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The new work and pensions secretary has suggested the government’s pledge to halve the disability employment gap will face lengthy delays, after he said he wanted to spend a “few years” testing how to achieve the target. Stephen Crabb, who was […]
The government has rejected three key recommendations by a cross-party committee of MPs that were aimed at improving the safety and transparency of its benefits sanctions regime. In its response to a report published earlier this year by the work and […]
A disabled researcher and campaigner has criticised a new report by a cross-party committee of MPs for failing to acknowledge fully the “perverse contradiction” at the heart of the government’s specialist employment programme. Catherine Hale, who wrote a well-received review on the failure […]
A disabled Labour MP who lost her seat in last week’s general election has warned disabled people to “be very afraid” about the prospect of five years of a Conservative-only government. Dame Anne Begg had won the marginal Aberdeen South seat […]
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 […]
Government ministers have broken their high-profile promise to slash all waiting-times for the new disability benefit to less than four months. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) refused to comment yesterday (Thursday) on the broken promise that – by the […]
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, […]
Disabled activists have condemned the government’s latest refusal to order a major reform of its controversial “fitness for work” assessment. Four months ago, the Commons work and pensions select committee called for “fundamental redesign” of the much-criticised process used to determine […]