the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues
New official figures published alongside this week’s spring statement have again disproved claims that spending on “welfare” is “spiralling out of control”. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) published its latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook report on Tuesday, and it showed […]
New official figures – hidden by government and opposition parties – have exposed months of lies by politicians and the media about “spiralling” spending on social security and the need to cut benefits. The updated statistics from the Office for Budget […]
The disability minister is facing further questions over his commitment to transparency after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) refused to release the names of his new advisers on work and disability benefits, or even the organisations they represent. Five […]
A minister has finally admitted that spending on working-age benefits is stable, and is not spiralling out of control, despite months of claims from his own department and fellow ministers. Sir Stephen Timms (pictured) made the admission as he told the […]
A Labour minister has dismissed a disabled MP’s warning that new anti-fraud legislation will open the door to “Orwellian levels of mass surveillance” of millions of people on means-tested benefits. Liberal Democrat Steve Darling, his party’s work and pensions spokesperson, told […]
A “groundbreaking” legal victory at the high court has provided fuel for disabled activists to fight the new government’s expected cuts to spending on disability benefits, and to call on ministers to meet their legal obligations to co-produce policy. Disabled activist […]
The new Labour government’s policy on social security reform is in chaos after it issued contrasting statements and briefings on budget day about whether – and how – it would press ahead with planned Conservative cuts to spending on out-of-work disability […]
The minister for social security has admitted there are serious safety concerns with universal credit, following coroners’ reports that linked the working-age benefits system with the suicides of two disabled claimants. Sir Stephen Timms is the first minister of any political […]
Disabled people’s organisations and allies have offered strong support for a user-led plan to build a social security system that treats all benefit claimants with “dignity, fairness and respect”, and replaces the government’s “chaotic” universal credit. The plan has been drawn […]
A user-led commission has called for a “transformational” reboot of the social security system to replace the current “inadequate, demeaning, inefficient” structure that “deliberately scapegoats” unemployed and disabled people. In its final proposals, following more than three years of work, the Commission […]