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New research links a significant rise in sickness and mental ill-health since the start of the pandemic to an increase in the number of people claiming disability benefits, just as ministers prepare to announce significant cuts to that support. The research […]
Disabled people have described how “disgraceful” and stressful waiting-times on a benefit enquiry line are now regularly lasting as long as 90 minutes. The minister for disabled people, Tom Pursglove (pictured), admitted last month that the average waiting time for the […]
Disabled activists have spoken of their anger and distress after the BBC broadcast a drama – starring one of the country’s best-known disabled actors – that they say mirrors years of deeply damaging government rhetoric about benefit cheats. The BBC Four […]
A ground-breaking group of service-users have devised a draft plan for replacing the current working-age benefits system with something that is no longer “guided by stereotypes and myths about disabled people and people in poverty”. The Commission on Social Security, led […]
Two government departments are breaching equality laws and their human rights obligations by failing to ensure that disabled people can record their face-to-face benefit assessments and appeal tribunals, legal researchers have concluded. They say the delay by the Department for Work […]
The two outsourcing companies paid hundreds of millions of pounds to carry out disability benefit assessments have never met contractual quality standards on the reports their staff write for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), they have told MPs. Capita […]
Ministers have been accused of “absurdity and obfuscation” after refusing to explain why they do not publish statistics showing the number of assessments carried out on disabled people applying for their new disability benefit. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) […]
Paralympians heading to Rio next week have lost their Motability vehicles after being reassessed as part of the government’s programme of benefit cuts and reforms, a member of the ParalympicsGB team has revealed. Some Paralympians have spoken previously of the importance […]
When Ben Rowlings lines up on the start-line in Rio, he will know that he could not have done anything more to prepare himself for his bid to win a medal. The wheelchair racer, who is taking part in his first […]
A nurse has been struck off after pretending that she had assessed disabled people for their eligibility for disability benefits in their own homes, when she had actually carried out the assessments by telephone. Amelia Victoria Bailey was conducting personal independence […]