Winter blackouts: Disabled people must draw up their own back-up plans, say ministers
The government and the energy industry have told disabled people whose lives depend on powered equipment in their homes to draw up their own back-up plans to protect themselves ahead of possible blackouts this winter.
Both the government and the energy regulator Ofgem have confirmed to Disability News Service (DNS) that people who use ventilators, dialysis machines or other equipment must make their own contingency plans rather than expect anything more than basic support from the government or industry in the event of planned power-cuts this winter.
This week, Grant Shapps, secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS), told MPs that the government had “very developed plans” for “that sort of thing”, when questioned on support plans for “vulnerable customers”.
He told members of the Commons BEIS committee (see 16.39.20 onwards): “I don’t want to alarm anyone in that regard.
“The plans are in any case and every winter… refreshed and renewed.”
But when asked by Disability News Service (DNS) what these “very developed plans” were, a BEIS spokesperson pointed to Priority Service Registers (PSRs).
“Vulnerable customers” can sign up to the registers, which are run by electricity suppliers and distribution network operators (DNOs) and are supposed to provide extra support in the event of energy disruption, such as warning customers when their power is about to be cut off and “signposting” them to support.
But those who sign up are not exempt from blackouts, and if they need a continuous supply of electricity for medical reasons they are told to “seek advice from their local health service provider”.
Ofgem, the energy regulator, said it was “very unlikely” that there would be energy shortages this winter, and insisted it was “working closely with the government, the sector and consumer groups to ensure there is a robust winter plan in place, including a variety of contingencies that can be triggered in the unlikely event of an energy shortage”.
Ofgem said customers with medical needs should join their local PSR but it also made clear that it was up to them “to form a back-up plan of how they would deal with a scheduled outage if it occurred”, with the help of healthcare professionals and equipment providers.
National Grid* has warned that planned national power cuts are possible this winter, with customers in certain parts of the country probably being without power for around three hours per day, although such blackouts are still considered unlikely.
Following that warning, DNS has been trying for more than two months to clarify what contingency plans have been put in place by the government and the energy industry for disabled people who rely on powered equipment such as ventilators and dialysis machines.
So far, neither the industry nor ministers have been able to produce any evidence that such plans are in place and have refused to release any details of their contingency plans.
The Energy Networks Association (ENA), whose members operate the electricity wires, gas pipes and energy system in the UK, and are responsible for protecting those dependent on medical equipment during blackouts, referred again this week to the PSR system.
An ENA spokesperson said: “Network operators are in contact with Priority Services Register customers throughout the year, as unplanned power cuts occur from time-to-time, often for reasons outside operators’ control.
“This is why customers who are reliant on power in this way have plans in place to meet their personal circumstances. If they don’t, they should speak to their medical provider.”
Alan Benson, a leading disabled campaigner, particularly on accessible transport, relies on a collection of vital equipment at home, including a day-time and a night-time ventilator, two powered wheelchairs, and an electric hoist, while he also needs to stay warm for health reasons.
He is one of seven disabled people who rely on powered equipment, often to keep them alive, who have spoken to DNS this week about possible winter blackouts (see separate story).
When he became concerned last month at the lack of information about possible planned power-cuts, he contacted his electricity supplier, Good Energy, which admitted it had no contingency plans and simply referred him to the priority services register.
Benson said: “Having set the tone by warning of potential power cuts and raised people’s anxiety, the current reassurance rings somewhat hollow.
“The different messages from suppliers is leaving many confused, including me.
“As a consumer, my relationship is with my supplier. I find it incomprehensible that I should need to understand the distribution network to make provision for my safety.
“This is not about sitting in candlelight for a few hours, it’s about being able to breathe.
“Disabled people are not stupid. We’re not expecting to be isolated from any impacts of power outages.
“It’s not unreasonable that our safety is considered and that we’re given advice and support to prepare.
“After all, if cuts do occur then emergency services don’t need to be spending time rescuing disabled people whose safety could have been protected.”
Nigel Pocklington, chief executive of Good Energy, said he was concerned at the lack of clarity from the government on contingency plans.
He said: “Emergency power cuts this winter remain very unlikely and grid operators, government and energy suppliers must communicate responsibly about this as a potential situation.
“This means not only saying ‘it’s unlikely, make sure you are on your network operators’ priority services register’.
“That is important, but those who are medically dependent on their energy supply need to be absolutely clear on what being on a priority services register actually means, so they can plan accordingly.”
He added: “As an energy supplier we are not physically operating any infrastructure, so there is a limit to what we can do in the event of an outage.
“Grid operators are limited too in that they cannot switch energy off or on for individual homes.
“Due to the understandably heightened anxiety this winter we are working more closely than ever with grid operators on this, but would like to see more clarity from government on the plans for vulnerable customers.”
So far, two government departments have relied on exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act to justify their refusal to release reports that would show what contingency plans they have drawn up for this winter.
The Department of Health and Social Care told DNS this week that it would not release any plans it had to protect people who rely on medical equipment at home because the information “relates to policy options not taken forward at that time which Ministers may choose to pursue in future”.
It says that BEIS information it has sent to NHS England includes “policies that are still under development”.
And it argues that releasing the information while winter planning remains in progress “would potentially serve to create confusion and misunderstanding”, with a risk “that time and resources are spent explaining or justifying ideas that are not or may never be finalised”, and that it could “potentially undermine Government relations with key stakeholders in the electricity and gas sectors”.
The Cabinet Office has previously refused to release information about contingency plans under section 24 of the Freedom of Information Act, which relates to “safeguarding national security”.
The Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) said again this week that it was not aware of any “national contingency plans” that have been put in place by the government.
It said its members were “working collaboratively with local resilience forums to help develop a coherent, effective plan to protect those people who will be affected most”.
It added: “Unfortunately, such local and regional planning can be limited by restrictions on data sharing between agencies, an issue that requires national oversight to resolve.”
But ADPH refused to express any concern at the government’s apparent failure to put in place any national contingency plans.
Health and disability charities have continued to express concern this week at the “frustrating” lack of “clear advice and reassurance” from the government, and some have taken their own steps to support disabled people to prepare their own back-up plans.
Fiona Loud, policy director at Kidney Care UK, said: “There is still no clear advice and reassurance from the government for thousands of kidney patients, particularly those on home dialysis, regarding power outages this winter.
“The lack of information on this, particularly during the current cold weather, is frustrating.
“We have produced our own advice for kidney patients which has also been shared with the NHS.”
Rob Burley, director of campaigns, care and support at Muscular Dystrophy UK, said: “We are still seeking assurances that people with muscle-wasting conditions will not face the prospect of blackouts that put the operating of potentially lifesaving equipment at risk.
“The potential impact of power shortages is very concerning, both in terms of the impact to people’s ability to operate equipment such as ventilators and also people potentially limiting the use of powered mobility equipment for fear of running batteries down.
“We’re concerned by the situation and would welcome clarity from government.”
Another charity, Motor Neurone Disease Association, this week received a response to a letter it wrote last month to Shapps, in which it warned that the consequences of a power cut “could be nothing short of fatal” for some people with motor neurone disease and asked what steps BEIS was taking “to ensure they are not put at risk by power cuts”.
Nusrat Ghani, the minister for industry and investment security, said in the response that BEIS was “confident” in its plans “to protect households and businesses in the full range of scenarios this winter”, and was working closely with industry and across government.
But her advice was only for disabled people reliant on equipment to sign up to priority service registers, which she warned “does not guarantee them a power supply”.
She said in the letter: “Those who require a continuous supply of electricity for medical reasons and would need medical support during a power cut, should seek advice from their medical equipment provider and local health service provider.”
But MNDA said yesterday (Wednesday) that this letter merely “reiterates” the need to sign up to the PSR.
An MNDA spokesperson said: “It is disappointing the government is stopping short of taking direct action on this issue.”
She said the charity was instead carrying out its own “contingency work”, including with National Grid, ventilation specialists in the NHS and other charities.
Part of the work is to “understand the ongoing risks and concerns, and to provide information and solutions to people who rely on powered equipment”.
And she said equipment providers are working with those who use the equipment “to ensure it is updated and has the necessary back up, and that people are supported to have arrangements in place”.
A BEIS spokesperson said: “The UK has a secure and diverse energy system.
“We are confident in our plans to protect households and businesses, including vulnerable households, in the full range of scenarios this winter, in light of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.
“We continue to work closely with Ofgem and National Grid to prepare for the upcoming winter.”
*National Grid owns the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales, and – as the electricity system operator – balances supply and demand to ensure homes and businesses in Britain have the electricity they need
15 December 2022
Winter blackouts: Disabled customers’ fear over confusion on life-saving support
Disabled people who rely on powered equipment in their homes to survive have expressed serious concerns at the government’s failure to provide clear information about how they will be protected in the event of power blackouts this winter.
Disability News Service (DNS) has spoken to seven disabled people this week, all of whom rely on equipment powered by electricity to keep them safe, and in some cases alive, particularly in winter.
But not one of them has been able to secure details of any proper contingency plans that might be in place to ensure their equipment can keep running in a blackout.
National Grid* has warned that planned national power cuts are possible this winter, with customers in certain parts of the country likely to be without power for around three hours a day, although such an emergency is currently considered unlikely.
Following that warning, DNS has been trying for more than two months to clarify what contingency plans have been put in place by the government and the energy industry for disabled people who rely on powered equipment in their homes, such as ventilators and dialysis machines.
Two months on, neither the industry nor ministers have been able to produce any evidence that such plans are in place (see separate story).
The only clear advice to disabled people in this situation is to ensure they are on the Priority Service Registers run by their own electricity supplier and their local electricity distribution network operator (DNO).
Even if they sign up, they are warned they will not be exempt from any blackouts, and that if they need a continuous supply of electricity for medical reasons they “should seek advice from their local health service provider”.
Both the government and the energy regulator Ofgem have confirmed to DNS that people in this situation must make their own back-up plans rather than expect anything more than basic support from the government or the energy industry.
It has been left to individual disabled people to seek information from their electricity and NHS providers and “form their own back-up plan”.
Some of the disabled people DNS spoke to this week have managed to secure some reassurance from individual providers, but others have been left “extremely concerned” at the lack of information.
Alan Benson, a leading disabled campaigner, relies on a collection of vital equipment, including a day-time and a night-time ventilator, two powered wheelchairs, and an electric hoist, while he also needs to stay warm for health reasons.
When he became concerned last month at the lack of information about possible planned power-cuts, he contacted his electricity supplier, Good Energy, which admitted it had no contingency plans and simply referred him to the priority services register.
Benson told DNS: “Having set the tone by warning of potential power cuts and raised people’s anxiety, the current reassurance rings somewhat hollow.
“The different messages from suppliers is leaving many confused, including me.
“As a consumer, my relationship is with my supplier. I find it incomprehensible that I should need to understand the distribution network to make provision for my safety.
“This is not about sitting in candlelight for a few hours, it’s about being able to breathe.
“Disabled people are not stupid. We’re not expecting to be isolated from any impacts of power outages.
“It’s not unreasonable that our safety is considered and that we’re given advice and support to prepare.
“After all, if cuts do occur then emergency services don’t need to be spending time rescuing disabled people whose safety could have been protected.”
Good Energy and EDF, the other supplier contacted by DNS this week, both said there was little they could do in the event of an outage, with the responsibility lying with the DNO, although both said they were working closely with DNOs.
Nigel Pocklington, chief executive of Good Energy, said he was concerned at the lack of clarity from the government on contingency plans.
He said: “Emergency power cuts this winter remain very unlikely and grid operators, government and energy suppliers must communicate responsibly about this as a potential situation.
“This means not only saying ‘it’s unlikely, make sure you are on your network operators’ priority services register’.
“That is important, but those who are medically dependent on their energy supply need to be absolutely clear on what being on a priority services register actually means, so they can plan accordingly.”
He added: “As an energy supplier we are not physically operating any infrastructure, so there is a limit to what we can do in the event of an outage.
“Grid operators are limited too in that they cannot switch energy off or on for individual homes.
“Due to the understandably heightened anxiety this winter we are working more closely than ever with grid operators on this, but would like to see more clarity from government on the plans for vulnerable customers.”
Another leading disabled campaigner, Fleur Perry, told DNS: “Like thousands of other disabled people, I need a reliable supply of electricity to live.
“My ventilator has a back-up battery lasting six hours, and I have a few wind-up torches, but that’s it.
“Some of my equipment does not have an internal battery, and so becomes unusable.
“Every time there’s a power cut, I wonder how long it’ll be, whether I’ll need to travel to charge up, and if friends are OK.
“Emergency planning must include disabled people, and go beyond just putting names on a register.
“What we need is information about what will happen, and access to the right equipment to be prepared for power cuts.
“We also need an energy infrastructure that is affordable, sustainable, and reliable.”
Journalist Raya Al Jadir relies on a ventilator 24 hours a day, and she contacted EDF and the hospital where she regularly receives treatment, the Royal Brompton, after she became concerned about the possibility of winter blackouts.
EDF reassured her that “they will get to me within an hour or less to provide emergency energy” if there is a blackout.
The hospital has given her a spare ventilator and batteries, so she now has three ventilators that she charges daily, but it told her that many other patients with muscular dystrophy had raised concerns.
She added: “Like Covid, we are not thought about, and everyone is clueless on how to deal with it if it happens, which is a reminder that we are left to deal with this alone.”
A spokesperson for the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust said: “We recognise some of our patients can be in a difficult position and we are working with them on an individual basis to help them as best we can.”
An EDF spokesperson was unable to confirm how many customers have been given the kind of promise made to Al Jadir, but she said: “As a supplier, we continue to work very closely with the DNOs to ensure customers can be supported in the event of a power cut.
“We are ensuring that we have identified any of our vulnerable customers with these sorts of needs, that they are on our Priority Service Register, and that this information has been shared with the DNOs.”
Mark Baggley, manager of Choices and Rights Disability Coalition in Hull, uses a ventilator at night while he’s sleeping, and he first raised his concerns two months ago.
He told DNS this week: “I am extremely concerned that since raising the issue of possible power cuts and the effect on disabled people using lifesaving medical equipment, neither the energy companies nor the government have provided any reassurances or appear to have a plan of action.
“It appears that registering as a ‘vulnerable’ customer doesn’t provide any practical support.”
He added: “Like Covid, it seems that once again, disabled people are the last to be thought about, the most at risk and not important to the government or the energy companies.”
Martyn Sibley, co-founder of the disability marketing agency Purple Goat and the online magazine Disability Horizons, does not need a ventilator but has to keep warm and needs electricity to charge his wheelchair and his battery-operated ceiling hoist.
He also has heard nothing of any contingency plans to protect disabled people in the event of winter blackouts, other than the advice to sign up to the priority service registers.
He said: “No-one is able to stay healthy if they are freezing cold, but obviously with having a neuro-muscular disability, being sat down all day, having less circulation because I’m sat down all day, staying warm is harder and if I get cold, if I catch a cold that can be more dangerous.”
He said he imagines that disabled people who use ventilators and similar equipment and will be in more directly life-threatening situations “would be even more stressed and anxious about what would happen if there was a power cut”.
Michael, from Surrey, needs to keep warm, needs electricity for his stairlift to go downstairs for food or upstairs to use the bathroom, and needs power for a machine to maintain consistent breathing when he is sleeping, while his stock of insulin needs to be kept in the fridge.
He nearly died in the pandemic after spending four weeks in hospital with Covid in the first wave of the virus, which has left his lungs and body “fragile”.
He said he was confident that the emergency helpline run by his DNO, UK Power Networks, “would not leave me stranded or at risk if I called for their help”, following a previous suspected power-cut when they were “incredibly helpful and kind”, but he has not been contacted by his supplier – EDF – and said he has no information about any contingency plans.
Dave Wood, from Mansfield, needs electricity to charge his electric wheelchair, to power his riser-recliner chair, and for his fridge, where he keeps medication that costs the NHS £2,500 per injection.
He also needs electricity to run his gas central heating, which is vital because he has a heart condition and has problems regulating his body temperature, while he also has osteoarthritis.
He has prepared a “blackout box” of emergency supplies in case there are power-cuts – including phone-charging power banks, thermos flasks, draft excluders, torches, good quality candles, and food and snacks – as he does not have confidence in the preparations being made by the energy companies and the government.
He said he had tried to contact his supplier about his concerns but never received a reply, and he has had no contact from his supplier other than receiving an estimated usage of more than £4,000 for the next 12 months, for two people in a two-bed bungalow.
*National Grid owns the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales, and – as the electricity system operator – balances supply and demand to ensure homes and businesses in Britain have the electricity they need
15 December 2022
DWP’s ‘aggressive’ post-2010 attitude to sanctions ‘is back with a vengeance’
The “aggressive attitude” on benefit sanctions that was taken by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in the coalition years of 2013 to 2015 is “back with a vengeance”, MPs have been warned.
A debate on DWP’s policy on benefit sanctions heard this week* that jobcentres have been told to “up their game” and increase the number of sanctions they are handing to those receiving out-of-work benefits.
Chris Stephens, the SNP MP who secured the debate, said he had even heard that there was “inter-office competition”, with DWP offices pushing each other to achieve higher sanction rates.
He said one autistic person from Glasgow, who had severe anxiety and extreme difficulty communicating, was sanctioned after she failed to attend in-person appointments, even though it had been agreed three years earlier that she could have telephone meetings instead as a reasonable adjustment.
Stephens also told fellow MPs of the pressure placed on DWP work coaches to ensure claimants attend jobcentre meetings.
Disability News Service reported in March how a DWP whistleblower warned that harsh new policies that were forcing more disabled people to attend weekly face-to-face jobcentre meetings could lead to benefit claimants taking their own lives.
Weeks later, a disabled woman left traumatised by the daily demands of universal credit took her own life just four days after being told she would need to attend a face-to-face meeting with a work coach.
Stephens said disabled claimants were being “thrown into a group of those most likely to get a sanction”, and he called for an examination into the relative rate of sanctions for disabled claimants.
He said that DWP figures on sanctions “suggest that the aggressive attitude we saw between 2013 and 2015 is back among us”.
He added later: “Sanctions appear to be back with a vengeance, and that shift of approach requires parliamentary scrutiny.”
He called for a “change in approach to put the claimant and their needs at the heart of the social security system”.
Kenny MacAskill, an Alba MP, said DWP workers were being “threatened with punishment, and potentially with dismissal, if they do not get their number of sanctions up”.
He said: “We know from [the PCS union] and other whistleblowers that many people worry that if they do not enforce a sanction against an individual, they will face consequences.
“That is simply unacceptable. That is not simply from the PCS; we know it from welfare rights officers.”
Debbie Abrahams, who like Stephens** has investigated sanctions as a member of the Commons work and pensions committee, said she was concerned that a return to the policies of the early 2010s, which led to the death of David Clapson – who died in July 2013 after being left destitute by having his benefits sanctioned – could lead to more claimant deaths.
She added: “There is currently no evidence that supports the efficacy – let alone the humanity – of sanctions at all.”
John McDonnell, Labour’s former shadow chancellor, said: “Like others, my experience of conditionality and the use of sanctions has largely centred on the impact on constituents who live the most chaotic of lives.
“They have difficulty complying with the various requirements that are made of them and, in some instances, actually even understanding the conditions that are attached to them.
“Living those chaotic lives means that they become intensely vulnerable.”
He said the number of claimants being sanctioned was “quite staggering”, with 115,274 universal credit claimants serving a sanction in August, more than three times the pre-pandemic figure of 36,771 in October 2019.
McDonnell said a report by Dr David Webster, a leading researcher on unemployment and sanctions at the University of Glasgow, showed the average length of a sanction to be about 11 weeks.
He said too many people had lost their lives, sometimes due to suicide, because of the pressure of DWP’s sanctions policy.
Labour’s Karen Buck, a shadow DWP minister, said Webster’s research showed 6.4 per cent of universal credit claimants who are subject to conditions as part of their claim were serving a benefit sanction in August, more than double the pre-pandemic peak of 3.1 per cent in October 2019.
She said: “We should be under no illusion that sanctions are just a slap on the wrist for claimants.
“Typically, sanctions involve the withdrawal of 100 per cent of the universal credit standard allowance, and even the reduced rate for the lowest level of sanction is 40 per cent of the standard allowance.”
She said she feared that the government was “more concerned with signalling toughness than with improving employment outcomes, and that the purpose of conditionality has been twisted towards catching people out rather than maintaining contact with the labour market”.
Buck said she also feared that the number of sanctions “has shot up because the government have lost control of the sanctions regime and no longer know what they are doing”.
Labour’s Grahame Morris called for a “moratorium” on the use of sanctions and an end to the “sanctions culture”, which “leaves the poorest in destitution” and places sick and disabled people “in extreme circumstances in which they can often see no way out”.
He said: “Sanctions should not be used routinely; they should instead be reserved as a last resort for the most extreme circumstances and cases. This is a matter of life and death.”
Responding to the debate, employment minister Guy Opperman said it was “certainly not the case” that there had been a change of sanctions policy and that he was “not aware” of any sanctions regime that incentivised DWP staff to apply sanctions.
But he failed to explain why the number of sanctions had shot up compared with the months preceding the pandemic.
He said that nearly all sanctions (98.2 per cent) were imposed for missing a meeting with a work coach, which “can be quickly and simply resolved by attending another appointment”, while about half of these sanctions are “resolved” through the claimant asking for a “mandatory reconsideration” of the sanction decision.
He said: “Where benefit claimants have vulnerabilities, safeguards exist to ensure that they are not sanctioned inappropriately.”
He said work coaches “have the discretion to switch off work-related activities for a period of time”, which allows them “to support vulnerable claimants and provide tailored support”.
And he said there was a “well-established system of hardship payments, which are available as a safeguard if a claimant demonstrates that they cannot meet their immediate and most essential needs” due to sanctions.
But he repeatedly refused to explain why the number of sanctions had risen, when asked to do so by John McDonnell.
*The debate started at 2.30pm and ended at 4pm
**Chris Stephens has now left the committee for a place on the SNP frontbench
15 December 2022
Shock and anger over DWP’s ‘despicable’ decision to abandon work on deaths plan
Disabled campaigners have expressed shock and anger after learning how the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) secretly abandoned work on a £106 million plan that was supposed to help it prevent further deaths of benefit claimants.
The plan was draw up under the leadership of former work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd, but work on the “DWP Excellence Plan” was abandoned months after she was replaced by Therese Coffey in September 2019.
Disability News Service (DNS) reported last week how a freedom of information response from the department showed that it had abandoned all work on the plan, blaming that decision on the pandemic.
This week, many of those who have campaigned for years for ministers and senior civil servants to be held accountable for countless deaths linked to DWP’s actions said they were appalled by the decision to abandon work on the plan.
Joy Dove – whose book about the life and tragic death of her daughter, Jodey Whiting, was published in October – said: “It’s disgusting that they had all these things to make a better system and they seem to have abandoned it.”
The independent case examiner (ICE) found in February 2019 that DWP failed five times to follow its own safeguarding rules in the weeks leading up to Jodey Whiting’s suicide.
Her mother, who is also disabled and campaigns for an independent inquiry into deaths linked to DWP, said: “The plan was there to prevent more suicides like Jodey’s.”
She said senior DWP civil servants had visited her family to apologise for the failings uncovered by ICE and promised changes to the system.
But she said: “Now, all these years later, they have had a chance and they do nothing.”
John McArdle, co-founder of the grassroots group Black Triangle, said: “We worked so hard over the past 12 years to highlight the failings in the system and to recommend that policies and systems be put in place that will protect people.
“It is hard not to feel despondent when we seemed to make such progress in convincing Amber Rudd and the department that systematic change was necessary.
“We seem to take one step forward and three steps back under this Conservative government.”
He said it was “despicable” that the pandemic was being used as an excuse for abandoning work on the plan.
He added: “The pandemic cannot be used as an excuse. Disabled people have suffered enough.
“The issue must not be allowed to be swept under the carpet, and ministers must now give their full attention to implementing the Excellence Plan initiated by Amber Rudd.”
Vicky Foxcroft, Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people, said it was “deeply disappointing for the DWP to abandon such a crucial area of work”.
She said: “Delays due to the pandemic are understandable. However, abandoning work altogether and claiming the pandemic is to blame is simply wrong.
“These are people’s lives; ministers must do everything in their power to make the benefits system work for disabled people and transform the culture of the DWP to better support people who interact with it.”
Although DWP claims to have made some improvements since early 2020, including how it learns from suicides and other deaths, supports claimants “in the most vulnerable situations”, and delivers mental health training to staff, many of the proposals outlined in the plan have been dumped.
DWP has admitted that it has not drawn up a single progress report on the plan since a document titled “Delivering our plan for DWP Excellence” was produced in February 2020.
It has also failed to adopt any “critical success factors” that would have been used to measure progress, and it has failed to report on how £66 million allocated to support “vulnerable people” was spent, a “specific caveat” applied by the Treasury to the use of the funding.
The subtitle of the delivery plan was “Allocating £106m to deliver reform for the most vulnerable in society”.
Kathy Bole, chair of Disability Labour, said DWP’s actions were “extremely worrying”.
She said: “While I was sceptical this programme would get off the ground, I had hoped there would be some steps in the right direction.
“The DWP as an institution has systematically traumatised those already needing to turn to the state for support.
“The process of applying for the meagre help available is humiliating and demeaning.
“The mental horror of being stripped of dignity and experiencing the financial hardship associated with the DWP is enraging.
“This planned programme signalled a possible change for the better, with ‘lessons being learned’.”
She said she feared that the government’s move to “austerity 2.0” would see others taking their own lives “while living in freezing cold conditions with nothing to eat”.
DWP said last week that, since the February 2020 delivery plan, it had increased the “range of circumstances” in which it carries out secret “internal process reviews” (IPRs) into deaths linked to its actions, and that it had expanded its IPR team.
Among those who have died after work on the plan was abandoned was Sophia Yuferev, a talented artist who had been living on a sandwich a day for the last few months of her life, and died in the autumn of 2021 after both her employment and support allowance and her personal independence payment were stopped by DWP.
Another was Philip Pakree, on Boxing Day 2020, whose partner had warned that he was too ill to undergo an upcoming benefit assessment that had left him “distraught” and “devastated”.
DNS has also reported how a disabled woman left traumatised by the daily demands of universal credit took her own life earlier this year, just four days after being told she would need to attend a face-to-face meeting with a work coach.
David Hayes, from DPAC Sheffield, said he and fellow members were “appalled” at the decision to abandon work on the DWP Excellence Plan.
He said: “We have major doubts as to how successful the plan would have been, given the track record of government and knowing that Coffey watered down key parts of the plan to prevent people from suiciding and ‘learn lessons’ from people’s deaths.”
But he said DWP’s decision to abandon work on the plan “shows that the government does not care and has never cared about disabled people”, but that DPAC Sheffield and national DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) would continue to hold DWP to account for the deaths linked to its actions.
He said that every person who has died due to the “hostility shown towards them by the DWP” was “precious” and that their deaths “have left voids in the lives of their grieving family and friends”.
He said: “The government could have prevented their deaths yet now they can’t even be bothered learning from their deaths to prevent future deaths.”
15 December 2022
SEND system is ‘creaking and ripe for reform’, says Ofsted
The special educational needs and disability (SEND) system is “creaking and ripe for long-promised reform”, according to the annual report of the education watchdog Ofsted.
Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of education, children’s services and skills, warned in her annual report on education and children’s care that many children who fell behind during the pandemic had been wrongly labelled with SEND, which was “not right for them”.
She said this has “put an unnecessary burden on the system”, which was already struggling with delays for assessments for disabled children and young people’s education, health and care plans (EHCPs).
These delays are a “persistent problem”, says her report, and are caused by “rising demand, staff absences and recruitment issues”.
In 2021, only 60 per cent of EHCPs were issued within the 20-week statutory limit, the same as in 2018 and 2019, while 20 local education authorities issued less than a third of plans within 20 weeks.
The report adds: “Even when children and young people have been able to access services, the service has often been interrupted or scaled back.”
But Disability Rights UK (DR UK) was critical of some of Ofsted’s conclusions.
Bethany Bale, DR UK’s policy and campaigns officer, said: “This isn’t about demand, this is about chronic under-funding, under-resourcing and a consistent failure nationally and locally to uphold legal obligations.
“Not only have we failed disabled young people for far too long, and continue to do so, but they continue to be the ones blamed for the fact they’re refused access to an education system built to exclude them.
“The SEND Review explained how outcomes for disabled people hadn’t improved, despite ‘unprecedented investment’.
“Now Ofsted claims that too many students are burdening an over-stretched system.
“If we are ever going to see an improvement in outcomes for disabled children, we must stop framing them as the problem to be fixed – and instead, focus on tackling the barriers placed upon them.
“No student should be framed as a ‘burden’ in a system that exists to ensure every child can reach their full potential – no matter the support or adjustments they may need to access that potential.”
The report also says that more than half (16 of 26) of SEND inspections of local areas carried out jointly by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission resulted in a finding that the local education, health and care bodies responsible should produce a joint statement of action because of “significant weaknesses”.
Ofsted said this was “extremely concerning”.
These inspections often found “inconsistencies” in the way that local areas identified the needs of disabled children and young people and in the joint working between education, health and care partners.
The quality of EHCPs was poor in many areas, and the plans “did not always reflect children and young people’s needs and aspirations”, while families in some areas did not know where to get help for their children and “felt that their views were not heard or valued”.
Many areas did not have an effective SEND strategy, the report says.
The Ofsted report also raises concerns about the large number of disabled children who attend unregistered “alternative provision” (AP) institutions – such as pupil referral units – after being excluded from mainstream schools.
This is “unsatisfactory and can even be dangerous”, says the report, and Ofsted said it would like to see compulsory registration for all alternative provision establishments.
The pandemic continued to affect the school absence rates of pupils with SEND, the report says, with about a third of pupils with EHCPs, and of those with SEN support, missing at least 10 per cent of sessions in autumn 2021, which was “substantially higher” than before the pandemic.
The report says that less than half of the independent specialist colleges that were inspected during the year were judged good or outstanding.
Ofsted also says there are “enormous issues” with the children’s homes market, with demand far outstripping supply in many areas and children being “let down by a system that is stretched too thinly”.
It says that children “with the most complex needs are often the least well served in already overstretched systems”, while homes that can take children with “acute mental health needs” are “in short supply”.
Spielman said: “The pandemic continued to cast a shadow over education and children’s social care for much of the past year.
“And the energy crisis and economic pressures have brought more turbulence in recent months.
“Across all age groups in education, careful thought has been given to making up lost learning.
“However, achievement gaps are still wider than before the pandemic, meaning the recovery is far from complete.
“And it’s clear that in education – and in children’s social care – staffing issues are compounding problems standing in the way of a full recovery.”
15 December 2022
Frustration with Labour resurfaces at TUC disabled workers’ event
Union and Labour activists have expressed fresh fears that the party will fail to fight for the rights of disabled people if it wins power at the next general election.
They spoke out at an online meeting, held by the TUC, to mark UK Disability History Month and examine how the cost-of-living crisis has been impacting disabled people.
Panellists were asked by one union activist who was attending the event if they thought a Labour government under Keir Starmer would prioritise disability issues.
Ann Galpin, co-chair of the TUC disabled workers’ committee, and herself a disabled Labour member, said she had been “very disappointed” to learn that the party had backtracked on its commitment to increase disabled and black members’ representation within party structures.
Disability News Service reported earlier this month how Labour’s national executive committee had decided it would be too expensive to set up national and regional committees for its disabled members and hold a disabled members’ conference, and had decided instead to focus funding on winning the next general election.
It made a similar decision to backtrack on an agreement to set up party structures for black, Asian and minority ethnic members.
Galpin, who also chairs the disabled members’ council of the National Union of Journalists, said: “That to me, as a committed Labour activist, and disabled worker, and disabled person, is very disheartening.
“If we can’t be true and say that here, how can we say it?
“I know that the TUC will do everything that it can, I know that our DPOs [disabled people’s organisations] do everything that they can, but how can we continue to have hope when we get kicks like that?”
Jon Luxton, who has been a special adviser on disability to the Welsh government for the last three years and is also a Labour party member, said Galpin had made “a very good point”.
Colleen Johnson, a member of the TUC disabled workers’ committee and a representative of the National Education Union, said her optimism had disappeared under Starmer’s leadership.
She said: “A few years ago, when there were different folks at the helm, I would absolutely be certain that [disabled people’s rights would have been prioritised] and it’s quite an inspiring thought really.”
She said people at senior levels of the party, such as shadow chancellor John McDonnell, had listened to disabled people and had been “asking questions” under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
She said: “A few years ago, I think I was incredibly optimistic. I’m just so downhearted really that all of that seems to have disappeared.”
Johnson also highlighted the “obsession” with “working people” among senior Labour figures.
At this year’s party conference, leading party activists accused Starmer of using “divisive rhetoric” and of a “deliberate” failure to mention disabled people and those who are out of work in his main conference speech.
He mentioned “working people” 25 times in his 5,400-word speech but failed to mention disabled people once as he addressed the annual conference in Liverpool.
Johnson said: “I know that we are all members of the TUC, some of the panellists are members of the TUC disabled workers’ committee, but there is a broader group of disabled people who are unable or only partly able to work, and this obsession, every few sentences, with working people, really worries me.
“So I’m not convinced yet, but we can only hope.”
Dave Allan, co-chair of the TUC disabled workers’ committee, and a member of the Unite union, said: “We have had meetings with Starmer and he has made certain categorical promises.
“He has promised that a Labour government will fully implement into UK law the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
“He has promised to have a new Equality Act, he has promised to repeal all the anti-trade union legislation.”
But Allan said that austerity “isn’t a crisis of a Conservative or a Labour government, it’s a crisis of capitalism, and unless you are prepared to take on capitalism, you cannot make the reforms that the disabled community would require”.
15 December 2022
TUC research on disabled workers ‘does not paint a happy picture’
Disabled workers are earning significantly less on average than non-disabled people, and the gap has been widening, a TUC meeting heard this week.
The event, held to mark UK Disability History Month, examined the extent of the “exclusion and devaluing” of disabled workers, and the wider impact of the cost-of-living crisis on disabled people.
Ann Galpin, co-chair of the TUC disabled workers’ committee, told the meeting that two new pieces of TUC research on the conditions faced by disabled workers “do not paint a happy picture”.
She said: “The exclusion and devaluing of disabled workers is a result of systematic ableism that is too readily accepted and normalised.”
Galpin, who also chairs the disabled members’ council of the National Union of Journalists, said new TUC research had shown nearly three-quarters of disabled workers (72 per cent) earn less than £15 an hour, compared with about half of non-disabled workers (54 per cent).
She said the increase in the minimum wage announced by the chancellor in his autumn statement – an increase to £10.42 an hour from 1 April 2023 for those aged 23 and over – “doesn’t go anywhere near far enough in lifting workers out of poverty”.
Galpin said this was even worse in some parts of the country, including the West Midlands (85 per cent of disabled workers earning less than £15 an hour) and the north-east of England (82 per cent).
The TUC analysis also showed that disabled workers are more likely to be employed on zero hours contracts (4.4 per cent compared with 2.9 per cent of non-disabled workers), where they have no guarantee of shifts from one week to the next and their income is “subject to the whims of managers”.
She said: “This makes it hard for workers to plan their lives, look after their children and get to medical appointments, and it makes it harder for workers to challenge unacceptable behaviour by bosses because of concerns about whether they will be penalised by not being allocated hours in future.
“Try negotiating reasonable adjustments on a zero hours contract!”
Further TUC research published last month shows non-disabled workers earn 17.2 per cent more than disabled workers on average, an increase from 16.5 per cent last year.
This disability pay gap – £3,731 per year for someone working a 35-hour week – means disabled people effectively work for free for the last 54 days of the year.
Galpin said it was “appalling that this gap has widened and that we are going backwards”.
Disabled workers are also twice as likely as non-disabled workers to be unemployed (6.8 per cent compared to 3.4 per cent).
The TUC has called for more funding for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to allow the watchdog to enforce disabled workers’ rights to reasonable adjustments, and a stronger legal framework for reasonable adjustments.
Galpin said: “It’s high time for big employers to be forced to take action to support disabled people.
“They must publish their disability pay gaps to help shine a light on the situation.”
She said the TUC wanted the UK government to bring in a statutory requirement for employers of more than 50 staff to report their disability pay gap, as already exists for gender pay gaps.
And she said that disabled workers were over-represented in lower-paid industries, which was likely to be one of the reasons for the disability pay gap.
She said: “The pay gap is also caused by over-representation in part-time work, in insecure jobs, and is linked to discrimination and employers failing to provide reasonable adjustments.”
Rick Burgess, of Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, and the Greater Manchester Disabled People’s Panel, spoke of the cost-of-living results produced by a survey of disabled people carried out by the panel earlier this year.
Even though the survey was carried out in July, one-fifth of disabled people were already saying they could not afford essentials and were “below the coping line”, while another 28 per cent could only afford essentials.
He said: “One of the strongest messages that came through from the survey was there’s a very strong correlation between poor housing and a host of other issues.
“If your housing is low equality, it’s inaccessible, it’s much more likely you’ll have very poor health, that you’ll have greater debts, that you’ll have greater unemployment, that you’ll experience more hate crime.
“There’s a real fundamental crisis in social housing [and] the poisonous fruits of that are now very apparent.”
He told the meeting: “In a social model way of thinking, we consider that austerity is a barrier, a disabling barrier, and we cannot see our liberty, our liberation or our rights realised while austerity exists and that particularly goes to the Labour party, who at the moment are indicating they will continue with austerity.
“Austerity has to end.”
Disabled activist and author Ellen Clifford*, whose presentation was read out by Saliha Rashid, a colleague from Disabled People Against Cuts, told the meeting: “The cost-of living crisis not only continues but steps up the war on disabled people.
“(It is) another example where disabled people are disproportionately impacted and another example where mitigation measures introduced by the government won’t go nearly far enough to prevent serious adverse impacts, not only in terms of harm experienced by individuals but also on a societal level, deepening existing inequalities.
“The cost-of-living crisis is also another example where disabled campaigners have added further strain to our already overstretched daily lives.
“In order to fight for greater recognition of the oppression disabled people face, it’s a terrible aspect of disability activism that we burn out and die so relatively young.”
She paid tribute to disabled activists Seán McGovern, who died two years ago, and Roger Lewis, who died last month, both of whom “left us far too soon”.
She said: “We need warriors like them now more than ever as things continue to get worse for disabled people.”
Colleen Johnson, a member of the TUC disabled workers’ committee, said members of her union – the National Education Union – were reporting that they could not afford to charge their mobility aids and power vital medical equipment, or keep their homes warm enough to avoid damaging their health.
She said the cost-of-living crisis was “yet another barrier facing disabled people in particular”.
She said the NEU believed in the importance of disabled workers self-identifying as disabled people to their union, and then – as soon as possible – to their employer.
She said: “The earlier this is done the better, rather than waiting until the crisis point has been reached.
“That way the member has a right to reasonable adjustments when needed under the Equality Act.”
Jon Luxton, who has been a special adviser on disability to the Welsh government for the last three years, said: “We know how bad the situation has been and we know about the cost-of-living crisis.
“It has not just come about this year for disabled people, it has been a growing crisis since 2008 really. It’s pretty dire and people die because of it.”
He told the meeting that 68 per cent of Covid-related deaths in Wales were of disabled people, compared with 58 per cent of Covid deaths in England, which was “a massive difference”.
The Locked Out report analysed the impact of the pandemic on disabled people in Wales, and was produced by disabled people with the support of the Welsh government.
The report found that social factors such as “discrimination, poor housing, poverty, employment status, institutionalisation, lack of [personal and protective equipment], poor and patchy services, inaccessible and confusing public information and personal circumstances” had “significantly contributed” to this high proportion of Covid-related deaths.
*Ellen Clifford is author of The War On Disabled People, an account of the decade since the election of the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition in May 2010 from the perspective of a disabled activist
15 December 2022
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
More than 150 civil society groups have written to Rishi Sunak urging him to commit to retaining the Human Rights Act and rule out its replacement by a British bill of rights. The prime minister’s position on the proposed legislation is in doubt but Dominic Raab, having been reappointed justice secretary, remains determined to push through his pet project, which was shelved under Liz Truss’s premiership. The British Institute of Human Rights and 157 other organisations have written to Sunak calling on him to abandon plans to scrap the act: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/dec/10/civil-society-calls-on-rishi-sunak-to-commit-human-rights-act-bill-of-rights
Jeremy Hunt is reportedly facing calls from around 40 MPs to cut government spending on equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives. The Telegraph reported that a significant number of MPs have written to the chancellor on the matter. It comes as the Conservative Way Forward group claims that millions of pounds of government money is spent on such initiatives: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-hunt-equality-diversity-spending-b2242950.html
Many disabled and less mobile passengers missed summer flights at Heathrow – one of the busiest airports in the world – due to its poor accessibility performance, the aviation watchdog has found. Bristol, Leeds Bradford and Luton airports were also criticised along with Britain’s biggest airport by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in its interim airport accessibility report. The CAA did not specify how many passengers missed flights at Heathrow but described the total as “unacceptable”: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/13/airports-disabled-passengers-unacceptable-service-heathrow-bristol-leeds-bradford-luton
The family of a double amputee are “appalled” after the eight-year-old boy was left stranded at Gatwick Airport without his wheelchair for hours, after it got stuck on a plane. Tony Hudgell was left stranded at the busy airport for five hours on Monday and, when his chair did turn up, it arrived “twisted and bent”, the family have said: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/double-amputee-8-stranded-gatwick-28711798
US actress Selma Blair says speaking publicly about her multiple sclerosis diagnosis has had a major impact on her career in Hollywood. “When I talked about it, there was so much support, but I never got a job again,” she has told BBC 100 Women: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63792626
15 December 2022
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
