DWP told to review ‘inadequate’ support for ‘vulnerable’ benefit claimants
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been told its support for “vulnerable” benefit claimants is “inadequate” and must be re-examined, after a review found it failed a man with learning difficulties who was repeatedly exposed to family violence.
The safeguarding adults review highlighted how DWP staff failed to provide the necessary support to George*, a disabled man with learning difficulties from a troubled family background, who lived in fear of his younger brother Andrew* at their home in Lambeth, south London.
The lack of support from DWP and other agencies – and their lack of understanding of his inability to speak up for himself – eventually led to George having to be rescued from the family home by a neighbour in November 2019, after his brother set fire to the house and attacked him.
It is just the latest in a lengthy series of serious incidents linked to DWP failures, stretching back more than 10 years, many of which have led to the deaths of disabled claimants.
The review, commissioned by Lambeth Safeguarding Adults Board and published quietly by the council last summer, says the board “will need to be assured [by DWP] that the current process and interactions as demonstrated in this report are recognised as inadequate in providing the support needed to provide benefits to vulnerable adults”.
It also says that DWP will have to convince the board that it has an internal system to “flag and support vulnerable adults which is generated by its own staff” and does not rely on adult social services to raise concerns.
Although work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey has stressed previously that she is trying to “accelerate” DWP’s work with council safeguarding teams and safeguarding boards, she has also insisted that it is local councils and health bodies that have a statutory duty of care to benefit claimants and not her department.
The Lambeth safeguarding review raises serious questions over whether Coffey and her department are continuing to fail in their duty to support claimants in vulnerable situations.
It also raises new concerns over claims of a culture of contempt and inhumanity within DWP, which again have stretched back over many years.
The review describes how different agencies, including DWP, failed to understand the vulnerability of George’s situation, and how his needs were rarely at the forefront of their decision-making.
It also describes how DWP’s systems were “not appropriately adapted” to meet George’s needs, despite a Lambeth social services team “proactively pushing for information and solutions” to the problems he and his brother were facing in accessing benefits.
The review adds: “DWP were at times unable or unwilling to engage with both brothers and failed to understand the impact of a learning difficulty or disability on their ability to engage fully with the process of accessing benefits.”
The review describes how there had been multiple incidents of violence at the family home before Andrew was imprisoned for attacking their eldest brother Michael with a hammer in 2013.
Among those incidents, Andrew had stabbed George in the back in 2003 and attacked Michael’s hands with a hammer the following year.
The review says that Andrew had a history of violence and alcohol abuse and exercised “coercive control” over his two older brothers.
While he was in prison between 2013 and 2018, there were no police incidents at the home.
Their father, a violent alcoholic, had died suddenly at home, and their mother had died years later in 2016 after a period of neglect and self-neglect, while Michael died in February 2019, apparently due to alcohol-related health complications.
Both George and Andrew had been placed in Lambeth care homes as children and have been contacted by the REDRESS scheme, which was set up to pay compensation to people abused while in Lambeth council’s care as children.
George was unable to manage his own financial affairs and had been dependent for money on his mother, then his brother Michael, and finally his other brother Andrew.
It later emerged that George had been financially abused by Andrew, who had been using his benefit payments to buy alcohol and had not been buying him food, but it was only after the arson incident that George finally admitted that he was scared of Andrew and always had been.
Andrew has now been returned to prison for breaching his licence, while George has been successfully placed in a Shared Lives scheme and is said to be “making progress”.
The safeguarding review also makes a series of recommendations for other agencies, including Lambeth’s adult social care department, local health services, the Metropolitan police, and the probation service.
It concludes that the whole family had been subject to repeated interventions from various agencies but that no “history or context was explored in sufficient detail”, including how those interventions impacted on George.
Much of what was said to agencies by the family was “accepted at face value and not professionally verified”, while George was often in Andrew’s presence when agreeing to decisions affecting his life and was never offered confidential advocacy.
All the agencies, including DWP, “displayed a general lack of understanding of how George’s learning difficulties impacted on his ability to self-advocate which contributed significantly to his vulnerability to abuse”, the review says.
And referral systems used by the agencies “relied on reading materials, IT access, attending unfamiliar venues and admitting strangers to the house when it was clear that George’s literacy and numeracy skills and his comprehension of multiple issues was poor”.
A DWP spokesperson declined to comment on the review’s recommendations.
But he said in a statement: “We support millions of people every year.
“Our priority is they get the benefits to which they are entitled as soon as possible, and to ensure they receive a supportive and compassionate service.
“This is what happens in the vast majority of cases, but when sadly this does not, we take it very seriously and in recent years have taken great steps to improve the support we give to our most vulnerable.”
*Not their real names
13 January 2022
Ministers have already broken six Disability Strategy pledges, just months after launch
The government has already broken at least six promises it made in last summer’s much-criticised National Disability Strategy, responses by various departments this week have confirmed.
Analysis of the strategy, published last July, shows that at least six of the actions it promised would be carried out by the end of 2021 have not been completed.
This includes action on tackling disability hate crime, the accessible housing crisis, disability employment and how the government engages with disabled people.
When the strategy was published, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, described it as the “down payment” on his promise to “build back better and fairer, for all our disabled people”.
But the strategy has been described as “just cynical repackaging”, with analysis by Disability News Service last August exposing its lack of bold initiatives and new funding, and how ministers had padded it out with scores of consultations, reviews and vague pledges.
Fresh analysis of the strategy now shows that at least six of the “commitments” made in the document have already been broken.
One of the pledges was to act on disability hate crime, as part of a new government crime and disorder strategy that would be published in 2021. That document has yet to appear.
The disability strategy also promised action by the end of 2021 on how the government would deliver more accessible new homes, through its long-awaited response to a consultation on raising accessibility standards in England, which ended in December 2020. That response has yet to be published.
The government committed to publish new guidance for local authorities in England on “effective delivery” of the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) scheme. Again, this was promised “during 2021”, but has yet to appear.
The strategy also promised updated guidance for employers who have joined the government’s much-criticised Disability Confident scheme. Again, that updated guidance has not yet been published.
And the strategy promised that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) would publish proposals “by the end of 2021” to “ensure that every disabled person who wants to start a business has the opportunity to do so”. Again, these proposals have not yet been published.
Finally, there was a pledge to review the government’s engagement with disabled people, an area in which ministers have faced repeated criticism, by December 2021.
In a blog posted on 29 December, the minister for disabled people, Chloe Smith, said that this review had now been extended until the spring of 2022 so as to provide “a full opportunity for meaningful engagement with our stakeholders”.
Kamran Mallick, chief executive of Disability Rights UK, who raised some of these delays in a new year message, said: “With a number of actions in the disability strategy not being delivered to time, we need more transparency and communication from government as to the reasons for delay, and information on revised timescales and consultation arrangements.
“We also need consultation with DPOs [disabled people’s organisations] and disabled people prior to actions being implemented.
“We are the ones affected by the actions, yet we are often not part of the process.
“The disability strategy must be treated seriously and disabled people need regular reports on its implementation.
“Whilst it is far from a transformational agenda for change, there are actions which could improve the lives of disabled people and failing to involve us or not delivering the actions set out is not acceptable.”
The minister for disabled people, Chloe Smith, declined to explain this week why so many of the government’s “commitments” had already been broken.
And she declined to say if this showed that the government was not treating disabled people as a priority, and if the prime minister’s statement that the strategy was the “down payment” on his promise to “build back better and fairer, for all our disabled people” had now been exposed as empty rhetoric.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said the Disability Confident review was “well underway”, with an update to guidance for employers expected in the spring.
A Home Office spokesperson said it was “working with disabled people and other disability stakeholders to develop a new strategy for tackling hate crime which will be published shortly”.
The Home Office said the delay in publishing the hate crime strategy was due to competing priorities.
A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities declined to explain why the DFG guidance and the accessible homes consultation response had not been published, but the department said they were expected to be delivered this spring.
BEIS said its self-employment proposals were part of a wider enterprise strategy, which had been delayed and would be published later this year.
A BEIS spokesperson said: “We are committed to making the world of work more inclusive and accessible for disabled people.
“We have been talking to disabled business leaders and stakeholders and charities to ensure disabled people are given the opportunities and support they need to start their own businesses, and this will form part of our enterprise strategy due to be published this year.”
13 January 2022
Only major government funding will solve access problems, say rail operators
Rail operators believe that only “major” government funding will solve the accessibility problems at stations across the country, a new report published by the Department for Transport (DfT) has revealed.
The report, written by the independent research organisation NatCen on DfT’s behalf and published by the department with almost no publicity, says operators believe that “substantial” government investment is needed to make train stations accessible.
One of the rail operators that NatCen spoke to for its research said that 60 per cent of its stations lacked step-free access from street to platform level.
Some operators also told NatCen that the ability of disabled passengers to board and alight from trains at all the stations they manage without requiring any physical assistance was a key priority for accessibility.
The NatCen “baseline report” was commissioned to provide ministers with a detailed picture of disabled people’s experience of the transport network to compare with the situation after the full implementation of the government’s Inclusive Transport Strategy (ITS), which was published in July 2018 and focuses on transport in England.
The baseline report – which includes results from a survey of more than 3,000 people, including more than 1,100 disabled people – says the core ITS themes of awareness and enforcement of passenger rights; staff training; improved information; and inclusive physical infrastructure are “all highlighted as needing further work”.
The report says that although 90 per cent of those who had used the Passenger Assist service on the rail network said they felt satisfied or very satisfied with the service overall, some of those who took part in one-to-one interviews told a different story.
One participant said they had been taken to the wrong platform and left there, while another said staff only show up on about half the number of occasions they are booked.
One survey respondent, a young woman with a mobility impairment, said: “I’ve had so many occasions of booking assistance and when I arrive at the station, they have no record of it and the staff usually make it known that it’s an inconvenience!
“I’ve had more than one experience of booking Passenger Assist in advance and then being forced to miss my stop because the assistance wasn’t waiting at my arrival station.”
The report says that staff are “pivotal to ensuring that the transport network is accessible for disabled people and significantly contribute to promoting confidence”.
But it adds: “Disabled users feel that the delivery of service is inconsistent and there is a perception that staff do not always understand their needs.
“Incidents of rudeness, impatience, and dismissiveness were reported and particularly impacted those with less visible disabilities, including people with cognitive and mental health conditions.”
The report also says that most assistance dog users said they had been illegally denied service by a taxi driver.
Despite this, there were “relatively low” numbers of local authorities who reported prosecuting drivers or imposing sanctions on their licenses in the previous year.
And almost half (47 per cent) of assistance dog users who responded to the NatCen survey said they had been charged more by taxis or private hire vehicles occasionally or regularly because of travelling with their assistance dog.
Some local authorities highlighted the difficulty of persuading drivers to provide wheelchair-accessible taxis or private hire vehicles, because of their relatively high cost and the smaller number of customers who need them.
Some offer lower licensing fees or relax requirements on the age at which vehicles need to be taken out of service, to try to tempt drivers to choose a wheelchair-accessible option.
But one local authority suggested that without extra funding from central government it would be difficult to make a significant improvement in take-up, while “authorities suggested that a consistent set of national policy requirements for vehicles would be perceived as fairer and would make it easier to enforce”.
The report also found that disabled people are more likely than non-disabled people to rely on taxis, which are relatively more expensive than other modes of transport, even though they are likely to have a lower income.
And it found that provision of audio-visual information on buses was “inconsistent and of variable quality”.
A follow-up to the NatCen report in 2023 “will be able to show whether the work that is being done across the network is beginning to impact the experiences of disabled people”, and how the ITS may have contributed to those changes.
The government said at the time of the ITS launch in 2018 that its “aspiration” was that by 2030 “all major transport hubs and terminals on both public and private transport networks will meet the needs of disabled people, including toilet and changing facilities, straightforward signage, audio and visual messaging and space to navigate”.
Although the NatCen research was carried out between August 2020 and February 2021, it focused on people’s perceptions and experiences of travel on buses and trains and in taxis and private hire vehicles in the 12 months before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
This week, DfT also published two new pieces of guidance on inclusive mobility, one on making transport accessible for passengers and pedestrians, and another on using tactile paving surfaces.
It also announced that the government was working with the disability charity Scope to develop a new Disabled Persons Passenger Charter for bus, coach, taxi, private hire vehicles and rail.
The charter will “collate existing information for passengers and centralise it into one coherent and easy-to-use format”, and then publish it online.
13 January 2022
DWP is refusing to correct injustice caused to 118,000 claimants, says ombudsman
An ombudsman has heavily criticised the government for refusing to rectify the injustice caused by its treatment of more than 118,000 disabled benefit claimants who have been denied compensation following a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) blunder.
The ombudsman’s criticism came after an investigation into how DWP treated a disabled woman with several long-term physical and mental health conditions who was left unable to heat her home or buy the food she needed to keep healthy for five years.
A report published today (Thursday) by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman says that Ms U, who is now 62 and lives in south-east London, was left about £80-a-week worse off than she should have been between 2012 and 2017.
The ombudsman said this had had a “devastating” impact on her health, wellbeing and finances.
Because of DWP’s blunders, she was left at risk of hypothermia, which affected her arthritis, and because she could not access passported benefits she was unable to secure urgently needed dental treatment, and did not receive the free prescriptions she needed to treat her health conditions, or about £700 under the Warm Home Discount Scheme.
Her health declined drastically: her hair fell out, she lost weight and her mental health deteriorated.
But although DWP eventually paid her the arrears she was owed – more than £19,800 – it refused to pay her compensation for the five years of hardship she experienced due to its errors, even though its own policies state that people should be offered compensation if they experience injustice and hardship because of administrative errors.
Ms U was just one of more than 118,000 disabled people impacted by DWP’s botched migration of former claimants of incapacity benefit (IB) and other benefits to the new employment and support allowance (ESA) from 2011 onwards.
The department failed to realise that many of these claimants were entitled to income-related ESA – and therefore to associated disability premiums – rather than just the contributory form of ESA.
A DWP report last July said that 118,000 ESA claimants qualified for arrears payments through a so-called Legal Entitlements and Administrative Practices (LEAP) exercise, but DWP has refused to allow them also to claim compensation for the hardship caused by its mistakes.
The LEAP exercise has now ended*, with DWP making arrears payments of £613 million.
DWP has stressed that Ms U’s case was not part of LEAP and was dealt with in 2017 before the exercise began later that year.
But the ombudsman concluded this week that DWP’s failure to act in line with the relevant guidance was “maladministration” and had caused Ms U an “unremedied” and “significant injustice”.
It called on DWP to write to Ms U to apologise, to pay interest on top of the arrears it had already paid her, and to make a payment of £7,500 as compensation for the impact of its failings.
The ombudsman also called on ministers to offer the same opportunity to claim compensation to the other disabled people affected by the ESA blunder, and to take action to remedy losses caused to those not covered by the LEAP exercise.
DWP has told the ombudsman that the unfortunate handling of Ms U’s case was a simple misunderstanding and that there was no evidence that other non-LEAP exercise claimants were affected.
And it has refused to offer compensation to others affected by its bungling of the incapacity benefit migration.
The ombudsman’s report says: “We think it is extremely disappointing that having accepted the maladministration we identified, DWP has not accepted our recommendations to do something proactive about others it knows must be in the same position as Ms U.”
Ombudsman Rob Behrens said Ms U’s case was “deeply distressing”.
He said: “It is human to make mistakes but not acting to right wrongs is a matter of policy choice.
“In this case, that choice has been made by the very organisation that is responsible for supporting those most in need.
“That those affected are unable to claim compensation for this error is poor public policy in practice, and the situation is made worse given that they have already waited years to receive the benefits to which they are entitled.
“We don’t know how many more Ms Us there are out there. That is why I urge the DWP to allow people affected to claim for compensation in recognition of its error and the potentially devastating impact it has had on people’s lives.”
Marsha de Cordova, the disabled Labour MP and former shadow women and equalities secretary, said this morning (Thursday) on Twitter: “The PHSO report is yet another example of this government’s cruel and hostile environment they’ve created for disabled people.
“That 118,00 disabled people on social security are being denied compensation is unacceptable. They need to be fully compensated.”
Cllr Mariam Lolavar, a Labour councillor and Greenwich council’s cabinet member for business and economic growth, said: “Our welfare rights team has been campaigning to get Ms U’s benefits reinstated by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) since 2017.
“It has been a very long process and put a disabled resident through extreme and unnecessary hardship.
“I am delighted that the ombudsman has ruled that Ms U is entitled to compensation from the DWP.
“We are one of the few boroughs that continue to fund a welfare rights team but Ms U’s callous treatment by the DWP just goes to show what an invaluable support the team provides to our most vulnerable residents.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “Our priority is that all people get the financial support to which they are entitled and we have identified those affected by this issue, making 118,000 benefit arrears payments in full.”
DWP said it would be issuing an apology and providing compensation to Ms U, as recommended by the ombudsman.
But the department does not appear to have accepted the ombudsman’s recommendation that it should offer the same opportunity to claim compensation to the other disabled people affected by the migration blunder, although it had not clarified this point by noon today (Thursday).
It also does not appear to have accepted the recommendation that it takes action to remedy the losses caused to those not covered by the LEAP exercise, but again had not clarified this point by noon today.
*Those claimants – or their next of kin – who believe they may have been missed by the LEAP exercise can ask DWP to review their case by calling freephone 0800 169 0310
13 January 2022
Government plans for more virtual court hearings ‘will lead to widespread injustice’
Government plans to expand the number of trials and other criminal hearings carried out remotely through video and telephone links will expose disabled defendants to widespread discrimination and injustice, campaigners have warned.
Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) and criminal justice campaigners said this week that defendants with learning difficulties, who are neurodivergent, or experience mental distress will be particularly at risk of unfair trials if the plans become law.
They spoke out as the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill continued its penultimate stage in the House of Lords, having already been approved by MPs.
The bill includes a clause that will allow video and telephone links for a wide range of trials and other criminal hearings, relying only on the judge to identify defendants with learning difficulties, who are neurodivergent or who have mental distress.
But organisations including Fair Trials and the Neurodivergence in Criminal Justice Network, and DPOs such as Disabled People Against Cuts, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, Inclusion London, National Survivor User Network and Disability Rights UK (DR UK) say this is “completely insufficient protection”.
Kamran Mallick, DR UK’s chief executive, said: “This provision discriminates against disabled defendants and could lead to serious miscarriages of justice.
“Trials should be shaped around the needs of defendants, to ensure that processes are fair and barriers are removed.
“Expert screening of the needs of defendants is absolutely vital.”
DR UK and the other organisations were hoping that peers would back an amendment to the bill that had been tabled by the Labour shadow justice spokesperson Lord Ponsonby.
The Labour peer told the Lords this week that his amendment would ensure that all defendants who might appear on a video or telephone link from a location outside court should be subject to a health needs screening, with the results passed to the judge, who could then make an “informed decision” on whether the technology would be used, which he said was “an unanswerable point”.
But despite his argument, he did not ask fellow peers to vote on his amendment.
The Tory justice minister Lord Wolfson said that live links “offer a way for vulnerable court users to participate in proceedings which might otherwise feel overwhelming for them.
“We are concerned that if we adopted a blanket approach of time-consuming and possibly intrusive physical and mental health examinations, those benefits for some vulnerable court users might be undermined.”
But last July, the then justice secretary, Robert Buckland, had said that screening (watch from 45 minutes) was “absolutely essential if we’re really going to get to the heart of the needs of those who come into contact with the criminal justice system”.
He said: “Screening will really open the door, not just to the way that prisoners are looked after and managed within the prison estate but the way in which they are dealt with in court.”
Lord Ponsonby told Disability News Service that he had been frustrated that he had not been able to push his amendment to a vote, and was “disappointed” with the minister’s response which “did not reflect the weight I had given to this amendment”.
He pointed to a briefing by a Labour adviser who said that the party was “only able to choose a very small number of amendments to vote on” at a bill’s report stage, while the debate had taken place at about 10pm, a time when opposition votes “are almost never successful”.
But the Labour peer added: “I expect there will be other legislative opportunities to raise the issue of health screening for litigants who take part in court proceedings remotely.”
The DPOs and criminal justice organisations that raised their concerns this week also point to research by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which warned two years ago of the risks to disabled people’s human rights posed by the rapid increase in the use of video technology in the criminal justice system in England and Wales during the COVID-19 crisis.
The commission said later that “almost all” the criminal justice professionals it had interviewed felt that the use of video hearings “does not enable defendants or accused people to participate effectively, and reduces opportunities to identify if they have a cognitive impairment, mental health condition and/or neuro-diverse condition”.
13 January 2022
Concern as former Tory minister bids to legalise assisted suicide by hijacking health bill
An attempt to legalise assisted suicide by hijacking the government’s heath and care bill has raised serious concerns among disabled activists.
The Conservative peer Lord Forsyth, a former secretary of state for Scotland, has tabled an amendment to the bill that could make legalised assisted suicide almost inevitable if it was passed by peers and MPs.
His amendment would force the health secretary to publish a bill that would “permit terminally ill, mentally competent adults legally to end their own lives with medical assistance”.
It follows an earlier amendment to the bill tabled by Baroness Meacher, chair of Dignity in Dying – the organisation which leads the campaign for legalisation – that some campaigners have said would ease the route towards legalisation.
Her amendment states that regulations in the health and care bill on patient choice must also apply to those with a diagnosis of terminal illness, and that NHS and other “relevant” bodies “must have regard to the needs and preferences recorded in such conversations” when deciding whether to provide services.
But despite last week declining to rule out the possibility that her amendment could have the effect of legalising assisted suicide, if it became law, Baroness Meacher this week denied that it would do so.
In an email sent to fellow peers on Monday, she insisted that her amendment “does not have the effect of legalising assisted dying but to strengthen and enhance the existing rights that dying people have already under existing laws”.
The organisation she chairs, Dignity in Dying (DiD), said that her amendment would improve patient choice at the end of life, “including improved access to existing care and treatment options and advance care planning”.
And it said that her amendment “solely concerns the options currently available under our existing laws around choice at the end of life and therefore does not relate to assisted dying, nor does it make any provisions for it in the future”.
But DiD said it did support Lord Forsyth’s amendment, which it said would “ensure that parliamentarians can examine the evidence on both sides of the argument in full and then vote according to their individual conscience, with the government remaining neutral on the question of whether or not the law should change”.
The disabled crossbench peer Baroness [Jane] Campbell, founder of Not Dead Yet UK (NDY UK), the leading organisation of disabled people campaigning against legalisation, said she was concerned about both amendments.
She said: “The chances of the government allowing these two tactical amendments to pave the way for assisted suicide legislation into the bill are very slim.
“So, I am not too concerned.
“However, it clearly indicates that there are a significant number of parliamentarians who are happy to utilise every parliamentary tactic in the book to further their deadly pursuit to legalise state sanctioned assisted suicide.
“We must be prepared to expose them at all times.”
Baroness Meacher’s own assisted dying bill, which would allow “competent adults who are terminally ill to be provided at their request with specified assistance to end their own life”, is awaiting its committee stage in the House of Lords.
Disabled people opposed to her bill have described it as “dangerous” and “incoherent” and have called on parliament to focus on ensuring disabled people have a right to live independently, before even considering legalisation of assisted suicide.
13 January 2022
Disabled activist’s ‘hate speech’ campaign has sweet success with retailers
At least three major retailers appear to have taken action over their own brands of a top-selling type of sweet after pressure from a disabled activist who has linked its name to disability hate speech.
Dr Erin Pritchard, a lecturer in disability and education at Liverpool Hope University, has already persuaded M&S to rename its own line of “midget gems” – a chewy sweet similar to wine gums – after pointing out how offensive the word “midget” is to her and other people with dwarfism.
M&S said this week that it had changed the name of its own-brand version of the sweet to “mini gems” after “suggestions from our colleagues and the insights shared by Dr Erin Pritchard”.
Now Tesco has also taken action, while Morrisons appears to have followed suit.
Tesco said it was reviewing the name of its own-brand version – and is already describing the sweets on its website as “Tesco Mini Gems” – while the Morrisons website has removed its own brand “midget gems” from its website.
Pritchard said: “The word ‘midget’ is a form of hate speech and contributes to the prejudice that people with dwarfism experience on a daily basis.
“Having spoken with various firms about the use of the word ‘midget’, it’s clear that many companies are simply unaware of just how offensive the term is, and I’ve had to explain to them why it’s such an issue.
“We need better awareness about this particular word so that things can change for the better.
“And I’m grateful that M&S has been willing to listen to the concerns of people with dwarfism and has gone ahead with the rebranding.”
She said the vegan-friendly Free From Fellows brand had also agreed to rename its gems sweets, although bags of sweets carrying the offensive name were yesterday (Wednesday) still available on its website.
Pritchard added: “It is truly baffling that, in this day and age, a number of British retailers are still able to use this disablist hate speech to market their products.”
Writing in August 2020 in Big Issue North, she said the word “midget” originally came from the word “midge”, a type of small gnat-like insect.
She wrote: “Its origin automatically dehumanises people like me.
“It was a term popularised during the Victorian freak show, where many disabled people, including people with dwarfism, were oppressed and exploited.”
An M&S spokesperson said: “We are committed to being an inclusive retailer – from how we support our colleagues, through to the products we offer and the way we market them to our 32 million customers.
“Following suggestions from our colleagues and the insights shared by Dr Erin Pritchard, we introduced new mini gem packaging last year, which has since been rolled out to all of our stores.”
A Tesco spokesperson said: “Everyone is welcome at Tesco and we would not want any of our products to cause offence.
“We are grateful to Dr Pritchard for bringing this to our attention and we will be reviewing the name of this product.”
Morrisons had not responded to requests to comment by noon today (Thursday).
A spokesperson for Bravura Foods, which owns the Free From Fellows brand, said: “Free From Fellows would like to confirm they are planning on making these changes as soon as possible, once existing stock has run out.
“They would also like to thank Erin for bringing this issue to their attention so they can act accordingly.”
13 January 2022
New figures show few WCAs being carried out face-to-face
New figures released by the government show how nearly all “fitness for work” assessments are now being carried out on the telephone, or simply by examining paperwork.
The figures show that three-quarters (73 per cent) of completed work capability assessments (WCAs) were carried out by telephone between September and November last year.
Another 15 per cent were “paper-based” assessments, carried out on the basis of written information such as doctors’ letters and questionnaires completed by the claimant.
The figures were released by the minister for disabled people, Chloe Smith, in response to a written question by Labour MP Paul Blomfield.
They show that just six per cent of completed WCAs were carried out face-to-face in the last six months.
They also show that the proportion of assessments carried out by telephone has fallen slightly, with the 73 per cent figure for the last three months comparing with 80 per cent over the whole of the last 12 months (December 2020 to November 2021).
This appears to be partly because of a steady rise in the number of WCAs carried out by video.
The proportion of video assessments has risen from just two per cent over the whole year to six per cent in the last three months.
The figures are based on information provided to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) by its private sector contractor Maximus.
They appear to demonstrate DWP’s plan to shift gradually away from requiring face-to-face meetings between claimants and assessors – even after the pandemic – and towards the use of phone and video assessments, and to allow an increasing proportion of assessments to be carried out only on the basis of paperwork.
The government’s Shaping Future Support green paper stated last July: “Before the coronavirus pandemic, where the necessary evidence was not available, a face-to-face assessment was usually carried out to gather the evidence needed.
“To develop our services and improve people’s experience we have been exploring different ways to conduct assessments.”
The green paper highlighted the use of telephone and video assessments instead of face-to-face meetings, and it added: “To make more decisions quickly and simply, and reduce the need for face-to-face assessments, we want to maximise the use of paper-based assessments and make greater use of triaging… so that people only have to go through face-to-face assessments where these are absolutely necessary.”
This is likely to cut the cost of the assessment process.
Disability News Service (DNS) revealed in November how DWP is set to hand profit-making organisations contracts worth nearly £2.3 billion over the next five years to assess disabled people for their benefits.
Documents released by DWP to DNS the following month showed that the department had admitted to organisations seeking to win these contracts that its system for assessing disabled people for their eligibility for benefits was “fragmented” and “inefficient”.
The assessment process – both for employment and support allowance and personal independence payment – has been linked to countless deaths of claimants and other serious harm over the last decade.
It has been repeatedly criticised, including through research and reports by disabled people’s grassroots groups, MPs and the National Audit Office.
Last month, Channel 4’s Dispatches revealed the results of a survey of more than 3,500 disabled people who have been through the assessment system, which found that nearly a third of them said their dealings with DWP had caused them to plan to take their own lives.
13 January 2022
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
Care home residents were almost 20 times more likely to die than older people living in their own homes during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in England, research suggests: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/care-england-university-of-oxford-london-school-of-hygiene-and-tropical-medicine-europe-b1990936.html
Social care services are turning away new clients and handing back existing care packages as they struggle with staffing shortages exacerbated by the spread of the omicron COVID-19 variant, a survey has found: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/social-care-providers-closed-uk-b1992140.html
A mother and stepfather who kept their starving autistic son locked in a “disgusting” attic bedroom have been found guilty of false imprisonment: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-59915649
Three care home workers have been jailed for their “abhorrent” treatment of disabled residents: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/care-home-workers-jailed-horrific-25893210
The parents of a vulnerable young woman who killed herself after she was refused a psychiatric bed have welcomed a decision to strike off one of the nurses involved, saying they hoped the move would help other families “appallingly failed by mental health services”: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/sally-mays-patrick-mckee-hull-b1991299.html
A heartbroken mum said she was enduring her “worst nightmare” after her autistic son was dangled over a bridge by bullies as part of a vicious hate campaign: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/police-probe-horrific-tamworth-bully-22726056?fbclid=IwAR0JaYKL0HANrKZ04nSoY0_mRcY3kRuKL5mAdlJeg0OVr4-uRjApp57SGEw
A disabled woman has launched a social media campaign to try to inform drivers about the consequences of blocking wheelchair access by poor parking: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-leicestershire-59894959
13 January 2022
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
