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The new minister for disabled people is facing criticism over her voting record on disability issues from a user-led organisation that provides support in her own constituency. The Cornish MP Sarah Newton was appointed as the new minister late last week […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has admitted that – despite a legal ruling – it can only pay disability benefit claimants a few months-worth of backdated payments, even if they have been missing out on the correct amount for […]
Campaigners have asked why it took the government four years – and a tribunal judgement – to ensure that eligibility for a disability benefit takes proper account of whether a disabled person can carry out certain activities safely. Penny Mordaunt, the […]
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 […]
Ministers are to test a new approach to dealing with claimants who breach strict benefit conditions for the first time, in the latest sign that the government is finally listening to calls to soften its much-criticised sanctions regime. The Department for […]
The minister for disabled people has dismissed a damning UN report on her government’s disability rights record, arguing that the rest of the world should instead be learning from the UK’s policies. Penny Mordaunt was speaking weeks after the UN’s committee […]
The minister for disabled people has again misled MPs, after she claimed that the UK had “volunteered” to take part in a public UN examination which concluded that her government’s disability policies had caused a “human catastrophe”. Penny Mordaunt was responding […]
Changes that mean some sick and disabled benefit claimants will no longer need to face repeated assessments of their capability for work are “meaningless” because the government has refused to say which people will be affected, say campaigners. The Department for […]
A newly-elected MP has accused the government of putting its “head in the sand” over the damage caused by years of cuts that have been “targeted” on disabled people. Marsha de Cordova, one of two newly-elected disabled Labour MPs, says she […]
Work and pensions ministers have refused to explain why plans for new social security legislation were dropped from last week’s Queen’s speech. Disability News Service reported last week how a Tory election promise to “dismantle” the work capability assessment (WCA) through […]