Alarm grows over government’s ‘appalling’ blackout planning failure
There is growing alarm over the government’s “appalling” and “deeply concerning” failure to show that disabled people who need electricity to run lifesaving medical equipment in their homes will be protected if there are power blackouts this winter.
It is now the fourth consecutive week that Disability News Service (DNS) has attempted – unsuccessfully – to obtain evidence that plans to protect disabled people will be in place in the event of three-hour blackouts this winter.
The power-cuts are said to be unlikely but possible.
Despite the threat, DNS has been told that no national guidance or support relating to how to protect disabled people who use such equipment at home has been sent to the NHS in England by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
This week, DHSC again passed on all queries about the government’s planning – even questions about its failure to provide guidance to the NHS – to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
BEIS has refused to say anything about the government’s preparations, having previously only expressed confidence in its plans to “protect households and businesses, including vulnerable households”.
It had also refused by noon today (Thursday) to comment on the lack of guidance or support for the NHS.
The disabled crossbench peer Baroness [Jane] Campbell told DNS yesterday that she was alarmed at the apparent failure to plan for the impact of possible winter power blackouts on people who rely on medical equipment at home.
She said: “It does concern me greatly both on a personal level, as someone who depends on electricity to literally survive, and on behalf of my fellow disabled people in similar circumstances.”
She needs electricity throughout the night to run two ventilators, two feeding machines, a ripple mattress (to prevent pressure sores) and her wheelchair charger.
She said: “All of these devices are either life-saving or essential to prevent my health from deteriorating.
“I also require a heated blanket if the temperatures go below five degrees through the night to prevent hypothermia.”
She has investigated buying a back-up generator but the price of one powerful enough for all the equipment she needs to run would cost thousands of pounds, plus the cost of installation.
This week, DNS contacted a sample of local resilience forums (LRFs), the multi-agency networks set up across England and Wales to ensure an area is prepared for emergencies.
Kent Resilience Forum was unable to provide any information about the plans it might have drawn up to protect disabled people who use lifesaving equipment at home.
Instead, it provided general information about their need to sign up to their electricity provider’s Priority Services Register, and promised to “manage appropriate caring interventions to support individuals and communities who may become vulnerable” and carry out “appropriately targeted measures” to support public health and health providers.
It also said it would consider “any appropriate evacuation and shelter interventions”.
Monmouthshire County Council, in Wales, was also unable to point to any plans Gwent LRF has drawn up, although it said that measures the forum could take to support “any known vulnerable people” could include “targeted house visits” and the use of “rest centres or transporting people to specific locations dependent on their need and nature of the emergency”.
Dorset County Council, a key member of Dorset’s LRF, was unable to say what plans were in place, and suggested DNS contact the NHS and the government.
But it said it was working with the forum, which would ensure “all residents have access to the right information for their individual circumstances” and was starting a project that will “encourage our residents to start looking at how resilience needs to begin at home”.
A council spokesperson said: “The government is the lead agency for any response and the LRF will take direction from their advice and guidance.”
Derbyshire LRF also failed to point to any specific plans, although it insisted that it “works closely with partner organisations across the county to ensure arrangements are in place to support residents, including the most vulnerable, in an emergency”.
It said: “If power outages do occur over the coming months the plans we have in place will ensure a co-ordinated response to ensure people who need help and assistance receive it.”
But it declined to give any details of any plans it might have for those who rely on lifesaving equipment in their own homes.
The energy regulator Ofgem repeatedly promised to provide information, and insisted it had “a great deal to say”.
But 10 days after it was first approached by DNS, Ofgem was unable to provide any firm details about the action it was taking, other than working with distribution network operators (DNOs*) – which are responsible for ensuring customers dependent on medical equipment are protected during blackouts – and electricity providers, scrutinising DNOs’ emergency planning, and assessing the support DNOs can offer those in the most vulnerable situations and how they liaise with LRFs.
A spokesperson eventually said this morning: “We are looking into various power disruption scenarios this winter and the potential impact on vulnerable customers, including those with vital medical equipment.
“We are working with the energy industry and other stakeholders to ensure that the needs of vulnerable and medically dependent customers are factored into contingency planning and resilience preparedness.”
The disabled Liberal Democrat peer Baroness [Sal] Brinton, who has been raising concerns about the lack of planning in the House of Lords, said she had now been told that a Cabinet Office minister was coordinating the government’s preparations, despite previously being told BEIS was in charge.
She said: “It’s evident to me that everyone in government and health thinks this is someone else’s responsibility, which is exactly why nothing is happening.
“When ministers have answered my questions in the Lords over the last month, they demonstrated repeatedly the lack of preparation, and worse, confusion, about who has responsibility and what arrangements need to be in place.
“They just don’t understand that these arrangements are needed for life-supporting equipment to work. It’s appalling.”
Vicky Foxcroft, Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people, said the government’s failure was “deeply concerning”.
She said that people “who rely on lifesaving medical equipment and need extra heating should not have to worry about this Tory government’s utter failure to plan correctly.
“The government should have contingency plans to ensure potential blackouts do not impact them.
“Ministers must urgently act, so people have some confidence this winter – failure to act is a dereliction of duty.”
Charities that represent people with long-term conditions told DNS this week that they were also concerned about the lack of information coming from the government and other organisations.
Muscular Dystrophy UK (MD UK) said blackouts could be life-threatening for some people with muscular dystrophy, and that it had heard nothing from the government on whether it had any plans in place.
Rob Burley, MD UK’s director of care, campaigns and support, said: “Many people with muscle-wasting conditions rely on equipment that requires electricity – from powered wheelchairs to life-saving equipment such as ventilators – so the possibility of power cuts will be a cause of great anxiety and concern.
“In some cases, power cuts could even be life-threatening.
“We are already hearing from people who are buying back-up power sources for equipment in case of blackouts; one woman we spoke to has bought back-up power for her bi-pap machine [which helps with breathing], for £400.
“At a time when the rising cost of living is hitting disabled people especially hard, it’s an expense many will struggle to afford.
“We need to see clear plans from the government that will reassure disabled people that power cuts will not leave them at risk or even further out of pocket.”
The MND Association said the lack of clarity from the government was “very much a concern”.
Kidney Care UK has also told DNS of its concern at the lack of planning by the government, NHS and the energy industry.
Fiona Loud, policy director at Kidney Care UK, said: “Thousands of people undertake their life-saving dialysis treatment at home because this works for them and is medically the best treatment option for them.
“This is very energy intensive, generating substantial electricity and water costs.
“Interruption to the power supply would put the treatment itself at risk.
“We are concerned that the needs of kidney patients are not being fully understood or considered in any advance planning that is being undertaken by utility companies, the NHS, the National Grid, and the government.
“We need to know what the contingency plans are for these individuals so that they can be assured that their health and well-being, as well as their life-saving treatment, will not be disrupted by unplanned and potentially dangerous power outages.”
Kidney Care UK is advising all kidney patients to ensured they are signed up to their energy provider’s Priority Services Register, but its latest figures suggest that only a third of its supporters have done so.
So far, DNS has heard from energy companies, the energy regulator Ofgem, DHSC, BEIS, NHS England, integrated care boards (ICBs), local councils and local resilience forums.
Not one of them has been able to offer any evidence that plans are in place to protect people with long-term health conditions who use life-saving equipment in their own homes in the event of widespread blackouts this winter.
Cheshire and Mersey ICB would only say this week that “providers of such equipment used by patients in their homes will manage such situations as part of their business continuity plans”, that NHS Cheshire and Mersey would “work closely with providers to ensure the safety of their patients”, and that “in the event of scheduled power cuts, we will work with all relevant providers and partners to ensure patients are kept safe in their own homes”.
A spokesperson for the NHS in South West London said that anyone receiving funded healthcare should “talk to their healthcare provider or local authority community care team directly for support and advice”.
So far, the only clear advice for disabled people who rely on equipment such as ventilators, home dialysis machines, or fridges to keep medication cold, is that they should sign up to their energy provider’s Priority Services Register.
They may then be given advance notice of a power cut, could have priority support for emergency cooking and heating facilities if their electricity is cut off, and may be signposted to charities such as Red Cross for “hot meals and drinks”.
They should also probably “seek advice from their local health service provider”.
*SP Energy Networks, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, Northern Powergrid, Electricity Northwest, UK Power Networks and National Grid
3 November 2022
DWP to pay £500,000 to disabled civil servant it drove to suicide attempt
A disabled civil servant who was driven to try to take his own life by years of harassment, bullying and discrimination by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will eventually receive more than £500,000 in compensation.
John Williamson, from Durham, will receive tens of thousands of pounds in compensation from DWP for the discrimination, following a successful legal claim.
But he has also been awarded a significant monthly payment under a Civil Service injury benefit scheme for three injuries to his mental health that were caused by the discrimination he experienced in the DWP workplace.
He had worked happily for DWP as a contract manager for nearly 20 years before he moved to a new job and the repeated failure of senior civil servants to make reasonable adjustments for his obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) began to impact his mental health.
Those senior DWP staff eventually treated his OCD behaviours – such as a neck movement and repeated hand clenching – as a sign of aggression and lodged complaints about his conduct, later dismissing him for gross misconduct.
He was dismissed in 2019 even though his GP confirmed that those behaviours were triggered by anxiety.
He had tried to raise awareness about OCD and invisible impairments among DWP’s 90,000 staff by publishing a post on the department’s “I can be me in DWP” internal campaign website.
But after his words drew a significant response from other disabled staff – with some describing how they were bullied and harassed, and their treatment had left them feeling worthless or sitting in their car in tears before going to work in the morning – DWP removed his post.
Despite hearing from Williamson and his doctor how his working environment was exacerbating his mental distress, DWP refused his request for adjustments to be made to his working environment.
His GP later wrote: “Work place events were the trigger for his symptoms and lead to Suicidal ideations and subsequent actions, John had the correct coping mechanisms and adequate strategies in place to remain in work but the events were too much and he was unable to manage.
“Failure to implement the requested reasonable adjustments has in fact contributed to the deterioration of his conditions and without any doubt has affected his ability to not only attend work but to manage his symptoms whilst there.
“John quite rightly feels let down by his employer and I support him in his court case.”
Williamson’s work involved managing multi-million-pound DWP contracts with private and public businesses, but it was only after he moved to a new position within DWP in September 2016 that the concerns began.
Although he had a history of mental distress, DWP’s own medical scheme adviser concluded that – on each of three occasions – his work-related stress and anxiety was between 50 and 70 per cent caused by DWP, with a “direct causative relationship” between the events at work and the impact on his mental distress.
Three periods in which he had to take time off work because of DWP’s workplace discrimination, which his bosses originally claimed were sickness absences – in 2017, 2018 and 2019 – were changed to “injury leave” after he complained.
He also successfully appealed twice for the levels of award to be increased under the Civil Service injury benefit scheme, with an appeal for the third award still pending.
Two written warnings he received for these absences were also removed from his work record.
This means that DWP will need to pay him a significant sum every month until his retirement age of 68 – of up to 70 per cent of his former salary as a higher executive officer – for the three injuries to his mental health that he received at work.
In addition to these awards, an out-of-court settlement has also been reached between Williamson and DWP, following conciliation with the workplace advice and conciliation service Acas, with DWP agreeing to pay him tens of thousands of pounds in compensation, although without admitting liability.
Williamson, who was 41 when he was dismissed, has calculated that DWP will eventually have paid him more than half a million pounds in compensation for the discrimination, and the awards for the workplace injuries, by the time he is 68.
Williamson, a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, said: “People need to know that as well as customers being treated horribly, staff are treated much worse.
“They made me have a mental health breakdown and feel suicidal, yet did nothing.
“DWP is responsible for the Access to Work scheme and their failure to offer a similar service through adjustments at work was evidence of clear discrimination in the workplace.”
He added: “Most of the people in DWP who are treated like me give up, hence they never get anywhere with their concerns, and it is never highlighted how bad they treat staff as well as customers. Or they settle with a confidentiality clause.”
He told DNS that DWP’s treatment had left him with post-traumatic stress disorder, and had “completely ruined” his life, leaving him a “recluse” and unable to engage with people.
DWP runs the much-criticised Disability Confident disability employment campaign, which aims to encourage employers to “think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people”.
Five years ago, DWP was declared a Disability Confident “leader”, despite being found guilty of grave and systematic violations of the UN disability convention.
But the BBC’s Panorama programme revealed two years ago* that DWP had lost more disability discrimination cases at employment tribunal than any other employer in Britain between 2016 and 2019.
A DWP spokesperson refused to comment this week.
It refused to apologise for its treatment of John Williamson; refused to explain how it could justify its actions as a Disability Confident “leader”; and refused to explain how it would now be able to encourage other employers to support disabled people into work.
*DNS editor John Pring was a consultant on the programme
3 November 2022
New DWP boss Mel strides into trouble in first Commons appearance
The new work and pensions secretary has refused to apologise after misleading MPs on how many disabled people want to return to work, just days after he was appointed to the post.
Mel Stride, who replaced the sacked Chloe Smith on 25 October, told the House of Commons just six days later that there were 2.5 million people who were “long term sick” and “economically inactive” but wanted to work.
Stride described this group of people – most of whom will be disabled – as “a long tail of people”.
He told MPs on Monday: “We know that there is a long tail of people who would otherwise like to work but who are long-term sick – some 2.5 million in total – and, to go back to my earlier answer, it will be a prime focus for our department, working with the health department, to see how we can assist and support them back into the workplace.”
He told MPs that it was a “prime focus” of his new department and the Department of Health and Social Care to “assist and support them back into the workplace”.
But Stride – despite his previous position as chair of the Commons Treasury select committee – appears to have misunderstood, misread or deliberately misused the Office for National Statistics figures he was quoting.
Although those figures do show there were 2.49 million working-age people who were economically inactive and described themselves as “long term sick” in the latest quarter of this year (June to August 2022), the table also shows that only 581,000 (23 per cent) of this group want a job.
This is likely to be because most of them cannot work, and have been granted out-of-work disability benefits and placed in the support group of employment and support allowance or the limited capability for work-related activity group of universal credit.
During work and pensions questions on Monday, Stride repeatedly referred to the need to push more people who were currently economically inactive into the workforce, stating at one point that the government “desperately need” to do this.
He also said it was one of his “two early key missions” to do this, while the other was his “personal commitment to us being a compassionate, caring department supporting the most vulnerable”.
Stride’s comments suggest that the health and disability white paper expected to be published in the next few weeks will – as suggested by his two predecessors, Chloe Smith and Therese Coffey – focus partly on forcing more of those on out-of-work disability benefits into the workplace.
A DWP spokesperson refused to say if Stride understood that he was risking serious harm to countless disabled people who are not in work if he tried to pressure them unfairly into the workplace.
DWP also refused to confirm if it had briefed Stride on the countless deaths that have been linked to the government’s benefit reforms over the last decade through DWP’s own secret reviews, coroners’ letters and inquests, safeguarding adults reviews, and media reports.
But the DWP spokesperson said in a statement: “As the secretary of state said in the House [of Commons], he is committed, alongside the Department of Health and Social Care, to assisting and supporting those who are long-term sick and would like to work back into the workplace.”
3 November 2022
CPS hate crime lead pledges to improve ‘woeful’ and ‘alarming’ prosecution figures
Statistics that show that less than 350 disability hate crimes were prosecuted last year “make for woeful reading”, the Crown Prosecution Service’s national hate crime lead has told Disability News Service (DNS).
As recently as 2016-17, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) completed 1,009 prosecutions of disability hate crime.
Last year that had fallen to 345, although that was an increase on the 292 prosecutions in 2020-21.
The figures are closely linked to the fall in the number of disability hate crime cases being passed by police to CPS for charging decisions, which has fallen from 924 in 2014-15 to just 243 last year.
Lionel Idan, who only took on the role of hate crime lead for CPS last year, said the continuing fall in the number of disability hate crime cases being passed to CPS by police forces in England and Wales was “alarming”.
He said: “The suggestion would be that we’ve got perpetrators who ought to be brought to justice who are not being brought to justice, so of course it is [alarming].”
He said CPS had itself “got to do more” but he insisted that it was working with the police and other organisations to increase the number of prosecutions.
Idan said CPS was charging nearly 85 per cent of all disability hate crime cases passed to prosecutors and was achieving a conviction rate of nearly 80 per cent for disability hate crime cases, but he said there was still “so much more room to improve”.
He said he was working closely with police forces to investigate why they were referring so few cases to CPS.
He made the comments just a week after Mark Hamilton, hate crime lead for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), told DNS that the performance of police forces across the country in providing justice for victims of disability hate crime was “not good enough” and must improve.
The number of cases being passed by police forces to CPS plunged by a fifth last year, despite the number of disability hate crime allegations reported by disabled people to the police in England and Wales rising by more than 40 per cent to above 14,000.
Police forces across England and Wales passed just 243 disability hate crime cases to CPS in 2021-22 to decide whether the alleged offender would be charged.
In 2014-15, 924 cases were passed to CPS, but by 2018-19 this had fallen to 367, and it kept dropping, to 320 in 2019-20, to 298 in 2020-21 and to just 243 across the whole of England and Wales last year, a fall of 18 per cent in one year.
Idan, who is also chief crown prosecutor for London South, told DNS it was crucial to continue with CPS’s joint work with the police so they could turn disability hate crime cases that “we never get to see” into prosecutions.
He said: “We have got to do more, of course we have got to do more. That’s why some of this partnership working has got to take place.”
One way CPS is doing this is by engaging with the “no further action” scrutiny panels that police forces are setting up, and which analyse why cases are not being passed to prosecutors.
Idan said that NPCC’s plan to audit the disability hate crime work of police forces around the country would be important, but he declined to comment on the Home Office’s failure – so far – to fund that work.
He said: “I know the police have been lobbying on this. It’s not really something I can comment on.”
One area in which CPS has been successful is in increasing the proportion of cases in which courts agree to increase sentences after applications from prosecutors for an “uplift” for those convicted of disability hate crime.
This has risen from 28 per cent to 42 per cent of applications between 2018-19 and 2021-22, but Idan accepts it is still not high enough.
He said: “There’s more work to be done.”
He said the key to this was to ensure that police forces gather the evidence of hostility towards disabled people that prosecutors can present to the court when sentencing is being considered.
Idan and CPS are firmly behind three recommendations made by the Law Commission last year that would make it easier to secure convictions for disability hate crime.
The commission called for new standalone “aggravated offences” that would cover disability hate crime, to mirror those that currently only apply to racial and religious hostility.
This would mean, if accepted by the government, that an offender could be charged with an offence – such as assault, harassment or criminal damage – that was aggravated by hostility towards a disabled person.
The commission also called for existing offences of stirring up hatred, which again currently only apply to race and religion, to be extended to disabled victims.
And it said the law should be changed so that an offender could be found guilty of a disability hate crime offence if they had been “motivated” by “hostility or prejudice” towards disabled people, rather than – at present – only by hostility.
The Home Office has yet to respond to the Law Commission’s report, which was published last December.
Idan said he has been talking to CPS regions across the country on the importance of joint working with the police and other organisations, and had discussed it with the CPS external consultation group on hate crime, and has been told it is taking place.
He said: “Whether that has always been the case, possibly not, but the will is there, the joint approach is there.
“There is a genuine, genuine approach to doing this together and learning from each other.”
And he said it was “absolutely crucial” that CPS engaged with organisations run and controlled by disabled people, and improved the support offered to victims of disability hate crime.
Idan declined to make any promises that the number of prosecutions would rise next year, because it will partly depend on other organisations, but he said: “The will is there, and I would like to see a huge increase; that’s always been my priority since I took up my role.
“I am hopeful… I am going to move every stone I can to make it happen.”
He called on disabled people to continue to report disability hate crime to police, despite the current “lack of trust”.
He said: “Do report hate crime. I know it doesn’t look good, the figures. I know it puts people off reporting.”
Idan said that he and others in CPS were “passionate about trying to bring offenders of this appalling crime to justice”.
He said that reporting disability hate crime “helps us identify trends, repeat offenders, build cases”.
He added: “And we will continue to work to build trust… please continue to report those crimes, and we will continue to work with you to increase confidence.”
3 November 2022
DWP abandons probe into ‘assessment centre traps’ after Tory MP fails to co-operate
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been forced to abandon an investigation into claims that its contractors were carrying out covert attempts to trick benefit claimants, after the Tory MP who sparked the probe failed to co-operate.
Dr Ben Spencer, the Conservative MP for Runnymede and Weybridge, told a minister in July how staff working for its benefit assessment companies were setting traps at assessment centres to try to test claimants’ mobility.
He told Chloe Smith, the minister for disabled people at the time, that staff were deliberately putting lifts out of order and making other attempts to trick claimants waiting to be assessed for their disability benefits.
Smith promised to carry out an urgent investigation into his claims.
DWP has now told Disability News Service (DNS) – in response to a freedom of information request – that Smith wrote to the committee a month later asking Spencer to “provide more details of the assessment centres where the alleged activity occurred”.
She said she would instruct DWP officials to investigate the allegations if he passed on the information.
But DWP told DNS in its freedom of information response that – more than two months after Smith wrote to the committee – Spencer had failed to provide those details.
DWP added in the letter: “To date we have not received any further details from Dr Ben Spencer MP.
“Without this detail we have not been able to conduct any investigation, which is why we do not hold any information on the investigation, the steps to carry out such an investigation, what form it took and its progress/completion.”
Spencer, first elected in 2019, has so far refused to comment on his failure to provide the information.
A member of his staff said on Tuesday morning that Spencer would be able to comment “if you are able to share a copy of your article”.
When DNS explained that the news story had not yet been written, she claimed it was for the committee to respond to questions about “the publication of material from Committee enquiries”.
DNS explained that the enquiry related to a DWP investigation and not a committee inquiry, but she failed to respond further by noon today (Thursday).
Sir Stephen Timms, the Labour chair of the committee, had also failed to comment by noon today on Spencer’s failure to provide DWP with the information.
One disabled claimant had told Spencer that the lifts in the assessment centre had been “deliberately” broken, to assess whether claimants could use the stairs.
A second claimant told him that the healthcare professional who was carrying out the assessment had dropped a pen on the floor to see if they would pick it up “as part of a covert assessment”.
Another had told Spencer that there had been water available at the assessment centre he attended, but the water cooler did not have any cups, although the cooler at the end of the corridor did have cups.
Smith told the committee that these tactics were not legitimate parts of the assessment process.
The three private sector contractors that carry out the work capability assessment and the assessments for personal independence payment – Atos, Capita and Maximus – have all strongly denied claims that any of their staff practise the “covert” tricks described by Spencer.
3 November 2022
Pursglove looks set to be fourth minister for disabled people in 14 months
The government appears to be set to announce Corby MP Tom Pursglove as the fourth minister for disabled people in just 14 months.
Although the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has not yet announced the portfolios of its latest set of ministers, the department did make it clear that the new disability minister would be a minister of state.
And it was Pursglove – who has already been appointed as a DWP minister of state – who answered questions within the disability portfolio at work and pensions questions in the House of Commons on Monday, responding on issues including Access to Work, disability living allowance for children, and uprating disability benefits.
He has also been responding to written questions about disability benefits.
The ministerial role will be crucial, with a disability benefits white paper due before the end of the year.
Pursglove, who was first elected in 2015, has spoken 20 or 30 times on disability-related issues since he became an MP, although he would have been unable to speak in debates or ask questions of ministers after he was appointed to his first government role, as an assistant whip, in July 2019.
He then had a series of Ministry of Justice and Home Office roles from September 2021 until his move to DWP on 27 October, including as immigration minister.
As a backbencher, he spoke several times in support of universal credit, raised concerns about the contaminated blood scandal, and on several occasions asked questions of ministers about the support available to disabled people claiming benefits, while also raising concerns about the personal independence payment assessment process.
Pursglove, a Brexit supporter, spoke briefly in 2017 in support of a private members’ bill put forward by Labour’s Steve Reed to protect service-users from the use of force in mental health units, a bill which later became law.
In 2016, he made supportive comments about a private members’ bill on disability equality training for taxi-drivers, proposed by Labour’s Andrew Gwynne, although the bill did not become law.
Meanwhile, after just 36 days as minister for disabled people, Claire Coutinho has been moved to a junior ministerial role at the Department for Education (DfE).
No announcements had been made by noon today (Thursday) on ministerial responsibilities for special educational needs and disability at DfE, or for accessible transport at the Department for Transport.
But the government has announced that Helen Whately has been reappointed as minister of state with responsibility for adult social care at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
She was finally appointed on 26 October, seven weeks after the previous minister, Gillian Keegan, left the post.
Whately was previously in the social care role through much of the worst of the Covid pandemic, between 13 February 2020 and 16 September 2021.
The government was later accused by MPs of a “reckless and negligent” approach to adult social care at the start of the pandemic.
A report by the Commons public accounts committee in July 2020 contrasted the government’s early actions to protect the NHS with its delayed, inconsistent and at times negligent actions on social care.
The committee’s report concluded: “This pandemic has shown the tragic impact of delaying much needed social care reform, and instead treating the sector as the NHS’s poor relation.”
A key criticism came over the decision to discharge 25,000 NHS patients into care homes without first testing them for coronavirus – in the period up to 15 April – which the committee said was an “appalling error”, although Whately is unlikely to have played a major role in that decision.
As a result, between 9 March and 17 May 2020, around 5,900 care homes, more than a third of the total across England, reported at least one outbreak of coronavirus.
DHSC ministers were also heavily criticised for their lengthy delay in publishing guidance to help disabled people who use direct payments survive the pandemic.
And Whately was challenged by MPs in September 2020 over why her department took five months to produce guidance that aimed to protect disabled people in supported living services during the pandemic.
DHSC has also appointed former nurse Maria Caulfield as minister for mental health.
3 November 2022
DPO empowers disabled people to speak up about cost-of-living impact
By Tom McDonough
A user-led organisation is empowering disabled people to take more control of their finances and speak up about the impact of the cost-of-living crisis.
Merton Centre for Independent Living (Merton CIL) has begun encouraging people to speak out about the impact of the crisis while offering workshops to help people feel more “in control” of their finances and wellbeing.
In January, it will host a budgeting workshop that aims to help people keep track of their income and expenditure and find ways to make savings, including through referrals to Merton CIL’s information and advice service.
It is also developing case studies to publish on its website, using craftivism* to share cost-of-living stories in “creative ways”, and is planning to make story-telling about the impact of the crisis a central theme of its International Day of Disabled People celebration next month.
Charlet Wilson, Merton CIL’s joint chief executive, said: “We are supporting service-users and members to have the confidence to speak up about the effects of the crisis on their day-to-day life and the changes we need to ensure more disabled people can live fully independent and inclusive lives.
“A large percentage of our service-users and members experience poverty and many have expressed concern about the rising cost of energy.
“Some have told us they are having to reduce their energy usage to the point where it is impacting on their health and wellbeing.”
One Merton CIL member, who lives with persistent pain, explained how rising energy costs are affecting her life.
She said: “I am really worried about the cost of gas and electricity. I rely on a warm temperature and hot water to manage my conditions.
“If prices increase any more, I am not sure I will be able to use energy in the way I need to stay well.”
Research published in September showed nearly half of disabled households (48 per cent) had struggled to keep their home warm and comfortable at some point this year, compared with 30 per cent of non-disabled households.
Two-thirds (66 per cent) of disabled households have avoided turning on their heating (compared with 58 per cent of non-disabled households), half have reduced the use of their cooker or oven (48 per cent versus 30 per cent of non-disabled households), and more than two-in-five (44 per cent) have reduced the number of showers or baths they take (against 28 per cent of non-disabled households).
Gina Vettese, Merton CIL’s co-chair, said: “The government needs to recognise that Deaf and disabled people are among the poorest in our society, and target support to ensure we can stay healthy and well in the face of rapidly increasing costs.
“They also need to work with Deaf and disabled people to develop long-term approaches to tackle the financial inequality they face.”
Merton CIL has used its membership of the Disability Poverty Campaign Group to lobby local MPs Labour’s Siobhain McDonagh and Conservative Stephen Hammond to encourage the government to act on disability poverty.
The campaign’s demands include an immediate increase in benefits in line with inflation, a review of the levels of the key disability benefits, a halt to the withdrawal of the Warm Home Discount from disabled people who do not qualify for specific means-tested benefits, and an end to adult social care charges.
Commenting on the one-off £150 cost-of-living payment for people on disability benefits agreed by the government, Vettese said: “This is an ongoing disaster that small one-off payments cannot solve. We urgently need a systematic solution.”
Merton CIL is also attending local forums and meetings with the local authority and voluntary sector organisations to try to shape a collective response to the crisis.
Wilson said: “We are working with the local council and voluntary sector to ensure that the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on disabled people is reflected in local support.”
Other Merton CIL services aimed at combating poverty among local disabled people include a benefits advice service, and support for disabled people to cope with their utilities bills by helping them access financial assistance, cutting their energy usage, and providing support with managing debts.
Wilson said: “We support people to apply for grants and understand and manage utilities debts and we have delivered workshops with local organisations to share information around energy-saving tips and financial assistance to help them through the crisis, like accessing grants, energy vouchers and foodbank vouchers.”
*The use of crafting such as sewing or knitting to create activism and push for social justice
This news story is part of an ongoing Disability News Service series that highlights the vital work of the UK’s disabled people’s organisations
3 November 2022
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
More than a million older people are cutting or stopping their social care as the cost-of-living crisis bites. And 10 per cent of over-60s – equating to 1.6 million people – have already shelved or reduced their help or expect to in the coming months, according to an online poll for charity Age UK. Some 22 per cent – 3.6 million – are cutting or stopping spending on medications or specialist foods, or are braced to impose the measure, while 15 per cent – 2.5 million – are skipping meals or expect to. It says 14,000 people are having requests for care turned down by councils weekly: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/millions-older-brits-cutting-stopping-28395027
York Guildhall’s council chamber is “not fit for modern day life” and should not be used for public meetings, according to an independent report. City of York Council moved out of the 15th-century building in 2013 but recently started holding full council meetings in the Victorian chamber again after a £26 million redevelopment of the wider Guildhall complex. But the decision has caused controversy among disability rights campaigners and councillors, who say the chamber’s fixed wooden seating and raised platforms are excluding them from fully participating in York’s democratic process: https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/23085439.guildhall-chamber-excludes-disabled-people-yorks-democracy-report-says/
Disabled children and their families are being “let down” by a council’s services, the councillor in charge of them has said. Liz Brighouse, Oxfordshire County Council’s deputy leader, said the trigger for families’ dissatisfaction is a lack of funding from government. Parents protested outside the authority’s headquarters ahead of a meeting on Tuesday: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-63474070
A disabled woman has won compensation after her local authority took almost a year to decide on an application for a stairlift in her home. The Slough woman, who relies on care workers and was unable to access her upstairs bedroom and bathroom, applied for a grant in May 2021. She was instead forced to sleep, eat and wash in her downstairs living room. Following an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Slough Borough Council was found to be at fault and ordered to pay her £3,550: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-63489173
3 November 2022
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
