It is “entirely obvious” that the government’s welfare cuts are “falling entirely” on disabled people and families with children, according to a leading academic.

Professor Paul Gregg, an economic and social policy expert at the University of Bath, told a TUC seminar on the government’s cuts and reforms that disabled people were “very much getting the sharp end of the stick”.

Professor Gregg also dismissed government claims that welfare spending had spiralled out of control, and said that – prior to the recession – it had been growing at its slowest rate since the Second World War.

Professor Gregg, who conducted a review of personalised support and conditionality in the welfare system for the Department for Work and Pensions in 2009, helped design employment and support allowance (ESA) – the replacement for incapacity benefit – but has since been highly critical of the work capability assessment, the test used to determine eligibility for ESA.

He said he believed the coalition’s reforms were “entirely driven by cuts”, rather than by the intention to help people into work.

He said there should be no compulsion for disabled people to take or look for work and that instead they needed to be “supported, brought along”, while efforts to encourage them back into work should be “an entirely voluntary process”.

He told the seminar that the government’s welfare reforms were “making it substantially harder to build that positive agenda for trying to help people back to work”.

Professor Gregg also said it was “completely unacceptable” that the government was making no effort to track the progress of disabled people who had been found “fit for work” through the WCA, but would have been on incapacity benefit under the old system.

Disabled activist and blogger Kaliya Franklin, one of the authors of this month’s Responsible Reform report on how the government responded to its disability living allowance consultation, said disabled people were seeing a “perfect storm that threatens to undo all the progress of the last 40 years”.

She pointed to cuts to social care support at the same time as the reforms and cuts to benefits, increased disability hate crime and continuing calls for legalised euthanasia, while efforts to push disabled people into full-time employment were becoming “more and more punitive”.

She said: “If we continue down that road, although it sounds like hyperbole, we can expect to see many more deaths linked to these cuts because disabled and sick people will simply say they have no alternative and feel that life is simply not worth living.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

Nearly two-thirds of local authorities in England have reduced their spending on support in the community for disabled and older people, according to a survey commissioned by a committee of MPs.

The survey, carried out for the Commons health select committee as part of its review of public spending in health and social care, found budgets for community support fell by nearly 10 per cent this year, compared with 2010-11.

At the same time, charges for users of care services were set to rise in 2011-12 from 13 per cent to 13.5 per cent of the total social care budget.

Across the 67 councils that responded to the survey, social care budgets fell by an average of 1.1 per cent between 2010/11 and 2011/12.

The report concludes that – despite “government assurances” – local authorities are “having to raise eligibility criteria in order to maintain social care services to those in greatest need”.

It adds: “The overall picture of social care is of a service that is continuing to function by restricting eligibility, by making greater savings on other local authority functions and by forcing down the price it pays to contractors for services.”

It concludes that total spending on social care fell by at least 1.5 per cent in 2011-12, although a survey by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services suggested spending on adult social care had fallen by 6.8 per cent.

The committee said it hoped that the government’s response to the Dilnot commission’s proposals on the funding of long-term care and support, due this spring, would “set out how a sustainably funded system will continue into the future”.

But the report adds: “The challenge for local authorities and the government is to continue to provide a meaningful service until a new system is in place.”

Responding to the committee’s report, Conservative health secretary Andrew Lansley said councils received enough government funding to “maintain the current levels of access and eligibility”, but “need to work smarter with their health professional colleagues to bring integrated services closer to people’s homes in the community”.

He added: “They need to look at how investing in innovative technology and ways of working, like telehealth and reablement, can give patients better results closer to home and free up more money for frontline services.”

He said the government would set out its plans for reforming adult social care in the spring.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

The broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has come under attack again after ruling that an offensive, disablist routine by comedian Ricky Gervais did not breach its broadcasting code.

Channel 4, which broadcast Gervais’s stand-up show Science last October, has refused to apologise despite the comedian repeatedly describing the singer Susan Boyle as looking like “a mong”, a highly offensive term for people with Down’s syndrome.

In his routine, Gervais said: “…I don’t think she’d be where she was today if it wasn’t for the fact that she looked like such a fucking mong.”

He went on to say that there was “no better word to describe Susan Boyle” – who herself has a learning difficulty – but claimed the word was no longer used to describe someone with Down’s syndrome.

Channel 4 claimed the use of the word was justified in the context of a stand-up routine, and that Gervais’s humour “was rooted in the explanation of how language evolves”, while he had not intended to cause offence, and any “offence inherent in a joke of this nature was reduced by the programme’s late night scheduling”.

Ofcom ruled that although “several aspects of this content had the potential to cause considerable offence”, it “was justified by the context of this provocative comedy routine challenging the evolution of words” in a late-night broadcast.

But Michael White, drummer with the band Heavy Load, who has Down’s syndrome, said it was “a disgraceful word to use”.

He said: “It makes me upset, seeing other people not happy. If they can’t say something nice about disabled people they should go away. I don’t want to know them, go home.”

White, who said he was called a “mong” himself when he was younger, criticised Ofcom for ruling in Channel 4’s favour. He also said Channel 4 should have apologised over the incident.

Last year, his band produced their own version of the Ting Tings hit That’s Not My Name, with a video featuring disabled stars Mat Fraser and Pete Bennett, to protest at disablist hate language, including the use of words such as “mong” and “mental”.

The song is included on their latest album, Wham, which also features Walk Like Vinnie Jones, a song mocking the actor’s use of the word “retard” on Celebrity Big Brother.

Anne Novis, a leading disabled hate crime campaigner and a member of the Ministry of Justice’s hate crime advisory group, said she believed broadcasters that continued to allow the use of “abusive language and jokes to belittle disabled people” could be breaching their legal duties under the Equality Act.

She said: “The words we use to describe people can be hurtful, abusive and encourage others to view disabled people negatively.

“This then can lead to harassment and hostility as people feel justified in their attitudes by the way some media and broadcasters portray us.”

It is just the latest in a series of incidents in which Channel 4 has been criticised by disabled activists over the use of disablist language in its publicity material and by its presenters and stars.

The criticisms of Channel 4 are particularly sensitive as it will be the host broadcaster for the London 2012 Paralympics later this year.

A Channel 4 spokesman refused to apologise for allowing Gervais’s comments to be screened.

He said the channel had decided that to cut the comments out of the programme would have amounted to “censoring a stand-up performance”.

He added: “The editorial judgement we made was that that particular routine appeared in the context of a routine about the use of language. That is why we thought it was editorially justified to keep it in.”

An OFCOM spokesman said: “We do look at it on a case-by-case basis. If it were to happen again and the circumstances were different, it is not to say we wouldn’t make a different decision.”

On the same day as the Gervais ruling, Ofcom also cleared ITV of breaching the code after presenter Eamonn Holmes called one of his guests on This Morning “retarded”.

Ofcom said that although the word was capable of causing offence, it had been used unscripted in a live broadcast and Holmes had apologised on-air shortly afterwards, so it considered the case to be “resolved”.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

A leading user-led arts organisation has raised new concerns over the search for volunteers to take part in the opening and closing ceremonies of the London 2012 Paralympics.

Last week, disabled artists and performers warned that many disabled people would be put off by a call from London 2012 for 5,000 volunteers with “huge amounts of energy”.

The 2012 organising committee LOCOG has defended the call and says volunteers will need “an expectation of what is required of them so they do not drop out when they realise it is going to be quite demanding”.

Now CoolTan Arts, the London-based arts charity which is run by and for adults with mental distress, has raised new concerns about LOCOG’s volunteer call.

LOCOG wrote to CoolTan saying that it was urgently seeking more volunteers to take part in the two Paralympic ceremonies, but suggested they would have to pay for their own travel and food.

Michelle Baharier, CoolTan’s chief executive, said the itinerary proposed for volunteers by LOCOG was also totally inappropriate.

She said: “They want them to turn up for rehearsals about four days a week. They are not willing to pay people’s fares, they are not willing to give people refreshments.

“Their demands outstrip what everybody running a volunteer project would normally expect.

“There are a lot of people who would love to be part of the ceremony. They would like it to be more accessible, but they would like it to be on their terms.”

Baharier said she was disappointed that disabled people did not seem to be in control of the artistic and cultural celebrations around the Paralympics.

Following repeated requests from Disability News Service over the last eight days for information about travel and support for their volunteers, LOCOG finally pledged that it would ask “all auditionees (and subsequently cast members) to indicate what support might be required so that we can help facilitate their involvement”.

A LOCOG spokesman added: “We want to make sure applicants who are deaf or disabled are provided with the necessary support during each stage of the process.”

He said that all those cast in the opening and closing ceremonies would be given Transport for London “Oyster” travel cards that would allow them to travel to and from the rehearsal venues for no charge, as long as they lived within zones one to six, which cover all of Greater London.

He added: “For all our rehearsals we supply water (other beverages to be confirmed). For our long all-day rehearsals we will supply meal packs.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

Disabled activists are warning that local authorities could try to copy a council that has withdrawn funding from a direct payments support service.

Even though government guidance encourages councils to provide an independent advice and information service for users of direct payments, Hampshire County Council has stopped funding the service that had been provided by Southampton Centre for Independent Living (SCIL).

From the beginning of this month, users of direct payments in Hampshire who need support to manage their direct payments or personal budgets have had to ask social services for extra funding, and then use that money to buy the support themselves.

The funding stopped only three weeks ago, but SCIL is already receiving calls from disabled people in Hampshire who are being given incomplete or incorrect advice by their care managers.

Problems they could face include disciplinary, redundancy and other legal issues with their PAs. Direct payments experts say such advice can prevent disabled people being taken to employment tribunals by their PAs.

SCIL had to make 10 employees – about half of its staff – redundant when Hampshire withdrew funding, although it still provides a similar service in Southampton.

But SCIL fears that other local authorities could follow Hampshire’s example.

Robert Droy, SCIL’s independent living team manager, said: “What it means is that we are no longer funded to help people to live independently and that is everything the government keep saying they want.

“It just feels kind of contradictory. If anything, more people are going to need help in the future, not less.

“We just worry that other local authorities will look at it and think, ‘Hampshire have got away with it. Maybe we can get away with it.’”

Hampshire has pledged to provide funding to disabled people for advice and support if and when they need it, but Droy said: “You don’t necessarily want to spend a month getting funding to get the help you need to sort it out.”

He said he believed Hampshire’s move was a cost-cutting measure.

A Hampshire County Council spokeswoman said they had decided to “re-evaluate” the way they delivered services as a result of the move towards greater personalisation of care and support.

She denied the move was a cost-cutting measure, and said: “Existing contracts for direct payments support finished at the end of last year and [were] replaced with a system which allows the individual to choose what support they need from the organisation which best suits them.

“The aim of this change is to provide a fair and consistent service which will reflect the level of need required, providing people with greater choice, control and flexibility over which provider they purchase their direct payments support service from.”

But she admitted SCIL had passed on concerns about inaccurate advice being given by care managers, which she said the council would “investigate fully”.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “It is for councils to provide information, advice and support services to enable people to make informed choices about the type of services they wish to receive.

“Adult social care is a locally delivered system, and local authorities are accountable to their local populations for the decisions they make.

“While some may be cutting services, others are working innovatively to provide high quality services at lower cost.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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 are placed in the support group – for those not expected to carry out any work-related activity – had risen from 11 per cent in late 2008 to 22 per cent by the middle of 2011.

The proportion placed in the “work-related activity group” – for those disabled people with limited capability for work – fell from 25 to 21 per cent by mid-2011.

And the percentage of claimants found “fit for work” using the work capability assessment (WCA) dropped from 65 to 57 per cent.

The DWP report on the figures says the rise in the number of disabled people placed in the support group could be partly due to improvements to the WCA introduced in the wake of Professor Malcolm Harrington’s first annual review of the test.

The figures provide yet more evidence of the unfairness of the original WCA that was introduced in 2008 by the Labour government to test eligibility for employment and support allowance (ESA), the replacement for incapacity benefit.

Disabled campaigners believe the WCA is still inflexible, unfair and inaccurate, despite the changes aimed at improving the test.

Conservative employment minister Chris Grayling welcomed the new figures, and said: “We are seeing an increase in the number of severely disabled people being given long-term unconditional support, which shows that our reforms to the work capability assessment are starting to work.”

The figures were released as disabled activists prepared to carry out a “daring and disruptive” act of civil disobedience in central London in protest at the government’s welfare reform bill, which includes brutal cuts to spending on ESA.

The action is set to be the first since an activist from the Disabled People’s Direct Action Network (DAN) told Disability News Service in November that the government should expect an imminent return to the kind of high-profile, non-violent protests last seen in the 1990s.

The protest is due to take place on Saturday 28 January, and will include activists from DAN and Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), with support from UK Uncut, the grassroots anti-austerity direct action network.

Richard Whitehurst, of DPAC, said disabled people were being forced to “live in fear” because of the cuts.

He said: “Cuts to disabled people’s benefits and services will not save money but will ultimately cost the taxpayer far more as pushing disabled people into destitution and withdrawing care services will lead to an increased demand for NHS care.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

A disability charity has begun legal action against a budget airline over its failure to make its website accessible to blind and partially-sighted customers.

RNIB says bmibaby has failed to take action to ensure that customers who use screen-readers or cannot use a mouse can book flights on its website, despite being alerted to problems in 2010.

RNIB is acting on behalf of two bmibaby customers who say they have been unable to book online since changes were made to the website in 2010.

They claim the company is breaching the Equality Act by failing to make the site accessible to them, forcing them to use an expensive call centre instead.

One of them, Alexandra, from Loughborough, said: “I didn’t want to use the call centre as costs can mount up and I wanted the freedom to compare flights and prices before making a decision.

“I feel that it is robbing visually-impaired people of the freedom to choose how they make bookings. It makes me feel like the disabled community is not seen as a lucrative market and that we are clearly not valued as potential or returning customers.”

The other customer, Iain, who chairs a Scottish charity, said he needs to be able to search for information and book flights to attend frequent meetings in England.

He added: “It is very frustrating that the website remains inaccessible when these issues have been flagged up since 2010.”

RNIB has provided bmibaby with expert advice, recommendations and an audit report, but claims the company is “still to make any significant progress”.

The charity said it has now begun legal proceedings against bmibaby.

Hugh Huddy, RNIB’s campaigns officer for inclusive society, said: “Blind and partially-sighted customers deserve to have access to the best online prices and flight information, just as any customer of bmibaby does.

“Why should those with sight loss risk missing out on a web-only deal or be forced to ring a call centre simply because companies are failing to take accessibility standards seriously?”

A bmibaby spokeswoman said: “We commissioned a report from RNIB and received the results of the audit in November 2011 in which they detailed what we needed to do on our website.

“We are currently working through the proposals and investigating several solutions. Whilst we are going through this process we have a new local rate telephone number for blind and partially-sighted people to call to speak to our call centre to obtain our discounted website fares.

“We have also added an accessibility page to bmibaby.com in order to keep customers up to date with our progress.

“We have a project team in place to action the recommendations and we would like to thank our customers for their patience whilst these changes are being implemented.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

The government has welcomed new figures which show a slight rise in the number of disabled people granted funds to make their workplaces more accessible.

The increase in “new customers helped” through the Access to Work (AtW) scheme comes after the number of people receiving support plummeted during the coalition’s first year.

The figures show the number of new customers helped rose from 2,320 in the first quarter of 2011/12 to 2,660 in the second quarter.

Despite the modest rise, the first half of 2011-12 still saw a sharp drop in new customers helped compared with the same period in 2010-11, from about 7,700 to about 5,000.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: “We are pleased with the rise in figures, but would like to encourage more people to sign up to Access to Work.”

But she declined to say why the government thought the number of new AtW customers helped might have started to rise.

The figures follow a string of concerns that have been raised about the government’s commitment to the scheme – which provides funding for adaptations, equipment and ongoing support at work – since it came to power.

In August last year, Disability News Service revealed that disabled people receiving AtW were being sent “hostile” and “threatening” letters by DWP, giving them just a week to confirm they still needed their funding before it was withdrawn.

Last June, Liz Sayce, RADAR’s chief executive, published a review of employment support for the government and focused strongly on the need to expand and improve AtW.

But the government’s response to her review made several references to concerns that her AtW recommendations could put “additional pressure on funding at a time when resources are limited”.

And in 2010, the government backtracked on a high-profile pledge to allow disabled people to secure AtW funding before they applied for a job.

The coalition also quietly introduced new rules which mean employers or disabled employees themselves now have to fund equipment such as basic versions of voice-activated software, most adapted chairs, and satellite navigation devices, rather than having them funded through AtW.

For information on AtW, visit the government’s Directgov website.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

The world’s biggest disability and deaf arts festival has won a prestigious annual award, a £10,000 prize, and a huge vote of confidence from regional business leaders.

DaDaFest 2012 has been named as the winner of this year’s Lever Prize, which will also see the festival benefit from a year-long collaboration with the North West Business Leadership Team (NWBLT).

NWBLT, which judged the award, includes representatives of the region’s 30 largest companies and works to promote the north-west of England.

Previous winners of the Lever Prize have included the Manchester International Festival, the Tate Liverpool modern art gallery, and Manchester’s National Football Museum.

The prize money will be invested in this year’s DaDaFest, the 11^th, which will take place mostly in arts venues across Liverpool, from 13 July to 2 September, and will be part of the Cultural Olympiad that is being planned around the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

Ruth Gould, DaDa’s chief executive, said the chance to develop relationships with prominent businesses in the north-west was just as important as winning £10,000.

She said these business relationships might lead to help with the cost of bringing international artists to take part in this year’s festival, or the creation of a permanent artwork that could be placed “somewhere prominent”.

One of the reasons for setting up DaDaFest was that disabled and Deaf artists were not securing mainstream opportunities because of “big misunderstandings” about their abilities, she said, so it was “delightful” that the award showed DaDaFest was now seen as “one of the key cultural drivers” in the region and its artists as part of the “mainstream”.

She said it also showed that DaDa’s “commitment and passion to keep persevering and keep being political about our issues” had paid off.

This year’s festival will include collaborations with leading artists from across the world, including at least 12 European countries.

The theme will be Transactions – Fluid Bodies: Shifting Identities, looking at how disability affects our lives, including the “exchanges that occur between people and technology”, how our sense of identity is “bound up with” our bodies, and how those bodies “are not stable or unchanging through our lives”.

One of the festival’s centrepieces will be Niet Normaal (Dutch for “not normal”), an adaptation of a successful Amsterdam exhibition that asked the question: what is normal and who decides?

The DaDaFest version will include new commissions and a programme of talks and films, which aim to celebrate difference in the year of the Olympics and Paralympics.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

The government has admitted failing to carry out any statistical analysis of the results of its controversial disability living allowance (DLA) consultation.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was accused earlier this month of misleading parliament and the public about the scale of opposition to the government’s DLA reforms.

In Responsible Reform – otherwise known as the Spartacus Report – disabled activists had analysed the 523 responses to the DLA consultation that were submitted by disabled people’s organisations, disability charities and other groups.

Lord Freud, the Conservative welfare reform minister, reacted to the report by stating that these group responses only made up 10 per cent of replies to the consultation, and ignored nearly 5,000 individual responses.

In a letter to peers, Lord Freud claimed: “All consultation responses, over 5,000 individual submissions, have been thoroughly and appropriately considered in the government’s analysis and have been used to inform the design of the new benefit and supporting processes.”

But when Disability News Service (DNS) asked DWP how these 5,000 respondents replied to the questions discussed and analysed in Responsible Reform, a DWP spokesman said that “not all respondents chose to answer the specific questions asked”.

When asked how those who had answered the questions responded, the spokesman said: “We don’t have those figures, I’m afraid.”

And when asked why those figures were not available, he said: “If you look at the questions asked they were what/how type questions and were analysed thematically and not statistically.”

But several of the consultation questions asked by the government required simple yes or no answers, such as: will having two rates per component make the benefit easier to understand and administer, while ensuring appropriate levels of support?

Another yes/no question was: should the assessment of a disabled person’s ability take into account any aids and adaptations they use?

But DWP claims it failed to carry out any basic statistical analysis of these and other answers.

Sue Marsh, one of the authors of Responsible Reform, said DWP’s admission cast even further doubt on its DLA consultation.

She said: “Lord Freud was very clear that they had analysed all of these responses and if he can’t back up his claims you have to question his response.”

Marsh said she was frustrated that the government had refused to engage with any of the key issues raised by the Spartacus report.

DNS revealed last week that disabled people’s organisations were becoming increasingly angry at the government’s failure to listen to their views on issues such as DLA reform, despite its frequent references to how it is “co-producing” its reforms with disabled people.

And the disabled Labour MP Dame Anne Begg is to examine the government’s failure to respond to the Responsible Reform report in an inquiry being carried out by the work and pensions select committee, which she chairs.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

Do you have a disability and drive regularly? If you can answer yes to these questions then why not get involved in a very exciting trial for a ‘Sat Nav’ that is set to launch in 2012.

The trial which is set to take place in March will give you the opportunity to trial the device for 2 weeks. This exciting new device delivers more than a standard satellite navigation system. You can get information on blue badge parking bays, accessible toilets and even access information about venues close to your destination.

The trial will involve attending a briefing where the project content, aim and objectives will be outlined, a brief explanation on how to use the device and an introduction to the questionnaire to be answered during and after the trial. You will also need to attend a debriefing at the end of the trial where participants will be asked to feedback their experiences, exchange views with other participants and technical partners and help formulate conclusions and make recommendations.

At DisabledGo we are keen for our users to get involved in the trial, if you are interested and would like more information please contact Anna Borthwick, Head of Business Development and Marketing. E: anna.borthwick@disabledgo.com or call 01438 842710

Since 1990, national charity Canine Partners has been training assistance dogs to help people with physical disabilities to lead a more independent life.  Over those years, many hundreds of people with a diverse range of conditions and disabilities, have had their lives transformed, including ex-servicemen and women.

Canine Partners’ work with training dogs for the men and women who have served their country in armed conflict around the world came to the notice of many of the country’s Forces charities including Help for Heroes.  Both organisations could see the potential benefits to wounded service personnel in working together, and Canine Partners began visiting the medical defence rehabilitation centre Headley Court regularly to give demonstrations to those who were starting their recovery. 

When Help for Heroes opened their Personnel Recovery and Assessment Centre Tedworth House, situated in the garrison town of Tidworth, Wiltshire, they asked Canine Partners to have a permanent presence in their Support Hub as well as offer regular demonstrations to the servicemen and women recovering at the centre.  Puppy classes are also being held at Tedworth, not only allowing the puppies to get used to a different environment, but also to encourage the service personnel staying there to interact with the pups at an early age. 

This awareness at both Headley Court and Tedworth House of the benefits these dogs bring has been so successful that applications started to come through and in less than a year four ex-Forces men have now been successfully paired with their canine partners.  Three more have been matched to a dog and will be attending their training courses in the next few months, while enquiries and applications continue to flood in.

Byron retrieving card from the cash machine

But this official partnership between the two charities is not just about helping to raise awareness.  The cost of a canine partner from selection as a puppy through training and partnership to the end of its working life is £20,000, which covers training and regular aftercare support and visits.  This

cost is covered by Canine Partners through sponsorship by groups and businesses. The four Forces partnerships that have already been created have been fully funded by Help for Heroes, with the promise of future funding for similar partnerships in the pipeline.

Andy Cook, Canine Partners’ CEO, said: “We are delighted to be playing a part in helping our wounded servicemen and women by training dogs to transform their lives.  The support we receive from Help for Heroes both financially and in allowing us regular access to those undergoing rehabilitation is vital to us being able to give something back to our Armed Forces.” 

For further information, please contact Canine Partners on 08456 580480, email info@caninepartners.org.uk or visit www.caninepartners.org.uk.

Read Steve Brookes and canine partner Kizzie’s story here

Read Joe Murdock and canine partner Radley story here

With entry to the 2012 competition now closed organisers report a bumper number of applications.  Ron Glasgow, from Glasgows who are organising the competition on behalf of VisitEngland explains “We have had 385 applications.  This is three times the number of applications for the former Enjoy England Awards and twice what was anticipated. This is a fantastic result and demonstrates strong support from the industry for the VisitEngland flagship competition and their commitment to improving excellence.  Applications are evenly spread through all 15 award categories.  A preliminary review by the judges also indicates applications are of a very high standard”. 

There have been nineteen quality applications for the Access for All category which DisabledGo is sponsoring.

Welcoming DisabledGo’s sponsorship VisitEngland’s Chief Executive James Berresford said “We are delighted that DisabledGo with it’s outstanding reputation in providing up to date information on access to all types of facilities including tourism businesses have agreed to sponsor the Access for All Award.  It is an honour to have them on board”.

In a video message from the industry Minister for Tourism and Heritage Jon Penrose MP underlined the importance of the Awards to tourism in general and tourism businesses in particular.

“You, in the industry, are already well aware of the high contribution tourism makes to the economy as a wealth and job creator.  I want, therefore, to concentrate on why participation in this awards scheme is important for your business in particular, and the industry in general.

Tourism consumers whether from home or overseas are mainly interested in three things:

Value for money, the quality of facilities, and excellent customers services.  Of course sustainability and access for all are also important considerations.

These awards for excellence are about driving up standards in all these areas for the benefit of consumers and businesses alike”.

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 advice given to the government is believed to have included extensive discussions around welfare reform, at a time when the hugely controversial welfare reform bill has been passing through parliament.

Unum has admitted widespread criticisms of its past actions in the US – mainly over its refusal to pay out on large numbers of genuine insurance claims by disabled people.

There is no suggestion that the adviser acted improperly on behalf of Unum, but the failure to register the potential conflict of interest over work for such a controversial company will be a huge embarrassment to the government and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

A DWP civil servant confirmed to DNS through a Freedom of Information Act (FoI) request that the adviser was required as a public appointee to declare any conflicts of interest and that “none have been declared”.

Disabled activists have increasingly been raising concerns about the influence of Unum within the DWP and among MPs and peers.

They are worried about the impact this might have had on the controversial reforms of both coalition and Labour governments, including the introduction of the much-criticised “fitness for work” test, the work capability assessment (WCA).

Following the receipt of some limited information following the FoI request, DNS submitted a series of questions to the adviser, including whether they had worked for Unum or Atos Healthcare, the company that carries out the WCAs on behalf of the DWP.

In a statement sent by text message, the adviser said: “I am afraid that I am not able to give you any more information… than you have already received in the response to your FoI request.”

They added: “However, in a personal capacity I can assure you I have never worked for Atos.

“Again, in a personal capacity I am most concerned about both the form and the quality of the WCA assessment and would be most interested in the results of your researches. I am sorry not to be able to be of more assistance.”

They failed to respond to a text message which asked them to clarify whether they had worked for Unum.

A government official – in response to an FoI request by DNS – said that public appointees in similar roles were “required to declare an interest in companies that could cause a conflict of interest with their… role”, and that the adviser had “not declared an interest in Unum”.

DNS understands that the adviser has carried out freelance work for Unum on at least one occasion since their public appointment.

DWP’s press office has failed to answer any questions about the adviser and the Unum links since first being approached more than a week ago by DNS. The FoI was submitted by DNS on 2 December 2011.

John Letizia, Unum’s head of public affairs, said it was for the adviser to answer any questions about their appointment “and not for Unum to comment”.

Letizia refused to confirm whether the adviser had worked on a freelance basis for Unum.

DNS revealed evidence last year that strongly suggested that Unum has attempted to influence incapacity benefit reform, particularly under the Labour government.

Unum has denied doing so and that it stands to gain from the reforms, even though it launched a major media campaign last year just as the coalition began a three-year programme to reassess about 1.5 million existing IB claimants through the new, stricter test, the WCA.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

A health minister has refused to accept the existence of a huge gap between the care and support disabled people need, and the funding made available to pay for it.

Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat care services minister, was giving evidence to the Commons health committee’s inquiry into social care.

Labour MP Barbara Keeley told Burstow there were “growing levels of unmet need” among disabled and older people and that the King’s Fund had estimated that nearly 900,000 people were being left without basic care.

She said that “most commentators do talk about the social care system being in crisis”, and asked what the government was doing to avert this crisis.

Burstow said the government would be spending an extra £7.2 billion on social care by the end of 2014-15, and was looking at how to “improve productivity” in the social care system.

But Keeley told him that Andrew Dilnot – who led the government’s own independent commission on care funding reform – had told the committee that this extra money had “not found its way through to social care”.

She asked how he could improve social care when he was “unable to channel money to the correct part of the system”.

Her fellow Labour MP Rosie Cooper said: “If I was a member of the public watching this morning I would be filled with despair.

“They know they can’t get the services, local authorities are desperately trying to get the funding to ensure they can deliver basic services, [but] you’re saying there’s no gap.”

Burstow said it was important to remember that social care was a local authority service and councils were “responsible and accountable to their populations” for their decisions.

Keeley repeatedly asked Burstow – without success – to put a figure on the “funding gap”, or the level of “unmet need” in social care.

But Burstow claimed there should be “no gap” because of the extra money invested by the government, and the “efficiency gains” expected of local authorities.

He said: “There need not be a gap if local authorities take the sort of efficiency steps that the Local Government Association has said are possible… then there is no gap opening. The issue is whether each local authority is choosing to do that.”

He repeatedly claimed that measuring “unmet need” was a “difficult thing to do”.

Burstow also confirmed during his evidence that cross-party talks on funding reform had begun that morning.

He said: “We are not prepared to offer a running commentary on those discussions but they are looking at the issues of funding reform.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is reviewing a barrister’s decision not to call for stricter sentences for three people who took part in a “degrading” hate crime attack on a disabled man.

The man, who has learning difficulties, was taped to a lamppost in Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside, Greater Manchester, by three “friends” and covered with food, paint and nail varnish.

One of the three wrote the word “terrorised” on his leg, while other drawings and words were scrawled on his body, including an obscene image on his back.

By the time he was cut free by one of the trio, he was unconscious, apparently because of the amount of alcohol he had drunk, and fell heavily to the ground. He was taken to hospital by ambulance.

Police believe a mob of at least a dozen people took part in the attack last August, with one taking pictures of him on a mobile phone, although only three people were arrested.

Maggie Bowden, 38, of Whiteacre Road, Ashton; Rebecca Willis, 24, of Sheard Avenue, Ashton; and Anthony Connolly, 25, of Broadoak Road, Ashton, all pleaded guilty to assault, but escaped with suspended prison sentences after appearing at Manchester Crown Court.

CPS had treated the “truly degrading attack” as a disability hate crime, but the prosecuting barrister failed to ask the judge to impose a stricter sentence under section 146 of the Criminal Justice Act, which allows for harsher sentences for hate crimes.

Without a request for a sentencing “uplift”, the judge suspended the prison sentences imposed on the trio, as Bowden and Willis both have young children, while he said Connolly had played a less significant role in the attack. Each of them will also have to pay £300 compensation to the victim.

A CPS spokeswoman said: “We did everything we should have done, apart from the very last thing, which was to ask the judge to consider the sentence uplift. We will be writing to the advocate formally to find out why this was not done.”

Anne Novis, a leading disabled hate crime campaigner and a member of the Ministry of Justice’s hate crime advisory group, said: “Lack of appropriate sentencing gives the message that disabled people’s lives are worth less than others who experience hate crime.

“Yet again we are let down by the very people who should be prosecuting our cases appropriately and using all the measures of law we have. Yet again the message goes out that hostility towards disabled people does not equal tough sentences, just leniency.”

Beverley Smith, a coordinator of the Disability Hate Crime Network, added: “The sentencing here gives out a strong message that, in some cases, disability hate crime is OK. It is not OK.

“Light sentencing does nothing to increase public confidence in reporting [disability hate crime]; indeed it is very damaging. I strongly believe that a review of this sentence needs to be undertaken urgently.”

But there have also been concerns raised about the role of Greater Manchester Police (GMP), which denied claims made in court that it twice refused to respond to calls from the public to help the man.

They said the first call they received complained about noise and drunken behaviour and said a man had been tied to a lamppost, while they have been unable to trace a second – 999 – call.

Assistant chief constable Garry Shewan said the force’s professional standards branch had launched an inquiry into how it responded, while GMP had also referred its handling of the crime to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Shewan said the incident was “thoroughly investigated as a disability hate crime”.

He added: “This man was subjected to a vile and horrendous assault and although the people responsible have been brought to justice, we are very sorry he was subjected to such abuse and are looking into whether we could have acted sooner.”

The case has again placed a spotlight on Greater Manchester Police’s record in dealing with serious disability-related incidents.

In March 2011, the IPCC heavily criticised GMP for its “total failure” to treat the “years of torment” experienced by David Askew at the hands of local youths as disability hate crime.

Askew, who had learning difficulties, collapsed and died from “natural causes” in March 2010 soon after police received reports that youths had again been harassing him outside his home in Hattersley, also in the borough of Tameside, on the edge of Manchester.

Last November, the force was criticised by the IPCC for ignoring two phone calls expressing serious concerns about the health of a disabled man, Philip Dorsett, who was later found dead.

There were also questions raised in 2010 about whether GMP failed to investigate a brutal and sustained attack by three teenagers on a young man with Asperger’s syndrome as a potential disability hate crime. The attack lasted three days.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

A disabled American actor has caused an internet sensation after using his acceptance speech at a televised US awards ceremony to offer support to the British victim of a disability hate crime attack.

Peter Dinklage was accepting his Golden Globe for best supporting actor in a series – for his role in the fantasy epic Game of Thrones – when he told the audience that there was “a gentleman I’m thinking about in England, his name is Martin Henderson… Google him.”

Henderson is also an actor with restricted growth, who was injured after being picked up and thrown onto his back outside a pub in Wincanton, Somerset, last October.

Dinklage’s reference to Henderson led to film and TV fans across the world using the internet to discover details of the assault.

The attack on Henderson took place less than a month after members of the England rugby team were pictured at a “dwarf-tossing” event in a New Zealand pub during the Rugby World Cup.

Henderson believes media coverage of those England players could have influenced his attacker.

Henderson had undergone surgery for a spinal condition in 2010 and has said the attack – outside the White Horse pub on 7 October – left him with serious back and leg injuries.

Peter Burroughs, a director of Willow Management, the agency for short actors he founded with Life’s Too Short star Warwick Davis, said he and many of the actors they represent were “amazed” to hear that Dinklage had mentioned the attack at the Golden Globes.

He said Dinklage’s decision to refer to Martin Henderson – who Burroughs has worked with in the past – had at least raised the profile of short actors across the world.

But Burroughs said that none of the actors on their books had ever experienced anything like the attack on Henderson.

He said: “It could make certain people think they don’t want to go out. They will feel vulnerable when they are out and that shouldn’t happen.

“I am sure it wouldn’t happen anywhere else. I would hate people to think that is the norm, and it isn’t.”

An Avon and Somerset police spokesman confirmed they were treating the attack on Henderson as a disability hate crime, and wanted to speak to anyone who may have been in the White Horse on 7 October.

He said: “It follows an incident in which a small person was picked up by an unknown person in the bar and dropped. This caused an injury to his back.”

Anyone with information about the assault can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

Government cuts to vital disability benefits will be even harsher than the coalition previously admitted, with nearly half a million people set to lose their right to disability living allowance (DLA).

The government finally published figures this week which show estimates of how its plans to scrap working-age DLA and replace it with a new personal independence payment (PIP) would affect disabled people.

The government had already admitted that it wanted to cut the number of working-age DLA claimants – and spending – by 20 per cent.

But the new figures, published only one day before members of the House of Lords debated vital amendments on DLA and PIP in the welfare reform bill, show the cuts in claimant numbers will be even more severe.

Under DLA, an estimated 2.166 million working-age disabled people would be likely to claim some form of the benefit by 2015/2016.

But under PIP, this will be slashed to just 1.7 million claimants – a fall of 466,000 people, or nearly 22 per cent.

At present, 1.974 million people would be claiming some form of the care component of DLA by 2015/16. But under PIP, just 1.23 million disabled people will qualify for the new daily living component.

The number of people claiming mobility support will be just 1.32 million, instead of about 1.93 million if DLA had not been scrapped.

The figures were released as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published new proposals for how eligibility for PIP will be assessed, including a series of case studies demonstrating how people with different support needs would be affected.

Claimants will have to achieve eight “points” to qualify for the standard rate of the mobility component of PIP and 12 points for the enhanced rate, under the new assessment due to be introduced alongside PIP. The same number of points will be needed to qualify for each rate of the daily living component.

DWP has now launched a consultation on the proposals, which will end on 30 April.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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, a ground-breaking report by disabled activists.

Dame Anne described the Responsible Reform report – also known as the “Spartacus Report” – as “coherent and consistent” and a “detailed analysis” of the responses to a government consultation on its DLA reforms.

But the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been heavily criticised for avoiding answering a series of crucial questions about the report.

Now Dame Anne has told Disability News Service that her committee will consider – in its current inquiry on DLA reform – how DWP responded to the Spartacus Report.

She said: “Certainly I have concerns about the fact that [the DWP response] seems to be overly dismissive. I think this is a serious piece of work and is a serious analysis of the responses to the consultation.

“I am consistently disappointed about the way that DWP is handling information around this subject and is not taking seriously what are well-argued and well-researched points.”

She and other members of her committee have been outspoken about how DWP has issued information to the media, MPs and the public about disability benefits and welfare reform.

Last month, Dame Anne accused the disabled people’s minister Maria Miller of being “evasive” throughout an evidence session for the DLA inquiry.

She has also accused Miller’s fellow ministers Chris Grayling and Iain Duncan Smith of appearing to encourage the tabloid press to run stories attacking disabled benefit claimants.

A fellow committee member, the Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Lloyd, accused the DWP last year of “pandering to the Daily Mail” in a press release about employment and support allowance, the new out-of-work disability benefit.

A DWP spokesman said: “The work and pensions select committee has yet to publish its report and the government will respond to the report after its publication.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

Disabled peers have secured a string of key concessions from the government on its controversial disability living allowance reforms (DLA).

Members of the House of Lords this week debated amendments to the welfare reform bill on government plans to abolish DLA for working-age adults and replace it with a new personal independence payment (PIP).

Although the PIP proposals are now almost certain to become law, the government has been forced to make a series of concessions around eligibility and the new assessment process that will be introduced alongside the new benefit.

One of the key concessions was the government’s decision to back an amendment by the disabled Liberal Democrat peer Baroness [Celia] Thomas, which reversed plans to extend the qualification period for PIP from three months (as it is with DLA) to six months.

Last week, the Responsible Reform report revealed that 98 per cent of groups that responded to the government’s own DLA consultation objected to plans to increase the qualifying period.

In the absence of Baroness [Jane] Campbell, who was ill in hospital, many of the other DLA amendments were proposed by her fellow disabled crossbench peer, Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson.

The former Paralympic athlete, who has become a key rallying-point for disabled campaigners opposed to scrapping DLA, called on the government to allow hundreds of thousands of disabled people with lower care needs – who are currently set to lose the support they receive under DLA – to claim a new basic rate of the PIP daily living component, to mirror the lowest rate of the DLA care component.

She said: “Disability and ill health do not just disappear, and the costs and needs of disabled people will be exacerbated.”

She pointed to the government’s own figures, published only the day before the debate, which she said showed that about 400,000 disabled people would lose support for care under PIP.

The disabled Labour peer Baroness [Rosalie] Wilkins added: “In proposing to abolish low-rate care provision, the department [for work and pensions] appears to fail to understand or, worse, to wilfully ignore the genuine needs of disabled people and carers.”

Lord Freud, the welfare reform minister, said that the cost of moving to a three-tier system for the daily living component of PIP would be “significant”.

But after he promised to monitor the impact of the changes on disabled people who are “really dependent on that funding”, Baroness Grey-Thompson “very reluctantly” withdrew her amendment.

But she told peers that she had received nearly 600 emails in the previous two days from disabled people “terrified of the changes that are going to happen”.

She also asked the government to force civil servants deciding PIP claims to collect evidence from the claimant’s own healthcare professionals, to avoid problems experienced with the much-criticised work capability assessment, the new test for out-of-work disability benefits.

Baroness Grey-Thompson said: “Without that requirement, there is a danger that there will be a two-tier system, with the poorest and most vulnerable claimants unable to afford to pay for the evidence themselves and, as a result, at risk of receiving a less reliable decision.”

Baroness Thomas backed her amendment and said its importance “cannot be overstated”.

Lord Freud said the government was “planning to meet the concerns expressed” by peers, but asked for flexibility in how assessments were carried out.

Baroness Grey-Thompson agreed to withdraw her amendment as she said Lord Freud had “moved further than perhaps I expected”.

Another disabled crossbench peer, Lord [Colin] Low – backed by Baroness Wilkins – proposed an amendment that would have forced the government to promise that disabled people could continue receiving PIP after they reached pensionable age.

After Lord Freud said the government would introduce regulations attached to the bill that would allow this to happen, Lord Low withdrew his amendment, although he said he was “not entirely convinced” by the minister’s answer.

A proposed amendment by Baroness [Jane] Campbell to change the name of PIP to “personal disability costs payment” was withdrawn, because of her illness.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com