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Ministers have quietly dumped their promise to test a gentler approach to dealing with claimants who breach strict benefit conditions for the first time. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) agreed in October to trial handing out warnings instead of […]
Work and pensions secretary David Gauke has admitted that the system of benefit sanctions often fails to work and can instead cause harm to claimants, particularly those with mental health conditions. The long-awaited admission was yesterday described by one leading disabled […]
A Liberal Democrat government would scrap all benefit sanctions, end the benefit cap and reverse the controversial personal independence payment (PIP) “20-metre rule” that has led to tens of thousands of disabled people losing their Motability vehicles. Although the three policies […]
The government should replace its “deeply flawed and inaccurate” disability benefits assessments with an in-house system – based on the social model – that understands the barriers faced by Deaf and disabled people, according to a disabled people’s organisation. Inclusion London […]
The sister of a disabled man who died after being left destitute by having his benefits sanctioned has launched a high court legal challenge over a coroner’s refusal to hold an inquest into his death. David Clapson (pictured), who had diabetes, […]
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 […]