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Scottish criminal justice agencies have rejected pleas to investigate the failure of two ministers to improve the safety of the government’s “fitness for work” test, despite evidence that their actions caused the deaths of at least three benefit claimants. Police Scotland […]
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) civil servants ignored media coverage that exposed how ministers’ policies had led to the deaths of benefit claimants, in a series of confidential reports for their bosses. The DWP Media Evaluation reports, obtained by Disability […]
Iain Duncan Smith has denied responsibility for the deaths of people with mental health conditions who took their own lives after being unfairly found fit for work by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Duncan Smith was speaking to Disability […]
Government ministers know their “fitness for work” system is making disabled people’s health worse, and is increasing the risk of suicides, the award-winning film director Ken Loach has told Disability News Service (DNS). He was speaking ahead of the national release […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is refusing to publish nine secret reviews into the deaths of benefit claimants, despite finally admitting that seven of them relate to people who took their own lives. DWP only released the information after […]
A physiotherapist took just 35 minutes to carry out a face-to-face assessment that led to a man with complex mental health problems being found “fit for work”, a decision that appears to have triggered his suicide. Last week, the parents of […]
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 […]
The government has signed up only about 40 mainstream private sector employers to its flagship Disability Confident employment scheme in the three years since it was launched by the prime minister, new figures reveal. An analysis by Disability News Service (DNS) […]
Labour’s shadow chancellor has called for Iain Duncan Smith to face criminal charges over allegations that his failure to address a coroner’s concerns about the “fitness for work” test led to the deaths of disabled benefit claimants. John McDonnell (pictured) made […]
Ministers have refused to say if they implemented 10 measures – recommended by their own civil servants – that would have made it less likely that “vulnerable” benefit claimants would lose their lives. The 10 recommendations were taken from some of […]