Watchdog tells DWP to release secret assessment of decision to scrap WCA
The information commissioner has told the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to release vital information about its decision to scrap the work capability assessment (WCA), which the watchdog says will impact millions of disabled people.
DWP has refused to release its written assessment of how the decision to abolish the WCA will impact disabled people and other groups protected under the Equality Act.
But the information commissioner has decided that the department should release the equality impact assessment (EIA) because “the public is entitled to scrutinise a decision such as this at an early opportunity”.
Disability News Service (DNS) has been seeking the information from DWP since March, when the move to end the WCA was announced in the spring budget, with details included in the government’s new Transforming Support white paper.
Under the government’s plans, disabled people who cannot work will only be able to qualify for a new health element of universal credit if they also receive personal independence payment (PIP), disability living allowance, or, in Scotland, adult disability payment.
This would also mean that it would be left to DWP’s over-worked work coaches – who will usually have no health-related qualifications – to decide if a disabled person should carry out work-related activity.
The WCA will not be scrapped until after the next general election and not until 2026 “at the earliest”, DWP told the watchdog.
In a decision notice on DNS’s complaint about the failure to release the EIA, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it “considers that DWP has failed to consider the strength of the public interest in the timely understanding and scrutiny of the decision to remove the Work Capability Assessment”.
It said there was “a particularly strong public interest in disclosure of information relating to disability benefits reform”.
It noted that the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) had estimated that scrapping the WCA could see an increase of £390 a month in benefits for 320,000 disabled people, but a fall of £390 a month for 520,000 disabled claimants.
It also noted that IFS has stated that scrapping the WCA “could help more people into paid work, but it comes with the risk of requirements being inconsistently applied and the potential for hardship if they are applied inappropriately”.
DWP told ICO that the policy was “still in the development phase”, despite having announced that the WCA would be scrapped after the next election, and it claimed that there were “still a number of policy decisions to be made”, including how it would support disabled claimants who do not receive PIP.
DWP said it accepted that the information requested by DNS “could benefit claimants and stakeholders to help them understand what a reformed system may look like” but “considered that this would be based on incomplete and in development information, and therefore this would limit the value of the information”.
DNS had told ICO that the WCA has been “closely linked to the deaths of hundreds of disabled people” and that the plans to scrap it could lead to further deaths of disabled claimants.
The information commissioner concluded that DWP “has not provided compelling arguments regarding how the specific policy named would be undermined by disclosure of the disputed information”.
A DWP spokesperson said: “We are aware of the decision notice from the Information Commissioner’s Office and we are currently considering our position.”
9 November 2023
Work coach whistleblowers describe jobcentre safeguarding failures
Whistleblowers have raised serious concerns about safeguarding failures by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that put the lives of benefit claimants at risk.
Disability News Service (DNS) reported last week how conditions at Oxford jobcentre became so stressful that 15 of those in one team of 23 work coaches quit within a 12-month period, with at least eight experiencing a significant collapse in their mental health due to a huge, sudden increase in workload in late 2021.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union, which represents many work coaches, told DNS this week that it was “beyond disgraceful” that many DWP members were “becoming too ill to work because of chronic understaffing”.
He said that failings that could impact on disabled claimants “need to be addressed with the utmost urgency”.
Two of the former work coaches at the Oxford jobcentre have told DNS this week about some of the serious safeguarding failures they witnessed at the jobcentre.
One of them, David*, witnessed work coaches failing to follow the department’s “six-point plan”, which instructs staff how to deal with statements by customers that they intend to self-harm or take their own lives.
On one occasion, a claimant had become so distressed during a discussion about removing a benefit sanction that she told a work coach: “I might as well kill myself.”
The work coach did not appear to know what action to take, but instead of instigating the six-point plan – which should at least have led to them gathering information about the level of risk and providing advice on where they could find support – a manager told the claimant the meeting should end, thanked her for coming in, and directed her to the door.
David said: “This is perhaps the most blatant and offensive act in direct opposition to the duty of care we were all bound by that I saw in my time at the Oxford jobcentre.”
He also discovered that the jobcentre’s six-point plan documents were all out of date, listing staff members as vital contact points when they no longer worked at the office and had even left DWP.
He said: “Requests to management by a colleague for these documents to be updated were met with silence and inaction.
“The ultimate consequence of this was that work coaches had no notion of how to support claimants in mental health crises.”
David also said that three work coaches admitted to him that they had previously “ignored” claimants who had disclosed suicidal thoughts or intent to them.
He thinks this was due to how “overworked and stressed” they were, as well as the lack of training.
He said: “They were intimidated by the enormity of the situation, of having another person’s life in their hands, didn’t know how to effectively respond to that crisis, and didn’t have the faintest idea how to fill out the six-point plan form after the incident.
“So they opted to not engage or to just tell them to speak to their GP and send them away.”
DNS has previously reported how at least five secret reviews by DWP into the suicides of claimants recommended that staff should be reminded about the six-point plan following the death of a claimant.
David’s evidence suggests that work coaches and managers continue to ignore the guidance, which has been in operation since 2009.
Jake*, another of the work coaches who spoke to DNS last week about working conditions at Oxford jobcentre, described how a manager stood behind a claimant who was disclosing suicidal thoughts to David, while the manager tapped their watch because he was taking too long on the appointment.
Jake described how he had worked with a claimant who was homeless and had disclosed suicidal thoughts to him, and realised that contact and signposting details for the six-point plan were “completely out of date”.
He said he updated the plan in late 2021, with input from colleagues, but managers failed to approve the updated document until late July 2022.
Jake also said that he and his colleagues would often have to support claimants during episodes of great distress without any specialist training.
He said: “We were often unable to cope with such distressing experiences ourselves, never mind adequately supporting the claimants during such a crisis.”
He said it would often take many days, or even weeks, before work coaches could secure the support they needed.
Even when they finally received a call to provide mental health support, work coaches were frequently not able to take that call because of their excessive workload (see last week’s reports).
Jake said that, despite DWP’s claim last week that there was “a community of mental health first aiders” working in its jobcentres, he was not aware of any such trained staff in the Oxford jobcentre, while his own request for such training was rejected.
He also confirmed the concerns raised repeatedly by disabled activists in recent years, and reported by DNS, that claimants “often relayed that they felt harassed by the DWP through oppressive and excessive contact and the constant fear of financial sanctions”.
These failures continued throughout his time at the jobcentre, from April 2021 to October 2022, when he resigned because of the damage caused to his mental health by the excessive workload.
DWP declined to say if the department would take any action to investigate and address the safeguarding concerns, if ministers were concerned about the claims, and whether the department believed they were widespread across jobcentres.
But a DWP spokesperson said in a statement: “We support millions of people every year and our priority is they get the benefits they are entitled to as soon as possible and receive a supportive and compassionate service.
“The safety of vulnerable customers who may need additional health and wellbeing support remains a top priority and we have safeguards in place to protect them.
“We take any staff concerns very seriously and are committed to tackling any issues that are raised.”
The department also claimed that only one link to the six-point plan document had been out of date and that this link had been removed.
But Jake said this was not true.
He said: “What the DWP has told DNS is disingenuous at best and is absolutely not true.
“The six-point-plan (6PP) was dangerously outdated in all critical areas.
“Local managers were warned about these serious risks, repeatedly, by more than one work coach.
“I went to great efforts along with colleagues, to update all 6PP documentation and despite said documents being presented to a local senior manager for approval and action, no crisis measures were implemented and changes were not made for several months.
“This is the truth and my account can be substantiated, robustly.”
A PCS spokesperson said it was “not aware in 2021 of all the issues raised, nor did it have all the detail that has recently emerged”, and was not aware that the issue of work-related stress at Oxford jobcentre had been reported by Jake to the Health and Safety Executive.
But he said: “We recognise the lack of adequate mental health support for DWP staff and continue to negotiate with the appropriate management nationally to improve mental health support.
“We would much rather members were in a position where mental health crisis management was less likely to be necessary by addressing the root causes of the problem – chronic understaffing – rather than the symptoms.
“The issues of understaffing and the unacceptable stress experienced were reported to Oxford jobcentre management at the time and continue to be reported since.
“DWP management were not responsive to PCS arguments. Local management have been uncooperative and do not engage well with PCS.”
He said DWP management in Oxford had now recognised the staffing issues, but recruitment campaigns “have not been successful because in a labour market as competitive as Oxford, there are many other better paid and less stressful jobs available.
“As a consequence, jobcentre staffing levels remain inadequate in the Oxford area, as with many others across the UK.”
Serwotka said DWP members had reported “dangerous levels of stress placed on them by heavy workloads” during a recent consultation.
He said: “It is beyond disgraceful that many DWP members, particularly those working in jobcentres and universal credit service centres, are becoming too ill to work because of chronic understaffing.
“PCS recognises that low staffing levels in DWP have resulted in unacceptable failings in service delivery.”
He said that failings that could impact on disabled claimants “need to be addressed with the utmost urgency”.
Serwotka said: “It is unacceptable that a staffing crisis could have resulted in six-point plans not being followed or claimants with suicidal ideation not being dealt with in a manner that manages their circumstances safely.”
PCS is campaigning for an extra 30,000 staff across DW, but he said the department was failing in its recruitment because of “systemic low pay”, with 25,000 staff currently paid below the Real Living Wage, and the poor working conditions.
He said PCS “routinely raises issues relating to understaffing with the DWP and encourages any member who is experiencing unacceptable levels of stress in their DWP workplace to report the issue to their local PCS representative”.
*Not his real name
9 November 2023
King’s speech ‘shows a government failing to prioritise disabled people’
The government has failed to include any proposals to address the inequality faced by disabled people in its list of legislation that it plans to introduce over the next year.
In what is likely to be the last king’s speech before a general election, there was no attempt to address the crises in adult social care, accessible housing or disability poverty.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak also appears to have dumped plans to reform the Mental Health Act, and ignored long-standing calls by the Law Commission to strengthen disability hate crime laws.
The only substantive mention of disabled people in a government briefing on the speech (PDF) came in a section on plans for a draft rail reform bill.
The draft bill will lay out plans to transfer powers to Great British Railways, the new over-arching body that will – eventually – run the rail system.
This “will ensure that accessibility on the railway is improved and the experience for disabled passengers is enhanced”, with specific accessibility duties for the industry.
But as it will only be a draft bill, the measures will not become law by the next election, while the government’s advisers on accessible transport have previously told ministers they do not believe their proposals will be enough to deliver an accessible railway.
The briefing document also confirms that the national accessibility audit of all 2,578 British railway stations has been completed, and that the government is still developing a new national rail accessibility strategy.
Disabled people’s organisations criticised the government’s failure to use the king’s speech to address the significant barriers disabled people are facing.
Fazilet Hadi, head of policy at Disability Rights UK, said: “Nothing in the legislative programme will improve opportunities and outcomes for disabled people, despite the deep inequalities disabled people face.
“However, some of the bills do hold threats for disabled people, such as the strengthening of anti-social behaviour eviction grounds in the renters reform bill.”
She added: “Later this month on 22 November, we will have the budget statement and this could include provisions that impact disabled people.
“We have already had an extremely callous proposal to remove criteria from the work capability assessment (see separate story), which if implemented… would drive some disabled people on to lower benefit levels.”
She also pointed out that the government’s new Disability Action Plan is expected to be published in the next few months.
Amy Wells, senior communications and operations manager for National Survivor User Network (NSUN), said: “Though we were not confident that the Mental Health Act reforms went far enough, or would be backed by sufficient funding, people with lived experience of mental ill-health, distress, and trauma have campaigned for decades for reforms that could have gone some way to improve the state of inpatient care and address unacceptable racial disparities in the use of the act.
“People’s time, energy and expertise engaging with the drawn-out process of legislative reform over the past several years has been disregarded and disrespected by the failure to include a mental health bill within the king’s speech and implement the promised reforms.
“It confirms what we already knew, amidst a broader context of policy developments that make life harder for disabled people and people with lived experience of mental ill-health, distress and trauma – mental health, including the unacceptable state of inpatient care, but also the decimation of community care and alternatives, is far from being a priority for this government.”
Bob Ellard, a member of the national steering group of Disabled People Against Cuts, also highlighted the failure in the king’s speech to address the barriers faced by disabled people.
He said: “Disabled people? What disabled people?”
Vicky Foxcroft, Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people, told fellow MPs yesterday (Wednesday) that “not much in the king’s speech delivered for disabled people”.
She said: “After 13 years of Conservative-led governments, disabled people feel that they are an afterthought and that their rights are not fully protected and promoted in this country.
“It is shocking that we are still having these conversations in 2023. Progress has gone backwards, not forwards.”
There were no Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) bills outlined by the king on Tuesday, although the speech did include the following sentence: “Proposals will be published to reform welfare and support more people into work.”
Despite repeated requests, DWP declined this week to clarify what this referred to, although the department provided background about its plans to scrap the work capability assessment (WCA) after the next general election, and its plans to restrict eligibility to out-of-work disability benefits by tightening the WCA.
The department confirmed again that the legislation needed to implement measures laid out earlier this year in its Transforming Support white paper – including scrapping the WCA – would not be brought forward until after the general election.
A consultation on the plans to tighten the WCA ended last week, with the department saying yesterday that more than 1,300 individuals and organisations had responded, while there had also been 14 public consultation events.
DWP said it had yet to decide whether to take forward any reforms.
But Stephen Timms, the Labour MP who chairs the Commons work and pensions committee, told MPs yesterday: “The government have been undertaking a rushed consultation lasting only eight weeks over major proposals to change the descriptors for the work capability assessment.
“There will have to be legislation to make whatever changes are decided on, but there is no mention at all in the king’s speech of a bill to do it.
“There is a puzzle here, because the government have announced that they plan to abolish the work capability assessment in a couple of years anyway.
“That will require legislation, but there is no bill to do any of those things in the king’s speech.
“There are press reports that the government intend to inspect benefits claimants’ bank accounts regularly.
“That will also require powers, but there is nothing in the king’s speech that would have that effect either.”
9 November 2023
Legal bid aims to halt DWP plans to tighten ‘fitness for work’ test
A disabled activist has launched a legal attempt to force the government to carry out a fresh consultation on its plans to tighten the work capability assessment, which she believes will force many disabled people into poverty, or even destitution.
Ellen Clifford is arguing that work and pensions secretary Mel Stride has breached his duties under the Equality Act by failing to make the “unfair” and “unlawful” consultation process accessible.
She says the unlawful consultation, which was launched two months ago and ended last week, was too short to allow many disabled people to take part and failed to make reasonable adjustments to enable her and others to respond.
It also failed to make clear that many people could lose up to £390 a month under the government’s plans, and could be forced to carry out work-related activity and face the risk of sanctions if they fail to comply with the conditions imposed on them.
And she says there are questions over the availability of accessible formats of the consultation report.
Clifford, a member of the national steering group of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and author of The War on Disabled People, also believes the consultation document was unlawful because its contents were misleading and lacking in detailed, accurate analysis.
A pre-action legal letter she has sent to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – backed by lawyers from Public Law Project (PLP) – requires a response from the department within 14 days, and warns of a possible judicial review if the concerns are not resolved.
She said this week: “The DWP’s proposals will take much-needed money out of the pockets of disabled people.
“The proposals themselves do not stack up, and the way they have gone about consulting on the changes is unfair and unlawful.
“At the very least, the DWP must not pursue any proposals without proper, lawful consultation.”
Clifford has told Stride in the letter that she believes the changes to the work capability assessment (WCA) will have a substantial negative impact on the health of many disabled people and force more of them into poverty and even destitution.
A key concern about Stride’s plans is the proposal to remove a safety net that for decades has protected disabled people seen as being at “substantial risk” of harm if found fit for work or work-related activity.
This measure has particularly protected those sectioned under the Mental Health Act, with active thoughts of suicide, or who have had a recent episode of self-harm that needed medical attention.
But the proposals also suggest removing the absence of bowel or bladder control, the inability to cope with social interaction, and the inability to access a location outside the claimant’s home, from the list of activities and “descriptors” used in the WCA.
Days before the consultation was launched, Clifford and other disabled activists had been in Geneva to provide evidence on the UK government’s implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Seven years earlier, the UN’s committee on the rights of persons with disabilities had found the UK government responsible for “grave and systematic” violations of disabled people’s rights under the convention.
It found in November 2016 that the UK government had discriminated against disabled people on their rights to an adequate standard of living and social protection, work and employment, and independent living.
Most of those breaches were caused by policies introduced by Conservative DWP ministers.
One of Clifford’s arguments is that Stride should not have launched a consultation on such a crucial reform so soon after disabled people and disabled people’s organisations had completed an exhausting process of evidence-gathering and report-writing in advance of the Geneva meeting.
Although DPOs including Disability Rights UK, Inclusion London, Disability Wales, DPAC and Disability Action Northern Ireland attended the Geneva UN session, the UK government backed out of attending.
Clifford is arguing in her legal letter that Stride must have been aware of the efforts made by these DPOs to prepare for and attend the Geneva session, and that he should have been anxious to hear their detailed responses to the consultation.
She was unable to respond to the consultation on behalf of DPOs including DPAC for impairment-related reasons, partly caused by the significant work she did for a coalition of DPOs ahead of the Geneva meeting.
Clifford said DWP should have been aware of the many competing demands on the time of under-resourced DPOs, which were given no advance warning of the consultation.
She said: “For impairment-related reasons, I found it personally difficult to engage with the proposals within the short consultation period.
“All the DDPOs* I spoke to who were able to respond said eight weeks was too short and didn’t give them the chance to consult properly with their members.”
Clifford has also pointed out that the WCA consultation overlapped with the government’s consultation on its Disability Action Plan, which ran from 18 July to 6 October, creating further problems for DPOs with limited resources.
Aoife O’Reilly, the PLP lawyer acting for Clifford, said: “There are principles of fairness that government departments must follow when carrying out consultations like this.
“The changes being consulted on will have life-altering consequences for disabled people.
“When you think about the diverse accessibility needs of the people the consultation was aimed at, consulting for just under eight weeks is wholly inadequate.”
A response to the letter from DWP is expected next week.
*Deaf and disabled people’s organisations
9 November 2023
Nearly three-quarters of calls to equality helpline relate to disability, new figures show
New figures show that nearly three-quarters of all discrimination-related enquiries to the government-funded equality helpline have come from disabled people, with this proportion rising every year.
The figures, obtained by Disability News Service through a freedom of information request, show that 72 per cent of calls to the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) helpline so far in 2023 have related to disability.
This proportion has risen every year since 2018, when it was 66 per cent.
The proportion of calls coming from members of other groups protected under the Equality Act has mostly fluctuated over the last five years.
The proportion of calls linked to sexual orientation is currently just under one per cent, compared to 1.20 per cent in 2018, while 13 per cent of calls this year have related to race, the same proportion as in 2018.
The only consistent fall in the proportion of calls has come with those related to sex (4.66 per cent so far this year compared with 7.2 per cent in 2018) and pregnancy (2.99 per cent this year compared with 5.5 per cent in 2018).
Disability is the only protected group where the proportion of calls has risen every year since 2018.
In July, the government’s draft Disability Action Plan – which aimed to “help transform disabled people’s everyday lives for the better” but was dismissed as a “PR exercise” by one disabled people’s organisation – included 12 proposed new policies, all of which were low- or zero-budget measures, with no proposed legislation.
Meanwhile, this week’s king’s speech, which detailed the government’s plans for new legislation over the next year, included no bills aimed at addressing disability discrimination other than a brief reference to accessibility on the railways in a draft rail reform bill (see separate story).
The EASS helpline is run on behalf of the Government Equalities Office (GEO) by outsourcing company G4S, and it provides advice and assistance on equality and human rights issues across England, Scotland and Wales.
A similar helpline was run by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), until it was replaced in October 2012.
From October 2012 to March 2015 (PDF), 62 per cent of enquiries received by the helpline were disability-related.
Fazilet Hadi, head of policy at Disability Rights UK, said: “Sadly, the figures are unsurprising, as discrimination and inaccessibility are an everyday feature of the lives of thousands of disabled people.
“Those that contact the EASS are just the tip of a very large iceberg.
“The fact that every year more disabled people are seeking advice and support on disability discrimination underlines that the Equality Act just isn’t working.
“We saw clearly during the Covid pandemic that the act was almost universally flouted, including by the UK government.
“We need the government and Equality and Human Rights Commission to strengthen compliance and step-up enforcement.
“We need legal aid to be available for disability discrimination cases.
“In the medium term, we need to consider new options such as those recently raised by Anna Lawson: an Accessibility Act and an accessibility commissioner.”
G4S said it was for GEO to comment on the figures.
GEO had not responded to requests to comment on the figures by noon today (Thursday).
EHRC had also not responded to requests to comment on the figures by noon today.
*The figures show the “percentage of discrimination enquiries by the main, relevant, protected characteristic of the person enquiring”
9 November 2023
‘This is why we fight for justice after losing loved ones to state violence’
Three women who have lost loved ones to state violence have described how they were able to spend years fighting for justice, while coping with the grief caused by the flawed and dangerous police, mental health and social security systems.
Anna Susianta, Imogen Day and Ajibola Lewis spoke at an event on Sunday – organised by Healing Justice Ldn – that examined the impact of state violence on bereaved families, and how they each fought for justice after the death of a relative.
Ajibola Lewis described her son Seni as an “adventurer” and a “volunteer” who had a “heart for the marginalized” and loved life and “really loved people”.
She told how Seni had his first psychotic episode after being given “something bad” on a night out.
He was admitted as a voluntary patient at Bethlem Royal Hospital, in Croydon, but when his family arrived to visit him the next day they were told there had been an “incident” and that he was receiving life support.
They later discovered he had been handcuffed by police officers and taken to a seclusion room, where he was put on his stomach, forced into two sets of handcuffs and two sets of leg restraints, struck with a baton, and restrained for nearly 45 minutes over two periods by a total of 11 officers, before he finally went “limp”.
Resuscitation wasn’t immediately attempted because the officers thought he was “faking”, and he never regained consciousness. Seni died on 4 September 2010.
Years of campaigning by his family and allies eventually led to Seni’s Law, the Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act, which covers England and Wales and was introduced by their MP Steve Reed as a private members’ bill.
It took seven years for Seni’s parents to secure an inquest into his death, with a jury finding that multiple failings by police officers contributed to his death, and that the use of restraint was “unnecessary and unreasonable”.
Seni’s mother told the event on Sunday: “That’s why I don’t think police should be called to mental health incidents. They either taser you or kill you.
“I tell this story because nobody believes it. It’s online, it’s all in the inquest, and everything is online.
“People don’t realize what is happening. They don’t realize. So I tell the story. It upsets me, but it has to be said.”
She said that one of her favourite writers, James Baldwin, had said that “not everything can be changed that is faced, but nothing can be changed unless it’s faced”.
She said: “That is why I campaign. Listen, they want you to lie down and die. I am stubborn. I’m stubborn. And I’m also old, so that gives me the courage, and I keep saying ‘what are you going to do, kill me? You know, I’m 74.’
“So you cannot stop me telling the truth. And that is why I fight. I fight, I fight, I fight, because I’m so stubborn.
“It’s taken its toll on the family, on my family and me, but you can’t kill people and get away with it. I’m not having it. I’m not having it.”
Imogen Day spoke of her sister Philippa, who she said had a “really strong sense of justice” and was “the kindest soul I’ve ever known”.
Her sister died in October 2019 after multiple failings in dealing with her personal independence payment (PIP) claim by the Department for Work and Pensions and its private sector contractor Capita.
A coroner later concluded that flaws in the disability benefits system were “the predominant factor and the only acute factor” that led to Philippa taking her own life.
Imogen told the event that “state violence kills people really slowly” and that every one of the 28 mistakes made with Philippa’s PIP claim “stole a piece of her”, before the final letter that told her she would need to attend a face-to-face assessment in an assessment centre “destroyed her”.
She spoke of the support she has received in dealing with the trauma of Philippa’s death, including from Alison Burton (the daughter-in-law of Errol Graham) and Joy Dove (the mother of Jodey Whiting), who have both lost loved ones due to DWP violence.
She said: “Grief can be incredibly isolating, especially state grief.
“It’s really difficult to share with people that haven’t experienced political violence because there is an inherent understanding of the fact that the perpetrator is somebody that should protect you and it’s somebody that should keep you safe and support you throughout your life.
“Meeting these amazing women has been so healing and it’s really empowering.
“We all go on for each other, it’s not just our own loved ones that we fight for, we fight for all of them. And to do so is a great privilege.”
She later told the event that “until the DWP is dismantled from the top down, until people receive accountability for what they have done, justice is not possible”.
Anna Susianta spoke of her son Jack, who was “passionate about making things fair” and had an “enthusiasm for life”, and she read out extracts from a book put together by his friends after his death in which they described their affection for their sweet, funny and caring friend.
But she said he was also “incredibly sensitive” and hid his anxiety from those who knew him.
The 17-year-old drowned in the River Lea in east London in July 2015 after being chased by police officers from the Metropolitan police’s Territorial Support Group (TSG) following a mental health crisis.
The TSG officers had refused to enter the water and told members of the public who had gathered by the river not to do so.
Jack had earlier been discharged from hospital by East London NHS Foundation Trust just hours after being admitted to its accident and emergency department, with no advice for his family on what to do if his mental health crisis re-emerged.
Anna said she believed that “the whole system is there to protect the big state institutions, and when it comes to the police and the Met being the worst, they have so much power.
“I pity the people trying to turn it around because it just needs to be destroyed and then started again.
“The little snippets of change that have come since Jack died in the last eight years are so tiny.
“I feel that [I need] to carry on, keep going, keep campaigning, but it’s the big things like poverty and just the whole structure of our society and the way our community’s been destroyed, those are the things that are going to help people.”
Sunday’s event was part of the month-long Rehearsing Freedoms festival, hosted by Healing Justice Ldn, which has examined how to dismantle violent and oppressive structures and replace them with “community-based structures of care, health and healing”.
The event space in Brixton has been hosting extracts from the Deaths by Welfare timeline, a project led by Dr China Mills, who chaired Sunday’s discussion.
The timeline aims to “make visible the slow and bureaucratic violence of the state” and show how DWP spent years attempting to hide its role in the deaths of countless disabled benefit claimants.
*Both Ajibola Lewis and Anna Susianta are members of The United Families and Friends Campaign, a coalition of those affected by deaths in police, prison and psychiatric custody
9 November 2023
Purple Tuesday faces fresh ‘purple-washing’ claims after multiple access fails
A series of embarrassing online access fails has again left a high-profile campaign facing accusations that it allows businesses to parade their supposed commitment to accessibility and inclusivity, while failing to put those promises into practice.
This week saw the sixth annual Purple Tuesday event, devised and run by the organisation Purple, which aims to be a “celebratory day, promoting accessibility and inclusivity”.
But the event has long faced concerns that it allows businesses to secure cheap publicity by pledging their commitment to disability equality, without actually implementing those promises.
The apparent failure of events such as Purple Tuesday to have an impact on disability discrimination was demonstrated this week by new figures secured by Disability News Service (see separate story) which show that nearly three-quarters of all discrimination-related enquiries to the government-funded equality helpline have come from disabled people, with this proportion rising every year for the last five years.
The concerns about Purple Tuesday were highlighted this week when a string of Purple Tuesday supporters posted their backing for the day on the social media platform Twitter* but attached photographs and other images that failed to include “alt text”, which allows disabled people using screen-reading software to listen to a description of the picture.
Among them were businesses and other organisations that are supposed to focus in their work on disability and accessibility.
One of the organisations that posted inaccessible images was Suffolk Growth Partnership, which invited the public to “the launch of Accessible Destination Suffolk”, before adding an inaccessible image.
Many shopping centres, including the Queensmere Observatory in Slough, Houndshill in Blackpool, The Broadway in Bradford, The Meads shopping centre in Farnborough, and the Stratford Centre in east London, also highlighted the “celebratory day, promoting accessibility and inclusivity”, before attaching inaccessible images.
None of them responded to requests to comment this week.
Meanwhile, National Paralympic Heritage Trust claimed in a post: “At the Heritage Centre, we’re committed to inclusivity every day of the year.”
It then added an inaccessible image without alt text.
The trust declined to apologise, or comment on Purple Tuesday, but said: “As a small charity, we endeavour to make all of our work accessible.
“We will ensure that alt-text is included on our social media images from now on.”
Royal British Legion Industries encouraged “everyone to join us in raising awareness” about “the challenges faced by disabled consumers”, before attaching an image without alt text.
Passenger Lift Solutions took the opportunity to celebrate “the global movement for disability inclusivity”, while adding an inaccessible image.
Among the most surprising access fails came from Tourism for All, a charity which describes itself as “the voice of accessible tourism in the UK”.
It also failed to comment this week.
Recruitment agency Marmion highlighted the work of the “global social movement” Purple Tuesday, before tweeting an image without alt text.
Janet Mclaughlin, its founder and managing director, said her company used an agency for its social media work, but she accepted responsibility as she had approved the tweet, and she apologised for the error.
She said: “When someone raises something like that to me, I take it very seriously.”
Asked if she understood the criticism of Purple Tuesday, she said: “I do understand, and I feel that I have failed.
“I can’t speak for other business… I don’t know everything, and I need to learn. We will do better.”
Less impressive in its response was Wingham Wildlife Park, which – when asked about the decision to tweet an image of a wild animal without alt text – attacked DNS for raising concerns about its post.
A spokesperson for the park highlighted the steps Wingham had taken to improve accessibility at its facilities, including using alt text on its website, and said he was “incredibly disappointed and upset” by the criticism.
He said the failure to use alt text on the image posted on Twitter was “uncharacteristic” and a “genuine anomaly”, but he also said he and his colleagues had not been aware of the existence of the alt text facility on Twitter.
He said the concerns raised by DNS were “causing as much harm to accessibility as the companies who are using this as a chance for purple washing”, and he added: “So for us as a company I absolutely do not accept your criticism of what we are doing.”
Among disabled campaigners highlighting how many companies were supporting Purple Tuesday through inaccessible tweets was journalist and author Rachel Charlton-Dailey.
Another was journalist and researcher Jess O’Thomson, who told DNS: “It is deeply concerning that, apparently motivated by potential publicity and profit, several organisations have attempted to take part in the Purple Tuesday campaign without even a basic commitment to accessibility.
“A shocking number have failed to make even their marketing about the day accessible to disabled people, by not providing alt text.
“Many criticise Purple Tuesday for ignoring that organisations should be accessible to disabled people every day of the year.
“This shows that, in practice, many who seek to benefit from Purple Tuesday do not even make the effort on that single day.”
A spokesperson for Purple Tuesday said: “Purple Tuesday as an organisation has clear accessibility policies and practices that we implement and share with others, including our partners.
“We have no control over what other organisations put out but we are clear that everyone is on a journey in terms of accessibility.
“We have seen a significant rise in commitments in this area.
“We continue to raise awareness and understanding for all about being a disability inclusive organisation.”
*Currently known as X
9 November 2023
DWP complaints rise by more than a fifth in one year
Complaints made about the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have rocketed by more than a fifth in just a year, official figures have shown.
Government statistics show that the number of complaints about the department rose from 4,999 in the first quarter of 2022-23 to 6,115 in the same quarter of 2023-24, a rise of more than 22 per cent.
The figures will raise questions about the performance of the work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride, who took over the position in October last year.
In recent months, Disability News Service (DNS) has reported a series of concerns about the department and the service it provides to disabled people.
In September, a Conservative MP, Elliot Colburn, told MPs that trust in the disability benefits assessment process was “severely lacking”.
The previous month, DNS described how DWP was continuing to send an access consultant inaccessible letters about his disability benefits, despite the high court ruling that this was unlawful discrimination.
In July, DWP’s latest Digital Accessibility Compliance report showed that less than half of its websites and other digital services complied with public sector regulations on accessibility.
Also in July, new figures showed there were still more than 23,000 disabled people waiting for their Access to Work claim to be dealt with by DWP, with an average waiting-time of 41 days.
The previous month, DWP admitted to the public spending watchdog that its system of disability benefits assessments was too slow, too expensive and too inaccurate, and that too many claimants did not trust how it makes decisions.
The same month, in June, Tom Pursglove, the minister for disabled people, admitted that disabled people were waiting an average of 41 minutes for their call to the personal independence payment telephone enquiry line to be answered.
Despite the increase in complaints, the latest figures still appear to be far lower than the number of complaints recorded in the austerity years of the 2010 coalition government, when more than 54,000 were recorded in 2014-15 (PDF) (an average of more than 13,000 a quarter) with more than 94,000 in 2012-13 (PDF).
Asked this week whether Stride was happy with the increase in complaints so far this year and whether he thought his policies and reforms were responsible, a DWP spokesperson said: “We support millions of people each year to get the help and support they are entitled to, and complaints represent less than one per cent of our customer base.
“We always strive to deliver the best possible experience for all customers and use feedback to inform improvements to our services.”
9 November 2023
Report makes ‘compelling case’ for work flexibility
New research has made “a compelling case” that providing flexible working can enable employers to increase their recruitment and retention of disabled people with energy-limiting health conditions.
The Making Employment Work for People with Long-Term Conditions report, due to be published today (Thursday), is based on a survey* of more than 400 disabled people, most of them with energy-limiting conditions.
The results highlight how “pushing through fatigue” makes the health of people with energy-limiting conditions worse and increases the likelihood that they will leave the workforce permanently.
The survey results also show that the most common “fear factor” about re-entering the workplace after developing a chronic illness is “not knowing how many hours of work they could safely undertake without causing their health to deteriorate”, selected by 66 per cent of respondents.
Another major barrier to work is the failure of employers and managers to understand “the realities of long term health conditions”, the report says.
The lack of accessible jobs that take account of reduced capacity for work – such as providing flexible hours or work location – is another key barrier.
The survey found that “flexible working solutions” were “the most common form of workplace adjustment” needed by those who responded, by “a large margin”.
The report by disability charity Astriid calls on the government to commission specialist employment support services for people with long-term conditions that are “informed by knowledge of energy-limiting conditions”.
Of those surveyed, 98 per cent said fatigue and/or limited energy due to their impairment limited their ability to work, while 92 per cent believed they had skills that could be of value to an employer if a suitable job was available, while half (48 per cent) had left their previous job because the working conditions caused their health to deteriorate, and 84 per cent said they needed to work from home.
Astriid, which provides support and consultancy around employment of people with long-term conditions, says more than 2.5 million people in the UK are excluded from work due to such conditions.
Many of those who run Astriid have long-term health conditions themselves.
Catherine Hale, head of Astriid Consulting, who has an energy-limiting impairment, said: “Despite Astriid’s bespoke and valued support, we need more help and support from UK employers and we are therefore calling on them to facilitate more job opportunities with part-time, flexible hours and the ability to work from home.
“These factors should be clearly stated in job advertisements at the earliest opportunity.”
*Of the 419 survey responses, 414 said they had an energy-limiting condition and/or identified “limited energy or fatigue” as a health-related barrier to them accessing work, while 96 per cent considered themselves to be disabled people
9 November 2023
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
An ex-minister has defended the government’s approach to disabled people during the pandemic, following claims they were “largely disregarded”. Justin Tomlinson, a former minister for disabled people, told the Covid inquiry the government recognised this group was at greater risk from the virus. He added that work had been done “at pace” to address this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67363086
Autistic children and those with a learning difficulty should never be subjected to long-term segregation in hospital – and its use should be “severely curtailed” for adults, a review has recommended. An independent panel, chaired by Baroness Hollins, was announced in November 2019 to oversee a case review for those in long-term segregation to help with their discharge into the community as “quickly as possible”. In her final report, she said the panel was unanimous in stating that all instances of enforced social isolation, including seclusion and long-term segregation, should be renamed “solitary confinement”: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/nhs-providers-care-quality-commission-mencap-maria-caulfield-england-b2444036.html
The Priory healthcare group has been charged with two criminal offences over the death of a 23-year-old man who was hit by a train after absconding from a mental health hospital. Matthew Caseby died in September 2020 after leaving the Priory Woodbourne hospital in Birmingham, after he had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act. The Care Quality Commission launched an investigation into his care and has charged the Priory Group with two criminal offences under the Health and Social Care Act 2008: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/06/priory-group-charged-with-criminal-offences-over-death-of-patient
9 November 2023
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
