disabled man who took his own life after being wrongly found “fit for work” have backed attempts to persuade Scottish police to investigate the actions of former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith. David and Maureen […]
Civil servants and ministers dismissed a coroner’s concerns about the safety of the government’s “fitness for work” test, according to a draft response that apparently lay in Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) files for six years. Coroner Tom Osborne wrote […]
A disabled man has accused the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) of victimising him and ruining his life after it tried – and failed – to prosecute him for benefit fraud, despite letters from medical professionals confirming his serious medical […]
Ministers and civil servants were “ruthless” and “reckless” in forcing through their new “fitness for work” test and refusing to abandon it even after they were told of the harm it was causing, according to a former government adviser. Professor Geoff […]
Charity campaigners are calling for disabled people to support their search for just seven Tory MPs willing to rebel against their government and so defeat plans for “appalling” cuts to out-of-work disability benefits. Several of the disability and health charities at […]
Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith appears set to scrap the “fitness for work” test championed by successive Labour, coalition and Conservative governments, but there are fears that its replacement could prove even more damaging to disabled people. Duncan Smith […]
The long-delayed release of government figures on the deaths of benefit claimants has added fuel to years of concerns about the impact of aggressive welfare reform on sick and disabled people. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) released two sets […]
One of the companies at the heart of the government’s welfare-to-work programme is facing allegations that it introduced an “incredibly dangerous” cost-cutting move that could put the lives of many disabled benefit claimants at risk. Earlier this year A4E allegedly introduced […]
Ministers have admitted they are considering using a legal loophole to avoid publishing the results of secret reviews into 60 benefit-related deaths. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) admitted to Disability News Service (DNS) last month that it had carried […]