Labour silence over PM’s work search comments, as Tory ex-DWP minister says: ‘You’d never have heard that from me’
The government has refused to clarify comments by the prime minister which suggested that all claimants of long-term sickness benefits will be expected to look for work under Labour’s social security reforms.
The refusal came as Mims Davies, the last Conservative minister for disabled people before July’s election defeat, told Disability News Service (DNS) that she would never have gone as far as Sir Keir Starmer did in his interview with the BBC.
He told the Today programme last week (listen from two hours, 10 minutes) that, “in relation to long-term sickness, which is at very high levels, then of course people need to look for work”.
After being asked – by the BBC’s Nick Robinson – if he believed that “those who are out of work, who may think that they can’t work, that the country has a right to expect that they look for work, they do everything they can to get work” and that this was “the sacrifice they need to make”, Sir Keir said: “Well, yes, of course.”
He also said that the “basic proposition, that you should look for work, is right”.
He added: “There will be hard cases. But the way I would do it is to say, yes, that’s the basic proposition.”
Although the DNS story accurately reported his comments, some Labour supporters suggested he was mis-reported or did not mean what he said, although many more disabled people were appalled by his words.
In an attempt to clarify what the prime minister meant, DNS approached the Labour party, Number 10 and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) this week.
Labour said it was a matter of government policy, even though the comments came at a party conference, and referred the query to Number 10 and DWP.
But instead of clarifying Sir Keir’s comments, a DWP spokesperson merely provided quotes from a speech made by work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall more than two months ago, in which she expressed the need to move away from blaming people for being out of work, and to focus instead on supporting them.
Sir Keir’s comments also contrasted with those made by Kendall last week, as she attempted at the party conference in Liverpool to stress that she would focus on providing “more positive support in the community” and would take a “completely different approach from the Conservatives”.
DNS asked the government this week what the prime minister had meant and whether he really believed that all disabled people and those with long-term health conditions should be looking for work.
But other than the background notes, DWP refused to comment or even mention the prime minister.
When DNS asked the former minister for disabled people, Mims Davies, what she thought of Sir Keir’s comments – after a fringe meeting at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham this week – she said: “Well, you would never have heard that from me, so he needs to answer for himself.”
If Sir Keir’s comments translated into government policy, they would demonstrate a significant tightening of the rules on out-of-work disability benefits.
There are currently more than 1.5 million disabled people on universal credit who are not expected to carry out any work-related activity because of a significant impairment or health condition, and about 1.3 million more in the equivalent employment and support allowance support group.
Sir Keir appeared to be suggesting – although it is possible that he misrepresented government policy – that every one of those people should be looking for work.
The deaths of countless disabled claimants of out-of-work benefits have been linked to attempts to force them into work or work-related activity over the last 15 years.
One of them was Alan McArdle, who died from a fatal heart attack in August 2015 after being told DWP was threatening to sanction his benefits.
The US outsourcing giant Maximus had reported him for failing to attend appointments intended to move him towards work, despite being told about his severe ill-health.
Another who died was Roy Curtis, who took his own life in November 2018, six days after being told to attend a work capability assessment, despite DWP being repeatedly warned its actions had made him suicidal.
Under the current rules, DWP accepts that many disabled people are not able to work or even carry out work-related activity or look for work, and they are provided with extra financial support to recognise the extra barriers they face.
3 October 2024
Last Tory minister for disabled people dodges questions on fatal flaws in universal credit
The last Conservative minister for disabled people has dodged questions on whether her government failed to address flaws in the universal credit system that led to the deaths of disabled claimants.
There have been increasing concerns about universal credit, including by coroners following two deaths of claimants that were both linked to flaws in the system, and particularly the pressure it puts on people in mental distress and those with mental ill-health.
Although the PCS union has described it as a “dangerously flawed system” in which “the most vulnerable continue to slip through its cracks”, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) began to roll out universal credit to claimants of income-related employment and support allowance last month.
Mims Davies – whose title in government was minister for disabled people, health and work – was asked about these concerns by Disability News Service (DNS), days after Labour’s new social security and disability minister Sir Stephen Timms said there were “problematic” features of the universal credit system that “need to be fixed”.
Davies is now the Conservative shadow minister for women and equalities, and its shadow disability minister.
She said there was now a “chance for many people who criticise universal credit and others to go and have a forensic look at it”.
Asked if she believed there should be such a “forensic look” at universal credit, she said: “Well, they’re in government now, so I’ll be looking at what they get up to.
“The reality is that I’m not a minister there anymore, I haven’t got any further details, but I know that some of the people who have either been shadowing and looking at the department or indeed were there may years ago are now back in charge, so I think these are probably questions you will need to address to them.”
She insisted that she was “never the minister in charge of universal credit” and claimed that “safeguarding and supporting people was always my focus”.
She also pointed to comments she made to the Commons work and pensions committee in March (PDF), when she said the “narrative around DWP’s treatment of vulnerable people has been incredibly unhelpful” and was “not roundly correct”, although “we recognise that in some areas improvements can be made”.
She said this week: “All I can say is that DWP is a learning department, 80,000 civil servants across all different communities, with very many different needs… sometimes with hidden needs, and you can only work and act on what people share with you.
“I know that we boosted the visiting officers and the outreach… in my time there it was very much about tailored individual needs, and understanding the challenges.”
After DNS told her that documents from the National Archives linked DWP and its predecessor, the Department of Social Security (DSS), to the deaths of claimants as far back as 1996*, and in early 1997, in the last months of the Conservative government – therefore casting into doubt whether DWP was a “learning organisation” – she said that Sir Stephen was a social security minister “not long after that”.
He was a DSS minister from July 1998 to July 1999 before returning to DWP in 2005 for a year, and again for another nine months in 2008.
Davies was minister for disabled people, health and work for the last six months of the Conservative government, until July’s election, but had been a work and pensions minister between July 2019 and July 2022, and again from October 2022.
*These documents are described in The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, by DNS editor John Pring, published by Pluto Press
3 October 2024
Tory leadership hopefuls ignore disabled people in pitch to MPs and party members
All four of the candidates to be the next Conservative leader have ignored disabled people in their pitches to party members.
None of the quartet – Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, and Tom Tugendhat – discussed how they would address any of the barriers facing disabled people, in their speeches yesterday (Wednesday).
Issues such as social care, accessible housing and transport, and social security were almost completely absent from their speeches, although all four briefly mentioned the NHS.
Jenrick did mention “welfare” twice, once to claim that the Conservatives had created “a fairer welfare system” and then confusingly to argue that the “welfare system” was one of the parts of the public sector that was not “working as it should”.
All four spoke about cutting migration and taxes, defence (except Badenoch), and reducing regulation.
Badenoch and Jenrick both launched attacks on human rights laws, while Badenoch said her “plan” would target both the Equality Act and the use of judicial reviews.
She promised a “comprehensive plan to reprogramme the British state” that would examine the Equality Act, but she did not provide further details on how she would reform equality laws.
She appeared to promise a new wave of attacks on what she called “identity politics” if she became Conservative leader.
And she claimed that “class warfare” had been promoted “under the banner of equality”, and that Conservative governments had “allowed ourselves to be bound by aggressive identity politics”.
She told party members: “Ministers need to be able to make decisions that aren’t endlessly challenged in the courts.
“If people don’t like those decisions, there are elections.”
Jenrick’s approach was even further to the right of Badenoch’s.
He promised to scrap the Human Rights Act, leave the European Convention on Human Rights, and end “the age of mass migration”, arguing that “the sheer scale and the lack of integration is sapping at our culture and our national cohesion”.
And he said his “new Conservative party… must stand for our nation and our culture, for our identity and our way of life”.
Cleverly promised to “build more homes”, reduce the cost of childcare, and “cut red tape, so we can build the energy and transport infrastructure we need, but more cheaply and quickly”.
He said his party needed to “make sure that work always pays” and be the party of “free markets and freedom, of business and enterprise”.
Tugendhat called for a legal cap on net migration at 100,000 and said he would “fix migration by fixing the gaps in education and skills, in transport and housing, so we can recruit at home and not abroad”.
He said he would “end the cap on apprenticeships and use the immigration skills charge to invest in further education and train our own people”.
None of the four candidates had responded by noon today (Thursday) to requests from Disability News Service to describe the policies they are putting forward to address the barriers faced by disabled people.
3 October 2024
Government ‘was slapdash and chaotic’ in response to requests for accessible versions of key planning paper
The new government has been accused of a “slapdash and chaotic” response to a request from disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) to provide a vital consultation document on planning policy in accessible formats.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) had already angered DPOs by failing to mention the accessible housing crisis in its consultation on reforms to the National Policy Planning Framework in England.
But they were also shocked that the department failed to publish the document in an easy-read format, or in British Sign Language (BSL), and only allowed eight weeks for responses, while also making it difficult for users of screen-reading software to read the document.
When DPOs contacted MHCLG to express alarm at its actions, the department agreed to provide an easy-read version, but it was only published on 24 September, the day the consultation was due to end.
MHCLG extended the consultation by just two weeks, but even then it failed to make that clear on the consultation web page.
And it still refused to provide a BSL version, apparently on cost grounds.
The framework sets out the government’s planning policies and how these should be applied by local authorities in England.
Manchester Disabled People’s Access Group (MDPAG) and Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People (GMCDP) both complained about the access concerns.
They described the government’s response to these concerns as incompetent, “chaotic” and “slapdash”.
They also said in their response to the consultation – along with Bristol Disability Equality Forum, and High Peak Access – that they were “extremely concerned” about the government’s failure to make any recommendations on accessible housing, such as ensuring that all new housing is built to the stricter M4(2) standard of accessibility, and that at least 10 per cent of all new housing is built to the M4(3) standard, which makes a home suitable for wheelchair-users.
Inclusion London also criticised the failure to include any recommendations on accessible housing in its response to the consultation.
Inclusion London said the NPPF “sets the tone and direction for local planning policies” and so it was concerned that the proposed reforms “fail to address the housing needs of Disabled people and do not explicitly encourage the delivery of accessible, adaptable housing and wheelchair accessible housing, of which we are in great need”.
It added: “We are disappointed that the Government’s current proposals do not make any reference to the link between the lack of accessible housing in the country, including the shortage of wheelchair accessible homes, and the rise in health inequalities among older and Disabled people and therefore do not contain any proposals to address this issue.”
Luke Beesley, co-chair of GMCDP, said: “The housing crisis is a pressing issue for disabled people all over the country, and it is absolutely essential that our insights and concerns are listened to at every stage of policy making.
“The slapdash and chaotic response of the department to being asked for very basic access adaptations is deeply worrying.
“Neurodivergent people and people with learning difficulties have been left in the dark even about how to contribute to this discussion – with the clear implication that the government doesn’t care what they have to say.
“We are also very worried, and very angry, about the department’s attitude towards the Deaf community.
“Deaf citizens speak a legally-recognised British language, and it is absurd and insulting that the government refuses to publish official documents in it.
“Community organisations, schools, and religious congregations provide British Sign Language translations despite the costs involved; and frankly it is inexcusable that a government department feels that they can opt out – especially on an issue that is so clearly related to social equality.”
The department told Disability News Service that it believed it responded as quickly as it could to the concerns and that it had made efforts to understand the barriers that disabled people were facing.
But an MHCLG spokesperson failed to respond to the concerns about the lack of a BSL version, and about only giving another two weeks for disabled people to respond after the easy-read version was published, and then not publicising this extension on the consultation page.
The spokesperson said in a statement: “We will always listen to how we can make our documents more accessible.
“That is why the page was made to be accessible to screen readers, and we commissioned an easy-read version as soon as it was requested.”
3 October 2024
Five-year delay in publishing accessible transport report was due to pandemic, claims government
A government department has blamed the pandemic for a five-year delay in publishing a report that suggested major changes to the public transport system would be needed to address the barriers faced by disabled people with invisible impairments.
The report by Ipsos MORI was handed to the Conservative-led Department for Transport (DfT) in October 2019, but it was only published last Thursday, when it was released quietly on the DfT website.
Ipsos MORI had interviewed 20 people with non-visible impairments, including autistic people, people with learning difficulties and people with mental ill-health.
The research showed the importance of public transport, and how it provided independence and confidence, and helped interviewees with their social lives.
But many of those interviewed said they experienced barriers when using public transport, causing anxiety, stress and a lack of self-confidence, particularly when travelling alone.
The most frequent problems came on bus journeys, despite their potential importance in enabling local trips, which meant that many of those interviewed travelled by car instead.
Barriers faced by those interviewed for the research included the anxiety caused by communicating with transport staff, particularly on buses, where drivers are “generally perceived as unhelpful and inconsiderate towards passenger needs”.
Other barriers included the difficulty of planning bus journeys in advance because of a “lack of cohesive information”; a lack of real-time information; overcrowded peak-time buses; concerns about personal safety and being targeted because of their impairment; and cost.
Trams “were viewed positively as a reliable mode of transport, with no unpredictable changes to routes or timetables”, while cars, walking and taxis all provided “more flexibility and control over journeys”.
Coping methods included the use of journey planning mobile phone apps, travelling with someone, and making a journey at quieter times.
Ideas for making public transport easier included the use of assistance cards that identify someone as having an invisible impairment; greater clarity on bus fares; wider use of cashless payment on buses; a greater emphasis on passenger safety on buses and in taxis; and wider use of companion bus passes.
DfT had commissioned the research to try to address a “large evidence gap” concerning accessibility for people with invisible impairments, and what impact different policies might have on them.
The aim had been to provide evidence ahead of more detailed research into how barriers could be addressed.
The report concluded that future research “should focus on using local buses in particular as these could be used more widely for short, regular, frequent trips”.
Asked why it had delayed publishing the report for five years, DfT refused to provide a statement, offering only some background points in response.
It claimed that work on the report was paused because of the Covid-19 pandemic, while the report was then finalised and prepared for publication this year, but was delayed again because of the general election.
DfT denied that its publication was delayed because of the cost of addressing the barriers outlined in the report.
It said the report’s findings would be considered when developing future policy.
Meanwhile, new regulations that came into force on Tuesday (1 October) should make it easier for some disabled people to use local bus and coach services.
The Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations 2023 require operators of local bus and coach services to provide audio and visual information about the route, the direction of travel and each upcoming stop, and they apply to England, Wales and Scotland.
The deadline means all vehicles first used on local services since 1 October 2019 must now comply with the regulations, while there is a “staggered deadline” for older vehicles through to 2026, and vehicles that are “partially compliant” must be fully compliant by 2031.
3 October 2024
Disabled activist seeks to lead union, and promises to fight discriminatory reporting if she wins
A disabled journalist has called on the trade union movement to do more for disability rights and has promised to fight discrimination across the media, if she is elected to be the next leader of her union.
Dr Natasha Hirst said she believed the trade union movement needed to be “much stronger” in challenging the “negative rhetoric” about disabled people, particularly when it comes to social security.
Hirst has spent years campaigning for equality for disabled people both within journalism and across the disabled people’s movement.
She is currently president of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ)* and is now hoping to be elected as its new general secretary, after the long-serving Michelle Stanistreet announced in June that she would be stepping down.
She is standing against just one other candidate, Laura Davison, who is currently a full-time NUJ official, leading the union’s broadcasting sector, having previously worked for BBC local radio.
Hirst told Disability News Service (DNS) this week: “Although we are trade unions and our role is to represent workers, we should show more solidarity with the wider disabled people’s movement in protecting those who can’t work and those who would like to work but can’t find supportive employers or suitable work.”
She also said she was “continually appalled by the lack of empathy and understanding” within government and its “willingness to scapegoat and punish disabled people who need support”.
She said that both the Access to Work scheme and jobcentres were “chronically under-resourced and riddled with systemic ableism”, while the “punitive” social security system “destroys lives”.
Hirst also told DNS that unions should be doing more for members with long Covid, and “should be attacking the hypocrisy of not supporting workers (and freelances) with long Covid” and the failure to do enough preventative work to keep infection rates down.
She said: “Changes to working patterns [during the pandemic] could have opened up more accessible and safer ways of working to create inclusion and opportunities for disabled workers and it is bitterly disappointing and dangerous for us that we are witnessing the ongoing disregard for our human rights.”
Hirst also told DNS that she believed there were too few disabled people reaching senior levels within the union movement.
She praised her own union for its efforts to ensure access for her to key meetings and events “without fuss”, while NUJ’s greater use of online meetings since the pandemic had made its democratic processes “much more accessible for me”.
She said: “My presence and self-advocacy educates those around me and is slowly changing the culture of the union.
“There’s still a way to go, but without this support, I couldn’t have taken up the opportunities as an activist that led to me being president and thus in a position to stand for general secretary.
“It takes years to develop the skills and experience to go for a role like this.
“It demonstrates that it can be done but begs the question as to why there aren’t more disabled activists reaching the top across our union movement.”
One of her pledges is to push for increased NUJ membership by appealing to a “wider diversity” of potential members, such as disabled freelance journalists, and to show that the union understands the barriers faced by disabled freelances “and that we are serious about tackling those barriers”.
She also wants to address the barriers some disabled journalists face when trying to become an NUJ member, usually because of their low income and irregular work.
Her union activism in journalism has included involvement in the campaign to persuade the Independent Press Standards Organisation to extend protection from media discrimination for disabled people.
She believes her industry needs to “scrutinise government policies more effectively and deconstruct negative and distorted rhetoric about disabled people” and build “wider solidarity for a campaign against discriminatory reporting”.
Hirst says more must be done to educate journalists and on “tackling those who own the media and shape the editorial lines” when it comes to disability equality “and the complexities of navigating barriers in every area of life”.
She said: “A disabled person leading the NUJ has a better chance of pushing those messages out to challenge the status quo and prevent disabled people from being ‘othered’ by the union movement and by the media industry.”
She has also led the union’s #InclusivePressAccess campaign, which aims to persuade political parties, and now also sports bodies, to make their events and press conferences accessible to disabled journalists.
And she led on organising and delivering NUJ’s first mental health conference, following her experience of being homeless, having complex PTSD, and being unable to work as a freelance due to domestic abuse.
She says it was the support she received from the union that “helped me to get my life and career back”.
She is currently leading on the co-production of new disability reporting guidelines with Disability Wales, with which she was previously a trustee.
Among her roles outside NUJ, Hirst has been a member of the Welsh government’s Disability Rights Taskforce, was part of the delegations of disabled people’s organisations that travelled to Geneva to hold the last government to account on the UN disability convention, and she currently chairs Disability Arts Cymru.
*John Pring, editor of DNS, is an NUJ member
3 October 2024
Former minister calls for access improvements to ‘appalling’ House of Commons facilities
One of the few disabled MPs in the last parliament has called for significant access improvements to the House of Commons.
Robert Halfon, who was Conservative MP for Harlow for 14 years and served as an education minister, stepped down before July’s election.
He told Disability News Service (DNS) on Tuesday that although Commons staff were “the most lovely people you’ll ever meet”, the facilities were “appalling”.
Speaking at a fringe meeting hosted by LTE Group at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, Halfon said “the lifts always break”, while “the loos are always broken and then they take weeks to fix them… weeks and weeks and weeks”.
Halfon, who has a mobility impairment, said the doors in the Palace of Westminster are “always shut”, while non-disabled people frequently use the accessible toilets.
He said the Commons was “both the best place and the worst place”, because of the “wonderful staff” but “appalling” facilities.
DNS had asked him about figures obtained through a freedom of information request from the House of Commons that showed 43 out of the 650 MPs had discussed the possibility of having disability-related adjustments made for them, after every MP was approached with an offer of support by Commons authorities when they were elected in July.
Halfon said he believed the figures showed that the system of support for disabled MPs was now “working properly”.
Other than supportive staff, and an office near the Commons division lobby, he said he was offered “nothing” by way of adjustments when he became an MP in 2010.
It was not until 2017 that he saw an advert for a four-wheel upright scooter, the RollerScoot, which allowed him to travel around the parliamentary estate much more easily and which he said “changed my life”, because “walking around the Commons is like walking round a football pitch 10 times over”.
He said: “If I’d had that from the beginning, I think it would have been a huge difference, but no-one suggested it. I didn’t even know they existed. No one had asked me.”
He said in his final speech in parliament in May that the House of Commons is “a terrible place for people who have difficulties”.
He told MPs: “There is just not enough understanding.
“Everybody should be able to access this place easily and comfortably, whatever their background, so I urge the new parliament, you, Mr Deputy Speaker, Mr Speaker and the other Deputy Speakers to make that happen once and for all.”
Halfon, who had two spells as an education minister, and also chaired the education select committee, focused for much of his time in parliament on championing apprenticeships and skills.
He was the first MP to employ an apprentice in his parliamentary office, and eventually took on six.
He said his party had brought about “an apprenticeship and skills revolution in our country”, where there were now apprenticeships in more than 70 per cent of occupations, including degree-level apprenticeships.
He said he had not yet decided who to vote for in the Conservative leadership election.
Halfon said the problems with his party were “one, that people don’t know what our values are; two, they don’t trust us; and three, that we are not seen as a social justice party”.
3 October 2024
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
The social care watchdog is increasingly finding fault with council decision-making in relation to social care assessments and care planning. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman upheld 80 per cent of complaints it investigated relating to assessment and care planning in 2023-24, up from 67 per cent in 2022-23. Complaints upheld included cases of councils delaying assessments, not making reasonable adjustments during the assessment process, and not meeting a person’s eligible needs when required to do so: https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2024/09/30/watchdog-increasingly-finding-fault-with-councils-on-social-care-assessments-and-plans/
The family of a disabled woman whose dead body lay in her social housing flat unnoticed for more than three years had raised concerns about her welfare two months before she was discovered, an inquest has heard. Laura Winham’s remains were found by her brother in her flat in Woking, Surrey, in May 2021, after the family asked police to break in. An inquest into her death opened at Surrey coroner’s court on Tuesday: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/01/family-of-woman-who-lay-dead-for-three-years-had-raised-alarm-inquest-hears
Ministers have been urged not to resurrect Conservative plans to tackle social security fraud by launching mass algorithmic surveillance of bank accounts. Disability rights, poverty, pensioner and privacy groups fear the government is poised to deliver a “snooper’s charter” by using automation and possibly artificial intelligence to crack down on benefit cheats and mistakes which cost £10 billion a year. In a letter this week to Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, they say they fear it will mean a “huge blow for privacy in the UK”: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/01/monitoring-uk-bank-accounts-for-benefits-would-be-huge-blow-to-privacy
A rail company operating across the north of England will introduce sign language announcements on all its services. Northern has trialled technology which means interpreters appear on trains’ on-board screens, for example to let passengers know about the next stop. The system, piloted on trains between Manchester, Leeds and York last year, will be introduced across the fleet next year: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l48jveq56o
A council received almost 1,200 complaints about its services for children with special educational needs and disabilities in a year. Lancashire County Council received the complaints during the 12 months to July 2024: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqjrynj40v2o
Parents of children with Tourette’s syndrome are warning that a lack of support and understanding in schools could wreck their chances of an education. The BBC spoke with 18 parents from the south of England, most of whom shared similar stories. Almost all complained their children had been shouted at for movements and sounds they could not control, and in some cases that had led to them avoiding school for weeks at a time: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm29dkv9v3mo
3 October 2024
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
