New inquiry call as DWP deaths mount, despite decade of secret investigations
Extracts from new secret reports show a catalogue of errors made by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its private contractors that have been linked to the deaths of disabled people interacting with the benefits system.
DWP has finally released nearly 100 recommendations made in reviews that were completed between September 2020 and November 2022 into deaths and serious harm caused to benefit claimants.
DWP has been collecting such reviews centrally for more than a decade for the purposes of “continuous improvement” and learning lessons.
But despite more than 10 years of reviews, which DWP refuses to publish in full or even pass to the families of deceased claimants, the latest recommendations show the actions of the department’s ministers, civil servants and contractors continue to be linked to countless deaths.
After being shown the latest recommendations, Labour’s Debbie Abrahams has renewed her call for an independent inquiry into the years of deaths linked to DWP’s actions.
Every one of the 53 internal process reviews (IPRs) carried out by DWP civil servants investigated the case of a sick or disabled benefit claimant who had either died or experienced significant harm*.
The recommendations refer to multiple errors and policy failings across universal credit, employment and support allowance (ESA) and personal independence payment (PIP).
Although it is impossible to be certain how many of the flaws uncovered by the reviews played a significant part in the deaths of claimants – because DWP refuses to release the full reports – the recommendations suggest the disability benefits system continues to be deeply flawed and unsafe.
Several IPRs criticise the private sector contractors that carry out PIP assessments, suggesting that assessment reports were not meeting “the agreed quality”, that “quality assurance checks” for these reports were not “sufficiently robust”, that reports should “fully explore customer’s medical conditions and meet the quality standards to support an accurate PIP award”, and that the reports needed to be “robust and meet the agreed standards”.
Further concerns about PIP were raised in one IPR that suggested an assessment provider’s reports were not “robust” and that it had failed to seek evidence from a healthcare professional listed on the PIP2 “How your disability affects you” form.
Another IPR warned of concerns about “inconsistent interpretation of evidence”, without making clear who was responsible.
One recommendation made in October 2020 – following the death of Philippa Day 12 months earlier** – calls for the introduction of an additional check where claimants “fall out of the PIP reassessment process due to non-return of a PIP claim form”.
Another IPR suggests some DWP decision-makers are failing to use “all available sources of evidence” when deciding PIP claims.
On ESA, one report suggests that the claimant’s benefits had been removed without the necessary enquiries being made about “any change in circumstances or medical condition”, despite there being a seven-year gap since their last work capability assessment.
Another IPR raises concerns that members of DWP’s ESA team were not aware of “the correct process to follow when a capability for work questionnaire is not received from a customer”.
And a third raises concerns about the failure to ensure “reported changes” were accurately recorded on the ESA system.
On universal credit, one review raises concerns over the decision-making process after the receipt of a work capability assessment report, and another suggests a failure to comply with the “WCA referral process”.
One of the most concerning recommendations relating to universal credit is the suggestion to “consider if front line colleagues are sufficiently trained to identify customers reporting changes in their health conditions”, while another underlines the need for universal credit “claimant commitments” to “ensure they reflect the customer’s health journey”.
Abrahams, who has played a key role in drawing attention in parliament to deaths linked to DWP, including through her membership of the Commons work and pensions committee, said she was “shocked” to see the latest IPR recommendations.
She told Disability News Service (DNS) today (Thursday): “Clearly, the reassurances that have been made to members of the work and pensions select committee by consecutive work and pensions secretaries that lessons are learned from every case, are absolutely meaningless.
“Even in this two year time span, recommendations are repeated. How many more claimant deaths or serious harms are there going to be?
“Twelve months on from the Equality and Human Rights Commission requiring the government’s Department for Work and Pensions to enter into a section 23 agreement because of concerns about discrimination against sick and disabled claimants, it seems the government are either incompetent or just don’t care, or perhaps both.
“I will be exploring all avenues of action that can be taken including an independent public inquiry into the true scale and causes of these deaths and serious harms, whether a duty of care on the government’s Department for Work and Pensions exists and if it doesn’t whether it should.”
The recommendations were released to DNS under the Freedom of Information Act.
It is believed the department was holding back the release of the documents until the publication of the government’s much-criticised Transforming Support white paper last month.
Other recommendations from IPRs completed between September 2020 and November 2022 were released in January, while last week DNS reported on recommendations made in IPRs completed between April 2019 and September 2020.
Both of these sets of IPRs also suggested close links between numerous deaths and key parts of the benefits system, despite more than a decade of such tragedies.
*DWP guidance says IPRs should be carried out if there is ‘a suggestion or allegation that the Department’s actions or omissions may have negatively contributed to the customer’s circumstances, or cases in which the department may be able to learn about the operation of its processes, AND a customer has suffered serious harm, has died (including by suicide), or where we have reason to believe there has been attempted suicide’. They are also carried out if DWP is asked to ‘participate in a Safeguarding Adults Board, or is named as an Interested Party at an Inquest’.
**DNS obtained a draft copy of this IPR at Philippa Day’s inquest in January 2021, with the agreement of her family
27 April 2023
Tories and Labour silent on social care charging, a week before local elections
The Conservative and Labour parties have both refused to reveal their current policies on charging for adult social care, just days before local elections in England.
Disability News Service (DNS) approached the four largest parties contesting next week’s elections – the Conservatives, the Green party, Labour and the Liberal Democrats – and gave them all more than five days to respond.
Although the Greens and the Liberal Democrats provided some details of their policies – with both suggesting they would move towards ending charges for social care at home if they won power in a general election – both the Conservatives and Labour refused to provide any details.
Having initially refused to respond to a request to comment, a Labour spokesperson eventually said: “We won’t provide comment to your enquiry on this occasion. Thank you for your understanding.”
The Conservative party also refused to provide a statement on its social care charging policy, despite several requests by DNS.
A party spokesperson eventually said: “Given this [sic] a question on policy, you’ll need to speak to the Department for Work and Pensions on this.”
All four parties were asked the same question: “What is your party’s policy on social care for these elections, and particularly what is the policy on councils you control working towards abolishing all charges for care provided at home, as has been done in Hammersmith and Fulham and Tower Hamlets?”
In contrast to the Conservatives and Labour, the Green party pointed to its national policy of calling for free social care.
But when asked if any Green-controlled councils would work towards abolishing all charges for care provided at home after the local elections, the party had failed to comment by noon today (Thursday).
The Liberal Democrats said they supported a policy of free “personal” care – as introduced in Scotland in 2002 by the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition – and a more generous means test and assistance for those unable to pay for their accommodation costs.
But when asked if the party would push Liberal Democrat-controlled councils to enact this policy if they win power next week, the party had failed to comment by noon today.
The policy introduced in Scotland did not scrap all care charges, as support with activities such as housework, laundry and shopping were not covered, but the party has so far refused to say if it would go further and push for an end to all care charges.
Last month, disabled people’s organisations praised the “bold” and “progressive” actions of Tower Hamlets council – currently run by the Aspire party – after it promised to become just the second council in England to abolish all charges for care and support for disabled people in their own homes.
Labour-run Hammersmith and Fulham abolished all care charges for disabled people living independently in the community in 2015.
The Conservative government has faced years of mounting anger over its repeated failure to reform adult social care and fix the funding crisis that saw the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services warn this week that the system was “close to breaking point”, with millions of people “in pain or distress because they aren’t getting the care they need”.
Tens of thousands of disabled people across the country are having debt collection action taken against them every year by their local authorities over unpaid care charges.
Despite Labour’s silence, an inquiry that will have significant influence on Labour’s policy on independent living at the next general election is set to rule out scrapping care charges.
Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health and social care secretary, has also made it clear that his party will prioritise increasing the wages of care workers above the need to eliminate care charges, if it wins power at the next general election.
But despite those comments, party members approved a motion at last autumn’s Labour conference that called for a National Care Service that was co-produced with service-users, publicly funded, and free of charge.
27 April 2023
Disability minister faces resignation calls after posting ‘dangerous’ and hostile video
The minister for disabled people is facing calls to resign after posting a hostile and “dangerous” post on social media that warned benefit claimants his department would “track you down” and “bring you to justice”.
Tom Pursglove and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have been warned that a video accompanying the post “must be withdrawn immediately” because of the harm it will cause to claimants’ mental health.
They had failed to do so by noon today (Thursday).
The video – posted by DWP on Twitter and by Pursglove on his Facebook page – is a clumsy parody of a speech in the violent Liam Neeson thriller Taken, in which Neeson’s character promises: “I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”
In the DWP video, Pursglove says to camera: “We will track you down. We will find you. And we will bring you to justice.”
There was a furious response to the post from disabled people, and within 72 hours it had been deleted from the DWP Twitter account, although it could still be seen on Pursglove’s Facebook page at noon today (Thursday) and was reposted with a different message on DWP’s Twitter account.
Pursglove appears to be wearing a stab-proof vest in the video, which starts with blue flashing lights and police sirens and sees a team of DWP civil servants and police officers apparently arresting someone in their flat.
Although DWP later said the arrest was connected to an alleged £800,000 fraud involving multiple faked identities, there was no suggestion of organised crime in the initial tweet.
Instead, he boasted that DWP has “a very particular set of skills that we use in conjunction with the police to tackle fraud”, another parody of the Taken speech, in which Neeson’s character also says he has “a very particular set of skills”.
It is the latest action by DWP ministers over the last decade that has appeared certain to whip up hostility against disabled people who need support from the social security system.
But there is also likely to be frustration with the Labour party, after the party only allowed shadow minister for disabled people Vicky Foxcroft to deliver a mild criticism of the posts and the video.
She said: “Sensational videos such as this do absolutely nothing to increase disabled people’s trust in the DWP.
“Deliberate benefit fraud needs to be addressed, but most organised fraud does not involve disability benefits.”
Labour also has a long history of whipping up hostility against disabled people on benefits.
Many disabled campaigners reacted with astonishment to the DWP post, describing it as “disgusting”, “unbelievable” and “frightening”.
Dr Jay Watts, a disabled activist and consultant clinical psychologist, said she could not “emphasize enough how dangerous this messaging is, nor how damaging it can be to claimants’ mental health”.
She said: “The DWP video not only plays on fears of persecution and being accused of wrongdoing, which claimants tell us in clinic provokes terror, despair, and anxiety – quite understandably, unfortunately, given the cruelty of our current welfare system – but also ramps up the messaging with highly evocative and persecutory language almost perfectly designed to trigger fear responses in the body.
“For any member of the public deluded enough to believe the DWP’s likely response that the messaging will only affect people considering fraud, let me tell you this: mental health clinicians such as myself spend a considerable amount of time convincing people in desperate need that they deserve benefits because the pervasive fear we nearly all hold is that we’ve done something wrong.
“When I say that this policy will get inside people’s heads in terms of intrusive thoughts and persecutory auditory hallucinations, I mean it quite literally.
“This video is unacceptable, and it must be withdrawn immediately.”
Bob Ellard, a member of the national steering group of Disabled People Against Cuts, said: “That message was designed to bully and intimidate disabled people, many of them already in severe mental distress.
“Pursglove knows this. He is not fit to be minister for disabled people and should resign.”
Mark Williams, founder of the grassroots disabled people’s organisation Bristol Reclaiming Independent Living, also called for Pursglove to resign.
He said the video was “a worrying response from a government department that targets those who are less likely to hit back” and was failing to target “the real culprits of serious fraud such as tax evaders”.
He said: “It is a typical reaction to what the government thinks Conservative voters want to hear as part of their Culture Wars rhetoric.”
Fiona Robertson, a disabled equalities consultant and former national equalities convenor for the SNP, said her heart had been “racing” since she saw the video.
She described in a blog how Pursglove’s tweet had activated the trauma she experienced 15 years ago – under a Labour-led DWP – when she was wrongly accused of benefit fraud.
DWP had taken pictures of her carrying shopping, even though she had made it clear in her application that her condition was fluctuating and that she “had days when I had to just do stuff and pay the energy and pain cost later”. Her benefits were later reinstated.
She said: “It’s been more than 15 years, and still every time I’m outside – every time – I’m afraid.
“Sometimes it’s just a background hum, sometimes it makes it hard to go out. I am aware all the time of how I look to a spy – am I smiling too much, moving too easily?”
Robertson said the incident had affected both her mental and physical health.
She wrote: “When physios recommend exercises using gym equipment or daily walks outside, I have to weigh the risk of complying because it might be used to take everything from me. Sometimes I’ve decided it’s worth it, sometimes not.”
She said: “This messaging from the DWP and, horrifically, from the Minister for Disabled People himself, is an act of material violence.
“It has catastrophic effects on people’s lives and physical and mental wellbeing. It is unforgivable.”
DWP claims it deleted the original tweet because it needed to make the details of the fraud case clearer, but it has refused to apologise for the video.
A DWP spokesperson said in a statement: “The suspects in the video are alleged to have created a number of identities to defraud £800,000 from the government – a very serious alleged attack on money meant for vulnerable people.
“We make no apology for using our channels to both deter fraudsters and reassure the public that we are using every tool in our armoury to protect taxpayers’ money.
“As is usual, the minister’s portfolio also covers other areas, one of which is fraud against the welfare system.
“This cost the taxpayer £8.6 billion last year and it is right that we do all we can to reduce that and ensure money goes to those who need it.
“This government is committed to supporting disabled people and those with health conditions live independent lives with the full support of the welfare payments available.”
27 April 2023
Ministers’ advisers criticised ‘poverty of ambition’ on rail access
The government’s plans for the railways over the next three decades display a “poverty of ambition” on accessibility, its own advisers on accessible transport have told ministers.
They told the Department for Transport that they were “extremely disappointed” that plans for the railways in the Whole Industry Strategic Plan (WISP) would do no more than “widen accessibility”.
The criticism by the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) came in its response last year to a consultation on WISP, obtained by The Association of British Commuters (ABC) through a freedom of information request.
DPTAC says WISP – described by ministers as the first version of “a 30-year strategy for the railway” – had provided a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the accessibility of the rail network, which remains inaccessible to many disabled people”.
But, it says, ministerial ambition in the plan was only to “widen” accessibility, rather than provide a railway network that was fully, or at least “very largely”, accessible.
In its consultation response, DPTAC says: “The poverty of ambition exposed by the very limited aspiration to ‘widen accessibility’ continues to reflect a railway culture where accessibility remains a ‘nice to have’, and where many of Britain’s 14 million disabled people remain excluded from a vital public service and all the social, economic and other opportunities that it provides access to.”
It highlights how the “continued inaccessibility of the railway” means that “around a fifth of the UK’s population will potentially fail to benefit from the government’s plans to ‘level-up’”.
DPTAC also warns ministers in its response that a legal challenge under the Equality Act that draws attention to the discrimination faced by disabled rail passengers could force a “major reshaping” of the industry.
It suggests that one area of “potential challenge” is around disabled passengers who cannot secure assistance where “Driver Only Operated trains serve unstaffed or partially staffed stations”.
DPTAC has previously warned ministers of the “potentially toxic combination of driver-only operated trains and unstaffed stations”.
Its WISP response adds: “Given the necessarily long timescales associated with the eradication of physical barriers to access across the rail network, the availability of properly trained staff stands out as the key mitigation for what will remain, in many areas, a physically inaccessible network for the foreseeable future.”
When the Department for Transport finally published its report on the responses to its WISP consultation (PDF), it summed up the criticism of DPTAC and others as calling for a “firmer commitment to ensuring accessibility and inclusivity”.
It is just the latest document obtained by ABC that has exposed the widespread discrimination faced by disabled people across the rail network.
Last September, ABC obtained a leaked document that showed the UK’s largest rail operator – Govia Thameslink Railway – admitting it had been breaching access laws for more than 10 years across large parts of its rail network.
And last July, a DPTAC report obtained by ABC concluded that staffing levels on a section of the rail network were “completely inadequate to deliver an accessible railway”.
Yesterday (Wednesday), ABC published a blog which said that DPTAC’s WISP response and other documents secured under the Freedom of Information Act suggested that the Department for Transport (DfT) was ignoring its duties under the Equality Act.
Emily Yates, co-founder of ABC, told Disability News Service (DNS) yesterday: “This is a valuable report, making an extended warning for the DfT to apply its public sector equality duty to ‘advance equality of opportunity’.
“It suggests that the DfT has failed to make any studies on the value of accessibility to the railway and the economy; and failed to address the huge gap in usage, with disabled adults making 28 per cent fewer trips (across all transport) and travelling 40 per cent fewer rail miles than non-disabled adults.
“This absolutely proves the need for the DfT to urgently publish equality impact assessments on all departmental policies, which the Equality and Human Rights Commission requested in December.”
DfT says it has regular dialogue with DPTAC and other stakeholders about accessibility issues and has recently appointed Matthew Campbell-Hill as DPTAC’s new chair.
In March, DNS reported how Campbell-Hill had questioned whether it was right to release DPTAC reports that exposed the discrimination faced by disabled passengers.
DfT also claims that the much-criticised Passenger Assist mobile phone app has cut delays in providing assistance to disabled rail passengers.
It claims that trains have operated safely in the UK for many years with driver-only operation, and that the Office of Rail and Road, the independent regulator, has approved this approach.
A DfT spokesperson said: “Everyone should be able to travel with confidence and the department is committed to improving accessibility for all users of the rail network.
“Our Access for All programme has delivered step free accessible routes at over 200 stations [since 2006], with additional improvements at over 1,500 stations.
“By modernising the railway and moving staff out of ticket offices, we can enable them to provide more face-to-face assistance, so all passengers get the help they need.”
Meanwhile, ABC has called on DPTAC – under its new chair – to meet its own obligations under the Freedom of Information Act.
Yates said: “This consultation response should have been published over a year ago, under freedom of information law requirements for ‘proactive publication’.
“This duty is correctly followed by DPTAC’s counterpart in Scotland, the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS), which publishes regular information across all the classes of information required, including consultation responses, meeting minutes, reports, and formal letters.
“It’s time for DPTAC to recognise that it is a public body, and that the ongoing failure to publish in the same way as every other public authority is the cause of why so much vital information on staffing and accessibility did not come out years earlier.
“This has been a key factor in helping the DfT cover up a mountain of policy failures relating to accessibility investment and railway destaffing.”
27 April 2023
DWP blocks release of document that shows impact of scrapping ‘fit for work’ test
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is refusing to release a document that would show how its controversial plans to scrap the work capability assessment would impact disabled people.
Despite releasing documents that estimate the impact of less controversial parts of its Transforming Support white paper on disabled people and other minorities, DWP is refusing to do the same for its proposal to scrap the “fitness for work” test.
DWP has released equality impact assessments (EIAs) for eight policies, including proposals on information and advice, the Access to Work scheme, the Work and Health programme and local supported employment.
But it is refusing to do the same for its “interconnected package of measures” on occupational health services, which has not yet been finalised, and the controversial plan to scrap the work capability assessment (WCA) if the Conservatives win the next general election.
In a freedom of information response to Disability News Service (DNS), DWP said that it “has considered equality impacts” in its work on removing the WCA but that this information was exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act because the details were still “being used to help shape government policy”.
It told DNS: “We recognise that the release of the information requested could provide a greater understanding of the planned removal of the Work Capability Assessment… However, we have to balance this against the fact that the policy proposing the removal of the WCA is still in development.”
It added: “It is important that the Government preserves its safe space to consider live policy issues and the information you request includes details that are still being used to develop policy.
“On balance, the Department is satisfied that in this instance the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure for both WCA and Occupational Health policies.”
This could mean that the Conservative party will go into the next general election with a promise to scrap the WCA if it regains power, but without releasing details it possesses that show how such a move would affect disabled people and other groups protected from discrimination under the Equality Act.
Last month, DNS reported mounting concerns that the government’s plans to reform the disability benefits system were fatally flawed.
The concerns focus on proposals to scrap the work capability assessment and give new “fitness for work” powers to work coaches in jobcentres.
Under the plans, disabled people who cannot work will only be able to qualify for a new health element of universal credit if they also receive the disability benefits personal independence payment (PIP), disability living allowance (DLA), or, in Scotland, adult disability payment.
Eligibility for out-of-work disability benefits would therefore be decided through the PIP or DLA assessments, or their equivalent in Scotland.
It would be left to DWP work coaches to decide if a disabled person could carry out work-related activity.
Another key concern is that the proposals would appear to remove a vital safety net that protects those who face a “substantial risk” of harm if found “fit for work”.
Vicky Foxcroft, Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people, said: “Yet again we see a lack of transparency from the DWP.
“Disabled people already have very little trust in the department and are now rightly concerned about the impact of plans to scrap the work capability assessment.
“The only way to build that trust is through transparency and co-production. Ministers need to urgently get a grip of this.”
Ken Butler, welfare rights and policy adviser for Disability Rights UK, called for DWP to publish the WCA equality impact assessment.
He said: “A recuring DWP theme during discussions about the green paper forerunner to the recent health and disability white paper was that it recognised no-one trusted it and that it was now committed to transparency.
“That doesn’t seem to have lasted very long. The scrapping of the work capability assessment without reform or replacement has been presented so far as a fait accompli.
“As is the linking of a new health element of universal credit to PIP only, and all benefit conditionality being at the discretion of work coaches.
“That this will lead to many disabled people being financially worse off and at risk of benefit sanctions seems inevitable.
“That the EIA will mean ‘a greater understanding of the planned removal of the work capability assessment’ is the very reason it should be published.”
Meanwhile, Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, told disability minister Tom Pursglove in parliament this week that his proposal to “essentially collapse the work capability assessment into the PIP assessment” would mean up to one million people with fluctuating health conditions, or those recovering from treatment, could lose out on up to £350 a month, which he said was “causing considerable distress”.
27 April 2023
Airlines are failing on access, regulator concludes after four-year review
A lengthy review by the aviation regulator has exposed numerous failings by airlines operating in the UK in how they treat their disabled passengers.
The review by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) began four years ago, but it was interrupted by the pandemic.
It examined airlines’ websites, observed their operations at UK airports and sent them questionnaires, although many airlines failed to return them.
Some of the issues raised in the review report have been repeatedly highlighted in the media in recent years, including the delays experienced by many disabled passengers at the end of their flights.
The report says the interests of disabled passengers “were not always, in our view, fully considered” when aircraft were being emptied of passengers after landing, with some passengers “encouraged to walk off aircraft rather than wait for assistance”.
It also raises concerns about the provision of assistance to use in-flight toilets, and damage to mobility equipment carried on flights, two other high-profile issues.
The report says the performance of some airlines on how they deal with pre-flight requests for assistance is “sufficiently poor for us to question whether airlines are doing enough to capture assistance requests”.
It also raises concerns about how some airlines are restricting the number of disabled passengers on each flight, and how they require medical clearance before they allow some passengers with health conditions to travel when “there may not always be a valid reason to do so”.
The CAA says in its report: “Our view is that some airlines are not doing enough to ensure that their processes are sufficiently robust to ensure that fair and proportionate decisions are being made on access to air travel for individual passengers with complex needs.”
There are also concerns that some check-in staff are not adequately trained to identify passengers who may require special assistance.
Now, four years after the review began, the CAA has announced plans for a new airlines accessibility framework.
The framework will rank airlines on how they serve their disabled passengers in areas such as website accessibility, how they carry mobility equipment, access to onboard toilets, and how they deal with assistance dogs and pre-flight requests for assistance.
The CAA said it did not plan to assess airlines against the new framework “all at once or necessarily on an annual basis” but aimed to assess the largest 20 airlines by passenger volumes in the first two years.
The regulator – which is responsible for enforcing UK regulations on the rights of disabled air passengers* – has now launched a three-month consultation on its draft plans for the framework.
It says that a similar framework for UK airports, launched nearly 10 years ago, has led to improved assistance for disabled passengers.
Four years ago, CAA was told it was only doing “half the job” by reporting on access at airports but failing to carry out similar investigations into whether airlines were meeting their legal duties to disabled passengers.
Anna Bowles, CAA’s head of consumer, said: “Our proposals to introduce this new framework are about holding airlines to account in meeting their obligations to disabled and less mobile passengers across all aspects of their journey.
“Consumers should have confidence that the standard of support they receive when flying will meet their needs.
“Assessing airlines against a standardised framework will ensure that disabled and less mobile passengers will be better informed when they choose which airline to fly with, and will highlight areas where airlines need to do better.”
*The regulations apply to all flights from the UK and flights to the UK on UK- and EU-registered carriers
27 April 2023
Council attacked by MPs over blue badge security ban
Cross-party MPs have attacked a council that has “locked out” disabled people from its city centre by installing security barriers to guard against terror attacks.
Labour and Conservative MPs criticised the discriminatory actions of York City Council, which is run by a Liberal Democrat-Green coalition.
The parliamentary debate took place just days before local elections take place across England, including in York, where engineering work to install the barriers began this week.
Tuesday’s debate was led by Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York Central, who said disabled people had been disabled by the new security barriers that will “prevent them using the blue badge access on which they depend”.
She said the council had applied for a traffic regulation order to install the barriers and went ahead with its plans despite more than 200 objections, and she told MPs that it was “clearly out of its depth”.
Maskell, who praised campaigners who have fought the ban, including disabled activist Flick Williams, said: “Disabled people are not terrorists, yet they are the ones being excluded.
“Imagine a sign saying ‘no disabled people’, yet that is what York has sunk to: denying dignity to the 60-plus people who every day depend on their blue badge to access the city.”
Disabled Labour MP Marsha de Cordova said that a council that was “seeking to ban disabled people from being able to access the centre of York amounts, pure and simple, to direct discrimination” and “a breach of their civil and human rights”.
Julian Sturdy, the Conservative MP for York Outer, said he supported Maskell’s comments.
He said she was “right to raise the point about the social isolation this is causing for people with disabilities who need access to our great city and its centre”.
But he also said there was “huge discrimination against rural communities”.
He said: “People from those communities with blue badges who need access to the city centre cannot access it at the moment because they do not have the required public transport.”
Even before the barriers are installed, disabled people with blue badges are already prevented from accessing the city centre.
Disabled people and allies have continued to protest that ban, which prevents vehicles, including those with blue badges, from entering York’s pedestrian “footstreets” zone from 10.30am to 5pm every day of the week.
Introduced initially by the council to create more space for pedestrians amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the exclusion zone was made permanent in 2021 to “create a safer and more attractive city centre and to reduce inner city pollution”.
Maskell called on the government to intervene and “reverse the ban in York”, and to provide funding and expertise to support York and other councils in similar situations.
And she pointed to another historic city, Chester, which has balanced “safety and access” and provided access to holders of blue badges at security barriers if they sign up to a scheme in advance.
She said: “Case law clarifies that public authorities must have due regard for the impact on elderly and disabled people when imposing parking restrictions. York fails that test.”
Lee Rowley, a junior levelling up, housing and communities minister, said: “Although councils are ultimately free to make their own decisions about the streets under their care, they need to take into account the relevant legislation.
“They are also responsible for ensuring that their actions are within the law.”
He added: “Personally, I would strongly encourage the city of York to think carefully about reconciling the understandable challenges with which it has to grapple, which we all recognise… with an approach that meets the rights of disabled people in the way [Maskell] outlined.
“There is always a balance to be struck between protecting the public and not unduly imposing on the rights and freedoms of disabled residents, blue badge holders or the wider public who need to park in the city for essential reasons.”
De Cordova said the council was “clearly breaching the law” and “does not even seem to be complying with its responsibilities under the public sector equality duty”.
She asked Rowley if the government could “intervene to instruct or encourage the council to reverse the ban”.
But he said it was “right that decisions are made locally”, although he added: “Nevertheless, I hope that the city of York is listening tonight, that it has heard the concerns and comments that have been articulated, and that it will consider very carefully how to approach the matter in future.”
27 April 2023
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
Better housing options, tackling low staff pay and making care more affordable are issues raised in a new road map for the future of social care, as a sector leader warned it has never been “so close to breaking point”. Now is the time to act to reform the system of care and support in England, a publication commissioned by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services said: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/england-government-caroline-abrahams-nhs-age-uk-b2326869.html
Police are failing deaf and migrant sexual violence and domestic abuse victims with communication needs, according to a new report. The report found public bodies – particularly the police – are failing to comply with obligations under the Equality Act to eliminate discrimination and harassment when interacting with survivors facing communication barriers. Campaigners warned such problems were risking the safety of victims, including those who are deaf, blind or visually-impaired, have learning difficulties or do not speak English: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/police-deaf-migrant-domestic-abuse-b2326430.html
Disabled people are struggling to find work at jobcentres because of “inadequate” technology and a lack of trained staff, a new report has claimed. Alarming findings from national disability charity Sense revealed huge barriers preventing people with complex impairments from using the services, with half now believing they don’t receive the support they need to find a job: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/disabled-people-struggle-find-work-29818845
Blind people are at risk of injuring themselves due to “dangerous” electric bikes being dumped on pavements in Nottingham, a disabled people’s organisation has said. The National Federation of the Blind of the UK has called for the “unsafe” e-bikes to be removed and docking stations installed: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-65375385
27 April 2023
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
