Labour’s broken promise could see it finally face legal action over years of discrimination
Labour is facing the real possibility of legal action over years of disability discrimination within the party, after reneging on plans to hold a national conference and set up a national committee of disabled members.
The party’s national executive committee (NEC) this week decided it would be too expensive to set up national and regional committees for its disabled members and hold the disabled members’ conference, and it decided instead to focus funding on winning the next general election.
It made a similar decision to backtrack on an agreement to set up party structures for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) members.
The party will instead encourage disabled members to join Disability Labour, which is affiliated to the party and will be given two more places on Labour’s national policy forum, while “accessibility training” will be rolled out to Labour officials with regional and constituency roles across the country.
Any plans to set up a national disabled members’ committee and conference will be reviewed after the next general election, but with no promise they will go ahead even then.
Disability Labour has previously warned Labour that it faced possible legal action if it failed to end years of discrimination against disabled party members.
Yesterday (Wednesday), Disability Labour suggested that this legal action was now an option, although it was waiting for the party to confirm it had gone back on the agreement to set up the committees and hold the conference.
Kathy Bole, chair of Disability Labour, said if the reports proved accurate Disability Labour “would have to consider all available options”.
She said: “You can’t abdicate your duties under the Equality Act 2010.
“We will be discussing this situation at our next meeting.
“There is already frustration amongst disabled people with the delays in enacting the rule changes and this information will exacerbate the situation.”
Ellen Morrison, Labour’s disabled members’ representative on the NEC, who was present at this week’s meeting, said her party’s actions failed to match its claim to be the party of equality.
She said the explanation that the party needed to “focus everything on winning a general election and that holding a disabled members’ conference and the national and regional committees just can’t be staffed and resourced” was “hugely disappointing”.
She said: “My view is that you bring equalities groups with you to win a general election.
“The conference and the committees would be exactly the solution we are looking for to ensure we are setting out the policies we need rather than having them set for us, which is unfortunately what we have seen in a number of areas, particularly with the focus on a National Care Service rather than a focus on independent living through a National Independent Living Service.”
Morrison said the paper presented to the NEC had suggested that setting up new structures for disabled and BAME members could be a “distraction”, which she said had been “hurtful” and “deeply frustrating”, even though she believes the word was subsequently removed through an amendment.
She said: “When you view it as ‘us and them’ rather than disabled people being central to everything we are doing, I think that really highlights the party’s view of disabled people.
“We haven’t been central to messaging, whether it’s about policy or otherwise.”
She said she had repeatedly asked Labour leader Keir Starmer in NEC meetings: “Where do you ever mention us, where do you ever point to us, where do you ever include us?
“I just think in every area we are viewed as not central to the project and that is really difficult to swallow.”
She said that she and Carol Sewell, the BAME Labour representative on the NEC, had been reminding and pushing the NEC and Starmer to confirm the proposals.
Morrison and others had worked for months on a working group to prepare a proposal on the new structures that was overwhelmingly approved at last year’s party conference.
Since then, she has spoken at numerous party meetings at which she has told disabled members that the changes were coming and that they were “genuinely important”.
She said: “We all thought the structures were coming. At no point did anyone warn us that this might happen.”
She stressed that the plans for the structures were developed under Starmer’s leadership of the party and were not simply remnants of the previous left-wing leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
Morrison said she believed the NEC decision “potentially” made a legal action more likely because “we are running out of goodwill from disabled people now”.
She said: “We are not getting our access needs met. The culture for us is not good.
“Members feel shut out and ignored, and more than that, discriminated against.
“I could understand [a legal action], and it is something that disabled members say when I speak at meetings.
“Obviously, I think that would be a terrible thing to happen that we have got to the point where the party of equality is going through a legal action with disabled people.
“How have we got to that point?
“I think we are not prioritised in any way and it’s really sad.”
Emily Pomroy-Smith, another leading disabled party member, and chair of South-West Wiltshire CLP*, who fought that seat for Labour at the 2019 general election, said: “I am deeply disappointed with this latest delay to increasing democracy in the Labour party for our disabled members and other minority groups.
“It feels like Groundhog Day, and although I appreciate that the priorities of the party right now are laser-focussed on selecting candidates and winning the next general election, it’s hard not to feel like we are being fobbed off yet again.
“Token seats on committees are absolutely worthless if the concerns of our disabled representatives aren’t being listened to.
“These changes are long overdue, and I know that I and other disabled members are quickly running out of patience.
“The Labour party like to shout about being the party of equality, but actions speak louder than words.”
Labour had failed by noon today to comment on its decision to renege on the plans.
*Constituency Labour Party
1 December 2022
Further DWP delays on benefit deaths legal agreement ‘would be kick in the teeth’
The new work and pensions secretary has been told it will be an “absolute kick in the teeth” for disabled people if he continues delaying a legal agreement that would force his department to improve its treatment of disabled claimants.
The agreement would commit the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to addressing the discrimination faced by disabled claimants of benefits, particularly those with mental distress and learning difficulties.
It follows more than a decade of deaths linked to DWP’s actions and policies.
EHRC announced plans for the section 23 agreement in April, and expected it to be signed by the summer, but Disability News Service revealed last month that no agreement had yet been reached by DWP.
Work and pensions secretary Mel Stride said yesterday (Wednesday) that discussions over signing the agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) were continuing and there had been “positive engagement” with the watchdog.
He told the Commons work and pensions committee – in his first appearance following his appointment in October by Rishi Sunak – that the issue of deaths linked to DWP was an area of “very serious focus for me and I totally understand the responsibilities that this department has in that regard”.
He said DWP was working towards the section 23 agreement “in principle” and discussions with EHRC were “entirely constructive” with “positive engagement”.
But Debbie Abrahams, a Labour member of the committee, told Stride that her understanding was that the equality watchdog would not agree with his description of the discussions.
She said: “It is simply not good enough to say ‘we are making constructive progress’. This needs to be dealt with with absolute urgency.”
She added: “Anybody watching this who has been affected, either as a family member or a friend, and there are hundreds and hundreds, will look at this and think you’re not taking it seriously.”
Abrahams praised the draft Deaths by Welfare timeline for providing “incredible depth of detail” on the links between systemic DWP failings and the deaths of claimants.
She added: “I think it would be reasonable to say that it would be concluded by the end of the year and anything less than that would be seen as an obfuscation and an absolute kick in the teeth to the disabled claimants particularly who have suffered around this, but also to our equality laws.
“I thought we had moved on from a government that decided that some laws would apply to them and others wouldn’t.
“How can we expect anybody else in the country, other organisations, to take these laws seriously if our own government won’t?”
Stride insisted there was “no effort to obfuscate in any form” and that it was “a process that will come to a conclusion”.
DWP’s permanent secretary, Peter Schofield, claimed that he and his colleagues “want to learn when things go wrong” and that DWP was “a department that is seeking to listen and learn at every stage”.
But Abrahams told him: “They are words and people now want action.”
She also told Stride that the deaths of claimants investigated by DWP through its secret internal process reviews (IPRs) were “just the tip of the iceberg because you don’t collect the data”.
She said: “Why don’t you have a real understanding of the scale of the deaths of disabled people?”
Stride confirmed that he agreed with his predecessor Therese Coffey that DWP should not release redacted versions of IPRs, despite those documents previously being released over several years, following DNS’s information rights tribunal victory over DWP in 2016.
DWP is now refusing to release any redacted IPRs, despite that ruling.
Abrahams told Stride that by “appearing to be secretive” it was “not helping” the lack of trust shown in DWP by claimants.
She said redacted IPRs could help the committee “understand what you are learning, and others could understand what you are learning”.
Stride also confirmed that he agreed with Coffey that DWP did not have a statutory duty of care to those claiming benefits.
He said that “doesn’t mean we don’t care and we don’t have very significant responsibilities and indeed processes to look at these very difficult issues”.
1 December 2022
Disabled woman fears universal credit stress could see her return to institutions
A disabled woman who spent 37 years living in mental health institutions and hostels, including time sleeping in doorways, fears the flawed universal credit system will cause her to be evicted from her flat back onto the streets.
It is only in the last two years that Jennifer, who is now 57, has finally been able to settle down in a safe, “cosy” flat of her own after a lifetime of living in mental health institutions, hostels and on the streets.
But she has now been left owing hundreds of pounds in rent after she made an error when notifying the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about a possible move to another property.
Now she fears the complexity of the system and the stress it causes will eventually lead to her losing her home.
Her case is just the latest in a series of concerns from disabled people who have been left in despair by the universal credit system.
Last week, a disabled woman who fled a violent relationship described how she was left without any income after DWP refused to ease demands placed on her by its “abusive” universal credit system, and then stopped her payments.
The previous week, Disability News Service (DNS) reported how a disabled woman left traumatised by the daily demands of universal credit took her own life just four days after being told she would need to attend a face-to-face meeting with a work coach.
Jennifer contacted DNS after reading these and other reports of the mental distress caused by the working-age benefits system.
She appears to have been forced onto universal credit – against her wishes – after moving into a flat in a sheltered housing complex two years ago.
She found the claim process incredibly stressful and asked at the time to stay on employment and support allowance.
Her concerns grew when, following confusion over a possible move to a flat in another sheltered housing complex, her housing costs were reduced and paid directly to her for two months.
DWP says this was done according to relevant guidance, because she had said her new tenancy would be with a landlord in the private rented sector.
But Jennifer insists she told DWP she would be moving to another sheltered housing complex for the over-55s and not to private rented accommodation.
DWP said this week, after being contacted by DNS, that it had now calculated the extra amount owed to her and would pay her the £680.30 she was due.
Jennifer had told DNS earlier: “I used to live on the streets and in the night shelter and it’s one thing that I fear.
“It nearly drove me over the edge to do something silly with myself because I thought I would be homeless again.”
She said she remembered sleeping in the doorway of a shoe shop in Leicester. “This is the first flat I have had for 37 years.
“Before that I was living in institutions, I was in the system, in homeless hostels, hospitalised, sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
“I went from institution to institution.
“I have lived in this flat a couple of years, and it is my sanctuary.”
She said the problems with universal credit and the fears she had of being evicted had “brought back 30 years of struggles and being injected and placed in every single hospital you can mention”.
She said: “I went from mental health hospital to mental health hospital to hostel, and then to my lovely nice, cosy, warm, safe flat and then they get universal credit to try to underpin me.
“I am worried that it will get to a point where I feel I have to get back to being dependent again and [into institutions], just for the safety and security.
“Even though I didn’t have a normal life [in institutions], I didn’t have any worries because it was all taken care of for me.
“Now I have lived here for two years, and I think I have come a long way and people need to recognise that.”
She said universal credit had added to the stress of coping with life on her own, and she feared the problems with her rent and the complexity of universal credit would see her forced to return to an institution.
Among her other concerns, she has found it almost impossible to contact her work coach when she needs to, because of the complex security checks demanded by the DWP call centre.
She said: “I hope universal credit understand that what I’ve experienced is not unusual but is growing more and more common in terms of disabled people receiving unreasonable demands and unfair treatment.
“I was crying, screaming, and wanting to harm myself over my rent arrears, all because of universal credit.”
But she has praised her MP, Labour’s Margaret Beckett, for supporting her to lodge a complaint with DWP.
Vicky Foxcroft, Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people, commenting on the recent cases reported by DNS, said: “It is clear that universal credit has been failing people for far too long.
“We need a fairer, more compassionate system which does not let people down and leave them in desperate situations.
“Labour is committed to fundamentally reforming universal credit.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “We deliver a supportive and compassionate service supporting millions of people a year on universal credit and our priority is they get the financial support to which they are entitled as soon as possible.
“We have supported [Jennifer] throughout her universal credit claim.”
1 December 2022
Minister ridiculed over ‘global leadership on disability inclusion’ claim
The new minister for disabled people has been ridiculed for claiming the government has a record of providing “global leadership on disability inclusion”, six years after it was found guilty of “grave” and “systematic” violations of the UN disability convention.
Tom Pursglove made the comments even though the government is due to send the UN an annual update on its progress in addressing the concerns raised by the UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities.
The committee had found the government guilty of “grave” and “systematic” violations of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), when it published its report in November 2016.
Most of the breaches – under articles on independent living, work and employment. and an adequate standard of living and social protection – were caused by policies introduced by ministers at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
It was the first such high-level inquiry to be carried out by the committee and was a result of years of research and lobbying by Disabled People Against Cuts.
The following year, the committee’s chair told the UK government that its cuts to social security and other support for disabled people had caused “a human catastrophe”, which was “totally neglecting the vulnerable situation” faced by disabled people.
The UK government was told in 2017 to make more than 80 improvements to how its laws and policies affect disabled people’s human rights – the highest number of recommendations the committee had ever produced in reviewing a country’s progress in implementing CRPD.
The committee also made it clear at the time that the UK was no longer considered a world leader on disability rights.
Pursglove’s claims were made during a debate about the international day of disabled people, which will take place on Saturday (3 December).
The debate was secured by disabled Labour MP Marsha de Cordova, who said the last dozen or so years of a “hostile environment and cuts” had led to an “assault on disabled people’s civil and human rights, which has had a devastating impact”.
Pursglove also revealed that the government had been granted permission to appeal against a high court ruling that its National Disability Strategy was unlawful, after a botched consultation had made it “impossible” for disabled people to “shape” the content of the strategy.
But he still claimed his government was “working towards equality on the global stage, through both the example we set here in the UK and our international co-operation”, and he claimed the UK government had “long provided global leadership on disability inclusion”.
He said: “We remain fully committed to implementing this convention, through strong legislation, and programmes and policies that tackle the barriers faced by disabled people, in order to realise their full participation and inclusion in society.”
He said his government was providing capacity-building grants to disabled people’s organisations around the world, and funded the training of more than 1,200 disability activists to “help them advocate for disabled people’s human rights and hold governments to account for progress on disability rights”.
Although the government has funded disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) in other countries to hold their governments to account, it appears to have failed to do so in the UK.
Mark Harrison, a member of the steering group of Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance, said after the debate that Pursglove was “trying to spin their international efforts to cover up their war on disabled people and our organisations at home”.
He said: “It seems for this government, human rights and support for DPOs is only good internationally while they treat disabled people and our organisations in the UK with contempt.
“During the pandemic, the government only funded charities for disabled people, while refusing to resource organisations run by disabled people.
“There has been no funding from the Westminster government for engagement in the UN CRPD process or to facilitate engagement.
“They have been put to shame by the Scottish and Welsh governments who are engaging constructively with DPOs.”
The government’s Disability Unit had failed to respond to Harrison’s claim on funding by noon today (Thursday).
Harrison said: “A previous minister for disabled people, Justin Tomlinson, set up and then closed down a DPO forum just when they were developing their so-called disability strategy.
“You can tell no disabled people or DPOs were involved in developing the strategy as it is so pathetic, and the courts were right to decide it was unlawful.”
De Cordova told MPs that she had heard from more than 650 disabled people and allies who contacted her after hearing about the debate.
Among the concerns she raised were the shortage of accessible housing, and she said that disabled people were “significantly more likely to live in unsafe accommodation”.
She also raised the government’s refusal to ensure that all disabled people can safely evacuate from high-rise blocks of flats in emergencies, breaking a promise made by former prime minister Boris Johnson following a report by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
She spoke of the significant barriers disabled people face when travelling, such as “floating bus stops, cuts to bus services, inaccessible rail stations or the closure of many ticket offices”.
And she told fellow MPs of “stark health inequalities and barriers”, with nearly 60 per cent of Covid deaths of disabled people, the “horrific blanket application of ‘do not attempt resuscitation’ notices during the early part of the pandemic”, and the social care charge debt faced by many disabled people.
De Cordova pointed out that disabled people had been disproportionately affected by government cuts over the last decade, while there was “mounting evidence that real-terms reductions in health and social care spending since 2010 may have led to thousands of excess deaths among disabled people”.
And she asked when DWP would publish at least 20 secret reviews into the deaths of disabled benefit claimants, following a ruling by the information commissioner that it unlawfully prevented their release to Disability News Service*.
De Cordova also paid tribute to a mentor of hers, Seán McGovern, a “staunch disability rights campaigner and a strong trade union champion for disabled people’s rights”, who died two years ago, and to another disabled activist, Roger Lewis, who died last week, just days before the debate took place.
She said Lewis had “changed and touched the lives of so many disabled people, so many deaf people, and so many blind and partially-sighted people”.
Stephen Timms, the Labour chair of the work and pensions select committee, called on the new work and pensions ministerial team, appointed after Rishi Sunak became prime minister in October, to change the policy of former work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey of “trying to keep things secret”.
He said this policy had been “unnecessarily disastrous”, “very damaging and counterproductive”, and had “badly damaged” DWP’s reputation with disabled people.
Marion Fellows, the SNP’s spokesperson on disability, spoke of concerns that government plans to abolish the Human Rights Act would “weaken avenues” for disabled people to enforce their rights.
She pointed to one case in which a GP had refused to order a heart scan for a disabled man with high support needs because “he has a learning disability and no quality of life”.
His advocate had persuaded the GP to change his mind after highlighting his right to life, under article two of the Human Rights Act, and his right to be free from discrimination, under article 14 of the act.
She said the government’s plans would prevent public bodies from taking “proactive steps to protect disabled people from harm, due to discriminatory attitudes or the resources required to protect that person”.
*DWP has now appealed this ruling
1 December 2022
Pursglove fails to express concern over Access to Work and PIP waiting-times
The new disability minister has failed to express any concern over figures showing Access to Work waiting-times have almost doubled, while more than 20,000 people have been waiting over six months for a decision on their disability benefit claims.
Tom Pursglove refused to say if he thought the figures showed the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was in crisis.
The figures show more than 25,000 disabled people are waiting for their Access to Work (AtW) application to be dealt with, while the average clearance time for an application has risen in just 11 months from 32.5 days to 63.1 days.
Just 12 months ago, there were about 14,000 people waiting for a decision on their AtW application, and in February 2020, at the start of the pandemic, there were about 8,500 people waiting.
In May, DWP said it was “working hard” to make sure AtW applications were “progressed as soon as possible”.
Since then, the AtW waiting-list has risen even further, from 20,909 to 25,281.
Other figures released by DWP show that 21,600 disabled people have been waiting longer than six months for a decision on their personal independence payment (PIP) claim.
The figures were released by Pursglove in response to questions from Labour MPs Alan Campbell and Jon Ashworth, the shadow work and pensions secretary.
But Pursglove failed to express any concern about the AtW and PIP figures after questions were submitted to the DWP press office by Disability News Service (DNS), or to say if he thought they showed the department was in crisis.
Instead, a DWP spokesperson directed DNS to answers given by Pursglove to written parliamentary questions.
On the Access to Work figures, Pursglove told Ashworth there had been “a significant increase in applications over the last year” and that DWP had “recruited new staff to meet the increased demand and reduce the time it takes to make decisions”.
He said DWP gives priority to new applicants who are starting work within four weeks, or those who have an AtW grant that is coming to an end and needs to be renewed.
He added: “We are also transforming the Access to Work service through increased digitalisation, that will make the service more efficient, will make the application process easier, and improve the time taken from application through to decision.”
And on PIP, in response to a question from independent MP Margaret Ferrier, Pursglove said: “Reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the department and we are working constantly to make improvements to our service.
“We are seeing an improvement in average clearance times for new PIP claims and the latest statistics show that the end-to-end journey has steadily reduced from 26 weeks in August 2021 to 18 weeks at the end of July 2022.”
He said DWP was using phone, video and face-to-face assessments to “support customers and deliver a more efficient and user-centred service”, while also prioritising new claims.
But he failed to point out that the long-term trend for PIP waiting-times has been rising since 2018, although it has fallen since the peaks caused by the pandemic.
In March 2018, the average waiting-time was 10 weeks, in January 2019 it was 15 weeks, and in July 2022 it was 18 weeks.
1 December 2022
Disabled campaigners welcome mayor’s ‘significant improvements’ to clean air scheme
Disabled campaigners have won significant concessions from London’s mayor after they warned that plans to widen the ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) in the capital would discriminate against tens of thousands of disabled Londoners.
Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) had warned that the expansion of ULEZ would drive many disabled people into isolation and cause significant harm to many of them.
Although the mayor, Sadiq Khan, had already been planning some exemptions and mitigation for disabled people, DPOs told him these measures were not strong enough, and they called on him to do more.
Now the mayor has announced further exemptions.
ULEZ was introduced in 2019 to cover central London, and expanded to inner London last year, but it will now be extended again, from 29 August 2023, this time to cover most of Greater London.
The aim of the ULEZ scheme is to clean the city’s toxic air, which the mayor said was “making us sick from cradle to the grave” with Londoners “developing life-changing illnesses, such as cancer, lung disease, dementia and asthma”.
He said ULEZ had already “been transformational, reducing harmful pollution levels by almost a half in central London”.
Under the scheme, a daily £12.50 charge is levied on older, more polluting vehicles.
The mayor has previously announced an exemption from ULEZ charges for those with blue badges until October 2027, but only to those with a vehicle tax exemption – mostly people with the enhanced rate mobility component of personal independence payment (PIP).
There were fears that the limited exemptions would leave many disabled people – and their care and health workers, personal assistants and carers – forced to pay the £12.50-a-day charge every time they used their car.
Now the mayor has announced that an exemption will be allowed for all those who receive the standard and enhanced rate of the PIP mobility component, the higher mobility rate of disability living allowance, and some other disability benefits, as well as all those with wheelchair-accessible vehicles and some vehicles with other adaptations.
The new exemption will also apply to those who live outside London, although everyone will need to register with Transport for London (TfL) if they want to take advantage of it. The exemption will begin on 30 January 2023 and end on 24 October 2027.
TfL said it would “continue to explore with London boroughs how those holding blue badges who are not automatically eligible under the proposed benefits criteria for the grace period could be eligible”.
The mayor has also announced a £110 million car scrappage scheme – which will open on 30 January 2023 – that will support disabled Londoners, Londoners on lower incomes, charities, small businesses and sole traders.
Those receiving certain means-tested benefits and non-means-tested disability benefits can apply for grants of up to £2,000 to scrap their non-compliant cars or motorcycles.
Disabled people who want to scrap a non-compliant wheelchair-accessible vehicle and those with certain other adaptations will be able to apply for grants of £5,000.
Disabled people can also apply through the scheme on behalf of a nominated driver who lives at a different address if they do not drive themselves.
Sadiq Khan said he had “listened to feedback” during the consultation process “including from disabled people and the organisations that represent them”.
Inclusion London said this week that it was “delighted that the mayor and TfL have taken on board our feedback about the negative financial impact the ULEZ expansion would have on disabled Londoners and took steps to mitigate it”.
Earlier this year, Inclusion London held an online meeting of London DPOs and disabled people so they could raise their concerns with Christina Calderato, TfL’s director of transport strategy and policy.
An Inclusion London spokesperson said: “We as Londoners all want to live in a city with clean air free from pollution.
“This will have a hugely positive impact on disabled Londoners as well.
“We are delighted the mayor has listened to our concern about the disproportionate negative impact of ULEZ charges on disabled people, many of whom will not be able to afford a new car or are unable to travel by public transport.
“There are significant improvements in the scheme when it comes to disabled people.
“We welcome the exemptions and the enhanced funding for disabled Londoners through the scrappage scheme.
“We do believe that the ultimate aim should be to ensure every disabled Londoner who is not able to travel by public transport has access to a ULEZ compliant car.
“We look forward to working with the mayor and Transport for London to ensure we achieve this goal.”
Inclusion London said it was concerned that ULEZ was still failing to exempt all blue badge holders, and that the scrappage scheme would not cover the full cost of any adaptations, particularly as the average additional cost of a wheelchair-accessible vehicle is £30,000.
It said it was “committed to continue working with the mayor and TfL between now and the implementation of the policy to ensure the ULEZ expansion will be fairer to all disabled people”.
Kush Kanodia, a disabled ambassador for Disability Rights UK, who has campaigned for an expansion of the exemptions for disabled people, welcomed the mayor’s new concessions.
But he said it was “disgraceful” that they were not implemented last year, at the height of the Covid pandemic, when ULEZ was expanded to cover all of inner London, when the concessions would have prevented discrimination and the risk of financial hardship for many disabled Londoners “in a pandemic and cost of living crisis”.
Like Inclusion London, he said he was concerned that ULEZ was still failing to exempt all blue badge holders, and that the scrappage scheme would not cover the full cost of any adaptations.
Kanodia said: “There are approximately a quarter of a million blue badge holders in London and many will not receive any of the benefits on the new exemption criteria list.
“Unfortunately, many cities in England have now replicated the disability discrimination from the existing ULEZ, for new clean air zones from Birmingham, Bath, Bradford, Portsmouth, to future cities in Bristol [which went live this week], Newcastle, Sheffield and Manchester.”
He called on the government to create a “standardised policy” for all clean air and low emission zones with “adequate reasonable adjustments for disabled people”.
He said: “Disabled people have already been the most disproportionately impacted from austerity, the pandemic and the current cost-of-living crisis.
“Climate action must go hand-in-hand with climate justice and social justice, to prevent further increases in poverty and inequality.”
It is also possible to claim a ULEZ reimbursement from certain NHS trusts for the ULEZ charge for appointments through the NHS, if the disabled person is at “moderate or high risk” from Covid, and in some cases if they are “too ill, weak or disabled to travel to an appointment on public transport”, if the person who transported them to the hospital does not have an exemption for their vehicle.
1 December 2022
Anger over failure to commission review into suicide linked to DWP
Public bodies in Greater Manchester refused to commission an independent investigation into the death of a young disabled man, despite their repeated failings contributing to his suicide.
The failure to carry out a safeguarding adults review into the suicide of Ker Featherstone in June 2019 means a missed opportunity to examine the role played by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in his death.
He had taken his own life just weeks after DWP slashed his benefits, despite being warned he was severely depressed, malnourished, could not face leaving his flat, and had made several suicide attempts.
The 21-year-old’s GP had asked Salford Safeguarding Adults Board in November 2019 to carry out a review into his death.
A safeguarding adults board must arrange a review when an adult in its area dies due to abuse or neglect, and there is concern that agencies could have worked more effectively to protect the person who died.
The family told Disability News Service (DNS) this autumn that they had never been informed about the outcome of any review, or even if one was carried out.
DNS asked Salford City Council to confirm if a review had been held, and, after a lengthy delay, the council said it would contact the family to “explain and discuss the review that has taken place”.
But it has now emerged that – despite that statement, which the council previously refused to clarify – no safeguarding adults review had taken place, despite significant evidence that multi-agency failings contributed to Ker Featherston’s death.
The council claimed this week that it was referring in its statement to an internal review carried out by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Following the questions asked of the council, representatives of the safeguarding adults board visited the family to confirm that no review was carried out.
They told Ker’s family that they would prepare information to explain the decision on “why the panel felt the criteria had not been met for a Safeguarding Adult Review”.
But they also admitted that they had not been aware of the role played by DWP in Ker’s death.
Ker’s mother Helen, who is also disabled, said she was “really disappointed” to discover that no review had taken place.
She has said that her son was “badly let down” by the adult mental health team, which turned down repeated referrals from his GP before he was admitted to hospital shortly before his death.
There had been problems with his transfer from child and adolescent mental health services to adult services at the age of 18, and he was repeatedly refused further assessments, including an autism assessment, despite the referrals from his GP.
On top of these problems, DWP forced Ker to undergo a PIP face-to-face assessment in April 2019, carried out by a healthcare professional from outsourcing company Atos.
The assessment in his flat in Salford left Ker “very distressed” and had a further “significant impact” on his mental health.
His mother, who would deliver hot meals to his flat every day, said the assessment had been “torture” for her son, who was so unwell he had barely left his flat in over two years, and would not even let his siblings visit him.
He told her that the assessment had made him feel worthless.
DWP had been told by his parents that Ker had “lost so much weight that his clothes are falling off him”, that he had no desire to eat, and that he would often pass out when he stood up because of malnutrition.
Despite these concerns, the subsequent assessor’s report led to DWP cutting his PIP payments by about £90 a week.
The decision to remove a significant chunk of his PIP “lifeline” had left him “distraught”, said his mother, and two weeks later his parents discovered he had been self-harming and had large, severely infected ulcers on his arms, chest and back.
He agreed to ask DWP to carry out a mandatory reconsideration of its decision, but when he was told that he might have to appeal the decision to a tribunal, he told Helen: “Mum, I can’t do it. I can’t face that.”
With his mental health continuing to deteriorate, he agreed to be admitted voluntarily to a mental health ward at Salford Royal Hospital.
Nine days later, he was discharged and returned home. He took his own life the next day, on 29 June 2019.
His mother is certain that the visit from the PIP assessor and the subsequent DWP decision contributed to Ker’s death.
DWP later reversed its decision to cut his benefits.
Salford Safeguarding Adults Board (SSAB) emailed the Featherstone family this week to offer its explanation for failing to carry out a review into Ker’s death.
It claimed that because the inquest into Ker’s death ruled he died as a result of suicide “therefore there was no evidence available to the Panel that suggested that Ker had died of abuse or neglect”.
It said this meant “the criteria for a SAR was not met in this instance but that the [SAR] Panel had reassurance that Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust (GMMH) had undertaken an internal review to identify learning”.
The trust made its claim even though there have been many safeguarding adults reviews following suicides.
The findings of the internal review have previously been shared with the family, and SSAB said it had led to “important amendments to practice”.
SSAB has also changed its procedures to ensure families are involved throughout the “safeguarding adult process” which “includes being advised whether a Safeguarding Adult Review (SAR) will be undertaken”.
The board admitted that “unfortunately this process was not in place at the time when the decision was made in respect of Ker”.
Helen Featherstone said she believed the safeguarding adults board had only sent her the briefing because the council had been contacted by DNS.
She said: “They say they have a duty of candour, but it seems to me they’re happy to withhold information from families if they can get away with it.”
She said she still did not understand how the board came to its decision that a safeguarding review was not necessary.
She said the mental health trust “failed to safeguard Ker when they were made aware of his self-neglect (he had a life-threatening infection from self-inflicted wounds all over his upper body, chest and back) but still they were refusing the GP referrals to assess his mental health”.
And, she said, “when they finally did agree to see him just a couple of weeks before his death they then said his mental health was not serious enough to be seen urgently and he would have to wait until September for an appointment”.
She added: “It’s ridiculous that they say they learn from mistakes made.
“They don’t and they continue to fail very vulnerable people, many who end up taking their own lives.
“The lack of communication between services and with carers/families is appalling.
“GMMH, the GP or the coroner were not interested to know that the way the DWP treated Ker had a significant impact on his wellbeing or that it contributed to his self-neglect and ultimately to his suicide.
“It upsets me greatly that nobody really cared enough to listen to Ker or to us.
“We tried to get help over and over and over, across four years. Ker suffered terribly and was failed over and over.”
A Salford City Council spokesperson said that “if additional or new information/evidence subsequently comes to light the board would consider reviewing the decision to see if the new information/evidence now means the criteria for a SAR has been met”.
DNS asked the council this week if the board would reconsider its decision in the light of the new information relating to the failings of DWP and their contribution to Ker’s death.
A council spokesperson said the board would now discuss this with the family.
*The following organisations are among those that could be able to offer support if you have been affected by the issues raised in this article: Samaritans, Papyrus, Mind, SOS Silence of Suicide and Rethink
1 December 2022
Artists show how creativity helps to resist DWP’s violence… and remember its victims
Disabled artists have described how they have used creativity to resist the violence of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and to remember its victims.
The online Creative Resistance to Welfare State Violence event this week was part of Healing Justice Ldn’s Deaths by Welfare project, which investigates links between the social security system and the deaths of claimants.
Deaths by Welfare has been working with four artists who have been responding to its timeline, which was published in draft form earlier this year* and brings together more than 30 years of evidence that links DWP’s systemic failings with the deaths of countless disabled claimants of benefits.
Two of the artists – disabled artist and human rights campaigner Zita Holbourne, co-founder of Black Activists Rising Against Cuts; and London-based artist-researcher nnull – took part in Tuesday evening’s event.
Their work will be included in next autumn’s month-long Rehearsing Freedoms festival – organised by Healing Justice Ldn and Kin Structures – which will include a Deaths by Welfare exhibition and public programme of events.
Holbourne has created a series of art works for Deaths by Welfare, several of which include the names of disabled people who have died due to DWP actions and are mentioned in the timeline.
She said: “I thought it was important to honour their memories because we know that when we look at the mainstream media and government, they often ‘other’ people, they often label and demonise people and don’t respect and honour their memories as individuals, as human beings who had lives and who had loved ones.
“One of the things I wanted to do was honour their memories by saying their names.”
She said it had been “quite emotional” to be involved in a project that “centred around people losing their life because of an unjust system and a draconian government and discriminatory policies.
“I can relate to the history of individuals impacted as somebody who is disabled myself, but I can also relate to it as a black woman who has had to live with discrimination all through my life.”
nnull is a transgender migrant and much of his work is autobiographical, and he responded to the Deaths by Welfare project by creating audio pieces that examine documents held by the National Archives on so-called “no recourse to public funds”, a condition imposed on many people who cannot access benefits due to their immigration status.
He was subjected to these restrictions himself and part of his work examined his own position and rights, looking at three documents from the archives from three different time periods.
He said he had become an artist as a way of coping with the “rage” he felt at the way he was being treated by the immigration system, while also researching immigration law to advocate for himself.
He said: “Being in that position of being enraged and having to find some way to express it, and also by expressing it, I feel I am trying to help the situation, so someone doesn’t experience the same thing I experienced again and again and again.
“I just wanted to express that and that’s how I became an artist, which was through the rage.”
Disabled artist-activists Dolly Sen and Vince Laws also took part in the event and discussed how their work has challenged DWP’s violence.
Sen, who discussed her Broken Hearts for the DWP art action, said: “At the moment we are in a really horrible space – hopefully this event will show that there is pain in this space but also there is opportunity for love, for protest and for regaining some power.
“There are many ways to resist. Creativity is just one of them.”
She said later: “Hopefully we have shown that there are possibilities to stand up and to connect and to collaborate and try to make change in small ways and big ways, even if it’s just being kinder to yourself.
“You don’t have to be on a picket line or in a protest. Staying alive… the bastards don’t want you to stay alive.
“Staying alive is the most beautiful thing you can do.”
Laws talked about his DWP Deaths Make Me Sick death shrouds, which are currently on display as part of the Manchester People’s History Museum’s Nothing About Us Without Us exhibition until next October, and his experimental participatory performance A Very Queer Nazi Faust, which also highlighted DWP-related issues.
He said: “On my bad days… I feel like just surviving is really pissing off the people in charge.
“They don’t want you to, so just carry on surviving and do what you’ve got to do.”
He described how DWP looked at his website and saw his CV and “decided on the balance of probability I couldn’t have done all the things on my CV without doing more hours than I was allowed on my permitted work and therefore stopped my benefits without informing me and as somebody who deals with depression and anxiety that kind of threw me over the edge a little bit.
“So now I don’t have a website because if I don’t have a website, they can’t check up on me.
“It feels like an extra disablement in the way that I can’t have a website for the fear of doing my work and letting people know.”
Dr China Mills, leader of the Deaths by Welfare project at Healing Justice Ldn, said: “Creativity has been so key to exposing and resisting the violence of the welfare state, as a political strategy to show the scale of harm, to hold the government to account, and to name and remember those who have died.
“We talk about welfare state violence because the welfare system has been brutal for a long time, long before what is often known as welfare reform, and because talking about welfare state violence allows us to see this violence as connected to other forms of state violence, in immigration, healthcare, in so-called social care, education, etc.”
*DNS editor John Pring is co-creator of the timeline
1 December 2022
Exhibition brings new perspective on the importance of ordinary lives
A new disabled-led exhibition aims to challenge perceptions of people with learning difficulties by highlighting the role they play in their local communities.
The Through Our Eyes exhibition by All Wales People First (AWPF) tells the stories of people with learning difficulties through photographs and video, and is running in the Welsh Senedd until 4 February.
Members of AWPF – a disabled people’s organisation that represents self-advocacy groups and people with learning difficulties in Wales – decided which stories they wanted to share though the project.
There were 40 photoshoots with AWPF members and People First groups across Wales, involving more than 250 people.
AWPF says the images “highlight the importance of self-advocacy, human rights and access to the essentials in life that most people take for granted”.
Simon Richards, vice-chair of the All Wales People First National Council, says in a film promoting the project: “I value being able to do so much variety of stuff in my life now.”
He talks about how he travels independently, and his enjoyment of karaoke nights, visits to the local pub, watching football and listening to music.
He says: “It should be encouraged because we are adults at the end of the day and that’s exactly what anyone else should be able to do, so why can’t we?
“With the right level of support and a little bit of planning, there’s no reason why that shouldn’t be able to happen.”
The exhibition aims to challenge perceptions and stereotypes by highlighting the roles and activities people with learning difficulties play in local communities, such as in employment, volunteering, sport and education.
The project was funded by the National Lottery Community Fund’s People and Places programme.
On Saturday (3 December, the international day of disabled people), AWPF will launch a free online image library, which will offer images from the project of people with learning difficulties in their day-to-day lives.
Lucy Hinksman, a Through Our Eyes project worker and photographer, said: “It is amazing how people with learning disabilities and autism have a great lifestyle and I was proud to go around Wales and capture everyone’s lives, doing things like sport, employment and being parents.
“The exhibition shows the things we want to tell the world about. We are all equal and we all have a voice.”
Hinksman, who took some of the photographs for the project, said: “We should have the opportunities to do the same things that everyone else can.
“People with learning disabilities can do things that other people wouldn’t expect, like driving a tractor and winning medals doing sports.
“We hope that people can see all of the incredible things that we do and realise that everyone can achieve their goals in life.”
Ffion Poole, chair and executive assistant at Caerphilly People First, said: “The Through Our Eyes exhibition is important because it shows other people that people with learning disabilities are no different to anyone else.
“We can do the same things like go to the pub, stay up late, have relationships and be employed.
“People think that we need to be kept in a small bubble because we aren’t capable of doing these things but as long as the right support is there, never say never.
“I’m proud to be in the exhibition and it made me realise that I make a difference and I can be a role model to others.
“I’m really proud of Caerphilly People First and it is nice to know that we are able to make a difference.
“I was nervous about going to the exhibition but I am glad I did. We just couldn’t stop smiling afterwards.”
Joe Powell, chief executive of AWPF, said: “For too long other people have owned the narrative for people with learning disabilities.
“If other people own our narrative then we become whatever others say we are.
“This has contributed to negative, deficit-centred perceptions which have kept us isolated from our communities and unable to take our place as active and equal citizens in Wales.
“Our members wanted to change this, by portraying learning disability ‘Through Our Eyes’.
“The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the fact that many people with learning disabilities are viewed as having lives that are of less value and quality than other citizens.
“This was especially prevalent in the issuing of highly inappropriate do not resuscitate notices for some.
“I hope this project helps, not only to show that people with learning disabilities are ‘people first’ but are human beings, with hopes, dreams and aspirations like anyone else.”
This news story is part of an ongoing Disability News Service series that highlights the vital work of the UK’s disabled people’s organisations
1 December 2022
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
Disabled care home residents are being evicted in a series of disputes between a disability charity and local authorities that the charity has accused of refusing to meet the soaring costs of care. Leonard Cheshire said it was evicting the residents because councils had refused to meet fee increases that reflected the rising costs of wages, energy and food. The charity, which supports 3,000 people in 120 care services throughout the UK, said it had spent millions of pounds subsidising care services inadequately funded by councils, but could no longer afford to do so: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/25/disabled-care-home-residents-evicted-in-charitys-dispute-with-councils
A woman with Down’s syndrome has lost a Court of Appeal challenge over legislation that allows the abortion of babies with the impairment up until birth. Heidi Crowter, from Coventry, brought legal action against the Department of Health and Social Care in the hope of removing a section of the Abortion Act she believes to be an “instance of inequality”. Judges ruled in September 2021 the legislation was not unlawful and aimed to strike a balance between the rights of the unborn child and of women, but the case was reconsidered by the Court of Appeal at a hearing in July: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-woman-loses-bid-change-28581885
A dyslexic Marks and Spencer worker has won more than £50,000 after losing her job following concerns about mistakes in her emails. Rita Jandu, who worked for the company for more than two decades, struggled to read and write lengthy messages and preferred to communicate using bullet points. She was “singled out” by bosses who selected her for redundancy for appearing to rush her work and repeated inaccuracies in her emails and other written work, a hearing was told. The tribunal ruled M&S managers ignored the impact her dyslexia had on her work, including her ability to concentrate and communicate: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/dyslexic-m-s-worker-payout-mistakes-email-b2233834.html
1 December 2022
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
