ESA

Benefits and Poverty

August 16, 2018 0

Disability charity’s appointment of Unum boss as new chair ‘is truly disgraceful’

A disability charity’s decision to choose as its new chair the head of a company closely linked with the government’s hated “fitness for work” test has been branded “a betrayal” of disabled people and “a truly disgraceful appointment”. United Response, which provides a range of support services to about 3,000 disabled people across England

Benefits and Poverty

A protester in a crime scene outfit crouches by a sign saying universal credit is a crime

August 2, 2018 0

DWP agrees to pay thousands to disabled duo in universal credit court case

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has finally agreed to pay compensation to two disabled men who saw their benefits drastically reduced when they were forced onto the new universal credit. The high court had ruled in June that DWP unlawfully discriminated against the two men, known as TP and AR for legal

Benefits and Poverty

July 19, 2018 0

DWP is asked why ‘not fit for work’ universal credit claimants are being sanctioned

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A minister has been asked why the benefits of hundreds of sick and disabled claimants are apparently being sanctioned, even though they should not have to meet any of the strict conditions imposed by the government’s new universal credit system. Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures show that more than 1,100 claimants of

Benefits and Poverty

Esther McVey speaking in the House of Commons

July 19, 2018 0

McVey’s U-turn means DWP will pay at least £100 million more to disabled claimants

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Disabled people will be paid more than £100 million extra in backdated benefits owed by the government, after a U-turn by work and pensions secretary Esther McVey on the eve of a court hearing. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had previously only agreed to offer a partial backpayment to an estimated 70,000

Benefits and Poverty

July 12, 2018 0

DWP silence over ‘thousands of ESA claims lost in IT black hole’

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has told a disabled woman whose benefit claims repeatedly went missing that thousands of other claimants have lost their applications in the same departmental black hole. Vicky Pearson, from Lincolnshire, had to survive for nearly two weeks without food over Christmas and the new year, a distressing

Benefits and Poverty

Esther McVey giving evidence to the committee

July 12, 2018 0

MPs raise concerns with McVey over ‘stress and poverty’ caused by WRAG cuts

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Cross-party MPs have raised a series of concerns with work and pensions secretary Esther McVey about the government’s treatment of disabled people on out-of-work benefits. Members of the Commons work and pensions select committee were questioning McVey (pictured) more than a year after her government introduced cuts of nearly £30 a week to payments to

Benefits and Poverty

Sarah Newton speaking in the House of Commons

June 28, 2018 0

‘Failing’ DWP announces ‘sixth review’ of benefit records after latest foul-ups

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) looks set to have to carry out six separate trawls through the records of disabled people unfairly deprived of benefits because of serious errors by senior civil servants. The minister for disabled people, Sarah Newton (pictured), told MPs this week that she was “pleased” that her department

Benefits and Poverty

June 14, 2018 0

Atos assessor told gay man he was ‘defective’ and needed to be cured by God

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A doctor working for the government contractor Atos told a gay disabled man she was assessing for his entitlement to disability benefits that his sexuality meant he was “defective” and that God needed to fix him like a “broken” car. Atos was forced to pay Keith Morgan compensation after he was subjected to an

Benefits and Poverty

The outside of the Royal Courts of Justice

June 14, 2018 0

DWP in disarray as fresh legal defeat could mean fourth trawl through its records

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) looks set to carry out a fourth major search through its records to find disabled people who have been unfairly deprived of benefits, following the latest in a series of damaging legal defeats. Today (Thursday), the high court ruled that DWP had unlawfully discriminated against two disabled

Benefits and Poverty

June 7, 2018 0

DWP silence over new PIP backdating call

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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) has withdrawn appeals against two tribunal findings that her department wrongly deprived people

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