Work and pensions ministers have been told that their rhetoric on disability benefits is fuelling an atmosphere of hatred and hostility towards disabled people.
On the same day that six national disability charities warned that the government’s focus on “fakers and scroungers” was causing disability hate crime, a coalition minister was told his colleagues’ approach risked [...]
The disability movement looks set for a legal showdown with the government, after the coalition prepared to force deeply unpopular measures within its welfare reform bill into law.
More than 20 disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) and other charities are now discussing a possible legal case against the government.
Leading figures in the movement had already discussed halting [...]
A disabled senior government adviser has admitted failing to tell civil servants about freelance work she carried out for an insurance giant that is set to make millions from the coalition’s incapacity benefit (IB) reforms.
Dr Rachel Perkins, chair of the government’s Equality 2025 high-level advisory body of disabled people, ran a half-day training event in [...]
New figures show the number of disabled people found eligible for unconditional support under the much-criticised “fitness for work” regime has doubled since its introduction by the Labour government in 2008.
Figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) this week reveal that the proportion of new claimants who have completed an assessment and [...]
A senior government adviser has failed to declare freelance work carried out for the insurance giant set to make huge financial gains through the coalition’s incapacity benefit (IB) reforms, Disability News Service (DNS) can reveal.
The adviser failed to declare the work carried out for the insurance company Unum in the register of interests, DNS understands.
The [...]
A senior disabled MP is to examine the government’s failure to respond to allegations that it misled parliament over its disability living allowance (DLA) reforms.
Dame Anne Begg, the Labour MP who chairs the influential work and pensions select committee, this week raised serious concerns about the government’s “overly dismissive” response to last week’s Responsible Reform, [...]
Leading figures in the disability movement say they could stop cooperating with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) if the government’s welfare reform bill becomes law.
Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) are becoming increasingly angry at the government’s failure to listen to their views, despite its frequent references to how it is “co-producing” its reforms with [...]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the three main political parties are refusing to say how often ministers have met with an insurance company set to make huge financial gains from incapacity benefit reform.
Disability News Service (DNS) submitted a request to the DWP under the Freedom of Information Act to ask how many [...]
The decision to reject a leading disabled activist’s application for disability living allowance (DLA) has fuelled fears that the government is deliberately turning down eligible claims as part of its programme of spending cuts.
Sue Marsh has had seven life-saving operations to her bowel, endures chemotherapy injections every fortnight, experiences daily exhaustion, pain and nausea, has [...]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has turned away disabled activists who wanted to deliver a campaigning Christmas card on behalf of 23,000 people who signed a petition calling for urgent changes to the welfare reform bill.
Representatives from The Hardest Hit campaign had told the DWP they would be delivering the card – designed [...]
Outraged campaigners say a new government-backed benefit fraud campaign could expose disabled people to hostility and violence in their own communities.
The national campaign has been launched by the “crime-fighting” charity Crimestoppers and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and centres on a poster featuring eight members of the public looking angry, shocked and hostile, [...]
The government will be forced to spend an extra £1 billion a year, after over-estimating how many people would be found “fit for work” through a controversial new assessment.
A report from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) says the government is forecast to spend an extra £1 billion a year on employment and support [...]
The government has refused to say how it will fund its decision to abandon plans to remove a key mobility benefit from disabled people in residential care.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said the move – announced today by the Conservative minister for disabled people, Maria Miller – would be funded through other measures [...]
A cabinet minister has been heavily criticised after again appearing to encourage national newspapers to run stories attacking disabled benefit claimants.
Last week, work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith was criticised by the work and pensions committee for “pandering to the Daily Mail” and sending out misleading press releases about incapacity benefits.
Duncan Smith protested that [...]
The government has finally admitted that large numbers of confidential medical questionnaires – submitted by disabled people as part of their benefit claims – are being opened by Royal Mail staff.
Disabled activists first suggested early last month that ESA50 questionnaires were being opened by Royal Mail, before being forwarded to Atos Healthcare, the company that [...]
MPs have accused the government of “pandering to the Daily Mail” over the issue of incapacity benefit reform, after it published a misleading press release about the results of its “fitness for work” tests.
Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith was asked to explain the way his department had presented the latest figures on the [...]
A sudden government move to cut the length of time benefit claimants have to fill in a lengthy medical questionnaire will make it harder for them to obtain the support they need, say campaigners.
Disabled people claiming employment and support allowance (ESA), the new out-of-work disability benefit, previously had six weeks to fill in the lengthy [...]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has rewritten rules that were making it harder for disabled people to use a key employment support scheme to find and keep work.
The new rules had been highlighted by the Essex-based disabled people’s organisation ecdp in August after it was contacted by members and staff concerned by the [...]