Caxton House cover-up: How DWP destroyed files and prevented investigation into claimant’s suicide
Official documents link two former Conservative work and pensions ministers – including would-be party leader Penny Mordaunt – to a government cover-up of how a disabled man took his own life after being wrongly found fit for work.
The email and letter are part of a huge quantity of documents relating to the death of Michael O’Sullivan that have been drawn together over the last decade by his family.
They show that senior civil servants at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) destroyed vital documents about his case – in breach of the department’s own rules – months after a coroner linked his death with DWP’s “fitness for work” test.
The decision, taken some time in 2014 – probably 14 months after his suicide in September 2013 – meant DWP was not able to carry out an in-depth investigation into the circumstances around his death, known at the time as a peer review.
Most of his records were destroyed even though a coroner had concluded earlier that year – in a ground-breaking ruling that later received significant media coverage – that the “intense anxiety” that triggered his suicide had been caused by his being found fit for work by DWP following a work capability assessment (WCA).
The coroner, Mary Hassell, had sent a prevention of future deaths (PFD) report (PDF) to the department on 13 January 2014, warning that “action should be taken to prevent future deaths” following his suicide.
DWP guidance at the time said that all records relating to a claimant suicide should be kept for six years, but the department later told the family that most of the paperwork connected to his various benefit claims was instead destroyed in 2014.
Disability News Service (DNS) has established through freedom of information requests to the department that this guidance was in place from April 2013 all the way through until at least December 2016.
An internal DWP email obtained by the O’Sullivan family, which was sent on 5 February 2014, shows that the minister for disabled people at the time, Mike Penning, was told about the coroner’s PFD report.
This email was sent by DWP’s then head of assessment policy to Penning, as well as to two DWP press officers and two DWP lawyers.
But despite DWP being sent the coroner’s PFD report, and Penning being informed about the inquest’s findings, civil servants later claimed they had destroyed many of the records relating to Michael O’Sullivan’s case at some point in 2014.
This would have been a clear breach of the department’s guidance on retaining records relating to a claimant who had taken their own life.
Penning has told DNS he knew nothing about the records being destroyed. DWP has refused to comment.
Three years after the internal email was sent, in March 2017, the then minister for disabled people, Penny Mordaunt – now leader of the House of Commons – told the O’Sullivan family in a letter that a peer review into the death had not been carried out because “much of the documentation” had “been destroyed” in accordance with DWP’s “records management policy”.
She said that this policy stated that “most benefit records are destroyed fourteen months after a claimant’s death”.
But Mordaunt failed to tell the family that DWP’s Benefits Document and Data Retention Guide, in place at the time Michael O’Sullivan died, stated that documents relating to claimant suicides should be kept for at least six years.
A copy of this guidance was provided to the family the following year by Mordaunt’s successor as minister for disabled people, Sarah Newton.
The guidance stated: “All documents relating to suicide and self-harm should be retained for 6 years following the date on which the incident occurred or the declaration of intention was made.”
Peer reviews – later renamed internal process reviews – were internal investigations into deaths and other serious cases linked to DWP’s actions, and were never published or even shared with families, but departmental guidance stated at the time: “Where suicide is associated with DWP activity, a Peer Review must be undertaken.”
Mordaunt, a leading contender to be the next leader of the Conservative party, told the family that the team that “prepared the Department’s response to the Coroner” had been “unaware” of the peer review procedure.
She wrote in the letter: “By the time the relevant team was made aware, much of the documentation relating to your father’s claim had been destroyed in accordance with the Department’s records management policy…
“As a result, the Department was therefore unable to carry out [a peer review].”
But the internal DWP email that was sent on 5 February 2014 shows that the response to the coroner’s PFD report was prepared by DWP’s work capability assessment policy team.
This key policy team should have been aware of the peer review procedure because previous DNS investigations have shown that at least seven peer reviews that mentioned the WCA were carried out during 2012 and there were certain to have been others during 2013 and 2014.
Mordaunt has so far failed to comment on the letter and the destruction of Michael O’Sullivan’s records.
DNS has previously established that DWP failed to pass the PFD report to Paul Litchfield, who in 2014 was carrying out the fifth and final independent review of the WCA for the department.
DWP published Litchfield’s review in November 2014, but it made no mention of the coroner’s letter, or the peer reviews into claimant deaths that had mentioned the WCA.
Following intervention from the Information Commissioner’s Office, DWP finally admitted in 2019 that the peer reviews and two PFDs written by coroners, including the report written following Michael O’Sullivan’s death, were not shared with Litchfield.
DNS has also established that the other PFD, and the earlier peer reviews, were not shared with Professor Malcolm Harrington, who carried out the first three reviews of the WCA in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
DNS has approached Penning, Mordaunt and DWP about the department’s claims that the records were destroyed, although the O’Sullivan family still believes DWP has kept copies of all the documents.
In a letter sent to DNS, Penning, who is standing down as an MP at this election, said: “You are asking about the destruction of records relating to a Mr Michael O’Sullivan which, apparently, happened when I was a Minister at the Department for Work and Pensions.
“As you will appreciate, I do not know anything about this as Ministers are not involved in the day-to-day operational running of their Department or individual case management.
“I have passed your message to the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Works and Pensions.”
DNS asked Penning if he remembered the Michael O’Sullivan case, the inquest and the PFD report, but he had not responded further by 11am today (Thursday).
DNS first approached Mordaunt’s office about the allegations late last month.
For nearly two weeks, Mordaunt’s spokesperson – former Conservative councillor Alistair Thompson, who runs PR company Team Britannia PR – repeatedly told DNS that he would speak to her about the claims, but then failed to produce a comment.
He eventually claimed on Tuesday this week that he had “been unable to speak to Penny about this matter”.
DWP has been shown the email that was sent to Penning in 2014 and the letter from Mordaunt in 2017, and copies of its own guidance on destroying records.
After six days, a spokesperson replied: “Thanks for giving us the opportunity for right of reply. We won’t be commenting on this at this time.”
It declined to explain why the records were destroyed in breach of its own guidance, why the WCA policy team was – according to Penny Mordaunt – not aware of the existence of the peer review process in early 2014, and why Mordaunt told the O’Sullivan family that the records had been destroyed in line with departmental guidance, when that was not correct.
DWP also declined to comment on Penning’s actions.
DNS reported earlier this year how the O’Sullivans had concluded beyond any doubt – following their decade-long investigation – that DWP was responsible for their father’s death.
They told the Commons work and pensions committee – which had to abandon its inquiry into how DWP safeguards “vulnerable” benefit claimants when the general election was called by Rishi Sunak – that the government must impose a “clear and defined” statutory duty of care on the department.
They believe this is the only way to protect the lives of claimants in vulnerable situations, such as their father.
But they also want to see an independent inquiry into how the actions and failings of DWP can be linked to Michael O’Sullivan’s suicide and countless other deaths of disabled people.
They believe that their evidence of how DWP breached its own guidance by destroying their father’s documents – if that is what happened – adds significant weight to calls for an inquiry.
The proof that DWP admitted destroying vital documents relating to Michael O’Sullivan’s death, despite this breaching its own guidance, adds to years of evidence of systemic negligence by the department, a culture of cover-up and denial, and a refusal to accept that it has a duty of care to those disabled people claiming support through the social security system.
The abandoned inquiry by the Commons work and pensions select committee into DWP safeguarding had been examining whether there should be such a duty of care.
It is now more than 10 years since Mary Hassell concluded that the “intense anxiety” that triggered Michael O’Sullivan’s suicide had been caused by his being found fit for work by DWP following a WCA.
She found that both DWP and its private sector contractor Atos had failed to seek medical evidence about his mental health from his doctor, his psychiatrist and his clinical psychologist.
He was found fit for work, despite a suicide attempt months earlier when he had been forced into work-related activity after an earlier WCA that lasted just 12 minutes.
His case was twice mentioned at prime minister’s questions in 2015, after the PFD report was unearthed by DNS.
The family have now spent more than a decade fighting for justice and to discover the truth about Michael O’Sullivan’s death.
A spokesperson for the family said: “Ten years ago, the O’Sullivan family decided to bring about a forensic and detailed complaint to the DWP to demonstrate what had gone so tragically wrong in their father’s case so real lessons could be learned.
“They did this to prevent future harm and to prevent other families having to endure the severe trauma they have sadly experienced.
“Their complaint was originally delivered to then prime minister Theresa May, who assigned the DWP with responding on her behalf to the significant grounds of complaint.
“Ten years on, many of the issues raised with the DWP go unanswered.
“The family has faced hostility and obfuscation, yet they remain resolute in their determination to get the department to accept their wrongs, which has come at great expense to the family in every respect.
“It is devastating for the O’Sullivan family to conclude that the DWP have always known exactly what their systemic failures were in regard to their assessment process but rather than engaging with the family in safely evaluating the WCA it appears those in authority have engaged in a cover up which has caused great harm to the most vulnerable in our society and to their father, who paid the ultimate price.”
*The Department, DNS editor John Pring’s book on DWP and how its actions led to countless deaths of disabled people in the post-2010 era, will be published by Pluto Press on 20 August. Visit the DNS website before publication for a 50 per cent discount
13 June 2024
Statements by Sunak and Stride on disability benefits were potentially misleading, says stats regulator
Three statements made by government ministers on disability benefits – including one by Rishi Sunak – have been found to be potentially misleading by the UK statistics regulator.
Of the three misleading statements, one of them was made by the prime minister, while the other two were made by work and pensions secretary Mel Stride.
Just days after the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) delivered its findings, the Conservatives repeated Sunak’s misleading statement – although slightly altering the wording – in its general election manifesto.
The first of the three complaints dealt with by OSR was lodged in March by Disability News Service (DNS) about Sunak’s repeated claims that the number of disabled people being found not fit for work had trebled since 2011.
OSR has also responded to complaints (not made by DNS) about two comments made by Stride in the last few months.
The first of Stride’s comments was that 94 per cent of people who report feeling “down and bluesy” to their doctor are being signed off as not fit to work, and the second was that recipients of personal independence payment (PIP) receive thousands of pounds a month.
OSR told DNS this week that it had concluded that “all three statements had the potential to mislead”.
The Conservative manifesto this week ignored the OSR ruling and used one of the misleading statements to justify its claim that there had been an “unsustainable rise in benefit claims” by working-age disabled people.
It also ignored repeated statements by health experts that a key reason for an increase in claimants was a significant increase in ill-health, and in NHS waiting-lists.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said this week – in response to the party’s manifesto – that “people are sicker than they were, with more complex healthcare needs”.
The Conservative party had not commented on the OSR rulings by 11am today (Thursday).
Those rulings came just a day after the regulator made a similar ruling on misleading Conservative claims about Labour’s tax plans.
The prime minister first used the fitness for work figures in his main Conservative party conference speech last October.
He repeated them in March in an interview with the Sunday Times.
And he repeated them again in a major speech on social security at the Centre for Social Justice in April.
Sunak said in April: “In 2011, 20 per cent of those doing a work capability assessment were deemed unfit to work.
“But the latest figure now stands at 65 per cent. That’s wrong.
“People are not three times sicker than they were a decade ago.”
DNS has repeatedly pointed out that the 2011 figures reflected the particular harshness of the work capability assessment in its early years, before its most serious flaws were exposed.
It took years of research and activism by disabled people and allies to reveal the links between the WCA and hundreds, and probably thousands, of deaths of claimants, and to force DWP ministers to ease the harshness of the assessment.
There were also five independent reviews of the WCA commissioned by DWP, which led to multiple improvements to the assessment.
These factors eventually made it less arduous to qualify for the employment and support allowance support group and avoid work-related conditions for those not fit for work, although the assessment process is still deeply-flawed and continues to be linked to serious harm and deaths of claimants.
OSR has now concluded that Sunak’s comparison “does not reflect the complexities of the data or take account of any changes to the benefit system or the criteria for allocating to this group”.
The second complaint related to comments made by Stride in an interview with the Telegraph in March.
In the interview, he said some people were now “convincing themselves they have some kind of serious mental health condition as opposed to the normal anxieties of life”.
Stride added: “If they go to the doctor and say ‘I’m feeling rather down and bluesy’, the doctor will give them on average about seven minutes and then, on 94 per cent of occasions, they will be signed off as not fit to carry out any work whatsoever.”
But OSR said: “The reasons for granting fit notes are varied.
“While there are no statistics specifically on those who report feeling down and bluesy, nor those struggling with poor mental health, the NHS England’s statistics between October 2022 and September 2023 show that 37 per cent of fit notes with a valid diagnosis recorded were issued for closest available category of ‘mental and behavioral disorders’.”
It also pointed out that 74 per cent of fit notes issued between October 2022 and September 2023 “do not have a diagnosis recorded in the data so we can’t tell why they were issued”, while only electronic fit notes are included within the data.
And it added: “There is also no data available on occasions when patients may request a fit note and are not issued with one.”
The third complaint related to Stride claiming in a BBC interview – on the day he launched a new green paper that described plans to reform PIP to ensure it is “targeted at those most in need” – that PIP claimants received “thousands of pounds a month”.
OSR said the maximum a PIP claimant could receive was actually £184.30 a week, or an average of just under £800 a month.
The regulator concluded: “Those who receive PIP do not receive thousands of pounds a month.”
13 June 2024
Conservative manifesto is empty of new policies aimed at improving lives of disabled voters
The Conservative party has published a general election manifesto without a single new policy aimed at improving the lives of disabled people.
Analysis by Disability News Service of the manifesto shows that the few policies targeted at disabled voters are existing government pledges, or extensions of current schemes.
The manifesto also includes a statement – in a section that targets disabled benefit claimants – that was found, in a slightly different form, to be potentially misleading by the UK statistics watchdog just days earlier.
The party had not said by 11am today (Thursday) why it ignored the ruling by the Office for Statistics Regulation.
A significant chunk of the manifesto is devoted to explaining how a Conservative government would cut spending on disability benefits to put it “on a sustainable footing”, as part of £12 billion a year in cuts to spending on social security by 2029-30 (PDF).
These benefit-related policies have all previously been announced over the last year.
A key policy would cut spending on personal independence payment (PIP), although there is no suggestion of which measures in April’s PIP green paper the party would introduce, as a public consultation is ongoing.
The Conservatives also promise to tighten the work capability assessment, “overhaul the fit note process” and accelerate the universal credit rollout, all of which ministers have previously announced.
The manifesto says: “People are now three times more likely to be assessed as not fit for any work and put on the highest tier of sickness benefits than they were a decade ago.”
Four days before the manifesto was published, the Office for Statistics Regulation concluded that a similarly-worded statement was potentially misleading (see separate story), but the party appears to have ignored the regulator, other than slightly tweaking the wording.
A day after its publication, the Public and Commercial Services Union warned in its own general election charter that universal credit was “a dangerously flawed system, the most vulnerable continue to slip through its cracks and our members are the scapegoats for over a decade of social security failures”.
Ther is no mention in the manifesto of how a Conservative government would address these flaws, or the wider safeguarding issues within DWP that have led to hundreds, and probably thousands, of deaths being linked to its actions over the last 14 years.
The manifesto also promises “tougher sanctions rules” and a fraud bill that will give DWP fraud investigators new powers.
DWP has previously said it wants its investigators to be able to make arrests, conduct searches and seize possessions, allowing the department “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”.
The manifesto also refers to the party’s pledge to create 60,000 more places in special schools, a promise referred to earlier this year by education secretary Gillian Keegan and also mentioned by the government in March.
Disabled activists warned last month that the government’s policy of opening more and more segregated special schools was stripping funding from mainstream settings and handing it to profit-making bodies.
On social care, the party promises only a “multi-year funding settlement to support social care” at the next spending review, and it repeats its delayed pledge to implement a cap on care charging costs from October 2025.
On disability employment, there is a promise to increase the capacity of the existing individual placement and support programme – which provides intensive, individual support in the workplace for people with “severe mental health conditions” – by 140,000 places.
The Conservatives also promise to pass a new law “to provide better treatment and support for severe mental health needs in the first session of the next parliament”, which appears to refer to the draft mental health bill the government dropped from its legislative programme last year.
Many of the other disability policies in the manifesto are either too vague to analyse or refer to measures already introduced, such as a pledge to “continue to modernise autism and learning disability services”, and to “improve accessibility at 100 train stations, starting with the 50 stations announced in May”, which refers to the long-standing Access for All station improvement programme.
And there is nothing in the manifesto about how a Conservative government would address the accessible housing crisis, even though the government consulted on raising accessibility standards of new homes four years ago.
The absence of any policy on accessible housing suggests the party has been pressured by the housebuilding lobby to drop its long-delayed plans.
One of the few potentially positive disability-related policies in the manifesto is to “give councils the power to ban pavement parking, provided they engage with businesses and residents to ensure they are not adversely affected”.
But this comes four years after the government consulted on such a ban, with the last update issued 12 months ago, when the Department for Transport said it was “evaluating the feedback we received and will provide further information in due course”.
There are also two other disability-related measures that were included in the government’s much-criticised Disability Action Plan, which was published in February.
One is to improve support for disabled people who use guide or assistance dogs, and the other is to “explore” whether it could bid to host the 2031 Special Olympics.
Despite the absence of new policies in the manifesto to address the barriers faced by disabled people, the party insists in the document that its ambition “is to make this country the most accessible place in the world for people with disabilities to live, work and thrive”.
13 June 2024
Lib Dem manifesto targets care charges, and promises to implement UN disability convention
The Liberal Democrats have devoted a significant part of their manifesto to reforming adult social care and supporting independent living, but they have also pledged to implement the UN disability convention into law if they win power at the election.
The pledge to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) into UK law could potentially see them challenging Labour for the votes of some disabled activists, after Labour admitted last year it had dropped its own promise to implement the treaty.
The Liberal Democrats have also promised to scrap the bedroom tax, replace benefit sanctions with an “incentive-based scheme” to help people into work, and end the outsourcing of work capability assessments, as well as give disabled people “a stronger voice in the design of benefits policies and processes”.
But there are gaps in the manifesto, with no measures on disability hate crime, nothing to tackle the accessible housing crisis, and nothing on accessible public transport other than continuing to fund the Access for All station improvement programme.
There is also no mention of the continuing safeguarding concerns about the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), particularly relating to universal credit, and no mention of calls from disabled people and bereaved relatives for an independent inquiry into the years of deaths linked to DWP’s actions.
A day after its publication, the Public and Commercial Services Union warned in its own general election charter that universal credit was “a dangerously flawed system, the most vulnerable continue to slip through its cracks and our members are the scapegoats for over a decade of social security failures”.
Another policy likely to concern many disabled activists sees the party signalling its continuing support for legalising assisted suicide – party policy since 2004 – by giving parliament time to debate and vote on legislation, with a free vote for its MPs.
On social care, the Liberal Democrats say they would “forge a new consensus” on funding by setting up a “cross-party commission” to develop “a long-term agreement on sustainable funding for social care”.
As announced last week, the party would offer free personal care to all adults whose needs are seen as eligible for council-funded support.
It also plans to trial “personal health and social care budgets so that individuals are in control of what care they receive”, although it had not clarified by 11am today (Thursday) what this would mean.
It promises to set up an Independent Living Taskforce that would “help people live independently in their own homes”, although again it has provided no further details.
And it says it would enable disabled people to transfer their care package to another local authority “so they don’t feel stuck in their current locality due to their care needs”.
Among its measures on social security, the party would “repair the broken benefits safety net” by scrapping sanctions and the bedroom tax and reducing the wait for the first payment of universal credit from five weeks to five days.
It plans to replace benefit sanctions with a new “incentive-based” scheme, although it has yet to provide any further information on how this might work.
It also promises to reform the personal independence payment (PIP) system, making assessments “more transparent” and stopping “unnecessary reassessments”, but it stopped short of calling for an end to the outsourcing of PIP assessments to companies like Maximus, Serco and Capita.
The manifesto includes a series of policies aimed at making it easier for disabled people to access public life.
As well as implementing UNCRPD, a Liberal Democrat government would bring in new accessibility standards for public spaces, although it has yet to explain how this would work.
It would also introduce “a targeted strategy to support disabled people into work”; raise awareness of, and improve, the Access to Work scheme; and increase the use of British Sign Language in government communications.
And there would be a new right to flexible working, with every disabled person having the right to work from home “unless there are significant business reasons why it is not possible”.
There are a series of policies aimed at improving the rights around mental health, autism and people with learning difficulties.
A Liberal Democrat government would end “inappropriate and costly inpatient placements” for people with learning difficulties and autistic people.
It would also modernise the Mental Health Act – to “strengthen people’s rights, give them more choice and control over their treatment and prevent inappropriate detentions” – which suggests it would take on much of the present government’s discarded draft mental health bill.
It also promises to widen the current safety investigation into mental health hospitals to examine “the whole patient experience, including ward design and treatment options”.
The manifesto says: “In decades past, the UK has led the world in advancing human rights, civil liberties and equality for women, LGBT+ people and disabled people.
“But under the Conservatives, progress has stalled. They are failing to stand up to hatred and prejudice, or tackle entrenched inequalities.”
13 June 2024
Greens’ manifesto offers rise in disability benefits, free personal care and cash for inclusive education
The Green party has promised that its MPs will push for a five per cent increase in the level of disability benefits, free personal care for adults, and more money to support disabled children in mainstream schools.
The party’s manifesto, published yesterday (Wednesday), promises that any elected Green MPs will push for policies that ensure disabled people can live “full, meaningful lives, can work if they choose, and access the help and support they need”.
But despite a series of promises across social care – including an investment of £20 billion a year in new funding – social security, education and democracy, there is almost no detail on how the party wants these pledges to be fulfilled.
And the manifesto also makes it clear that the party continues to support legalising assisted suicide.
Only last month, disabled actor and activist Liz Carr told Disability News Service (DNS) that legalisation would be particularly dangerous for disabled people at a time when “we are absolutely removing our welfare state, and we are dismantling our incredible NHS”.
On social care, the party’s promise matches that of the Liberal Democrats by calling for an end to charges for personal care, although not for other support such as housework, shopping, laundry and engaging with the local community.
But it goes further than the Liberal Democrats by also promising “investment of £20 billion per year” in adult social care.
As spending by local authorities in England in 2022-23 was already £20.5 billion, this means Green MPs would be pushing for that to be nearly doubled.
On social security, Green MPs would push for an “immediate increase” of five per cent in disability benefits such as personal independence payment (PIP), an increase of £40 a week in universal credit and legacy benefits such as employment and support allowance, and an end to the bedroom tax.
The manifesto also calls for an end to “the unfair targeting of carers and disabled people on benefits”, as well as an end to benefit sanctions, and it says its MPs would “challenge the punitive approach to welfare claimants”.
A day after the manifesto’s publication, the Public and Commercial Services Union warned in its own general election charter that universal credit was “a dangerously flawed system, the most vulnerable continue to slip through its cracks and our members are the scapegoats for over a decade of social security failures”.
In the long term, the party says, Green MPs would push for the introduction of a universal basic income.
The party also calls for an end to “intrusive” disability benefit assessments, and says it opposes at least some of the government’s proposals for reforming PIP, particularly plans to replace cash payments with vouchers*.
On education, it would push for £5 billion to be invested in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision within mainstream schools, and for free transport for all 16-18-year-old students with SEND.
It says this would mean “all schools will have fully accessible buildings and specially trained teachers, and local councils will have the funds to properly support SEND students at school and in getting to school”.
Although the manifesto says its MPs would push for a “fully inclusive” education system, it told DNS that this did not mean an end to segregated special schools, but instead it would ensure that “either option is available” as they “want to give all children the education that is right for them”.
On both housing and transport, there is almost no detail on how the party would like to address the huge barriers disabled people face in securing accessible housing and dealing with barriers to public transport.
The manifesto promises only to “champion the right to… housing under the principles of universal design”, and to push for annual public subsidies for rail and bus travel to be increased to £10 billion to make public transport “reliable, frequent, accessible [to disabled people] and affordable”.
A party spokesperson told DNS: “We are allocating large sums of money for new electric buses and investment in railway stations and other transport infrastructure. This will enable accessibility.”
The Greens say they would fund many of their policies by taxing the wealth of individuals with assets above £10 million at one per cent a year, and those with assets above £1 billion at two per cent annually.
The party says its MPs would campaign for measures “to make parliament more representative, particularly of women, people of colour and disabled people”, which could include backing job-sharing for MPs and a permanent access to elected office fund to help with the extra disability-related costs of standing for election.
The manifesto also promises that Green MPs would push for sport “to be more diverse and representative, especially for women and girls and disabled people”, and for police forces to “acknowledge the institutional racism, misogyny, homophobia and disablism that have dominated policing for so long” and “root out any officers who hold views incompatible with serving as a police officer”.
The manifesto accuses successive Conservative governments of having “undermined the limited progress made by disabled people to live dignified lives as valued members of society.
“Benefits have been cut, and access to education, work and parliamentary access schemes designed to improve the inclusion of disabled people have been decimated.”
It adds: “We need to ensure that everybody can lead full, meaningful lives, can work if they choose, and access the help and support they need.
“Disabled people have as much of a right to control their day-to-day lives and their long-term futures as non-disabled people.”
*This is one of a number of suggestions for possible changes to PIP mentioned in a DWP consultation document
13 June 2024
DWP quietly starts early rollout of universal credit to some ESA claimants, without telling MPs
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has started telling 500 disabled people on out-of-work benefits that they must move onto universal credit, just days after a Conservative minister assured MPs no claimants would face such a move until September.
DWP has previously announced that it would begin its rollout of universal credit to the remaining claimants of employment and support allowance (ESA) and ESA with housing benefit in September.
That date was confirmed by employment minister Jo Churchill last month, when she told MPs in a written statement that this extension would not begin until September.
Churchill, who is not standing for re-election as an MP, wrote on 21 May: “Our 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.”
But less than two weeks later, on 3 June, DWP began sending out so-called “migration notices” to about 500 ESA claimants in Wolverhampton and East Suffolk.
This was reported by the social welfare charity rightsnet.
DWP said in an email to “stakeholders”: “The purpose of this activity is to gather more learning to inform our planning for migrating these cohorts at scale in due course, with one of the key learnings we are keen to understand being what proportion of households will require support through the enhanced support journey.”
DWP had asked welfare rights advisers not to share this “operational update” publicly because it was “keen to manage any anxiety for people on ESA and don’t want to give the mistaken impression to people on ESA that we have shifted from our publicly-stated plan to start migrating people from September”.
Disabled activist Gail Ward, a long-standing member of grassroots groups Disabled People Against Cuts and Black Triangle Campaign, and founder of the Hand2MouthProject, which helps and trains those claiming universal credit on how the system works, said Churchill’s written statement had been “absolutely misleading”.
She added: “I am concerned for claimants because they are being used as guinea pigs, as usual.”
Ward said Churchill had also misled MPs by telling them DWP had “developed and tested a new ‘enhanced support’ journey for income support and employment and support allowance customers who require additional assistance”, when the email suggested this had not been completed and was still being tested.
She said: “It seems the DWP is in a shambles and needs reform, as staff are unsure of the rules as much as claimants a lot of the time.
“Claimants are telling me when they ring [DWP] they get told one thing, and when the claimant questions it at a later date they get told something different by another customer service agent.”
Disability News Service (DNS) has asked Churchill to explain why DWP misled MPs about the department’s migration plans, and when it made the decision to send out the June migration notices.
She had not responded by 11am today (Thursday).
DWP was unable to comment in detail because of the rules that civil servants must follow once a general election has been called.
But it said: “We regularly undertake small scale learning activity to develop our approach ahead of plans to move large numbers of legacy benefits customers later this year.
“This activity does not change or alter any previous statements on universal credit migration.”
DWP has been faced with two coroners’ reports and concerns raised by its own staff about its failure to ensure the working-age benefit system is safe for claimants in vulnerable situations.
Only last week, DNS reported how DWP and the Cabinet Office had both been unable to find a report that was supposed to describe how DWP supported “vulnerable” people who rely on universal credit.
13 June 2024
Disabled election candidates: The Green Party’s Sara Nicola Ruth
The accessible housing crisis is a key issue for Green candidate Sara Nicola Ruth* in the general election campaign, particularly as she is herself “stuck in an inaccessible home”.
Her experience with inaccessible housing convinced her that she needed to use the campaign – she is standing in Colchester, Essex – to speak out about how disabled people are often trapped in their own homes.
In her case, when she had to move home, she had little choice about where she would move.
She is now living on a narrow street that has no parking restrictions, with cars – including huge SUVs** – parked on both pavements.
She said: “Sometimes they are parked right in front of the door so there’s no way for me to leave the house with my walking frame, and when I can get out of the door, I have to walk down the middle of the street.
“Life shouldn’t be like this.”
Asked to choose three policies that would improve life for disabled people in the UK, she picks three housing policies from the Disabled People’s Manifesto, drawn up by DPO Forum England.
She would like to see a requirement for all new homes to be accessible, and for 10 per cent of them to be suitable for wheelchair-users; enforceable standards to ensure good quality, well-insulated housing in the private and social rented sectors; and new rent caps, so no-one pays more than one third of their income on rent.
She characterises the current Conservative government’s record on disability as “persecution, stigmatisation, and scapegoating”.
She said: “I hear horror stories daily about how people in need are being denied essential benefits and the terrible consequences of this.
“Austerity policies are a political choice and the impacts would have been well known in advance.
“It’s difficult to conceptualise the scale of the cruelty with which the government has treated disabled people.”
She added: “I was a single mother in the early 1990s at a time when the Tory government was heavily scapegoating single mothers.
“I would say the current stigmatising of disabled people feels very similar.”
She says the Green Party is the only party that prioritises climate justice and social justice and sees them as “going hand-in-hand” and is “genuinely concerned about inclusivity and advocating for marginalised people”.
She said: “I definitely think the Green Party are most open to advocating for disability rights of all the parties as they include strategies to promote quality of life and wellness for everyone in their policies and acknowledge that disabled people are particularly vulnerable.
“If elected I will fight for a properly-funded NHS and social care sector, rent controls and accessible social housing, and an end to no-fault evictions.
“I will speak for disabled people and advocate for their rights, and for the rights of all marginalised people within the bigger picture of the multiple crises we face as a society.”
Asked why, as a disabled person, she wanted to stand at the election, she said: “For me the personal is political.
“My elderly mother can’t get a GP appointment, my grown-up daughters are unable to buy homes and their rents are sky-high, and I am a disabled person stuck in an inaccessible home.
“I’m also a full-time student living on a low income and struggling with the cost of living.
“And I know that nothing will improve for me unless it improves for everyone.
“The cost-of-living crisis, housing crisis and the NHS are my priorities, and within this the terrible impacts of austerity policies upon disabled people and the constant marginalisation of disabled voices.”
Ruth is a poet and visual artist and began studying for a BA after being made redundant. After graduating last year, she began studying for an MA in environment, society and culture at the University of Essex.
For many years, she worked from home because of her impairment, but it became increasingly difficult to find work.
Before the pandemic, she had to hide the extent of her mobility impairment from prospective employers because she knew she would not otherwise be taken on.
The impairment means she cannot drive, so she was restricted to administrative positions where she could commute by bus and a short walk.
But she was made redundant from her last job in 2020 due to post-Covid fatigue, which had made it difficult to leave the house on her own, “particularly as I can’t use a wheelchair because my home is completely inaccessible”.
*This is part of a pre-election series of articles that will give some of the disabled people standing as candidates at the general election a chance to describe why they wanted to stand, how they became politicised, and the kind of barriers they have faced as disabled people. The aim is to raise the profile of some of the disabled people seeking elected office. DNS will analyse party manifesto commitments separately
**Sports utility vehicles
13 June 2024
Disabled election candidates: Independent John Urquhart
As – probably – the only disabled person to have founded a UK political party, John Urquhart* can speak from a position of strength when it comes to the disability policies they would prioritise if their party came to power.
Their Harmony Party UK’s disability policies are entirely decided by disabled party members.
Thanks to complex problems with a former officer, Harmony has had to de-register and register again as a political party, but this has not come in time for candidates to stand at next month’s general election.
Instead, Urquhart, the radical socialist party’s founder and general secretary, will be standing as an independent socialist in Cardiff West on 4 July.
Their party, which probably has about 200 members and makes decisions and policy through a series of democratic assemblies, would introduce this structure across the country if it won power.
This would include an assembly of disabled people, which would be able to demand policy changes from the government if its members believed disabled people were being unfairly disadvantaged.
Their party would also set up a disability justice court to enforce those demands if they were ignored by the government.
Urquhart said: “No other active party that I’m aware of was founded by a disabled person.
“I know for a fact no other political party can even claim to be entirely led on disability issues by disabled people, but that’s true for us.”
Another key policy would be the introduction of a National Care Service that would be integrated with the National Health Service (NHS), but – they said – with “no private services sapping off resources” from the NHS.
Urquhart describes the current government’s record on disability as “diabolical”, with a series of “seamlessly spiteful” policies over the last 14 years of Conservative-led governments.
They believe that disabled people “represent a potentially dangerous political bloc” but have been deliberately marginalised by successive governments.
They insist they have “no interest personally” in standing at the election, but they have done so “because someone from my constituency needs to stand up for the people here”.
Urquhart grew up on a council estate, and lives with chronic pain, chronic fatigue and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (cPTSD).
Asked for an incident that politicised them as a disabled person, they said: “When I was a kid, a teacher said I was not allowed to go to the toilet to take painkillers because other kids would ‘take advantage’ and go to the toilet more often. I was about 11.
“I was already politicised but honestly this infuriated me and I still think about it regularly even now, aged 40.”
They said: “I worked a variety of jobs as a young adult; all of them incredibly painful.
“I worked because I was told to and thought people would hate me if I didn’t.
“Eventually, I learned how ridiculous that was, but only after my cPTSD made absolutely definitely sure I didn’t have a choice about the ‘not working’ thing.
“Much of my life I’ve been gainfully unemployed, donating labour to other people’s projects in various ways, and sometimes my own.
“Often, that was online, because a big chunk of the middle part of my life was housebound.”
As for the access barriers they have faced, they said: “I’m not even sure I know where to begin on those barriers; just imagine fences around everything and a twisted fate of being unable to jump them and you’ve got the idea.”
Asked how they would appeal to other disabled people to vote for them, they said: “Harmony was founded by disabled people. No other party was.
“Our entire ethos – nothing about you without you – is rooted in disability activism.”
Comparing today with 2010, when the Conservatives came to power, they said the last 14 years had seen “a decline in quality of provision of almost all services for disabled people”.
And, they said, there had been an increase in the “targeting of disabled people with hatred and abuse in the streets – and discrimination everywhere else”.
They said: “At the same time, thanks to Covid, the number of disabled people is steadily increasing.
“It’s not hard to see why we’re hearing the word ‘euthanasia’ so much more often, and it’s not difficult to understand why people are being left on benefits, languishing until death in far too many cases.
“We are a growing bloc in this country – and we could be a powerful one, if we can only find our way to understanding that each of us can only find liberation in liberating other people.”
*This is part of a pre-election series of articles that will give some of the disabled people standing as candidates at the general election a chance to describe why they wanted to stand, how they became politicised, and the kind of barriers they have faced as disabled people. The aim is to raise the profile of some of those disabled people seeking elected office. DNS will analyse party manifesto commitments separately
13 June 2024
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
On the last few occasions Alphonsine Djiako Leuga was seen in her neighbourhood, she is said to have told shopkeepers that she could not afford to heat her home or buy food for her disabled daughter. Months later, Leuga and her teenage daughter were found dead inside their Nottingham home. Police said the pair had “lain undiscovered for some time” but they were “satisfied” no crime had occurred. Nottingham City Council has now announced a review to look at the involvement agencies had with the family, whom neighbours said they had not seen for months: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jun/07/nottingham-city-council-review-women-found-dead
Vulnerable children with complex needs are being locked away in unregulated placements and are being “gravely damaged by the state” while their parents are driven to despair, according to England and Wales’s former top family judge. Sir James Munby terms the lack of provision of safe and therapeutic homes “a shocking moral failure”: https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/09/locking-vulnerable-children-up-moral-failure-says-england-top-family-judge-james-munby
13 June 2024
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
