Autistic detective ‘bullied out of dream job by toxic discrimination’
An autistic detective who was bullied out of her dream job by the “toxic and discriminatory” actions of her managers is calling for the Metropolitan police to do more to improve the treatment of neurodivergent officers.
Mia*, who also has a long-term health condition, is now taking the force to an employment tribunal for disability, race and sex discrimination.
She has been told by former colleagues that her experience is not unique, and that neurodivergent police officers within the force are frequently bullied, ostracised and harassed.
Mia, who came to the Met with a masters degree in criminology, told Disability News Service this week: “While there is a lot in the news about how bad it is in the Met with regards to race and sex, there’s almost nothing said about disability.
“But disability discrimination is one of the biggest things, for me and for many others still in the Met, and a lot of the autism community in the Met are facing a lot of problems.
“I know many before me and after me will go through this and something needs to be done.”
Mia joined the Met as a trainee detective and during her initial posting the bullying she received from one line manager led to constant “high levels of anxiety, depression and stress” and eventually – she believes – helped trigger an autoimmune condition.
Her health deteriorated so badly that she was only able to walk a few paces without needing to take a rest.
Despite twice being hospitalised with the condition, the manager – whose behaviour she described as “toxic, unrelenting, discriminatory” – was “very mistrustful of the information I would give him, questioning specifically what was wrong with me and what effects the sickness was having on me”.
He even forced her to take part in a live arrest when she could barely walk, and repeatedly pressed her to take a fitness test.
He also pushed her to go back on full duties when she returned to work after two months’ sick leave.
Mia said managers also refused to provide her with the reasonable adjustments she needed to ease her mental distress, including repeated requests to move to a new borough.
She was left barely functioning at work and at home because of the impact of the treatment she received on her mental and physical health and was then shunted against her will into an administrative position.
She told her superiors last year: “I was never allowed any peace. Bullying, mismanagement, a serious autoimmune illness, COVID-19 and the constant threat of losing my job.
“I lived in constant fear.”
She eventually resigned from the job after more than two years**.
Now she is taking the Metropolitan police to an employment tribunal, with a hearing set to take place later this year over a number of days.
She hopes that winning the case will ensure the force improves the way it treats its disabled officers, particularly those who are neurodivergent.
The National Police Autism Association (NPAA) said it was unable to comment on individual cases.
But John Nelson, NPAA’s chair, said: “As a national peer support network for neurodivergent police officers and staff, the NPAA is often approached for help by members who are experiencing difficulties at work due to their neurodivergent conditions not being properly accommodated.
“It is particularly concerning to hear of reports of bad treatment by line management where neurodiversity is a factor, and we will challenge such behaviour.
“The NPAA is committed to providing a safe online space for our members, and to working with the College of Policing to share best practice for developing our neurodivergent workforce.
“We urge police leaders at all levels to be mindful of their obligations under the Equality Act and public sector equality duty in respect to all forms of difference, and also to appreciate the abilities and commitment that neurodivergent officers and staff can bring to policing.”
A Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) spokesperson said: “The MPS can confirm an employment tribunal has been brought against the MPS by a former officer… alleging disability, sex and race discrimination.
“A preliminary hearing will be held on Wednesday 8 March and a final hearing is currently scheduled to commence on Tuesday 17 October.
“It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”
*Not her real name
**Details have been omitted for legal reasons
23 February 2023
Campaigners converge on Downing Street to warn of rail ‘mass exclusion’
Disabled campaigners from across the country have converged on Downing Street to warn the prime minister that his government’s “extremely dangerous” rail reforms will cause “mass exclusion” on the network.
They were there to deliver a petition, drawn up by The National Federation of the Blind of the UK (NFBUK) and backed by more than 150 organisations.
The petition calls for all ticket offices to remain open, for all trains to have guards, and for safe levels of staffing across all rail stations.
A succession of disabled people’s organisations and allies arrived at Downing Street on Monday to hand over a copy of the petition and present their own evidence that the rail reforms risk plunging disabled people further into isolation.
Transport secretary Mark Harper has previously been told that his “discriminatory” plans to remove guards from trains, cut staff and close ticket offices will prevent many disabled passengers travelling on the rail network and put lives at risk.
But grassroots groups of disabled people believe Harper, prime minister Rishi Sunak and his government are not listening and that their plans are “unacceptable, unsafe and unworkable”.
Representatives travelled by train from as far as Manchester, Leicestershire and Cumbria to deliver their letters to 10 Downing Street.
In its letter, NFBUK said the government’s proposals to allow the removal of guards, the closure of ticket offices and cuts to staffing were “inherently discriminatory” and “extremely dangerous”.
Sarah Leadbetter, NFBUK’s national campaigns officer, told Disability News Service (DNS), after delivering the petition and letter: “We want to be on the train, we have the right to be on the train.
“If there is no staff, no ticket office, no assistance to get me on a train, I will not feel safe.”
Kevin Greenan, from Rochdale, who also delivered the petition, added: “We will keep pushing and pushing and pushing until we achieve something.
“The service that guards provide for me is invaluable. Without guards, I couldn’t travel.”
He said his frustration was targeted at Harper and his “immoral and illegal actions”.
He said: “He’s taking a right from us. He’s damaging our independence.”
Among other disabled people’s organisations that handed over copies of the petition were Disabled People Against Cuts, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, Inclusion London, Surrey Coalition of Disabled People and WinVisible.
In her letter to the prime minister, Nikki Roberts, chief executive of Surrey Coalition of Disabled People, said: “These proposals will result in those who can board a train with no assistance being able to travel and those that need assistance being left behind.”
There was also support from The Association of British Commuters (ABC), which handed Number 10 a letter and a dossier of evidence proving “widespread discrimination” in the rail network across the south-east of England due to “staffing policies combining driver-only trains and unstaffed stations”.
Such discrimination prevents disabled people accessing their right to “spontaneous” travel, the prime minister was told in the ABC letter.
ABC told Sunak: “We hope you will recognise that any further destaffing will lead to escalating discrimination on the network.
“The right to spontaneous travel is a fundamental human right and it cannot be tolerated that, in twenty-first century Britain, this is still up for debate.”
Emily Yates, ABC’s co-founder, told DNS that NFBUK’s campaigning had been “so active, so powerful that it would be impossible not to support them”.
But she said the government had refused to listen to the concerns about destaffing.
She said: “I have been involved in this campaign for seven years.
“They are not listening any more now than they were seven years ago. Today is an effort to throw everything at them.”
In its letter, WinVisible stressed the importance of having staff on stations and trains to ensure the safety of women, including disabled women.
Claire Glasman, co-founder of WinVisible, told DNS: “As disabled women, we are concerned about women’s safety and safety as disabled passengers.
“Some of us are targeted for harassment, also because we are women of colour or lesbian.
“It’s really scary. When you go on a journey, you don’t know how it’s going to turn out, you feel on edge, you can’t relax.”
Sam Jennings, a wheelchair-user who was awarded £17,000 in compensation after she was left stranded on trains and station platforms more than 30 times by the rail company Southern, joined Inclusion London and WinVisible to hand over the petition.
Jennings also handed in her own three-page letter to the prime minister (see separate story).
She told DNS: “It is completely unacceptable that in 2023 public transport is inaccessible in one of the richest countries in the world.
“It breaks my heart that there are people who will not leave their houses or will not use trains or are too scared to use trains, because it is public transport.”
Steve Saunders, campaign lead for East Sussex Vision Support, who handed over the petition with the help of his guide dog Rosie, blamed the reforms on the train operating companies’ need to make money for their shareholders.
He told DNS he was particularly frustrated with the failure of the Equality and Human Rights Commission to do more to enforce disabled people’s right to travel through legal action.
He said: “One of those things I should be able to rely on is those reasonable adjustments that make it possible for disabled people to live their lives in a normal way, the same as able-bodied people take for granted.”
Among MPs who supported disabled constituents as they handed over the petition were Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, Mike Amesbury and Bell Ribeiro-Addy.
Amesbury said he had wanted to “speak to people first hand” about the barriers they face on the rail network.
He is a member of the Commons transport committee, which this month launched an inquiry into the effectiveness of the laws that are supposed to ensure an accessible transport system.
Asked for the government’s response to the call for all ticket offices to remain open, for all trains to have guards, and for safe levels of staffing across all rail stations, and to the evidence of discrimination across the rail network that was handed in at 10 Downing Street, the Department for Transport said in a statement: “Everyone should be able to travel with confidence and the safety of passengers will [be] central to any reforms.
“Our Access for All programme has delivered step free accessible routes at over 200 stations [since 2006], with additional improvements at over 1,500 stations.
“By modernising the railway and moving staff out of ticket offices, we can enable them to provide more face-to-face assistance, so all passengers get the help they need.”
23 February 2023
Fears over ‘catastrophic’ policy that could force disabled people into care homes
A local authority’s draft care policy could have “catastrophic” implications for disabled people and see them forced into residential homes against their will, disabled activists have warned.
Bristol City Council (BCC) has released a draft version of a new Fair and Affordable Care Policy, which says disabled and older people could be pushed into residential care instead of receiving support in their own homes if that is “better value to BCC”.
The draft policy states: “We wish to make it clear that this policy will be invoked particularly where an option is available that represents better value to BCC than providing you with the necessary level of care in your own home.”
It suggests that the council “will usually look to choose the option which delivers the outcomes desired for the best value” and that exceptions to this rule will be “rare”.
The grassroots disabled people’s organisation Bristol Reclaiming Independent Living (BRIL), which first raised concerns about the draft document with Disability News Service (DNS), said such a policy could have “catastrophic implications for disabled people’s independence”.
BRIL said this “could see people placed in institutions rather than live independently in their own homes, something the disabled people’s movement has been fighting against for over 40 years”.
BRIL accused the council of “duplicity” and the “marginalisation of disabled people”, and it also highlighted the lack of consultation.
BRIL founder Mark Williams told DNS the document was “very alarming”.
He said: “It’s terrifying for people that they could be pushed out of their homes. We are very worried.”
He said the move breached disabled people’s right to independent living under article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and he added: “We will fight it all the way.”
The Bristol City Council document is based on an existing policy drawn up by Devon County Council, which dates back several years.
The Devon policy is even more explicit than the Bristol version, and says: “We will identify the best value support plan that can be delivered to meet your eligible needs.
“This could include where a residential care service can meet your needs at a lower cost than the cost of care and support that would enable you to remain in your own home.”
Four years ago, there was outrage among independent living campaigners when Barnet council in north London produced a similar policy, which stated that it would “no longer prioritise offering community-based care and will instead adopt an assumption that disabled people are placed in cheaper accommodation settings”.
WECIL (West of England Centre for Inclusive Living), which is based in Bristol, said it was also “very concerned” about BCC’s draft policy.
Alex Johnston, WECIL’s head of commercial and social enterprise, said: “All our disabled staff, trustees and staff who are working to support disabled people with independent living, we all feel the same way about this policy.
“We are frightened about what this could mean for the independence of our community.”
He questioned whether the policy would comply with the Care Act and the Human Rights Act.
He said: “We understand the limited financial resources of our local council; it is a national problem kicked down from national government for local councils to try and solve.
“But we constantly see that disabled people are the one group whose rights are viewed through the lens of affordability.”
He said the policy could have a “dramatic impact on disabled people, taking away choice and control over how their care needs are met.
“It is a set back to the independent living movement, particularly if disabled people will be forced into residential care, if this is determined to be the ‘best value’ option.”
Bristol City Council was contacted last Friday (17 February) about the draft policy and had still refused to comment by noon today (23 February).
Among the questions it has refused to answer are whether it is concerned about the idea of disabled and older people being forced into residential care against their will; whether it has any estimates of how many disabled and older people are likely to be forced into residential care against their will every year because of the policy; whether it accepts that the policy might breach the Care Act; and whether it has carried out an equality impact assessment of the draft policy.
Devon County Council had also failed to comment by noon today.
23 February 2023
Disabled campaigner delivers rail ‘indifference’ letter to No 10
A disabled campaigner has delivered a hand-written letter to the front door of 10 Downing Street, pleading with the prime minister to address the “serious” and unlawful discrimination she has experienced on the railway network.
Sam Jennings wrote the three-page letter as she waited outside the gates of Downing Street with other disabled activists to deliver a petition demanding action on destaffing across the rail network (see separate story).
Jennings told Rishi Sunak in her letter that in the five years since becoming a powerchair-user she had repeatedly been denied assistance when travelling on the rail network, and was left stranded on trains and station platforms more than 30 times.
The repeated discrimination eventually led to a high-profile legal victory, and a £17,000 compensation award from rail company Southern.
But she told Sunak in her letter that the “bad attitude” and “indifference” she had experienced before the legal action had not been eradicated and she was recently refused assistance at her local station because the dedicated member of assistance staff was “on his break”, despite there being numerous other staff on duty.
She told the prime minister that the rail industry appeared to believe it was exempt from its responsibilities under the Equality Act.
She added: “I think the Department for Transport is complicit in systemic and routine disability discrimination. This is happening on your watch.”
She told him: “I am one person out of hundreds of thousands of disabled people.
“If this was one person’s experience then it is very clear to me that we have massive issues in the rail industry.
“It’s public transport. It’s 2023. It should be accessible.”
She highlighted in her letter how Network Rail had now installed a new inaccessible footbridge, at Wistanstow, Shropshire, which she said was “discriminatory and unlawful”.
She wrote: “I should not be disabled by the railway, and I will not accept being othered and literally excluded by design.”
She told Sunak she was planning to share “folders and folders of evidence” of discrimination with the inquiry launched earlier this month by the Commons transport committee.
And she asked the prime minister if she could meet him to discuss her evidence.
Even when she delivered the letter, she still encountered access barriers, due to the government’s continuing refusal to install a step-free entrance to 10 Downing Street, other than inappropriate temporary ramps.
Jennings was unable to knock on the door herself, and had to ask her MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, to do it for her.
She then had to hand over her letter from the pavement because the temporary ramps used by Downing Street would not allow her space to turn around and pose for a picture at the door, like other campaigners who deliver petitions.
She told DNS: “I wanted to knock on that door myself and made this very clear.
“They need to have a custom-made ramp that isn’t ridiculously steep.
“I understand some historic buildings can’t be taken apart and I accept that the steps are pretty iconic, the whole door is, but if they don’t want to level it out permanently then they need to have a custom ramp made so that wheelchair-users can knock on the door themselves and not be excluded.”
A spokesperson for Number 10 said the government would respond to her letter in due course.
He added: “Everyone should be able to travel with confidence and the safety of passengers will [be] central to any reforms to the railways.
“Our Access for All programme has delivered step free accessible routes at over 200 stations [since 2006], with additional improvements at over 1,500 stations.
“By modernising the railway and moving staff out of ticket offices, we can enable them to provide more face-to-face assistance, so all passengers get the help they need.”
Number 10 declined to comment on the continuing concerns about the lack of proper step-free access to the front entrance.
23 February 2023
New DPTAC chair must stand up to government, say rail access campaigners
The new chair of the committee that advises the government on accessible transport must stand up to ministers over their rail reforms and plans to close ticket offices and cut staff, say disabled campaigners.
The Department for Transport (DfT) announced this week that it had appointed Matthew Campbell-Hill – a technology and media consultant and retired international wheelchair fencer – as the new chair of the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC).
He is not well-known in the accessible transport community and does not appear to have experience in the rail sector.
This is likely to worry some disabled campaigners because of ongoing concerns about the government’s controversial rail reforms, and its plans to close ticket offices and cut staff across the network.
Only this week, campaigners from across the country converged on Downing Street to warn the prime minister that his government’s “extremely dangerous” rail reforms would cause “mass exclusion” for disabled people (see separate story).
Following Campbell-Hill’s appointment, a series of campaigners called on him to stand up to the government over its rail reforms.
Emma Vogelmann, policy and public affairs manager for the disabled-led accessible transport campaign group Transport for All, said: “It is really encouraging that the new chair of DPTAC is a disabled person.
“We know that centring disabled people’s voices and lived experience is absolutely paramount to making an accessible transport network, and the new chair of DPTAC is ideally situated to help bring this vision about.
“But in order for real change to happen for our community, DPTAC must stand up to this government.
“The planned closure of 1,000 ticket offices across the country, the de-staffing of stations, and the movement towards driver-only operations on rail will be catastrophic for disabled people.
“Travelling by train will become inaccessible and unsafe for millions, shutting many of us out of the rail network completely.
“Now more than ever, as the government pushes ahead with these backwards ‘reforms’, we need a vocal and independent body to hold them to account.”
Disabled campaigner Doug Paulley, who has played a key role in holding the industry and ministers to account over their accessible transport failures, said: “It is great to see a new disabled chair at DPTAC.
“I hope the chair pressurises the Department for Transport even more on the substantial issues for disabled people in the current rail reform proposals, especially destaffing.
“The government must be stopped in its goal of shutting every ticket office in Britain, which would have a disastrous and disproportionate impact on disabled people – closing toilets and heated waiting rooms, making staff assistance unavailable and affecting our safety.
“The chair is in a prime position to challenge this, and I hope he does so, with the improved transparency and co-working promised by his predecessor.”
Tony Jennings, co-chair of a rail accessibility panel and co-founder of the Campaign for Level Boarding, said: “Certainly the new DPTAC chair has to be held to account and be a voice for disabled people and pressure DfT and Great British Railways [the new over-arching body that will run the rail system] to take accessibility and inclusion seriously and to deliver the funding and investment required to deliver a railway that’s fit for our purpose and works for everyone.”
He also welcomed the decision to appoint a disabled person as the new DPTAC chair, as he said the committee “needs to be led by disabled people”.
Last October, Matthew Smith, a key member of the committee, quit his role after accusing ministers of backing policies on de-staffing the rail network that discriminate against disabled rail passengers, and ignoring DPTAC’s advice.
Smith told ministers then that the government’s already discriminatory staffing policies looked set to get “drastically worse” if it went ahead with plans for mass ticket office closures.
In his resignation letter, he said DPTAC had repeatedly warned DfT about the “toxic combination of driver-only trains and unstaffed stations” and urged it to secure legal advice.
Emily Yates, co-founder of The Association of British Commuters (ABC), said the new chair had vital issues to address, particularly around rail reform and the committee’s own need for change.
She said: “DPTAC is badly in need of reform to ensure it is independent, transparent, and properly resourced.
“The use of non-disclosure agreements for some members, and failure to publish documents deemed too ‘political’, cannot continue.
“It is very concerning that DPTAC has made no official publications on its concerns about destaffing, despite years of freedom of information requests proving the existence of these formal warnings to the DfT.
“The new chair will inherit these issues and should treat them with the highest possible priority.
“The problem, as seen by the recent protest resignation of a key DPTAC member, is that when such an important committee chooses to stay silent, that silence serves to legitimise government plans.
“DPTAC members have historically been known to have had a huge amount of expertise on public transport, especially rail, and this knowledge would be invaluable if the committee became fully empowered and transparent.”
Campbell-Hill currently serves as a non-executive director at the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, a DfT agency, where he chairs the health, safety and wellness committee and leads on advice on self-driving vehicles.
He previously held a non-executive director position at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
He said in a statement this week: “As a seasoned traveller with lived experience of disability, I am looking forward to working with the excellent team in place to help them continue to share their expertise with the government.
“The transport landscape has rapidly evolved in recent years, and I am passionate about leveraging this momentum to improve accessibility and inclusiveness across the UK’s transport network.
“I would like to thank Keith Richards [who chaired the committee for more than eight years before announcing his resignation last year] for his tireless efforts ensuring that all disabled people and their carers have had representation at the highest political levels.”
When DNS asked for an interview with the new chair, a DfT spokesperson said: “Thanks for your interest.
“Matthew is currently getting stuck into the role but we’ll certainly consider yourself for interviews in the near future.”
Richard Holden, the transport minister with responsibility for accessibility, said in a statement: “Everyone deserves the right to get from A-to-B with ease and DPTAC plays a vital role helping us ensure equal access to travel in the UK.
“I’m delighted to welcome Matthew as the new chair. His background speaks for itself in his breadth of experience and I look forward to working closely with him in the coming months.”
Meanwhile, disabled television presenter Sophie Morgan has launched a campaign to demand new powers for the Civil Aviation Authority to fine airlines and other organisations if they fail to look after disabled passengers and their equipment.
The Loose Women star, a wheelchair-user and frequent international traveller, has launched the Rights on Flights campaign with Disability Rights UK and Marion Fellows, the SNP’s disability spokesperson in Westminster.
Morgan recently had her wheelchair and other mobility equipment badly damaged on a flight between Los Angeles and London.
The #RightsOnFlights campaign is calling for airlines and other organisations to be held accountable for damage to wheelchairs and other essential mobility devices, and when they leave disabled passengers on flights for a prolonged period after the flight has landed, and when they fail to provide adequate assistance despite being told in advance of the passenger’s needs.
23 February 2023
Campaigner’s legal fight forces council to scrap ‘ludicrous’ pavement policy
A campaigning disabled woman who found herself trapped on a pavement by café furniture has forced her local council to rewrite its “ludicrous” and unlawful licensing policy after a successful legal action.
Flick Williams, a visually-impaired powerchair-user, had left a shoe shop in York last May to find that tables and chairs were blocking her exit in both directions.
The two businesses had been given permission to block the pavement with their furniture by City of York Council, even though this was in breach of government guidance introduced during the pandemic.
The guidance says cafes can only be licensed to use pavements if they leave at least 1.5 metres space for pedestrians to pass by.
Williams launched a legal action through the county court, alleging discrimination under the Equality Act.
Now the council has conceded defeat and has agreed to pay her legal costs and compensation, as well as amending its licensing policy.
Williams has told Disability News Service that she believes other local authorities have introduced similar unlawful policies, and she has advised activists in other parts of the country how to challenge their local authorities.
The “extremely distressing” incident took place in May 2022.
After spending about half an hour inside a shoe shop, Williams came out to find that tables and chairs had been put out by the two neighbouring businesses, blocking the pavement in both directions.
The high kerb meant the medically-retired disability equality trainer and access consultant had no exit route and had to shout for help.
But when some young passers-by started to move some of the furniture onto the road for her, the landlord of one of the businesses came running out to challenge them.
He told Williams the council had given him permission to block the pavement with his tables and chairs, but he eventually apologised after she explained her situation.
She said: “That’s what I found so upsetting about the whole event; it put me directly in conflict with this business owner who is standing over me in the pavement, shouting, ‘I’ve got a license, the council lets me do this.’
“I’m very calmly saying, ‘I don’t doubt it for one minute, but you can see the problem. I am trapped on this pavement,’ and he looked at the kerb and looked at me and back again and kind of said, ‘I’m kind of sorry,’ in a not very sorry sort of a way, and moved the furniture enough to let me get past.
“I hate the word ‘vulnerable’, most of us do, but it just put me in a very vulnerable situation.”
Despite her repeated attempts to persuade the council to change its policy, it refused to do so, and Williams was forced to begin a county court action.
She said: “I tried the nice way, I wrote emails and letters and they just tried to justify what they were doing.
“I didn’t file with the court until September, so it really was a last resort.
“It was very clearly unlawful, and I thought I didn’t really have a choice.
“As someone who has been disabled since before we even had legislation to protect us from discrimination, I decided that I must use this hard-fought-for legislation to try to rectify the situation.”
The council has now settled the case out of court, introducing a new policy and paying her costs and compensation.
Williams said the new policy seems to be working so far.
She said: “There is a very noticeable difference. I am quite sure that when the weather improves, we will see some more infractions.
“All the disability groups within York have been circulating the information about how to report infractions because we feel that if cafes are breaching the new policy then they need to be reported quickly because otherwise the whole thing very quickly gets out of hand.
“It’s just a shame, as always, that we had to get there the hard way. If they had listened to us properly in the first place, none of it would have been necessary.”
Williams also plays a leading role in the Reverse the Ban coalition of 27 groups who continue to push City of York Council to reverse its decision to ban the vehicles of blue badge-holders from the historic city centre.
She said: “It is noticeably making a positive difference for disabled people who can still actually get to the city centre, despite the blue badge ban, and that fight continues.”
The council had refused to apologise or explain its actions by noon today (Thursday), or say why it breached the government guidance, or clarify its new policy.
23 February 2023
Pursglove refuses to probe rapid rise in PIP ‘disallowances’
The minister for disabled people has refused to investigate why the number of disabled people whose disability benefits were stopped when they failed to return a vital form rose by more than 450 per cent in four years.
The figures, released earlier this month by Tom Pursglove, showed the number of personal independence payment (PIP) claims that were “disallowed” because the claimant failed to return the AR1 award review form rose by 461 per cent between 2017 and 2021.
Two Labour MPs then questioned him on the figures and asked what assessment he had made of the reason for the figures rising so sharply.
But in written answers to Marsha de Cordova and Vicky Foxcroft, Pursglove said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had carried out “no such assessment” because “we do not collect information on the causation of a failure to return the AR1 review forms”.
The figures released earlier this month showed that in 2017, just 7,500 PIP claims were “disallowed” because the claimant failed to return the AR1 award review form, but this had risen to 42,100 by 2021.
De Cordova had requested the figures following reports on the death of Laura Winham, who had her disability living allowance (DLA) stopped in 2016 after she failed to respond to requests to apply for the new PIP.
It is believed she died the following year, in November 2017, and at the time had access to just a handful of loose change. Her body was not discovered for more than three years.
Pursglove told de Cordova it would be too expensive to produce figures showing how many DLA and PIP disallowances there have been due to the PIP reassessment process.
But he did release figures showing how many PIP claims were “disallowed” due to non-return of the AR1 form (PDF), which is for claimants to describe “how your disability affects you” when their claim is reviewed.
Foxcroft said this week: “It is unacceptable that the DWP does not collect information on the reasons why people fail to return their AR1 PIP review forms.
“The sharp increase in the number of PIP claims being disallowed is very concerning. Ministers should be looking into it as a matter of urgency.
“A Labour government will be transparent with all data and reports to ensure we get things right.”
Pursglove has previously refused to say if he was alarmed by the PIP disallowance figures, particularly in the light of the death of Laura Winham, and has refused to provide an explanation for such a rapid increase.
DWP refused yesterday (Wednesday) to explain why Pursglove was showing no interest in investigating the reason for the increase in PIP disallowances.
Instead, it repeated the statement it delivered earlier this month.
A spokesperson said: “We support millions of people every year and our priority is they get the benefits to which they are entitled to as soon as possible, and to ensure they receive a supportive and compassionate service.
“For anyone with a disability or long-term health condition, there is a strong financial safety net, including statutory sick pay, employment and support allowance and universal credit.
“Only a small proportion of PIP claims are disallowed for non-return of the AR1 form and safeguards are in place to prevent vulnerable claimants’ claims falling out of payment.”
Laura Winham’s death was only the latest in a series of similar tragedies linked to DWP’s failings and policies.
The body of Sophia Yuferev, a talented artist who lived with significant mental distress, was discovered by police in her flat in Hornchurch, Essex, in November 2021, months after all her benefits had been removed by DWP.
Errol Graham starved to death in 2018, months after DWP wrongly stopped his out-of-work benefits, leaving him without any income. He weighed just four-and-a-half stone when his body was found by bailiffs who had knocked down his front door to evict him.
And Mark Wood starved to death in 2013 after DWP found him ineligible for employment and support allowance, even though he had never been able to cope with the demands of a job and his GP had said he was incapable of working.
DWP’s failings date back at least as far as the death of Timothy Finn, who starved to death in 1999. His benefits had been stopped automatically after he failed to respond to letters posted to him by the Benefits Agency.
23 February 2023
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
More than 60,000 disabled adults in England were chased for debts by councils last year after failing to pay for their social care support at home. Claimants told the BBC they cannot afford the charges amid rising food and rent prices, along with the additional costs of living with impairments. Councils took legal action against 330 people in 2021-22: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64668729
A train operator has launched a dedicated communication channel to quickly assist disabled travellers in a UK first. Avanti West Coast passengers can use WhatsApp to contact members of the operator’s social media team who have knowledge of accessibility issues. The Travel Companion system is designed to ensure disabled customers receive prompt support when they encounter problems such as a station lift breaking down and cannot find assistance from a member of staff: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/avanti-west-coast-facebook-b2286939.html
Four former Met Police officers have admitted gross misconduct after being part of a WhatsApp group which shared sexist, racist and homophobic messages. They are among a group of eight former and serving Met officers facing disciplinary proceedings over content shared in the group. Offensive remarks were also posted in chats about disabled people, including Katie Price’s son Harvey. Six officers in the group, who were all based in Bexley, have now left the Met: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64681633
23 February 2023
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
