Contents
Disabled author swamped by hate speech after social media post on feminism 15
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week 21
We can force government to back down over benefit cuts ‘if we turn anger into action’, say activists
Disabled activists – and a suspended Labour MP – have told campaigners that they can win the battle to force the government into a U-turn over its planned cuts to disability benefits.
But they also warned the Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) online campaign meeting of the considerable harm that would be caused to disabled people if the cuts were not scrapped.
One disabled activist said the “distress and the damage” the proposals were already causing people’s mental health was “immeasurable”, and called for disabled people to “turn our anger into action”.
Another activist said there would “undoubtedly be increased mental distress, self-harm, benefit deaths and suicides” and “immense pressures on public services” if the cuts were implemented.
She called for action by disabled activists “that teaches future governments not to come for us again”.
John McDonnell, the suspended Labour MP and former shadow chancellor, who has supported DPAC for nearly 15 years, told the meeting he was “really petrified” about the potential harm that would be caused by the cuts.
But he said there was “an opportunity here for us really in campaigning terms to turn this around and defeat these proposals”.
Reports suggest that the government will soon announce cuts of more than £5 billion to disability benefits, mostly focused on personal independence payment (PIP).
But Sunday’s meeting heard that the government was vulnerable to both outside pressure and anger from within the Labour party at the proposed measures.
A planned green paper on disability benefits had apparently been set to be published this week, but it now seems to have been delayed until next week, because of the anger caused by government media briefings about the cuts.
At least 150 disabled activists and allies attended Sunday’s Hands Off Disability Benefits! online campaign meeting, to plan how to fight back against any cuts that are announced.
Ellen Clifford, coordinator of the coalition of disabled people’s organisations monitoring the implementation of the UN disability convention in the UK, told the meeting that the government’s apparent plans to cut £5 billion from spending on PIP would cause “a significant increase in disability-related poverty and there will be a knock-on to child poverty rates”.
She said: “There will undoubtedly be increased mental distress, self-harm, benefit deaths and suicides.
“There will be increased pressures on the NHS, mental health services, social care services and an increase in survival crime.
“This will put immense pressures on public services that are already struggling now.”
Clifford, also a member of DPAC’s national steering group and award-winning author of The War on Disabled People, added: “I know people are frightened – I’m frightened – but I think we should focus and remember what we can achieve when we come together.
“We chased Atos out of the contract for the work capability assessment; we forced George Osborne to do a U-turn when he came for PIP in 2016.
“We have the links, we have a memory of what worked through the last decade-and-a-half, so in some ways we are in a better position now to resist than we were then.
“I know that we’re burned out, we’re fighting on multiple fronts, but we do have brilliant younger activists coming in.
“I think we can do this, and more than that, I believe we can do it in such a way that teaches future governments not to come for us again.”
McDonnell told the meeting that the Conservative-led 2010 coalition had refused to monitor the impact of its cuts to social security, including the work capability assessment reforms.
But he said that the “wonderful” book by Disability News Service editor John Pring* showed that the Department for Work and Pensions “is a killer department, because so many people lost their lives as a result of the welfare benefit cuts that took place during the years of austerity under the Tories.
“Well, as sure as night follows day, if this level of cuts takes place, people will be at risk and we will lose people.”
He said it had been a “hell of a shock” that the new Labour government was set to announce “another round of austerity measures”, 15 years after austerity cuts were introduced by the Conservative coalition “on a scale that we’d never seen before”.
He said both the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, were breaking their promises that “that there would be no further austerity, that they would end austerity”.
And he said it was “dreadfully, dreadfully shocking” that they had “decided to go down the path of cuts”, with government media briefings suggesting they were “looking at quite extensive cuts in welfare”.
McDonnell said the government would be “targeting disabled people” with these cuts.
He said it was “so like 2010, where a Conservative government thought the easiest way to get cuts through public expenditure was to target the people they thought couldn’t fight back: disabled people and the poorest”.
He said the government should instead introduce a financial transaction tax on the City of London, and a wealth tax, so the government “can start investing in the services that people need to support them to live a full and independent life”.
McDonnell told the meeting that there was “an opportunity here for us really in campaigning terms to turn this around and defeat these proposals.
“And we can only do that if we mobilise effectively in these coming months, and that’s what DPAC was founded for, and that’s what all of us in DPAC now will have to do in this coming period.”
Mark Harrison, from DPAC Norfolk, said he and fellow disabled activists were taking the fight against the planned cuts “right into the heart of the Labour party” by protesting outside the next meeting of Norwich Labour party tomorrow (Friday).
He said a motion opposing the cuts from a local Labour branch would be discussed at the meeting and DPAC Norfolk was hoping to be invited into the meeting to speak to members before the motion was voted on.
There will also be a protest outside Labour-controlled Norwich City Hall on 26 March, the day of the chancellor’s spring statement.
And DPAC Norfolk has called for people to record videos of “what they think about the proposed cuts to social security and benefits and also what effect it’s having on people in terms of their mental health”.
He said the “distress and the damage it’s doing to people’s mental health is immeasurable”, with politicians and others “writing in The Sun, going on TV, and calling disabled people benefit cheats and benefit scroungers, and a drain on society”.
He said he believed there would be a revolt within the Labour party “if we step up our campaign, because people didn’t join the Labour party to screw disabled people, they didn’t vote for MPs and MPs didn’t go into parliament to vote through cuts on disabled people, so we think they’re very vulnerable”.
Harrison called on disabled people to set up local DPAC branches, contact their MPs, organise local campaigns, and approach trade unions and Labour party branches, and local and regional media, who were now “working alongside us very often because they don’t agree with this either”.
He said: “I think we have to be bold.
“I think we have to turn our anger into action, into organising disabled people, people in mental distress, against the cuts, against new austerity, and against these attacks on our benefits.”
Harrison said he believed disabled people could defeat the planned cuts “because people wanted change after 14 years of Tory rule and Tory austerity and Tory attacks on disabled people. And, you know, people didn’t vote for this.
“So we’re all angry, but we do need to get even. We do need to organise.”
Paula Peters, a member of DPAC’s national steering group, who chaired the meeting, said disabled people were “terrified” about the government’s plans.
She said: “This has been an especially difficult time for disabled people, with a bill going through parliament on assisted dying in England and Wales.
“The context makes changes to social security even worse as it feels like we’re fighting for our rights on multiple fronts.”
Austin Harney, from the PCS union, which represents many frontline DWP workers, and a member of the TUC disabled workers’ committee, told the meeting that his fellow PCS members in DWP were being “forced against their will” to implement sanctions on disabled people and others claiming benefits, which he said was “an outrageous disgrace”.
Although he said it was not official PCS policy, he said he wanted union members to take unofficial strike action in support of how disabled people are being treated in jobcentres.
He said the government was trying to “divide and conquer” by setting non-disabled people against disabled people.
Harney told the meeting: “It is a frightening era that we’re going through; we need to raise this as a major issue for disabled people in the trade union movement.”
*The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, John Pring’s book on the years of deaths linked to DWP, is published by Pluto Press
13 March 2025
DWP refuses to apologise after using ‘deeply irresponsible’ figure to exaggerate benefit claimant rise
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has refused to apologise for massively exaggerating the rise in people claiming out-of-work disability benefits, and then tried to cover-up its actions, just as ministers are trying to justify sweeping cuts to spending.
DWP claimed in a press release last Thursday that there had been a “staggering 319 per cent increase” in the number of working-age people on the health and disability element of universal credit or receiving employment and support allowance (ESA).
The department said this showed the “alarming rate at which young and working aged people are increasingly falling out of work and claiming incapacity benefits”.
There has been an increase – most likely caused by the impact of growing NHS waiting-lists and the Covid pandemic, among other factors – but it is likely to be about 30 to 35 per cent, if comparing 2019-20 with 2023-24.
The error was spotted almost immediately by Ratigan, a disabled welfare rights campaigner.
He told Disability News Service (DNS): “It’s deeply irresponsible the DWP would publish such obviously misleading figures in an attempt to justify reforms that are striking terror into the hearts of millions of disabled people up and down the country.”
But it appears that no-one in the DWP press office, or work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, or any of her highly-paid ministerial entourage, thought to question the figure.
Instead, the department used the figure to justify government reforms that it is believed will cut the amount paid to those receiving ESA or the health and disability element of universal credit.
The figure was quietly removed from the press release this week after DNS questioned its accuracy.
But DWP has so far failed to add a note to the website to show that the press release has been corrected.
And the department appears to have made no attempt to contact media organisations that published the inaccurate figure, including the Scottish national tabloid The Daily Record.
Labour’s social security and disability minister, Sir Stephen Timms, has repeatedly said that he wants DWP to move “towards much greater transparency about how we are doing things”.
Last month (PDF), Sir Stephen told the Commons work and pensions committee: “Things that ought to have been published and made public have been hidden, and that has contributed to a loss of trust.”
DWP has so far refused three times to respond to requests from DNS to comment on its use of the exaggerated figure.
The department’s continuing lack of transparency was further highlighted this week as DWP again refused to respond to a UN report that called on the government to take “corrective measures” to address the impact of cuts to disability benefits introduced under Conservative governments, just as Labour ministers are preparing to introduce further such cuts.
The recommendation by the UN’s committee on economic, social and cultural rights (CESCR) comes in its “concluding observations” on the UK’s progress in implementing the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Among its recommendations, the committee called for increased spending on social security, and for the government to take “corrective measures” to address the impact of post-2010 welfare reforms on the most disadvantaged groups, including disabled people.
But DWP refused to comment on the report last week.
And when asked again this week for its response to the committee’s conclusions and whether it would act on the recommendations, it refused to answer those questions.
Instead, a DWP spokesperson produced a statement that did not refer to the UN report or its conclusions but instead referred to the “broken” social security system and the need for “meaningful, principled” reform “so that it helps long-term sick and disabled people who can work to find employment, ensuring people receive the support they need, while being fair to the taxpayer”.
13 March 2025
Research links increase in ill-health to rising benefit claims, just as government prepares ‘catastrophic’ cuts
New research links a significant rise in sickness and mental ill-health since the start of the pandemic to an increase in the number of people claiming disability benefits, just as ministers prepare to announce significant cuts to that support.
The research provides fresh evidence for disabled people and allies fighting the cuts, which have been described this week by claimants who contacted Disability News Service (DNS) as “simply unjust” and “absolutely catastrophic”.
The report shows clear evidence of rising working-age mortality rates and levels of mental ill-health, and a huge increase in the number of sickness absence days per worker since 2019.
Its headline conclusion was: “Mental health has worsened since the pandemic. This is consistent with rising disability benefit claims for mental health.”
It found that most of the 4,400 extra deaths rates were “deaths of despair” – those attributed to alcohol, drugs and suicide – which rose by 24 per cent in England and Wales in 2023 compared with the 2015-19 pre-pandemic average.
The research also showed there had been a “big rise” in the number of people on hospital waiting-lists since 2019.
And there has been a 5.5 per cent rise in working-age mortality rates when comparing the 2015-19 average and the figures for 2023, and a 36 per cent increase in the number of people in contact with mental health services between 2019 and December 2024.
The researchers said that sickness absence days per worker were 37 per cent higher in 2022 than in 2019, which was “further evidence to support the argument that population health has worsened”.
The research was published this week by The Institute for Fiscal Studies, with support from three other respected organisations: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The Health Foundation, and Economic and Social Research Council.
Iain Porter, senior policy adviser at Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “This is clear evidence of a deterioration in mental health in the population, which goes some way to explaining rising health-related benefit claims.
“Greater openness about mental health has helped many people to live with conditions which were once hidden, but the rise in deaths of despair also shows that reducing stigma does not eliminate the most serious consequences of rising mental ill health.
“This trend is real and growing, and we need our government to look carefully at the health of the nation, rather than relying on benefit cuts to fix the problem.”
The report, The Role of Changing Health in Rising Health Related Benefit Claims, comes just as the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, and other ministers have been attempting to persuade backbench Labour MPs to support plans to cut spending on personal independence payment (PIP) by £5 billion.
Most of Sir Keir’s benefit-related comments to Monday evening’s meeting of backbench MPs are believed to have focused on separate reforms and cuts to out-of-work disability benefits, rather than PIP.
But reports suggested that he also failed to respond to a Labour MP with a disabled daughter who said cuts to PIP would have a significant impact on his family.
Sir Keir has also been due to meet groups of Labour MPs in Downing Street yesterday and today (Thursday) for six “welfare roundtables”.
In prime minister’s questions yesterday, Sir Keir talked about supporting disabled claimants “back to work” when challenged by Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, even though the bulk of the planned cuts are to PIP, which is available to those both in and out of work.
Labour’s Richard Burgon then asked: “Instead of cutting benefits for disabled people, would not the moral thing – the courageous thing – to do be to make a real tough choice, and introduce a wealth tax on the very wealthiest people in our society?”
Sir Keir then spoke of a “moral imperative” to “help those who want to work to get back into work”, and added: “We have raised money through the energy profits levy, taxing non-doms and air passenger duty on private jets, but this is not a bottomless pit, and we must kick-start growth to secure the economic stability that we need.”
Meanwhile, disabled people have continued to contact DNS to express their concerns, anxiety and distress about the proposed cuts.
One disabled woman said, in an email to her MP that she copied to DNS: “These proposed cuts and reforms are simply unjust.
“I am exhausted, and I am afraid. I feel sick with worry and I feel a total loss of control over my life. I just want to live.
“One cruel push of cuts, and one stroke of bad luck, and I risk depending on already strained food banks, or simply not having enough to pay my bills.
“PIP is the one thing that is giving me some actual life, and it was an awful, emotional ordeal to get. But I am grateful for it.
“I don’t know where I would be without it. It has given me small pleasures in life, like a cafe date with my husband, books to read, or taxis to see family when I am able.
“I do not have the fight in me that I used to have, so please know that this is me begging you to do something to prevent both these cuts and the proposed idea to make disabled benefits harder to get.”
Another disabled woman told DNS: “These cuts will be absolutely catastrophic for disability claimants, myself included.
“I am utterly petrified as I rely on my disability benefits to live and manage my condition.
“I go to bed at night worrying myself sick about proposed cuts.
“It is significantly impacting my health.”
13 March 2025
Ticket office cuts by three rail firms are just a test run for fresh round of reductions, campaigners warn
Cuts to ticket office opening hours by three rail providers across England and Scotland are just a forerunner of further reductions to come across the country, which will have a significant impact on disabled passengers, campaigners have warned.
The warning came after months of research by the Association of British Commuters (ABC), which has examined cuts proposed and implemented by ScotRail, Southeastern and Great Western Railway (GWR).
ABC, which has already exposed the actions of Southeastern, believes the UK and Scottish governments have been pushing for cuts in ticket office hours.
Only 16 months ago, Conservative ministers scrapped proposals to shut nearly 1,000 ticket offices across England, following a huge campaign by disabled-led groups, trade unions and allies.
But at the time, the government and train operating companies refused to rule out further attempts to close rail ticket offices.
Major cuts in ticket office opening hours would have a significant negative impact on many disabled passengers and others who need support to use rail services.
But ABC says rail sources are now making it clear that the industry and governments in Scotland and Whitehall are pushing for “Ticket Office Cuts Round Two”, which they had hoped to carry out by “stealth”.
Thanks to ABC, plans by Southeastern to make drastic cuts to ticket office hours – of 555 hours a week – have been paused at 12 of 14 proposed stations in Kent, East Sussex and south-east London while the Department for Transport (DfT) decides whether they can proceed.
Those plans were described by disabled campaigners in November as “unforgivable” and “horrendous”.
Southeastern confirmed this week that its plans for cuts at the 12 stations were still on hold while it awaits a decision from DfT.
The Scottish government-owned ScotRail has previously admitted that 31 of its stations will have ticket office hours cut.
But an examination of a new version of its plans shows that nearly 100 stations will see ticket office hours cut.
The RMT union says these cuts “would see ticket office hours reduced by a staggering 2,800 per week, jeopardising safety, accessibility, and quality of service for passengers”.
Last week, RMT and other organisations, including Inclusion Scotland, Transport for All, Disability Equality Scotland, Disability Rights UK and Disabled People Against Cuts, wrote to the Scottish government about the proposed ticket office cuts at ScotRail stations.
They said the plans had previously been opposed by 98 per cent of those who took part in a public consultation three years ago.
They said they believed there was “an attempt to evade public scrutiny over this matter”.
ABC has also discovered that GWR has already carried out a programme of “stealth” cuts at 39 stations between 2022 and late 2024, with freedom of information requests and data analysis showing this led to a reduction in ticket office staffing of 344 hours per week.
Emily Sullivan (née Yates), a disabled researcher and co-founder of ABC, who carried out the latest research, believes GWR is planning a further round of cuts to ticket office hours.
She said: “Sources have informed us that ‘all eyes are on ScotRail and Southeastern’ to see if they get away with it, and if these operators succeed, similar de-staffing techniques will spread across England.
“Staff cuts are being rumoured at GWR as we speak, so it is suspected to be the first in this new wave of attempts, having already served as the first ‘test’ operator in the original stealth plan.
“The crucial difference to 2023 is that this time it is happening piecemeal without anyone even knowing about it.
“That’s because the DfT has found a way to cut ticket office and staffing hours without consultation – as shown by the 39 ticket office cuts already completed on GWR, in total secrecy until now.
“It is indisputable that the cuts go back to a DfT ‘Plan B’ hatched in 2022, when stealth regulatory changes for these three operators were first signed off.
“Those very same plans are now being enacted by the UK and Scottish governments.
“After the collapse of ticket office consultations in 2023, it would be completely non-credible for the DfT to shrug off responsibility for these cuts onto operators – everybody involved in the railway knows exactly who is giving the orders.”
ScotRail repeatedly refused to comment this week on ABC’s concerns, referring Disability News Service instead to a press release published last month.
In last month’s statement, Phil Campbell, ScotRail’s customer operations director, said: “The changes that will be introduced from 31 March will provide a service that is better suited for the ticket-buying habits of our customers today, rather than 30 years ago, and will create an environment that improves safety and customer support.
“We have listened to colleagues, customers, and the trade unions throughout this process and have made changes to the proposals based on that feedback.
“We will now redouble our efforts to grow passenger numbers and revenue as we deliver a safe, reliable, and green railway.”
Transport Scotland refused to comment on the number of ticket offices where there would be cuts to opening hours under ScotRail’s plans.
It also refused to say if it was disputing that cuts to opening hours would negatively impact disabled passengers.
But it said in a statement: “We welcome that ScotRail and the unions have engaged in consultation, and that unions were listened to during the process to influence changes.
“This shows the importance of consultation and dialogue.
“We expect this to continue and that the changes will not impact passengers’ convenience and facilities.
“To be clear, these amendments will not see any ticket office closures.
“There will be no job losses and arrangements to assist disabled travellers will not be affected.”
GWR disputed ABC’s figures but refused to say how many ticket offices had seen cuts, and for how many hours in total.
A GWR spokesperson said in a statement: “We’ve not closed any ticket offices and can only do so following public consultation under the schedule 17 regulations.
“We are not aware of any national programme of cuts – stealth or otherwise.
“Train operators regularly adjust ticket office hours to align with customer demand, ensuring resources are allocated effectively.
“Changes have only affected offices with daily reductions of under 20 minutes or where average ticket sales are fewer than seven per hour.
“No station has become unstaffed as a result of these changes. In fact, in the past year the number of station staff at our stations has actually increased.
“Nothing has happened in secret – while regulations covering these minor changes don’t require a formal consultation period, we publicly display posters highlighting the proposals for 28 days ahead of any alterations.”
DfT said it was for the rail industry to decide if, and when, any changes to ticket office opening hours were required.
A DfT spokesperson said: “These claims are incorrect, there are currently no plans to introduce wholesale ticket office closures.
“We recognise the vital role ticket offices and staff play in the journeys of passengers and providing face-to-face services.
“Changes made in 2022 by operators like Southeastern were an industry-led decision, and we will ensure that passengers with accessibility needs continue to receive the support they need.”
Meanwhile, the Commons transport committee has written to rail minister Lord [Peter] Hendy over concerns raised by ABC last month about the government’s proposed rail reforms.
ABC had spotted that the consultation on the government’s plans for rail reform failed to include any mention of a statutory accessibility duty, despite the Conservative government pledging to introduce a legal duty on the new Great British Railways (GBR) that would ensure GBR put accessibility “at the core of its strategic decisions”.
Those concerns were backed by representatives of Disabled People Against Cuts, National Pensioners Convention and National Federation of the Blind of the UK.
They also called for the consultation to be extended from eight weeks to 12.
Ruth Cadbury, chair of the transport committee, asked in the letter to Lord Hendy for clarity on whether the government had indeed dropped the access duty – and other statutory duties – and on its decision to restrict the consultation to just eight weeks.
13 May 2025
Self-advocates from across London send government a message of fear, concern… and anger over benefit cuts
People with learning difficulties from across the capital have delivered a powerful call to the government over threatened cuts to disability benefits, and warned they could take “drastic” action if ministers do not listen to their concerns.
At a meeting of self-advocates in central London on Friday, members of the new London Campaign Network said they were already struggling to survive after years of austerity and the cost-of-living crisis.
They said services have been cut, while many of them were already struggling to secure the support they needed.
Government cuts to disability benefits could increase these pressures and make it harder to survive, they warned, particularly for those autistic people and people with learning difficulties who do not have strong support networks.
Those attending the meeting – the second held by the network since its launch last November – later described the event as “empowering”, “educational”, “exciting” and “informative”.
Leon Jordan, from the Generate Voices self-advocacy group in Tooting, compared the situation facing people with learning difficulties to the injustices faced by the Suffragettes who fought for women’s right to vote in the early years of the 20th century.
He told the meeting: “That’s what we need, we need to use that weapon of the past and bring it into the 21st century now.”
He said disabled people needed to be “challenging the government” publicly, including through peaceful demonstrations.
Jordan said he was concerned about possible cuts to employment and support allowance (ESA), disability living allowance and personal independence payment (PIP).
He said: “We are angry but not angry enough to kick-start change.”
But he added: “Uniting us as we are today is a powerful step in the right direction.
“There are a lot of untold stories that need to be shared soon.
“We should all come together and write one big, strong-minded letter, a very strong-worded, long letter about how we are feeling and why we are feeling that way.”
But he warned: “If that doesn’t get results, we may have to take more drastic steps.”
Among the barriers faced by people with learning difficulties in dealing with the benefits system, those at the meeting pointed to long waiting-times; the lack of reasonable adjustments; the use of jargon; delays with Access to Work; repeated reassessments; threatening letters from the Department for Work and Pensions; the lack of benefit letters and forms in an easy read format; the scapegoating of people with learning difficulties by the government; benefit rates that are too low; and the lack of communication from MPs and people in power.
Martin Wallin, part of The Elfrida Society’s Experts by Experience: Community Consultants project (PDF), had a clear message for ministers determined to push people with learning difficulties off out-of-work benefits.
He said: “How many companies out there will employ people with learning difficulties?
“We have to live with these things day in day out, month to month. You should try living our lives for one day.”
Asked by Disability News Service (DNS) to rate his level of concern on a scale of one to 10, he said: “12.”
He said: “I am struggling at the moment. If they were to cut my PIP or ESA, there would not be enough to survive. It’s not just me, it’s everybody.”
Rodney, also from the Community Consultants project, said: “Services are not there. They are not there.”
He said he feared there would be a “ghost town” if there were more cuts because of the lack of support for people with learning difficulties, and he particularly pointed to the lack of social workers.
Another self-advocate, Faye, said she was already “just” surviving, with spiralling rent, food costs, gas and electricity bills, and medication costs.
She said: “There isn’t the information, advice and support services out there for benefits assessments and appointments… there isn’t the support services out there for people like us.”
Ian Roberts, from Speak Up Sutton, was another self-advocate at the meeting who told DNS that he was “concerned” about possible benefit cuts.
He said: “When they say they are going to make more cuts, you never know if it’s going to affect you personally.”
Andrew Lee, director of People First Self-Advocacy, which is run by and for people with learning difficulties and is the driving force behind the London Campaign Network, told DNS that the voices of people with learning difficulties “are not being heard” in the debate around benefit cuts.
He said: “Politicians are turning to parents and people that support us to find out what we want, what we think.”
He said the government had not been in touch with People First to discuss their planned cuts and reforms, and he warned that increasing moves to digitalise the benefits system created further barriers for people with learning difficulties.
He said: “People with learning difficulties need support to access the information, to know what’s going on.
“Decisions will be made on people’s benefits because people have not been able to communicate, because everything has gone online.”
Most people with learning difficulties have old mobile phones that just allow them to send texts and make calls, he said, rather than owning smartphones with internet access.
Lee said he was concerned about the impact of cuts on people with learning difficulties who have no support network.
Much of the support that was previously available has been lost since the start of the Covid pandemic, he said.
He added: “People haven’t actually got the support to say, ‘These are my support needs and this is why I need this level of support.’”
Even Labour’s failure to rule out the hugely-controversial idea of the last government that PIP payments could be replaced with vouchers showed that Labour ministers “don’t value our lives”, he said.
And he said the government’s decision to delay reform of adult social care “by having another review” suggested “they don’t want to make a decision” on how to solve the adult social care crisis.
Lee said: “Local authorities are making cuts, so a lot of self-advocacy organisations that are people with learning difficulties’ support structure are under threat.”
Raymond Johnson, also from People First Self-Advocacy, told the meeting that the London Campaign Network had been set up to help self-advocates “to work together on campaigns that matter to us all” and to “influence the people that make decisions about us”.
He said: “We have been visiting and talking to people with learning difficulties across London.
“It seems that benefits and money is the biggest concern for people right now.”
He added: “We need to stand up for our rights. Put our foot down.”
13 March 2025
Disabled author swamped by hate speech after social media post on feminism
The response to comments made by a journalist and author have exposed the disablist and dehumanising abuse disabled women often receive when they speak out publicly on controversial issues.
A social media post featuring a brief comment by Lucy Webster at a public event on the need for other feminists to accept that “disability is a women’s rights issue” – and posted the day before International Women’s Day – led to a torrent of online abuse from men.
Much of the worst abuse targeted Webster as a disabled woman, while some of it was also homophobic.
Although she eventually closed comments on the post to stop the flow of abuse, she briefly re-opened them again to allow Disability News Service (DNS) to examine the hostility she had been exposed to.
DNS found more than 20 comments that could be described as hostile and disablist, with countless others aggressively challenging her views on disability rights and feminism.
One comment said she “needs to be put in a home”, another who responded referred to her as “it”, and another described her as a “broken dishwasher”, while several described her as a “r*tard”.
Webster, whose critically-acclaimed memoir The View From Down Here was published in 2023, said afterwards that she had “never experienced hate like it”.
She said: “A large chunk of the hate comments, especially the ones involving slurs and dehumanising language, explicitly or implicitly reference my speech impediment.
“I never get these comments on my written posts where people can’t hear me. We really need to talk about the link.”
But she also pointed out that, other than her own friends, it only appeared to have been disabled women like fellow journalists Frances Ryan, Rachel Charlton-Dailey and Lydia Wilkins, who had tried to defend her.
Webster said: “Sadly, this only serves to prove my point. Where’s the solidarity?”
In her response to the Instagram post, Ryan said she had also noticed “horrendous ableism – and borderline fascist – language on X about the upcoming disability cuts.
“The change in algorithms has clearly shone a light on the gutter and it is deeply disturbing to see.”
Fellow disabled, queer campaigner and writer Ellen Jones, who was appearing with Webster at the event, said afterwards in another post: “Lucy’s other post (a text post) had 40k views and no hate comments – proving yet again that disabled women are attacked for simply existing in public.
“It’s clear [if] Lucy had written those exact same words instead of speaking them, the abuse would have been different. She was punished for using her own voice.
“This is not just ableism. It is ableism and sexism working together.
“Women are already dehumanised for speaking up, and disabled people are constantly told we should be silent.”
13 March 2025
Failed by the SEND system: Five young disabled campaigners tell MPs government must ‘listen to our voices’
Five young disabled people who have been failed by the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system have told MPs that the government and education sector must listen to their voices if they want to fix the barriers they have faced.
Lucy Bowerman, Sarah Cobb, Joanna Hall, Katie Nellist and Madeline Thomas all gave evidence to members of the Commons education committee on Tuesday as part of its Solving the SEND Crisis inquiry.
They spoke of lengthy delays in diagnosis, failures in support during their secondary school years, the impact of these failures on their mental health, and the critical lack of resources within mainstream schools.
All of them had spent significant portions of their school years in mainstream education, but most had also spent some time in specialist settings or out of education entirely.
Lucy Bowerman said she had been “completely failed by the system”, which led to her spending “prolonged periods out of education”.
She told the MPs: “There are so many simple things that could have been done that just weren’t.
“I guess it’s alright to offer somebody support, but if you’re not offering them the right support, then what’s the point in doing it, because you can actually cause further trauma and further damage to people with not doing that.”
She said schools needed to ensure there was “flexibility”, including around the curriculum, and ensure they were “listening to the person and their family”, and “remembering that every person is their own unique individual, with individual needs, individual likes and dislikes, and it’s around tailoring things to that rather than insisting that people conform to social norms and fit into silly little boxes”.
Joanna Hall said that, at secondary school in Sheffield, there was only one SEN-trained professional in a school for about 1,000 pupils.
She said education settings need to be “considerate of what works for that particular person” and not always assume that if someone is unwell it is because of “exam stress”.
She said: “Because for me, that is the only thing I’ve enjoyed about school is the academics.
“Socially, I’ve struggled, communication, the sensory element of it, it was hell.”
She added: “In terms of making things better, I think having more options for people and considering what that particular person wants to do.
“Mainstream school is not equipped to deal with SEN effectively, but it could be, it’s a lack of funding.”
And she said the “academic focus on league tables” in mainstream settings “is a massive issue” because “all the teachers are so stressed by it, which then bleeds into the children”.
Sarah Cobb said her support at primary school had been “absolutely brilliant”, but it was when she moved to secondary school that the “support all started to fall apart”, although it was “brilliant” while she was in the sixth form and “really good” at university, where she receives disabled students’ allowance and the university has put adjustments in place.
But she said the uncertainty of whether she would receive the support she needs had been “really anxiety-inducing” and had “taken a toll on my mental health”.
She also said she had “really struggled” with inaccessible teaching materials, and the impact of having to spend time outside the classroom during practical demonstrations in physics lessons because of her health conditions, and also outside the sports hall during PE because she couldn’t take part, which she said “felt so isolating”.
Madeline Thomas said that “flexibility and empathy” were vital, and she told the MPs how much distress she experienced by having to conform to a series of rules around a new school uniform, which became “overwhelming”.
She said: “I think that is the heart of it, just empathy and being able to recognise that despite those rules and regulations, each child is a separate individual, and each child needs to be taken into account as a whole person, rather than a statistic.”
She told the committee that she and her parents had had to “fight” for the support she eventually received after leaving mainstream education.
She said: “I do believe that, especially from how vocal I was about my experiences and how much I was struggling when I was younger, the issues that I was having could have been noticed earlier.
“And I think that if they had, I possibly would have gotten much more support, and I may have been able to have stayed in mainstream education.”
Katie Nellist said the support she received had improved while she was at secondary school when she received an autism diagnosis, but she was “still unable to cope” and is now educated outside school.
Although she has an education, health and care plan (EHCP), it has changed many times because she was “moving provision a lot, because no-one could work out why I couldn’t go to school”.
She told the committee: “Every time you need to get a change with your local authority to the EHCP, you’re stuck waiting for such a long time because there’s always this back and forth and they don’t listen to you, and there’s always communication delays, and it just takes such a long time.
“Even if you are in crisis right now, there’s nothing you can do, you’re just stuck waiting, and that takes such a big toll on families, because you’re having to advocate for yourself constantly.”
She also told the committee that she believed the term “inclusive” was being misused by the education sector and it was being used “as a blanket term” that “just removes the nuances and the fact that people are individuals with needs that may conflict with each other”.
She said teachers needed to “sit down and have a long chat with each pupil and kind of understand what’s going on with them, and mainstream schools just do not have the resources to do it at all”.
She said that “smaller class sizes would help some people, smaller schools overall.
“School is really overwhelming, it’s just sensory overload constantly, constantly.”
Asked for their final messages for the government, all five spoke about the need for better communication and to listen to the voices of young disabled people.
Lucy Bowerman said the government needed to “listen to people like us and listen to their families and when you do that you will start getting all of the information you need”.
Madeline Thomas said the government needed “to keep young people within these conversations and to keep listening to our voices and to have us within those decisions”.
Sarah Cobb said they needed to “listen to the individual and make sure you include them in the conversation”.
Katie Nellist called on those in power to put the “youth voice at the heart of all SEND services and functions and everything including that young person” and for local authorities “to stop fighting families and start working with families and young people”.
And Joanna Hall said the government needed to ensure that they “don’t leave the working-class kids out of it” as their parents themselves often have education barriers that mean it is harder for them to advocate for their children.
13 March 2025
Not one electric vehicle public charging point across the UK meets government’s accessibility standard, say MPs
There is not a single public charging point for electric vehicles across the whole of the UK that meets the government’s own accessibility standard, a report by a committee of MPs has found.
The Commons public accounts committee said disabled drivers had been “left behind” in the rollout of public charge points.
Within 10 years, 1.35 million disabled drivers are expected to be wholly or partly dependent on public charge points.
But many charge points, or their surroundings, have features that make them inaccessible to some disabled drivers, such as being placed on kerbs or with obstructions, or due to the weight of the cable.
The Department for Transport (DfT) co-sponsored a new accessibility standard* for charge points – the world’s first national standard on the accessibility of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure – alongside Motability Foundation and the British Standard Institution.
But two years on from its launch, DfT has not made its use compulsory.
Motability Foundation told the committee that there were still no charge points in the UK which were fully compliant with the standard.
DfT is currently working with the industry to review the standard to assess its implementation and understand how to improve its adoption, with the review set to conclude this spring.
The review’s findings could include examining action to align accessibility standards with other countries, which could help with the availability of components.
The Labour government has pledged to phase out new petrol and diesel car sales by 2030, with all new cars and vans to be zero emission from 2035.
But this shift to electric vehicles means a wide network of public charge points is crucial.
The committee’s report says that, while most drivers have driveways or garages where they can install a charge point for their private use, those without access to off-street parking rely on public charge points.
Public charging can cost three times as much as private charge points.
Motability Foundation told the committee that disabled people are less likely to own their own home and have access to private charging through off–street parking, so are more likely to face this financial penalty.
Graham Footer, chief executive of Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK), told Disability News Service: “The almost total lack of accessible public charging infrastructure is unacceptable and a stain on the EV industry, which has failed to make charging inclusive for all.
“DMUK is working hard to shine a spotlight on this issue.
“From research we have carried out, we know that 40 per cent of our members live in a dwelling that doesn’t allow for a home charger, meaning they will be totally reliant on public charging infrastructure.”
He said the failure to install accessible charging points was “appalling”.
He added: “If disabled motorists are expected to transition to electric vehicles, then accessible public charging infrastructure must be provided.
“Many of our members would be happy to switch to an electric vehicle but at present they are prevented from doing so because they cannot charge them.”
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the committee’s chair, said it was “of deep concern that the needs of disabled drivers are being ignored.
“Not a single charge point in the country is currently fully accessible.
“We are risking baking a serious injustice into the fabric of a major part of our national infrastructure.”
The committee also found that the government had been slow to address gaps in charge point provision, and it raised concerns about regional differences.
About 73,000 public charge points were installed in the UK by January 2025, and while the government is set to reach the 300,000 DfT believes are needed by 2030, those that have been installed are not “evenly spread across the country”, with 43 per cent of them in the south-east and London.
Sir Geoffrey said the government “must move at pace to overcome current delays and encourage take-up, while taking the time to ensure no-one gets left behind in this all-important shift to the future”.
A DfT spokesperson said: “The government is dedicated to ensuring all electric vehicle drivers, including those with disabilities, can easily access public charge points that meet their needs.
“We are continuing to work with industry to increase adoption of standards for accessible EV charging infrastructure.”
*Electric Vehicles Accessible Charging Specification: PAS 1899:2022
13 March 2025
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
The requirement for a high court judge to approve assisted dying applications has been scrapped by MPs. A committee scrutinising the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill voted on Wednesday to remove a clause which had been touted as the reason the proposed legislation for England and Wales would be the strictest in the world: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/assisted-dying-bill-judge-terminally-ill-b2713943.html
Teenagers with incurable conditions are among hundreds a week being stripped of disability benefits after their 16th birthdays. Nearly a third of those who received disability living allowance in childhood had claims for personal independence payment rejected when trying to move to the adult benefit, BBC analysis has found: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgn1w1jvl9o
13 March 2025
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
