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Work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey has rejected calls from her own social security advisers to give claimants of employment and support allowance (ESA) the same £1,000 increase in their annual allowance given to those receiving universal credit. The increase, which […]
Levels of satisfaction with working-age disability benefits plummeted in the two years to spring 2019, new Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) research has revealed. The DWP figures show a huge 15 per cent fall in the proportion of claimants of […]
The government is refusing to release documents that would show the expected impact on disabled people of the legislation and policies it produced in response to the coronavirus pandemic. In May, Disability News Service (DNS) asked the Cabinet Office to release […]
The government’s own benefits advisers have told ministers that it is “increasingly untenable” for them to refuse to pay those on out-of-work disability benefits the temporary increase of £20 a week being paid to claimants of universal credit. The increase in […]
Trying to force disabled people into work by threatening to sanction their benefits is ineffective and likely to harm their health, and even put their lives at risk, according to research co-produced with a disabled people’s organisation. The fear instilled by […]
A new legal challenge by the family of a man who starved to death after his out-of-work disability benefits were wrongly removed has exposed years of dishonesty, failings and broken promises by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The family […]
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 […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has refused to say whether it could strip out-of-work benefits from disabled people who are fighting coronavirus while trying to meet strict deadlines for assessment of their eligibility. DWP’s refusal to clarify the situation […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has caused confusion after refusing to say if a newly-announced trial will test the idea of merging assessments for its two main disability benefits. Justin Tomlinson (pictured), the minister for disabled people, announced this […]
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 […]