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Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith appears set to scrap the “fitness for work” test championed by successive Labour, coalition and Conservative governments, but there are fears that its replacement could prove even more damaging to disabled people. Duncan Smith […]
The long-delayed release of government figures on the deaths of benefit claimants has added fuel to years of concerns about the impact of aggressive welfare reform on sick and disabled people. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) released two sets […]
New evidence proves that the controversial outsourcing contractor Atos should be stripped of all of its disability benefit assessment contracts, say disabled campaigners. Fresh concerns about the behaviour of Atos and its assessors emerged after Disability News Service (DNS) revealed last […]
A new report has called for the “toxic” work capability assessment (WCA) to be scrapped and replaced with something that paints a more realistic picture of the barriers disabled people face in society. The Rethinking the Work Capability Assessment report, by […]
A disabled activist has described feeling “violated” after she learned a judge had compiled a dossier of evidence about her community and campaigning work while assessing whether the government’s “fitness for work” test posed a risk to her health. DM was […]
The senior civil servant previously responsible for government policy on the notorious “fitness for work” test could start offering advice on the same issue to his new private sector bosses within weeks. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) suggested last […]
A disabled peer has warned her own government that tightening social security rules even further could lead to more deaths of benefit claimants, days after Disability News Service (DNS) revealed there had been 60 secret reviews into such tragedies. Last week’s […]
The government has sparked fury after appointing a US company with a lengthy record of discrimination, incompetence and alleged fraud to take over delivery of its controversial “fitness for work” tests from the much-criticised Atos Healthcare. Disability News Service (DNS) revealed […]