Contents
Disabled people ‘back in the firing line’ on cuts after ‘hostile’ Reeves statement1
Network Rail apologises after failing to spend £65 million put aside to improve access at stations4
Crowdfunder will pay for 400 books to educate every Labour MP on decades of DWP violence6
Protesters’ message to new government: ‘We are tired of being ignored on accessible housing’9
Care charges mean disabled people are facing unlawful discrimination on ‘unparalleled’ scale, says report12
Four weeks into a Labour government and DWP blocks release of more info on deaths from secret reports14
Disabled man ‘left with broken bones’ after company repeatedly fails to strap him in safely on coach journeys16
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week18
Disabled people ‘back in the firing line’ on cuts after ‘hostile’ Reeves statement
Disabled people are back “in the firing line” on spending cuts, activists have warned,following a trio of decisions announced by Labour’s new chancellor, Rachel Reeves, this week.
Reeves told MPs on Monday that there would be cuts to social care and winter fuel payment to address what she described as a “£22 billion hole in the public finances” left by the previous government.
But among a series of other measures, she also appeared to suggest that cuts to benefits would be announced later in the year.
Reeves told MPs that it would “not be possible” to take forward reforms to adult social care charging that were repeatedly delayed by successive Conservative governments.
The reforms – although widely seen as regressive and unfair – would have introduced a lifetime cap of £86,000 on how much anyone pays for social care in England.
The reforms were based on some of the recommendations made by the 2011 Dilnotcommission on care funding.
A Treasury document this week said the previous government had committed to introduce the reforms in October 2025 “but did not put money aside for them”.
Scrapping the reforms will save £30 million this year and £1.075 billion in 2025-26.
The announcement came just days after a report by the disabled people’s organisation Disability Law Service showed that disabled people across England were continuing to face unlawful discrimination and inequality on an “unparalleled” scale due to “unjust” social care charging policies (see separate story).
Among other cuts, Reeves announced that winter fuel payment – worth between £250 and £600 every winter to those over pension age – will now only be available to those who also receive pension credit, universal credit, income support, income-based jobseeker’s allowance or income-related employment and support allowance.
Further decisions on tax and spending will be announced at the new government’s first budget, on 30 October.
But Reeves warned that she would “look closely at our welfare system, because if someone can work, they should work”.
She said that “welfare spending ballooned” under the last government, while “inactivity has risen sharply in recent years”.
She told MPs: “We will ensure that the welfare system is focused on supporting people into employment, and we will assess the unacceptable levels of fraud and error in our welfare system and take forward action to bring that down.”
Her comments mirrored those by work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, who suggested last week that she wanted to increase pressure on disabled people to move off benefits and into work, while disregarding risks to their health, and that she wanted the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to move from being “a department for welfare” to becoming “a genuine department for work”.
Disabled campaigners have raised serious concerns about Reeves’ announcements and comments.
Fazilet Hadi, head of policy at Disability Rights UK, said the chancellor’s comments on economic inactivity “were interchangeable with those of the previous government”.
She said: “The reasons for more people being unable to work due to disability and ill health isn’t down to a poor work ethic, it’s because of an ageing workforce, high levels of mental distress, lack of NHS treatments, a failing social care system and negative employer attitudes and behaviours.
“We heard nothing about tackling these underlying drivers of ill health and disability.”
She also criticised the removal of winter fuel payment from millions of pensioners, many of them disabled people who were “living on the margins of poverty” and needed more heat and energy to manage their health conditions and charge their health–related equipment.
She said: “This was a truly shocking move from a new UK government, which purports to be on the side of the most disadvantaged people.”
Hadi said that, even though the new government had made it clear that “fixing social care” was not one of its early commitments, it had now confirmed that even the “very modest Conservative proposal” of capping care charges at £86,000 would not go ahead.
She said: “It would be good to know that this measure was cut because there are more radical plans to invest in social care and remove care charges in the pipeline, but this is in no way guaranteed.”
Linda Burnip, co-founder of Disabled People Against Cuts, said she had expected the new Labour government to be “awful” but it had so far been even worse than she could have imagined.
She said the government did not appear to recognise the “holistic” approach that would need to be taken if it wanted more disabled people in work, including funding free social care,fixing the NHS and the mental health system, and ensuring a well-functioning Access to Work programme, accessible transport and flexible working hours.
Burnip said the announcement suggested Reeves wanted those disabled people who could not work to be left without any support at all, or even deported to Rwanda.
She said: “I dread to think what else she’ll try to cut.
“Older and disabled people will be in the firing line, though, from the looks of things so far.”
Rick Burgess, a spokesperson for Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, said of the Reeves comments on benefits spending: “This hostile rhetoric is all too familiar to us.
“Not only does this approach fail to solve the long–standing problems of our social security system, it is also lethal.
“Keir Starmer’s election slogan was ‘Change’; we see no change.
“We need both language to change and actions to match.”
A spokesperson for Disability Law Service said: “In our recent report, Ending the charging system for non-residential care for Disabled adults in England, we made reference to the fact that the new UK government had committed to implement the reform of capping lifetime care costs at £86,000 from October 2025.
“Whilst we did not believe that these reforms went anywhere near far enough, they would have been an improvement on the current home care charging policy.
“We are therefore very disappointed by the UK government’s decision to go back on its commitment.
“For all future decisions, we urge the government to fully involve disabled people at each and every step of the decision-making process.”
Meanwhile, the new disability minister, Sir Stephen Timms, said in response to a written parliamentary question from Labour’s Cat Smith that DWP had received more than 16,000 responses to the last government’s consultation on reforming personal independence payment(PIP), which closed last week.
He said DWP would now “review those responses” and added: “The proposals in this Green Paper were developed by the previous government.
“We will be considering our own approach to social security in due course.”
The Modernising Support for Independent Living green paper, published on 29 April, included possible plans to make it harder to claim PIP and even replace cash payments with vouchers or one-off grants, and was described as a “brutal, ideological attack” on disabled people’s support.
1 August 2024
Network Rail apologises after failing to spend £65 million put aside to improve access at stations
Network Rail has today apologised after admitting that it failed to spend £65 million of funding allocated to improving access at rail stations.
The admission came after Disability News Service (DNS) secured figures through a freedom of information request which showed spending on the Access for All scheme over the last eight years.
Network Rail – which owns, repairs and develops the railway infrastructure in England, Scotland and Wales – had originally delayed releasing the figures until after the general election, claiming this was due to “the complexity and volume of the information requested”.
But the figures show for the first time how spending on improving access at rail stations has fluctuated wildly over the last eight years, while £65 million allocated for improvements over the last five years has been left unspent.
The figures show that spending fell to as little as £15 million in 2017-18 but rose to more than £120 million last year.
Despite that increase, the figures show that the Department for Transport (DfT) allocated £350 million for 2019-2024, but only £285 million was spent over those five years.
Access for All was launched by the last Labour government in 2006, and funds access improvements at stations across England, Scotland and Wales.
The figures released to DNS by Network Rail show that spending rose from just £19 million in 2020-21, to £50 million the next year, then £66 million in 2022-23 and £121 million last year.
Despite the increases, £65 million of the £350 million allocated to the scheme – nearly 20 per cent – has not been spent over the last five years.
It is not yet clear how much the new Labour government plans to spend on Access for All over the next five years, or what action it will take over the unspent funding.
The figures also show that – in six of the last eight years – spending on improving access at rail stations was lower under Conservative-led governments than in the last year of the last Labour government (2009-10, when it was £54 million).
Apart from the £81 million spent in 2013-14, it is only in the last two years that annual Access for All spending has risen above £54 million since Labour left power.
The freedom of information release also confirms that DfT allocated £135 million for the scheme across the years 2014-19, but this was cut to just £87 million following a report in 2016 by the chair of Network Rail, Sir Peter Hendy.
That report called for £50 million in funding to be carried over to the next five-year period, 2019-24.
Hendy, now Lord Hendy, is Labour’s new rail minister – with responsibility for rail accessibility* – in the House of Lords.
A Network Rail spokesperson said this morning (Thursday): “Access for All schemes are so important to making rail travel easy for everyone and we are so sorry we have not delivered what we promised.
“We have experienced challenges with some of the more complex improvements, which means some schemes have taken longer than planned, and we were not able to spend all ofthe funding in the last five years.
“We have carried out a comprehensive review into the programme and we will complete the schemes as soon as we can.”
Caroline Stickland, chief executive of the disabled-led campaigning organisation Transport for All (TfA), speaking before Network Rail’s admission on the unspent funding, said: “Currently, Access for All funding is allocated through competitive bids and bidding wars.
“It’s time consuming and ineffective – and it appears that the last set of funding wasn’t fully spent.
“Access for All grants have made more rail stations accessible for more people, and that’s great, but the funding is not enough to bridge the transport accessibility gap on rail, meaning disabled people can’t use trains as much as non-disabled people.
“Most disabled people – roughly one in four of the UK population – are either unhappy or extremely unhappy about making journeys.
“That should make any government stop and think.
“Transport for All calls on the Department for Transport to increase funding for making stations accessible, make sure investment gets to where it’s needed to benefit disabled people, and make sure funds are spent quickly and effectively so that more of the transport system becomes accessible to all.”
Julian Vaughan, chair of Bedfordshire Rail Access Network, a train driver, and a Labour parliamentary candidate in 2017 and 2019, said Network Rail’s freedom of information response had revealed “the meagre and wholly inadequate government funding for accessibility on the UK rail network”.
Also speaking before Network Rail’s admission, he said he was concerned that Network Rail was not able to confirm the funding for the next five-year “control period”, from 2024-29.
He said: “There needs to be a complete culture change around accessibility on our public transport, which too often is seen as a favour, not as a right.
“Investing in an accessible rail network is not just morally the right thing to do, it makes sound economic sense too.
“The new Labour government has to date been silent on how they are going to improve accessibility across our rail network.
“I would urge them to set out a roadmap for the rollout of accessible stations and to involve disabled people at every stage of railway station improvements.”
He said Network Rail continued to fail disabled people.
Vaughan also said that some stations awarded Access for All funding in 2014 were still waiting for step-free improvements, which he said was “inexcusable”.
In 2022, a report by the government’s advisers on accessible transport, the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, concluded: “At current annual rates of investment spend on station accessibility, it will take around 100 years to make the entirety of the station estate step-free to new-build standards.”
And two years ago, rail operators told a research organisation that only “major” government funding would solve the accessibility problems at stations across the country.
*Local transport minister Simon Lightwood has been given responsible for local transport accessibility and “cross-cutting transport accessibility”
1 August 2024
Crowdfunder will pay for 400 books to educate every Labour MP on decades of DWP violence
Disabled activists have launched a bid to raise enough funds to send every Labour MP a copy of a book that exposes the decades of “bureaucratic violence” at the heart of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
They need to raise £3,500 to buy 412 discounted copies of The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, which will be published by Pluto Press later this month.
They have launched a crowdfunding bid to raise the money, and if they manage to do so, they plan to deliver all 412 copies to the House of Commons on 2 September, the day MPs return from their summer break.
The idea for the crowdfunder came from John McArdle, co-founder of the disabled people’s grassroots group Black Triangle, who has often worked closely with Disability News Service(DNS) over the last decade to expose the harms caused by DWP.
He is leading the fundraising project with fellow disabled activist and author Ellen Clifford, whose support helped find a publisher for The Department.
Clifford has been coordinating work by the coalition of UK disabled people’s organisations that monitors implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
Labour’s former shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has said the book – written by DNS editor John Pring – provides “definitive proof of how government austerity hasn’t just harmed disabled people, it has killed them”.
Disabled journalist and author Frances Ryan has described The Department as a “must-read exposé of one of Britain’s biggest hidden scandals” and says that “every politician, civil servant and journalist in the country should have this on their bookshelf”.
And freelance financial journalist Paul Lewis, who presents Money Box on BBC Radio 4, says the “disturbing” book shows “how successive Conservative, Labour, and Coalition governments have not only failed to provide the money, help, resources, and understanding that disabled people need, they have gone to great lengths to hide the truth about what they have done”.
But Clifford and McArdle say they cannot be sure that everyone who needs to read the book will do so.
They believe Labour MPs need to understand the “enormous suffering” caused by the social security reforms of successive Conservative-led governments, and that the plans proposed by the Conservatives before they lost power last month would “unquestionably cause more deaths and social devastation” if the new government decides not to scrap them.
They point to the conclusions of the UN committee on the rights of disabled people, which found in November 2016 that the UK government was guilty of “grave and systematic violations” of UNCRPD, mostly due to DWP policies.
Earlier this year, more than seven years on from that finding, the committee concluded thatnot only had the government made no significant progress in addressing their concerns, but there had also been further regression of disabled people’s rights in key areas.
McArdle and Clifford said the new Labour government must now be held to account overputting right those breaches and designing a new social security system that respects the lives of disabled people and other benefit claimants and “does not treat us with contempt and hostility and does not kill us and then hide the evidence”.
McArdle said the aim of the project was to educate Labour MPs, so none of them can “plead ignorance”.
He said: “There are so many who just won’t know a thing about this. There’ll be some who are completely ignorant.
“Our job now is to influence enough MPs to change the direction of travel.”
He said: “It is the duty of every member of parliament, not only Labour, to face up to the facts, because the book is above all factual and free of any kind of ideology.
“People must now ask themselves, based on the facts, what sort of country they want Britain to be for themselves and their children.
“They’re in power now so they have the power to change everything, if they wish.
“They have to be informed and well-educated about where we’ve come from over the past 14 years, where we are now, and where we need to go.
“Let’s build a country that complies with its international human rights obligations, that is compassionate and one in which people don’t live in fear.”
Lee Starr-Elliott, a Deaf trade unionist and disability activist, said: “While I hope a Labour government will bring about change for disabled people, we activists cannot take the foot off putting pressure on the government, whoever is in power.
“We need change to the abusive attacks on all fronts against Deaf and disabled people, including changes to the DWP after 14 years of its systematic attacks and sanctions.
“We shouldn’t need to fundraise to send every Labour MP a book about how DWP has failed our community, but we have to do that to ensure they hear our stories.
“We need our voices to be heard.”
Neda Tehrani, who edited the book for Pluto Press, said: “Pluto Press is proud to be publishing The Department at a time when it is more important than ever to hold our government to account.
“This crowdfunder will encourage newly elected Labour MPs to reckon with the devastating history of welfare reforms in this country, and to learn from the people directly impacted by years of negligence and harm, in the hope that different decisions will be made today by those in power.”
Pring said: “I don’t blame Labour MPs for not being aware of the shocking history of this government department, but it is vital that as many of them as possible now know what happened over the last 35 years.
“They need to know how DWP has spent decades denying the harm of its policies and hiding the evidence of that harm.
“Successive waves of social security reforms eventually led to countless deaths of claimants in the post-2010 austerity years.
“All of this is evidenced in my book.”
He added: “The new Labour-led DWP is about to embark on a series of major reforms around employment and disability benefits, which will have a significant and life-altering impact on hundreds of thousands of disabled people.
“The actions and comments of Liz Kendall, Labour’s new work and pensions secretary, and her repeated failure to address concerns about deaths linked to universal credit and other safeguarding issues, suggest that she could be about to take some reckless and negligent steps that risk repeating the terrible harm of the Conservative years.
“It is absolutely vital that her MPs know DWP’s history, so they are equipped to challenge her plans if needed.”
For more information about The Department, visit TheDepartmentBook.com
1 August 2024
Protesters’ message to new government: ‘We are tired of being ignored on accessible housing’
Scores of disabled people took their demand for the new Labour government to act onaccessible housing to the gates of Downing Street on Monday.
They say accessible housing is the “cornerstone of independent living” and that hundreds of thousands of disabled and older people are living in unsuitable and unaffordable homes.
The protest, which began in Parliament Square, opposite the House of Commons, was timed to coincide with the second anniversary of a pledge by the last government – which was never fulfilled – to take action to address the shortage of accessible homes.
Chants were aimed at prime minister Keir Starmer and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, who as housing secretary is leading on delivering the government’s pledge to build 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.
But just a day after the protest, Rayner delivered a speech to MPs about the government’s plan to “get Britain building” and “breathe life back into towns and cities” without once mentioning disabled people and the accessible housing crisis.
Inclusion London, which organised the protest, told campaigners in Parliament Square that an estimated 400,000 wheelchair-users are living in unsuitable homes, while it says that more than 100,000 disabled people are on council waiting-lists for accessible and adaptable homes.
Protesters later delivered a letter to Number 10, calling on the prime minister to take “immediate and decisive action” to address the shortage of accessible and affordable homes.
The letter calls on the government to strengthen guidance so all new homes will have to be built to the stricter M4(2) “accessible and adaptable” standard, and a minimum of 10 per cent of new homes meet the M4(3) standard, which means they would be suitable for a wheelchair-user.
But Inclusion London and its campaign allies also want most of these accessible new homes to be built in the social rented sector.
More than 40 disabled people’s organisations, and allies, signed the letter, and many of them were represented at Monday’s protest.
Laura Vicinanza, policy and stakeholder engagement manager at Inclusion London, told the protest: “Hundreds of thousands of disabled people and older people in this country are living in homes which are inaccessible, unsafe and unaffordable.
“This is unacceptable.”
She said disabled people were “tired of being ignored” and now expected “action”.
She said: “We are here to send an important message to the new Labour government: make accessible housing a priority.”
Adam Gabsi, Inclusion London’s chair, told protesters under the shadow of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and the lack of accessible housing is an extreme injustice that the new government needs to address.
“Living comfortably, safely and independently is a fundamental human right.
“All new-build homes should be safe, affordable and accessible.”
Wheelchair-user Osayuki Igbinoba, who herself lives in an inaccessible home – which means she cannot cook independently or push herself freely in her wheelchair – stressed the importance of enforcing the new standards if they are introduced.
She told protesters: “Every disabled person has the right to live independently in a home that is suitable for them.
“It’s time for our voices to be heard and our needs to be met.”
Angie Airlie, chief executive of Stay Safe East, a user-led organisation which provides advocacy and support to disabled Londoners who have survived domestic and sexual violence, hate crime and other abuse, said: “Because there are not enough accessible properties to meet the needs of the disabled community, when the home is no longer a safe place, due to abuse, harassment, or crime, there is often no place for the victim to go.”
She said she had often made the argument to the last government that safe accommodationfor disabled people in such situations was “almost mythical”.
“It is far more likely that the choice is between unsafe accommodation, or not particularly safe, and this isn’t good enough.”
She said that raising accessible housing standards could mean “a very real potential for creating a network of safe accommodation provision for disabled people to leave their homes”.
Among those supporting the protest was Ben Coleman, former deputy leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council – currently the only council in England that does not charge for social care – and now the new Labour MP for Chelsea and Fulham.
He told Disability News Service (DNS) it was too early to say what action the new government would take, but he said the 1.5 million homes would need to be accessible.
He said it was the kind of issue that he and other backbench MPs would be looking to raise with ministers.
On the demands made in the letter to the prime minister, he said: “I’m personally in favour of more homes being accessible.
“I think it sounds reasonable, but I just want to look at it more, I want to understand it more.”
He said it would be crucial to ensure that local councils had the capacity to enforce any new measures that were introduced, after years of “terrible cuts” to their funding, while any new regulations would need to be accompanied by “an implementation plan to make it stick”.
After the letter was delivered to 10 Downing Street, Svetlana Kotova, director of campaigns and justice for Inclusion London, told DNS: “I think we just need to build more pressure.”
She said the government had “no excuse” for not accepting their demands, as it was “so easy to do” if the government wanted to “deliver change”.
She said: “It’s just that someone needs to pay attention to this and make it a priority. It’s an easy win.
“We will put pressure on them. We will build a coalition in parliament to push them.
“We need to raise standards now, today. Don’t kick it into the long grass like the previous government.”
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “Housing is one of the government’s top priorities.
“Everyone deserves to live in a decent, accessible home they feel safe in.
“We will set out policies on accessible housing in due course.”
1 August 2024
Care charges mean disabled people are facing unlawful discrimination on ‘unparalleled’ scale, says report
Disabled people across England are continuing to face unlawful discrimination and inequality on an “unparalleled” scale due to “unjust” social care charging policies, according to “deeply concerning” new research.
The research by disabled people’s organisation Disability Law Service (DLS)* suggests that the proportion of disabled adults who are being charged for their non-residential care is increasing year by year.
The report** also suggests that local authorities are incurring “significant” and increasing costs of collecting these charges.
Most of those charged are paying “extortionate amounts” to local authorities who fail to take their individual needs into consideration, the report says.
Its publication came just days before the new Labour chancellor, Rachel Reeves, told MPs that it would “not be possible” to take forward reforms to adult social care charging that were repeatedly delayed by successive Conservative governments (see separate story).
The DLS research – which included freedom of information requests to local authorities, questionnaires, and focus groups – concludes that rising home care charges are having a negative effect on the physical, mental and emotional well-being of disabled adults and their family members.
It also found that “very few” councils – just three of the 40 sampled – were fulfilling their public sector equality duty when imposing charges on disabled adults, for example by failing to assess the costs and benefits of their charging policy; not using discretion in waiving charges; and failing to consult disabled people and disabled people’s organisations.
DLS said the point of the research was to make the case for the abolition of home care charges for disabled adults in England.
Results from a DLS questionnaire filled in by nearly 100 disabled adults who pay for home care across England showed they are sometimes unable to afford their basic needs, such as food and heating, because of home care charges, and are falling deeper into debt.
Nearly half of respondents said they were sometimes unable to afford to meet their basic needs because of home care charges.
And of those who had not fallen into debt, it was mostly because their family had covered the shortfall, supporting them financially while they live at home.
Nearly three-quarters of those who responded to the questionnaire said increasing home care charges had had a negative impact on their lives.
One respondent said they “felt suicidal”, as if they were “going mad with stress”.
Another said they had been “left with less money to enjoy independence such as leisure activities”, and a third respondent said they had experienced “stress and sleepless nights”.
The research, carried out over the last three years, also compared the experiences of disabled people in local authorities that charge for care, with the one English council that does not, Hammersmith and Fulham in London.
The decision by Hammersmith and Fulham, taken in 2015, had allowed disabled people to live more independently, the report says.
It found that removing charges in the borough has had “profound positive outcomes” for those who have benefited, providing them with “greater financial resources to spend as they wish” and reducing the negative physical and mental health effects associated with charges.
The report adds: “It has transformed their lives for the better, granting them greater independence and freedom.”
The report includes several case studies of disabled people who describe the impact of care charges on their lives.
One disabled woman, Aneta, describes in the report how she now has to rely on her family to provide her with care because she could not afford the charges she was asked to pay.
She no longer has a daily bath; sometimes she has to skip meals because of the pain caused by preparing food; and she can only leave the house in the evenings because that is when her family are available to support her.
She says: “I must live my whole life in pain, in a cold home, with no help, alone. Before, at least I had some help, which improved my mental health.
“I am not suicidal currently, but I recognise suicidal symptoms returning.
“If care charges were abolished, life would be much easier. I could have my daily bath, my warm meal, I could go outside, because otherwise I do not get fresh air or sun in my room.”
The report contrasts her experience with that of Victoria, who works as a radio producer, and lives in Hammersmith and Fulham, receiving 24-hours-a-day support – free of care charges – from a team of personal assistants.
She says: “Abolition made me feel more integrated in society. Now that I no longer have toendure financial assessments, my quality of life has improved.
“For me, it is morally wrong to charge Disabled people for a service that is absolutely vital to their quality of life.
“Social care is not a luxury. It is a human right.
“Without social care, some Disabled people will have no quality of life whatsoever.
“If you charge Disabled people for their care, you are taking away resources from them and driving them further into poverty, reducing their independence.”
She adds: “Many politicians say they want Disabled people to improve their lives but, at the same time, they still put these barriers in place for Disabled people to do just that.
“Charging Disabled people for their care is effectively a tax on disability.”
*DLS provides free legal advice, casework and representation for disabled people and carers across community care, employment, housing, discrimination, public law and social security.
**Ending the charging system for non-residential care for Disabled adults in England
1 August 2024
Four weeks into a Labour government and DWP blocks release of more info on deaths from secret reports
The Labour-run Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has blocked the release of information that would show how often the “fitness for work” test has been linked to suicides and other deaths and harm over the last five years.
It is the second time in consecutive weeks that DWP has refused to release information about the operation of the work capability assessment (WCA) under the previous Conservative government.
Disability News Service (DNS) requested the information to check how many secret internal process reviews (IPRs) into deaths and harm caused to claimants have mentioned the assessment, nearly 16 years after it was first introduced, and how many reviews made recommendations for improvements to the WCA.
Since its launch in 2008, countless deaths have been linked to the WCA, while DWP has a record of repeatedly denying the damage caused by the assessment and hiding the evidence of that harm.
The new Labour government has so far refused to say whether it will continue with the policy of the last Conservative government to tighten the WCA, and eventually scrap it.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves suggested this week that she would push for cuts to spending on social security.
Only last week, comments by work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, and her support for a controversial report, suggested she wanted to increase pressure on disabled people to move off benefits and into work, while disregarding risks to their health and safety.
Now DWP has rejected – for the second time – a request by DNS to reveal how many concerns about the WCA are being highlighted by its civil servants.
It previously argued that it could not release the information because it intended to publish the figures itself, although it told DNS that it accepted that the information “could provide some increase in the transparency of the work the Department is undertaking in learning from its serious cases, and that it could also improve the public understanding of how the role of continuous improvement is employed by the Department”.
But it claimed that releasing the information could also provide a “misrepresentation of the true situation” and “could engender public distrust in the DWP, because the information is totally disassociated from the circumstances around which it relates”.
DNS asked DWP to reconsider this refusal to release the figures, arguing that the department had never published such information previously and would likely not start doing so now.
It also argued that it was “wrong and unlawful” for the department to assume that DNS would publish a news story that would mislead readers about what the figures showed.
After DNS asked it to reconsider the refusal to release the figures, DWP came up with a new excuse.
It is now arguing that it would be too expensive to check how many IPRs mention the WCA in each of the last five years, and how many recommendations mention the assessment process in each of those years.
There would only be about 300 IPRs to check for mentions of the WCA, but DWP is apparently arguing that it would take more than 24 hours to carry out these quick checks*.
Last week, DNS reported that DWP was set to continue with an appeal against a decision by the information commissioner that it should release vital information about the last government’s plans to scrap the WCA.
The commissioner has also ordered DWP to release information that would show how many IPRs have been carried out into the deaths of universal credit claimants, and what recommendations they made for improvements.
That decision came just three days after the appointment of Labour’s new disability minister, Sir Stephen Timms.
It is not yet clear whether he will release that information, despite his track record of challenging DWP secrecy while chair of the Commons work and pensions committee.
DWP had not commented by noon today (Thursday), despite being asked for a response on Tuesday morning.
*Regulations state that a government department does not need to comply with a freedom of information request if the cost would exceed £600, which guidance says is the equivalent of 24 hours at £25 an hour
1 August 2024
Disabled man ‘left with broken bones’ after company repeatedly fails to strap him in safely on coach journeys
A disabled man claims he was left with a broken ankle and two broken wrists after a bus company’s drivers repeatedly failed to strap him into a wheelchair space properly over the course of two years.
Charley Jonstone-Brent, from Coventry, says he has complained at least 15 times to Arriva Midlands after drivers failed to ensure his wheelchair was safely attached to the floor and strapped in as he travelled to hospital appointments in Leicester.
He has also been told to travel without a seatbelt on multiple occasions when travelling on the X6 route, which includes stretches of the M6 and M69 motorways.
Because of these failings, his chair can spin 90 degrees when the coach turns, crosses a roundabout or hits a bump in the road, and he is often forced to hold onto the seat in front of him.
The safety failings have led to his wheelchair slipping off the raised platform it is perched onand into the aisle.
Drivers have admitted not being trained properly and have even complained when he asked for his wheelchair to be attached properly to the floor.
He told Disability News Service (DNS) how it felt travelling on the coach: “I’m flying everywhere. I’m not secured.
“It’s not very comfortable. I’m trying to grab on to anything I can, but there’s nowhere for me to grab onto.”
He has also been subjected to other passengers laughing and taking photos of him on their phones – or complaining about the delay – because drivers are unable to strap him in properlyor cannot operate the ramp.
One response from Arriva, in November 2022, admitted that its coaches on the X6 route “do not have any wheelchair restraints due to the nature of the route and the low wheelchair usage this route has”.
Now he is taking legal action against Arriva, which has admitted at least some of its failings.
In a legal letter sent to Arriva’s solicitors, he said: “As a wheelchair user, public transportation is crucial for maintaining my independence and carrying out daily activities.
“Unfortunately, your company has consistently failed to provide the necessary safety harnesses and equipment to secure my wheelchair properly during transit.
“This negligence has resulted in several injuries to myself and significant damage to my wheelchair, which is my lifeline.
“Without the proper restraints, my wheelchair has been thrown about during transit, leading to physical harm and damage to my essential mobility device.
“The absence of these safety measures is not just an oversight but a blatant disregard for the safety and well-being of disabled passengers.”
He said his numerous complaints were met with “indifference” until he produced video evidence of one of his journeys.
In response, Arriva has accepted responsibility for safety failings on just one journey.
Arriva admitted: “He was placed in the coach’s wheelchair space and should have been secured with straps and a lap seat belt, but he wasn’t.
“As a result, the wheelchair moved around during the journey.”
It also admitted that “there had not been proper training for their drivers at the time on securing wheelchairs”, which it said was a failure to make a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act.
Jonstone-Brent thinks the company only made the admission because – for the first time – he had filmed footage of the journey.
On one journey in 2022, he says, his wheelchair tipped over, trapping his ankle and breaking it.
When he complained after this incident, Arriva’s solicitors apologised for the inconvenience and promised it would not happen again.
Since that apology, it has happened another 14 times.
He told DNS: “I just felt angry and that they don’t care about their disabled customers.”
He is also furious that Arriva will not admit damage that he says was caused to his wheelchair.
He said he had been treated with no respect and “total disregard”.
The last time he used the service, last month, the driver refused to allow him to board, and claimed he did not “feel comfortable” boarding him and that Arriva would provide him with a “special” minibus instead.
He had to wait an hour for the minibus that drove him and his partner to Leicester.
This meant he missed his appointment.
He said: “I felt very humiliated. I felt I was being victimised for making a complaint.”
His partner, Chloe Child, who accompanies him on his trips to Leicester, has had to help him after he has fallen out of his wheelchair, broken his ankle and twice broken his wrist.
She said: “It’s quite distressing because every turn and movement the coach makes, he juts forward slightly, or sometimes, when we’re on the motorway, he’ll sort of catapult fromwhere he’s supposed to be into the seat in front.
“Sometimes he has been launched out of his chair, or has been left sitting on the floor, or he just about catches himself before falling out.
“Sometimes other people have commented and said that shouldn’t happen, but others are sort of laughing, and kids are laughing and taking photos.”
Jonstone-Brent has been assisted in bringing his case by fellow disabled activist Doug Paulley, who tested the route and experienced the same safety failings.
Paulley congratulated Jonstone-Brent for the “phenomenal” admission he had already secured from Arriva, which he said was “against the odds” of facing “discriminatory providers and discriminatory and inadequate enforcement systems”.
He said: “It’s disgraceful that Arriva routinely committed this dangerous criminal offence.
“Other passengers get to travel in a seat attached to the chassis and with a seatbelt.
“Drivers are under a criminal law obligation to give wheelchair–users the same basic treatment, yet when Charley raised this he got victimised by the company.
“I have experienced the same dangerous treatment on their services.
“And where is the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) in this?
“Do they not care when wheelchair–using passengers’ lives are put at risk?
“Why is this company not up before the Traffic Commissioners?”
An Arriva spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, we are unable to comment on any ongoing litigation claims as it could prejudice the ongoing proceedings.”
DVSA declined to comment on Paulley’s concerns, but it claimed in a statement that it “takes disability access issues extremely seriously and will investigate reports of non-compliance and take appropriate action when warranted”.
1 August 2024
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
An assisted suicide bill which would allow terminally–ill adults with six months or fewer to live to get medical help to end their own lives has been introduced in the House of Lords, by former Labour justice secretary Lord Falconer. Private members’ bills introduced in the Lords rarely become law, but the peer said he hoped a backbench MP would introduce a similar bill in the Commons, where it would have a greater chance of success: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3g9yvdrxzzo
1 August 2024
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.comD
Job centre blackpool, very intimidating security guys /, nasty guy behind desk just awful. Mis information by dwp regarding uc. Told to visit jobcentre guy at dest said they dont. Soul destroying place.