Contents
DWP admits multiple universal credit failures before disabled woman’s death 1
DWP told to pay £50,000 to Deaf job-seeker after repeated failure to provide BSL interpreter 6
Government to investigate ‘fake disabled’ mystery shopper rail claims 11
Anger over government’s ‘gleeful’ announcement of yet more special schools 16
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week 18
DWP admits multiple universal credit failures before disabled woman’s death
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has admitted missing multiple opportunities to record the “vulnerability” of a disabled woman whose death was later linked by a coroner to failings at the heart of its universal credit benefits system.
DWP has admitted that staff made key errors in dealing with the claim of Nazerine (known as Naz) Anderson, from Melton Mowbray, who died in June last year.
But it also appears to have admitted a significant ongoing safeguarding flaw in the system that could continue to put many other disabled claimants at risk, just as it prepares to roll out its forced “migration” to universal credit that will affect hundreds of thousands of existing claimants of employment and support allowance.
The department was responding to a prevention of future deaths (PFD) report sent to the department by coroner Fiona Butler.
In her report, written at the end of an inquest in February, she highlighted how DWP missed six opportunities to record Anderson’s “vulnerability” on its IT system while it was reviewing her universal credit claim, and had failed to act on the mental distress she showed in phone calls about her claim.
It also repeatedly failed to act on requests to direct its telephone calls and letters to her daughter.
The review of her universal credit claim “continued to preoccupy her thoughts” and six days after receiving the final piece of correspondence from DWP, she took an overdose.
Although Anderson did not intend to take her own life, the overdose caused irreversible damage to her liver, and she died a month later, on 19 June 2023, while receiving palliative care at Melton Mowbray Hospital.
Now, in its response to the PFD report, sent to the coroner last month, DWP admits there were “missed” opportunities to share information about her universal credit (UC) claim, and to consider whether an appointee should act on her behalf.
But it also appears to highlight a serious ongoing flaw in the UC system, which is caused by groups of universal credit staff having “different access levels on departmental systems”.
As a result of this, DWP admits, “some colleagues cannot pin information to claims or use the additional support function on the UC system”.
The IT system allows up to three pieces of key information to be “pinned” to a UC claim, so they are immediately obvious to any staff member viewing that claim, while the additional support tab allows a claimant’s “complex needs” to be displayed “prominently” on their account.
The PFD response says training is taking place that will highlight the importance of sharing information about a claimant’s vulnerabilities with UC colleagues, but it is not clear if DWP has resolved the serious flaw that means some staff working on UC are unable to share key information about a claimant’s support needs.
DWP refused to say yesterday (Wednesday) whether some staff working on UC were still unable to use these safeguarding tools, how many staff this affected, and whether it would now fix this flaw.
It said only that it reviews access to its IT system and will grant “enhanced access” to the system for an individual or a team if there is a “business need” for it.
In its response to the coroner, DWP also admits repeated failings to use the additional support tab that should have alerted those dealing with Naz Anderson’s claim to her support needs.
It says it is redesigning the additional support tab and will be carrying out a campaign “to promote awareness and understanding of the additional support tab amongst UC colleagues” later this year.
The response also reveals that – due to “learning from serious cases” – DWP is reviewing how it handles cases where a universal credit claimant cannot manage their own affairs and needs an “appointee” to act on their behalf.
And it admits in its response that there were “missed opportunities” during Anderson’s claim to “consider the appropriateness of gaining her explicit consent to speak to a third party about her UC claim”.
It says it has updated how the UC system deals with cases where a claimant gives a representative “explicit consent” to seek information about their case, and it has carried out awareness and training exercises with staff on “what explicit consent is and how to record this consent on the UC system”.
Naz Anderson had been admitted to Leicester’s Bradgate Mental Health Unit in December 2022 after a decline in her mental health that a consultant psychiatrist told the coroner was triggered by a review of her universal credit claim by DWP’s performance review team.
DWP had suggested she had been overpaid and would need to pay back the debt.
During the six months it took DWP to complete the review, it missed at least six opportunities to highlight her need for additional support on the universal credit system.
It failed to take this action “despite Naz being tearful and distressed on the telephone on more than one occasion and advising the DWP of information surrounding her mental health and her inability to cope”, the PFD had revealed.
DWP also repeatedly failed to pass information between its performance review and universal credit case handling teams about the need to correspond with her daughter, a request made because “corresponding with Naz was of serous detriment to her mental health”.
Her daughter’s written request had sat in another DWP computer system for four months, and even when uploaded to the main DWP computer system it was not acted upon.
The request had been renewed by Naz Anderson during telephone calls to DWP and in entries on her universal credit online journal.
In the four weeks before her overdose, she received two telephone calls from DWP asking for detailed information, a universal credit message through her online journal that she did not understand, and three letters warning her that the amount she owed was increasing.
A DWP spokesperson said: “Our condolences remain with Ms Anderson’s family.
“We have responded to the coroner’s report in full, setting out support for vulnerable claimants, mandatory mental health training for frontline staff, and changes we are making in response to the report.”
Meanwhile, DWP has announced that the rollout of universal credit to the remaining hundreds of thousands of disabled people still receiving income-related employment and support allowance is likely to begin in September.
The government had previously delayed the start of the rollout until 2028, but prime minister Rishi Sunak announced in a widely-condemned speech last month that the government would accelerate that process.
In a regular update to local authority housing benefit staff, DWP says its “current planning assumption is that we would begin notifying this group in September 2024, with the aim of notifying everyone to make the move by December 2025”.
It says that it hopes its new Move to UC communications campaign will “tackle claimant fear and anxiety about moving to Universal Credit”.
16 May 2024
Government fraud policy paper ignores coroner’s concerns over review of disabled woman’s universal credit claim
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has refused to explain why its new policy paper on benefit fraud has ignored concerns raised by a coroner about a disabled woman who died following a “targeted” review of her universal credit claim.
The new policy paper, released this week, is the government’s latest version of its plan to tackle fraud across the social security system.
Among measures in the policy paper – Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System: Going Further – DWP describes its efforts to carry out “targeted case reviews” of existing universal credit claims to “tackle fraud and error”.
It says DWP has recruited more than 3,000 staff to identify “incorrect claims”, which has led to more than 200,000 claims being reviewed this year.
The policy paper insists that DWP has “robust measures and safeguards in place to support customers through a review of their claim”, and that all its staff “undergo training to ensure they can recognise signs of risk or complex needs that can impact the claimant’s ability to manage their claim or take part in a review”.
But Disability News Service is reporting this week how DWP has admitted to a coroner that it missed multiple opportunities during such a review to record the “vulnerability” of a disabled woman whose death was linked to failings at the heart of the universal credit system.
DWP has admitted that staff made crucial errors in dealing with the claim of Nazerine (known as Naz) Anderson, from Melton Mowbray, who died in June last year (see separate story).
She had been admitted to Leicester’s Bradgate Mental Health Unit in December 2022 after a decline in her mental health that a consultant psychiatrist told the coroner was triggered by a review of her universal credit claim.
Mental health professionals who then worked with her in the months leading to her death told the coroner in February that that review of her claim was the predominant cause of her increased anxiety.
Coroner Fiona Butler highlighted in a prevention of future deaths report how DWP missed six opportunities to record Anderson’s “vulnerability” on its IT system while it was reviewing her claim, and had failed to act on the mental distress she showed in phone calls to the department.
DWP also repeatedly failed to act on requests to direct its telephone calls and letters to her daughter.
But there is no mention of her case, the coroner’s concerns about the review process, or its response to the coroner’s report, in DWP’s new policy paper.
DWP says instead that it has already trialled “enhanced reviews” of claimants of personal independence payment (PIP) and has rolled this out across its PIP service centres, and will now “extend the pilots” across other DWP benefits over the next year.
It claims it will “continue to ensure the protection of vulnerable customers during their review process”.
DWP refused to say yesterday (Wednesday) why the policy paper failed to mention the death of Naz Anderson and the coroner’s concerns about its safeguards.
It also refused to say if it was confident that the same flaws that led to her death would not also apply to its targeted reviews of PIP and other benefits.
Its response to the coroner also appears to reveal a significant ongoing safeguarding flaw in the system that could continue to put many other disabled claimants at risk – which prevents some staff from alerting colleagues to a claimant’s “vulnerability” and support needs – but it refused to say if it had resolved this serious flaw.
Meanwhile, other measures laid out in the policy document could see the UK “sleepwalking into another Horizon scandal”, disabled campaigners warned this week.
The controversial measures, included in the data protection and digital information bill, would use artificial intelligence to give DWP sweeping powers to carry out financial surveillance on benefit claimants through their bank accounts.
Activists from the disabled women’s organisation WinVisible were among campaigners who supported the Downing Street handover on Tuesday of petitions signed by more than 270,000 people that call on the government to scrap the proposed bank spying powers.
They say the new powers, which would see banks forced to scan all customers’ accounts in search of fraud and error in the social security system, would be “a disaster for everyone’s privacy”.
DWP insists in its new policy paper that there are “a number of safeguards and limitations” with these new powers, and it warns that they are “a necessary first step to modernising and strengthening our powers”.
A new fraud bill in the next parliament – if the Conservatives win the next election – will also give its fraud investigators new powers to make arrests, conduct searches and seize possessions, which it says would “allow DWP to control the end-to-end investigation in the most serious criminal cases, applying for the warrants, leading the operation and searching and seizing evidence”.
That bill would also introduce a new civil penalty for benefit fraud with a “lower burden of proof”.
Mikey Erhardt, policy and campaigns officer at Disability Rights UK, said: “We know that polls report that everyone wants extra spending on benefits, not more groundless anti-fraud measures, which, if allowed to pass, will make the UK’s social security system, already one of western Europe’s least generous, even worse.
“It looks like we’re sleepwalking into another Horizon [Post Office] scandal.
“The government’s latest dalliance with untested, unscrutinised, and potentially unlimited powers for new ‘bank scanning’ algorithms will be used to tackle an issue seemingly so out of control that the fraud rate for disability benefits is only 0.2 per cent.
“Their plans are essentially a digital sledgehammer to crack the tiniest nut.
“With such widespread support for change, this should be our moment to create a system built on respect, dignity, and support that enables us to live the lives we deserve – not spend millions to create an uncontrollable digital panopticon.”
16 May 2024
DWP told to pay £50,000 to Deaf job-seeker after repeated failure to provide BSL interpreter
A tribunal has told the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to pay nearly £50,000 in damages to a Deaf man after repeatedly failing to provide him with the interpreters he needed for job-related interviews.
Paul Rimmer said he believed his local jobcentre failed to provide the support he needed because they found it “too difficult and too expensive”.
The jobcentre repeatedly failed to arrange the British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation that he needed over six years, and even when it did provide interpretation it was sometimes not of a high enough standard.
The employment tribunal has now told DWP to pay Rimmer £49,880 in damages and interest payments for the years of discriminatory behaviour.
It came as work and pensions secretary Mel Stride declared this week that his government was “leaving no stone unturned to get people back to work”.
The tribunal refers three times in its judgement to how Rimmer’s experience of repeated failures by the Leeds jobcentre to provide an interpreter must have felt like a “groundhog day”, and it describes how he felt he was “constantly fighting for things other people take for granted”.
Every time he faced discrimination, the tribunal concluded, it damaged his “mental wellbeing, whether by frustration or upset or depression or isolation”, and the “cumulative effect was considerable”, while it was “further depressing and despairing with each repeating occurrence against the background of some years”.
Despite a series of complaints to DWP, the tribunal found, there was no documented response or investigation findings from any of them, which led to the tribunal awarding Rimmer an extra £5,000 in damages.
The compensation also includes £10,000 in “exemplary damages” imposed due to a “victimising” and “oppressive” internal email sent in August 2022 by a DWP disability equality advisor (DEA) who referred to Rimmer making “multiple” complaints.
Despite a colleague describing Rimmer as “suitable” for an intensive job support programme and “keen to get support”, the DEA said he had a “history of complaints about treatment”.
The DEA then suggested, in the August email, that Rimmer did not want to work, that his lack of hearing was not his main barrier to a job, and that he needed “firm work coaching”, suggesting that he needed to be sanctioned.
The tribunal judge said the DEA had delivered an “assassination of the claimant’s character” and had taken a “victimising” approach when referring to complaints Rimmer had made, and added: “This is the sort of email or conduct which anyone in receipt of services from a job centre would fear, that if job coaches or others are challenged, there will be reprisals.”
The existence of the email only emerged during the legal case taken by Rimmer against the work and pensions secretary.
The tribunal’s judgment (PDF) was released less than a month after prime minister Rishi Sunak was accused of demonising and scapegoating claimants of disability benefits in a speech in which he spoke of a “sick note culture” and said there should be “higher expectations” of claimants in return for receiving benefits.
The tribunal’s judgment is likely to raise fresh questions about the employment support provided by DWP and the attitude of some staff, despite the repeated scapegoating of disabled claimants by ministers.
Rimmer had moved to Leeds in 2013, in his 30s, and started attending Park Place, the largest jobcentre in the north of England.
Between 2017 and 2023, the tribunal heard that Park Place repeatedly failed to provide him with BSL interpreters, although interpreters were sometimes provided.
In 2017, he was sanctioned and had his jobseeker’s allowance stopped after he ended a jobcentre meeting because he had been provided with a poorly-qualified BSL interpreter.
During much of the pandemic, the tribunal had heard, the jobcentre failed to provide the services he needed, even though other claimants were being supported, and he was not offered BSL interpretation via video relay, even though that should have been available from January 2021.
At one point, he had no contact with his work coach for a year.
The tribunal concluded that the Park Place work coaches at the time had “little equalities training… and none had had deaf awareness training”.
As well as the damages, the tribunal said staff providing employment support at Park Place jobcentre in Leeds must carry out training on disability discrimination and deaf awareness.
Rimmer, who is profoundly Deaf and whose first language is BSL, has no spoken English and only very basic reading and writing skills, and he had told the tribunal that most DWP staff “do not understand the difficulties facing me as a profoundly Deaf person”.
He told Disability News Service this week: “I am shocked about the barriers and discrimination that I have had to go through.
“I was shocked about the lack of training [DWP/Jobcentre] staff have had, lack of deaf awareness and how I have been stuck in a system and unable to move on.
“I was shocked by what I have heard in evidence from DWP staff.
“I am proud of what I have achieved and hope that it helps other people as well as myself.”
He added: “I know that the same thing happens at other jobcentres and I hope things will change more widely.
“I hope it doesn’t just change at Leeds but that the DWP look more widely at the training of staff across the country.”
Rimmer said he still feels “a bit angry about the wasted years, but pleased that the truth has finally come out.
“I have been telling the DWP about the difficulties I have faced for years and finally someone has believed me.”
Nick Whittingham, chief executive at Kirklees Citizens Advice and Law Centre, which supported Rimmer with his case, said: “This case shines a light on the way that disabled benefits claimants are treated by the DWP, and is particularly important in light of current political rhetoric.
“The indications are that failings are systemic and that provision for supporting deaf and other disabled people is limited both by funding constraints and by an institutional failure to understand, or even attempt to understand, their needs.”
John Horan, a leading disabled barrister specialising in discrimination and employment cases, who represented Rimmer at the tribunal, said: “In light of the prime minister’s recent comments that all disabled jobseekers should find a job within a year, this should be a wake-up call to ministers responsible for the jobseeker’s programme.
“In an Orwellian ‘1984’ scenario, a disability employment advisor, who should be there to assist disabled claimants, has been shown to have been actively targeting disabled people and attempting to block access to assistance programmes and even to the benefit itself, because the claimant had raised legitimate complaints.”
A DWP spokesperson said in a statement yesterday (Wednesday): “We are considering this judgment.
“We are committed to providing accessible services to ensure customers who need extra assistance can access our help.”
16 May 2024
Care charge mystery as council takes hundreds of pounds a month from disabled woman for non-existent support
A disabled woman is being charged hundreds of pounds a month by her local council for care and support services she does not receive.
City of Wolverhampton Council and Select Lifestyles, the company that provides her accommodation, have both been unable to explain why Shauline Hall has been charged for services that she says she hasn’t received for months, or even years.
The charges have left her struggling to survive financially and having to dig into her small amount of savings.
The council and care provider produced a joint statement yesterday (Wednesday), after several days of confusion and delays, which admitted that Hall was “no longer in receipt of one-to-one care”.
They said they were now “in the process of reviewing what changes can be made to her current provision in the light of information now received”.
Both Hall and her fiancé’s mother, Diane Cummins – who has been supporting her – have been seeking an explanation for several weeks for why she was being charged £400 a month for what the council calls “non-residential care”.
Cummins only discovered the charges when she got to know her son’s fiancée and began to support her with her paperwork and found documents showing the payments.
Hall’s finances had previously been controlled by the council, and Cummins said she had been “fobbed off” when she raised questions about the charges.
Cummins then helped her complain to the council and Select Lifestyles.
But both the council and Select Lifestyles dismissed their concerns, with the council insisting that she was supposed to be receiving more than 50 hours of care a week.
But neither the council nor Select Lifestyles had been willing to discuss why she was being charged for services she did not receive until Disability News Service (DNS) began asking questions about the charges this week.
Hall lives with her cat in a self-contained flat in Wolverhampton, which is managed by Select Lifestyles and is separate from a larger building where other disabled people receive supported living services from the company.
Although she has received one-to-one support from Select Lifestyles in the past, she has not done so for months, and possibly years.
She said she did not currently receive any one-to-one care at all from Select Lifestyles.
She told DNS this week: “I’m independent. I shouldn’t be paying really because I don’t have the care.
“When I went to the council, they said I was living in a residential home and need 50 hours of care.
“All I need help with is bills and forms and letters. I don’t need personal care at all.
“I feel like it’s a bit of a rip-off and they are taking advantage and they are taking the mick a little bit.”
She added: “It’s very strange, it’s very odd. I haven’t had a proper carer for two years, I do everything myself.”
When DNS initially approached Select Lifestyles, a manager insisted that the company did not receive the money Hall was being charged by the council.
A colleague later promised to carry out “a thorough investigation to ensure transparency and accountability”.
The company then engaged a public relations company to deal with DNS, and Emma Franks, executive director at Select Lifestyles, said in a statement: “We have been made aware of Ms Hall’s concerns regarding care charges and are actively liaising with the City of Wolverhampton Council.
“While we can confirm we receive no payment other than the rent for the apartment and service charge, we are committed to ensuring the necessary assistance is given to Ms Hall.
“The well-being and satisfaction of our residents is a priority, and we are working with relevant parties to provide further clarity and help address concerns.”
The council originally claimed that the charge was “not for one-to-one care, but for 56 hours per week of day and waking night care provided at Ms Hall’s supported living accommodation.
“She currently pays £108.19 per week towards this, with the remainer of the total cost of £1,084.16 per week being met by the local authority.”
But DNS questioned this statement when Select Lifestyles said it received no payment other than rent and a service charge, which Hall has been told covers the cost of utilities.
The council and Select Lifestyles finally provided a joint statement, claiming that “Shauline Hall is currently residing in supported living accommodation, which is staffed 24 hours a day to provide support to people living there”.
The statement said: “The City of Wolverhampton Council pays the provider Select Lifestyles £1,084.16 per week for the shared care that Ms Hall is planned to receive, and she is charged a weekly contribution towards this cost of £108.19 per week.
“With the support of Select Lifestyles, Ms Hall has been working towards independence and, as a result, the care and support she has been receiving has reduced, and she is no longer in receipt of one-to-one care.
“We know that as a result of the progress she has made, supported living is no longer necessary for Ms Hall and that she will be able to live independently as soon as alternative accommodation is identified.
“We have been actively supporting her with this and will continue to do so.
“In the meantime, Ms Hall is able to continue to reside in supported living with the existing arrangements for shared care remaining in place and we are in the process of reviewing what changes can be made to her current provision in the light of information now received.”
The council had declined by noon today (Thursday) to confirm how long Hall has been paying for care and support she has not been receiving, but said it was not as long as four years.
It had also failed to explain who was receiving the funding for the support when Select Lifestyles insisted that it only received rent for her flat and the service charge for the bills.
The council also refused to say if the concerns would now be investigated, if Shauline Hall would be reimbursed for the thousands of pounds of charges she has wrongly had to pay, and if the council would apologise to her.
Cummins said she was extremely concerned about how Hall had been treated.
She said: “It’s absolutely ridiculous. I told them it’s an absolute disgrace. They are not treating her right.”
She called on other disabled people in similar situations to check what they are paying for their care package.
16 May 2024
Government to investigate ‘fake disabled’ mystery shopper rail claims
The government is to investigate claims that rail companies are using “mystery shoppers” who are pretending to be disabled as a way of providing data on the accessibility of their services.
One campaigner said the concerns could have “huge consequences” for the rail industry.
Both the Department for Transport (DfT) and the rail regulator confirmed this week that data from these “role-playing” mystery shoppers should not be used in information passed by train companies to the government.
Disability News Service (DNS) revealed last week that a market research firm used by multiple rail companies was using “role-playing” passengers who pretend to be disabled to carry out mystery shopping assessments of services at rail stations and on trains.
At least one train company that uses the services of Mystery Shoppers Ltd (MSL) was unaware of the role-playing, and has confirmed that data from MSL is regularly passed to DfT.
Disabled campaigners warned last week that role-playing passengers could have been providing inaccurate, overly-positive information about the accessibility of the rail system.
DfT said yesterday (Wednesday) that it now plans to discuss with train companies whether data provided by MSL or other contractors had complied with their “audit requirements”.
DfT has yet to say if it was aware – before being alerted to the claims by DNS – that train companies were using role-playing mystery shoppers to test the accessibility of their services, and that this data might have been passed to the government.
It is also not yet clear if the data provided by MSL to train companies could have affected how the performance of those companies has been assessed by DfT and any bonuses they might have received.
DfT said this week that rail contracts require a quarter of all customer service audits to be carried out by mystery shoppers with “genuine disabilities”.
These results are used to calculate scores for key indicators of how those companies are performing.
It confirmed that data from role-playing mystery shoppers should not be included in these audits.
But DfT said it was for train operators to ensure that any companies they used to provide this data complied with the audit requirements.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR), the rail regulator, confirmed that mystery shopping of disabled people’s experiences “should be carried out by passengers who are themselves disabled”.
An ORR spokesperson said in a statement: “Thank you for bringing this information to our and train companies’ attention.
“We remind train companies that they are accountable for the performance of their contractors.
“We expect operators to be continuously reviewing their performance in supporting disabled passengers and looking at how they can improve.
“If mystery shopping is to provide a proper reflection of disabled people’s experiences, it should be carried out by passengers who are themselves disabled.”
He added: “We support the use of mystery shopping as one of the ways that operators can understand the experience of their disabled passengers but do not require it.
“We were not aware that train operating companies were using a mystery shopping company that allows non-disabled people to role-play being disabled.”
Emily Yates, co-founder of the Association of British Commuters, said yesterday: “This story could have huge consequences for the rail industry, if it’s found that operators are in breach of their contracts.
“Train operators appear to have used this low quality, fake data to fulfil their audit requirements, which could also put the DfT’s entire contract performance regime into doubt.
“We have to know the full extent and scale of the problem, especially how it has affected any policy decisions.
“Meanwhile, the government keeps up its obsessive secrecy about rail, ticketing and staffing reform; and there is still no sign of the two consultations promised since 2021 – the National Rail Accessibility Strategy and the ORR’s Assisted Travel Policy consultation.”
Those carrying out MSL’s mystery shopping exercises at stations and on trains are paid a small fee and travel expenses.
The “assignments” are advertised on MSL’s website and in emails to freelance workers, but many of the tasks that request a passenger to test how the rail company performs in providing assistance to disabled people state that they can be carried out by passengers who “can role play that they need assistance”.
One task, from 2023, described the assignment, relating to a visit to a station in Sussex, as “an assitance [sic] shop, which can be a genuine need, or role played, here are some examples – Visual impairment – Hearing impairment – Physical disabilities, such as using a wheelchair or walking aids”.
Sarah Leadbetter, national campaigns officer for The National Federation of the Blind of the UK, said last week that the use of mystery shoppers who are role-playing being disabled was “disgusting” and added: “They have not got the right lived experience. They can’t walk in our shoes. They won’t have a clue.”
Sam Jennings, a disabled activist whose new website #DisabledByTheRailway highlights the access barriers faced by disabled rail passengers, said last week: “Until you’ve actually had the impairment, you won’t notice the nuance and the different things that could really be dangerous.
“You don’t have that knowledge. It’s ridiculous. What they’re doing is dishonest, it makes a mockery of it.”
MSL last week admitted paying mystery shoppers to role-play being disabled passengers, and it said it would carry out an internal review of its “communication and practices”.
16 May 2024
‘Truly shameful’ figures show more than 5,000 disabled people spent time sleeping on London’s streets last year
New figures that show more than 5,000 disabled people spent time sleeping on the streets of London last year are “truly shameful”, according to the capital’s leading disabled people’s organisation.
The figures, secured by Disability News Service (DNS) through a freedom of information request*, show the number of disabled people seen rough sleeping in London rose by nearly a thousand between 2019 and 2023.
London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said the figures were “very worrying” and “should be a wake-up call” for ministers who continue to ignore the scale of the “national crisis”.
But the government was unable to explain this week why so many disabled people were living on London’s streets, saying there were many reasons why people become homeless.
DNS requested the figures after talking to disabled people who were living in tents just yards from where the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) used to have many of its offices, in central London.
The new figures*, released by the mayor’s Greater London Authority, showed the number of disabled people seen rough sleeping in the capital rose from 4,434 in 2019 to 5,390 in 2023.
The biggest increase appears to have been in those with mental distress or trauma, with that number rising from 3,363 in 2019 to 4,184 in 2023**, although those living with significant health conditions also rose sharply, from 2,829 to 3,207.
Laura Vicinanza, Inclusion London’s policy and stakeholder engagement manager, said the numbers were “truly shameful”.
She said: “It’s appalling and unacceptable that there are so many disabled people who are sleeping rough in what is supposed to be the best city in the world.
“Sleeping rough is a traumatic experience for anyone but it’s particularly devastating for disabled people.
“The situation is out of control and demands urgent action from government at all levels to keep everyone, including disabled people, off the streets.”
Vicinanza said the increase since 2019 was also “shocking”.
She said: “Our community has been one of the hardest hit by austerity, the Covid pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis on top of the impact of long-term structural inequality and discrimination that we experience daily in our lives.
“It is not surprising that a hostile housing market coupled with austerity measures and a chronic shortage of accessible, safe and affordable homes have pushed more and more disabled people into homelessness.”
She added: “We know that the risk of homelessness and housing precarity for disabled people has drastically risen as a result of a series of policy failures to prevent homelessness, including the lack of appropriate support being provided to autistic people and people with learning difficulties with managing tenancies.”
And she said that many disabled people are forced into private rented accommodation, which is “the most unaffordable, inaccessible and insecure form of tenure”.
No-fault evictions in the private rented sector are the leading cause of homelessness, she said, but disproportionately impact disabled people who cannot then find affordable housing that meets their needs once they are evicted by their landlords.
Inclusion London called on Sadiq Khan to “massively increase the supply of accessible social housing” and to work with local authorities to ensure that homelessness charities commissioned to provide support services receive mandatory disability equality training that is delivered by disabled people’s organisations.
And it called on central government to abolish no-fault evictions “without delay”, and to increase funding to local authorities for “floating support” to prevent disabled people, particularly autistic people, people with learning difficulties and those experiencing mental distress or trauma, from becoming homeless in the first place.
A spokesperson for Sadiq Khan said: “The rise in the number of disabled people sleeping rough in London is very worrying and should be a wake-up call for ministers who continue to turn a blind eye to the scale of this national crisis.
“Since first being elected, Sadiq has more than quadrupled City Hall’s rough sleeping budget, helping more than 16,000 people off the streets, with a further £10 million pledged for his third term.
“He has committed to eradicating rough sleeping in London by 2030 and will not stand by and allow a social catastrophe to unfold in our capital.
“Disabled people have been disproportionality affected by the government’s cuts to the social security system, alongside cuts to council and health budgets.
“The mayor will continue to put pressure on ministers to reverse these damaging cuts as he works to build a fairer, safer London for everyone.”
The mayor’s office said the Greater London Authority’s rough sleeping budget of £36.3 million for 2023-24 was more than four times the £8.45 million a year it was when the mayor took office in 2016.
And it said that more than 75 per cent of those who receive support following intervention from City Hall-funded services are not seen sleeping rough again.
The government’s long-awaited plan to outlaw no-fault evictions should become law this summer, although this will only mean an end to the practice for new tenants. Extending the ban to existing tenants will have to wait until a review has been completed.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) was unable to say why so many disabled people were living on London’s streets, because it said there were many reasons why people become homeless.
But a DLUHC spokesperson said in a statement: “There are very strong protections for homeless people with disabilities, as individuals who are vulnerable as a result of mental ill health, learning disability or physical disability have priority need for temporary accommodation until suitable, settled accommodation is secured.
“We are spending £2.4 billion to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping and giving £191 million to London boroughs over three years, supplying hundreds of beds and specialist support for the most vulnerable.”
*The figures come from the Combined Homelessness and Information Network database
**Many of those sleeping rough were recorded as having more than one type of impairment
16 May 2024
Anger over government’s ‘gleeful’ announcement of yet more special schools
The government’s policy of opening more and more special schools is stripping funding from mainstream settings and handing it to profit-making bodies, disabled campaigners have warned.
They said the government was allowing these organisations to make “huge profits” through the “institutionalisation and inhumane segregation” of disabled children, and they criticised this week’s “gleeful” announcement of locations for another 16 special free schools.
The warning came from The Alliance for Inclusive Education, as the Department for Education announced that the new special schools would provide spaces for more than 2,000 disabled children across England.
Academy trusts will now be given the opportunity to compete to run the new schools.
The government has already opened 108 schools as part of its special free schools programme since 2010, and said it planned to open a further 93.
David Cameron’s pledge in his party’s 2010 general election manifesto (PDF) to “end the bias” towards including disabled children in mainstream schools led to successive Conservative-led governments focusing on building new segregated special schools, and increasing the number of children attending special schools.
But Iyiola Olafimihan, ALLFIE’s justice and campaigns officer, said the government’s latest plan was nothing more than to “take away much needed funding and resources from mainstream educational settings and giving it away to commercial and private providers who are making huge profits off the back of institutionalisation and inhumane segregation of disabled children.”
He said the move to open yet more special schools across England “clearly undermines” the presumption of mainstream education included in the Children and Families Act 2014.
Even more importantly, he said, it breaches article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by the UK government, which states that inclusive education is a human right.
Last year, the government admitted in its Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan that there was evidence “that greater inclusion in mainstream settings can improve the academic achievement for children and young people with SEND* and has neutral or small positive effects on the outcomes of those without SEND”.
Olafimihan said it was “shocking” that the government kept funding special schools and units when there were “disturbing reports of harm and torture” in segregated schools.
He pointed to last month’s report by the BBC, which described how staff had been filmed “hitting, kicking and leaving special school pupils in their own urine” at Whitefield School in Walthamstow between 2014 and 2017.
Olafimihan said the government’s plans would ensure disabled children and young people “remain segregated, excluded and marginalized from society” and would deprive them of the chance to build “meaningful social networks and friendships with their non-disabled peers”.
He said the government had “gleefully and unashamedly” announced its “appalling” latest plan, which “clearly demonstrates that the government’s interest is to undermine the belief that every disabled person deserves equal access to mainstream education”.
Announcing the new special schools, education secretary Gillian Keegan said: “Special schools can truly transform children’s lives, enabling pupils with special education needs and disabilities to thrive in environments that meet their needs.
“We’re creating tens of thousands of special school places since 2010 and today’s announcement takes us one step closer to our commitment of a record 60,000 more places for children with additional needs.
“I know how hard it can be for families trying to navigate the SEND system, and the creation of more brilliant special schools is just one part of our plan to make sure every family and every child get the right support, in the right place at the right time.”
But ALLFIE said the argument that inclusive education works “is already won” and “education on an equal basis is a matter of human rights that must never be denied to disabled children and young people”.
Olafimihan said: “By continuing to implement policies that undermine equitable and equal right to the same quality of education in mainstream settings that non-disabled children and young people have access to, the UK government is violating our human rights and dignity.”
And he called on the disabled people’s movement to support ALLFIE’s campaign, and help it push back against the “relentless and continuous assault” on inclusive education.
*Special educational needs and disability
16 May 2024
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
A deep dive into the crisis engulfing adult social care has revealed almost a third of councils are no longer confident they can meet their basic legal duties towards older and disabled residents next year. Research from the Local Government Association lays bare the scale of fear felt by those leading this work in local authorities across England. A survey with dozens of adult social care leads suggests just eight per cent are very confident about meeting their statutory duties for 2025-26, down from 27 per cent for 2024-25: https://www.itv.com/news/2024-05-14/one-in-three-councils-not-confident-they-can-provide-basic-adult-social-care
Visually-impaired people are calling for an end to so-called floating bus stops. Kevin Greenan, from Greater Manchester, who is part of a delegation delivering a petition to prime minister Rishi Sunak, said the stops – being built across the country – are dangerous for people with limited or no sight: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0jkky5xk85o
Filmmakers could improve cinema experiences for deaf people by putting more thought into captioning, according to researchers at the University of Sheffield. Research found that poor quality, missing or lagging captions led to deaf audiences feeling excluded through not fully experiencing film-making techniques like suspense. A team from the university and a research and design company based in the city worked with members of the deaf community on the project: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpwg3xedxw5o
16 May 2024
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
