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The sister of a disabled man who died after being left destitute by having his benefits sanctioned is to seek the help of the high court after a coroner refused for the second time to hold an inquest into his death. […]
Liberal Democrats have voted for a new social security policy that will scrap the “fitness for work” test and all benefit sanctions, despite many disabled party members calling for a more radical approach to welfare reform. The vote at the party’s […]
Government proposals that some groups of disabled people should have their benefits cut if they refuse treatment have been branded “ethically unacceptable” and “sheer bullying”. The Conservative pledge to carry out a review into the proposals was treated with shock and […]
Companies delivering the government’s Work Programme appear to have ignored rules that protect disabled people from serious harm, forcing the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to publish new guidance on its benefit sanctions regime. DWP has accused providers of an […]
The Tory minister for disabled people appears to have accidentally admitted what many disabled activists feared: that a Conservative government would cut the out-of-work benefits of people with mental health conditions if they refused treatment. In a debate broadcast on local […]
MPs have called on the government to set up a new independent body – modelled on the police complaints watchdog – to investigate the deaths of benefit claimants. The recommendation for a new organisation similar to the Independent Police Complaints Commission […]
Disturbing fresh evidence emerged this week that the government’s strict sanctions regime is harming the health and well-being of many out-of-work sick and disabled people. A series of media reports and research publications, as well as an evidence session before MPs, […]
A minister is facing fresh questions over whether her department is failing to take suitable precautions when a “vulnerable” person is about to have their benefits sanctioned. Esther McVey, the Conservative employment minister, caused alarm and confusion in November after she […]
Ministers have admitted they are considering using a legal loophole to avoid publishing the results of secret reviews into 60 benefit-related deaths. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) admitted to Disability News Service (DNS) last month that it had carried […]
Ministers have again refused to offer any explanation for the soaring use of sanctions against claimants of out-of-work disability benefits. Figures published this week by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that the number of decisions to sanction claimants […]