Contents
Sunak suggests he wants to lead fresh assault on disability benefits spending 1
Starmer’s ‘very alarming’ call to legalise assisted suicide 4
Government launched ‘pitiful’ Disability Action Plan without knowing how much it would cost 5
Labour’s DWP team ‘split’ over universal credit safety 7
DWP figures ‘show how rise in staff workload led to mental health crisis’ 8
UN committee set to examine UK government’s ‘absolutely shocking’ behaviour 11
Stammering charity calls on parliament to act on ‘febrile atmosphere’ in debates 12
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week 14
Sunak suggests he wants to lead fresh assault on disability benefits spending
Disabled people are facing an “existential threat” after the government suggested it was planning a further assault on disability benefits spending, while stirring up hostility towards disabled claimants.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Rishi Sunak said he planned to pay for further cuts to national insurance contributions (NICs) in the next parliament by cutting working-age benefits.
He again appeared to suggest that disabled people were partly responsible for the country’s economic problems, and that it was not “right” that so many disabled people had been found not fit for work and did not have to carry out any work-related activity.
He told the Sunday Times: “We now have almost 2.5 million working-age people who have been signed off as unfit to work or even look for work or think about working and I don’t think that’s right.
“It’s really important to me that we reward hard work and that’s why cutting NICs is the best way to do that.”
He said that “encouraging everyone who can to work” would bring “fairness to the entire system” and “make sure that we can sustainably keep cutting taxes”.
His comments came just weeks after figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) showed that 46 per cent of people in families with at least one disabled child and one disabled adult were living in poverty in 2021-22, even before the cost-of-living crisis.
Sunday’s article referred to the government’s existing plans to tighten the work capability assessment, confirmed last November, but it said that Sunak wanted to “go further”.
Asked if the prime minister was suggesting there would be a fresh attack on benefits, or was instead referring to the proposals announced last year, a Number 10 spokesperson referred Disability News Service (DNS) to DWP.
A DWP spokesperson refused to answer the question.
Mirroring his misleading use of statistics from October’s party conference, Sunak also said: “We now sign off three times as many people to be out of work than we did a decade ago.”
After being contacted by DNS about this claim, the Office for Statistics Regulation is now examining the government’s repeated use of this comparison, and has added the complaint to its online “issues log”.
There are now serious concerns that the government could be planning yet another assault on spending on disability benefits, but also that it could be attempting to soften up the public before it gives evidence to the UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities on Monday (18 March).
The committee will examine the government’s progress since being found guilty in 2016 of grave and systematic violations of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, with most of those treaty breaches caused by policies introduced by Conservative DWP ministers.
Ellen Clifford, who has been coordinating work by the coalition of UK disabled people’s organisations that monitors implementation of the convention, said she feared a pre-emptive government attempt to discredit the committee’s findings.
And she said the latest moves were “ramping up” hostility towards disabled people.
She said: “I think the government saw what they can get away with against disabled people during Covid, so they’re going for it now.
“They are trying to push through things that they couldn’t get away with before Covid, in terms of taking away disability benefits support.”
Clifford, award-winning author of The War on Disabled People, was speaking at a webinar organised by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) to brief journalists on the convention.
She said: “The government has never had any evidence base underpinning their welfare reform programme, the claims they make that justify it, for example that by doing this they’re getting more people into work, claims that by taking away our benefits we’ll be freed from the trap of poverty because we’ll suddenly find work, this idea that these conditions aren’t real.”
She added: “I do feel that disabled people are in a phase now where we’re facing an existential threat. I think it’s that bad. I am very concerned.”
Clifford, who will be part of a delegation of more than ten disabled people’s organisations visiting the UN to observe the government giving evidence, said: “I was already going to Geneva with concerns, and I’m even more worried now.”
Natasha Hirst, NUJ president and the disability representative on its national executive, told the webinar that the government was “quite happy to be very hostile towards disabled people, knowing that that’s going to be replicated and then consumed by the general public”.
She said the government’s narrative was “deliberately oppressive towards disabled people” and “reinforces the hostility that we experience in our day-to-day lives”.
A day before the Sunday Times interview, the Times had published a column by former Conservative MP Matthew Parris, in which he also launched an attack on claimants of disability benefits.
In a column headlined “Our disability benefits system invites abuse”, Parris claimed that autism was vastly over-diagnosed, and that he did not believe in ADHD.
Following publication of his column, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), which regulates most of the UK’s newspapers and magazines, told DNS it was assessing 27 complaints about the article.
The autistic-led charity Autistic Nottingham described Parris’s comments as “dangerously ignorant”.
Claire Whyte, Autistic Nottingham’s chief executive, said: “Matthew Parris’s comments on autism are dangerously ignorant of the reality of how difficult obtaining a diagnosis is.
“The concept of ‘all these over-diagnosed’ conditions is getting old.
“We have worked hard as a society to improve diagnostics and support for people with all conditions, including those with autism and ADHD.
“It is more common for people with these conditions to go through life without a diagnosis than it is to be misdiagnosed.”
She added: “With waiting-lists surpassing two years in some parts of Britain, no one is wandering into their GP surgery and walking out with a ‘fake’ diagnosis.
“Parris has no understanding of how neurodiverse conditions work, how they affect the day-to-day ‘functioning’ of individuals whom he perceives as ‘on a spectrum we are all on’ or how society is not set up to adequately support those who can mostly ‘get by’.”
Ella Griffin, Autistic Nottingham’s head of public relations, said that, after she was prescribed ADHD medication, her university grades improved from 40 per cent to 70 per cent because she could “finally get over that hurdle of starting my work, regulate my anxiety enough to finish the work, and focus enough to proofread it”.
She said: “My personal experiences aside, we have multiple studies proving the ADHD brain is wired up differently to those without ADHD – perhaps Mr Parris should read some of these studies before declaring that ADHD, among other conditions, is ‘bad medical science?’”
The Times had not commented on the concerns about the Parris column by noon today (Thursday).
Meanwhile, there is continuing confusion around an announcement made in last week’s spring budget of more funding to “support the processing of disability benefit claims”, which the Treasury said would improve the system’s capacity “to meet increased demand” for personal independence payment (PIP) and to handle “both new and existing claims”.
DNS asked for further details from DWP, but the department would say only that the extra funding would enable disabled people to receive the right support in a timely manner, and would be provided from April 2024 to September 2028.
But the Treasury’s spring budget policy costings document (PDF) suggests that, although the measure will initially cost DWP £110 million in 2024-25, it will eventually save the government as much as £150 million a year by 2028-29 because “more award reviews can be completed on time” and award reviews “can lead to a reduction in award amounts as some claimants’ conditions can improve over time”.
This suggests the extra funding is aimed at cutting spending on PIP rather than improving how the service works for claimants.
14 March 2024
Starmer’s ‘very alarming’ call to legalise assisted suicide
The decision of Labour leader Keir Starmer to publicly back assisted suicide is “very alarming” and will make it “very, very difficult” for disabled campaigners to prevent its legalisation, according to those opposing a change in the law.
Starmer told ITV News this week that he was “personally in favour of changing the law” to allow assisted suicide in England and Wales.
Filmed during a telephone conversation with TV presenter and assisted suicide campaigner Esther Rantzen, who has lung cancer, he also promised to make time for parliament to vote on changing the law, if Labour wins the next general election.
His intervention came just weeks after a cross-party committee of MPs rejected attempts by a minority of its members to try to use a new report to push the government towards legalising assisted suicide in England and Wales.
That report by the health and social care select committee followed a 14-month inquiry, with more than 68,000 responses from members of the public to an online survey, more than 380 pieces of written evidence, and oral evidence from 29 experts and politicians.
Phil Friend, co-convenor of Not Dead Yet UK (NDY UK), told Disability News Service this week that he was “surprised and very worried” by Starmer’s comments.
He said the likelihood of having a prime minister openly in favour of legalisation for the first time would make it “very, very difficult” for disabled people opposing the move.
He said he did not believe Starmer understood the impact of poverty on disabled people and how that affects their feelings of being a “burden” on those around them.
He said: “Until social care and palliative care are available to everybody to a certain level, the talk about assisted suicide is really frightening, because what we know from the research is that people are likely to want to end their lives if they feel they’re a burden to others.”
Friend said he was concerned that Starmer’s Labour party did not appear to have any clear plans to improve social care and palliative care.
He said: “I would ask him to look at social care and those kinds of supports before he starts looking at legalising helping people to die.
“We just believe that before we talk about helping kill people, we should be talking about how we help them to live.”
He said there had been silence from Labour and other parties on how to solve the social care crisis.
Labour has repeatedly failed to address the concerns of disabled campaigners calling for an end to social care charges, and for action on the tens of thousands of disabled people every year who are having debt collection action taken against them over unpaid care charges.
Friend also urged Starmer to pay attention to the conclusions of the health and social care committee, and its decision not to call for legalisation.
And he said that it “rankles” that Rantzen had become a “flag-bearer” for legalisation when she was speaking from “such a privileged position” and when legalisation would put disabled people without her resources in even more vulnerable positions.
He said another concern Starmer appeared to have ignored was that it was cheaper for the state to fund assisted suicide than to pay for palliative care.
A report (PDF) by Canada’s parliamentary budget officer in 2020 found that introducing the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) assisted suicide scheme in 2016 for those with certain conditions would save an estimated $87 million a year by 2021, while expanding access to the scheme to those whose death was “not expected in the relative near term” would save another $62 million a year.
14 March 2024
Government launched ‘pitiful’ Disability Action Plan without knowing how much it would cost
The government has admitted launching its much-criticised Disability Action Plan without a clear idea of how much – or how little – it would cost.
Disabled people’s organisations have already dismissed the short-term plan as a series of “empty promises” that fail to address the “dire situation” disabled people are facing.
The plan, which contains 32 “practical actions”, was launched by disability minister Mims Davies last month, following a 12-week public consultation.
But all 32 actions appeared to be low- or zero-budget measures, and there were no striking new policies, with apparently no new legislation or spending commitments before the general election.
Now a freedom of information (FoI) response from the Cabinet Office has underlined concerns from disabled people that the plan will make little “tangible difference” to their lives.
Disability News Service (DNS) had asked for figures showing the cost of each of the 32 policies included in the plan.
But in response to the DNS request, the Cabinet Office’s freedom of information team replied: “We are writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, we have established that while an initial assessment of the likely costs of actions has informed actions included in the Disability Action Plan, the information you requested is not held by the Cabinet Office.”
Instead, the Cabinet Office said, the government was “currently going through budget planning for the financial year 2024-25” and “the ‘costings’ for each of the 32 actions within the Disability Action Plan will be incorporated within this process, unless funded in the 2023-24 budget”.
It is likely that the Disability Unit is determined not to repeat the embarrassment it faced in 2021 when a similar FoI request from DNS about the National Disability Strategy produced figures that showed the government was offering just £3.95 million of new funding, or 28p for every disabled person in the UK.
Fazilet Hadi, head of policy for Disability Rights UK, said the failure to produce any figures was “not a surprise”.
She said: “Almost all the actions were about holding discussions, producing guidance, integrating disability equality into existing policies and plans or taking belated action to implement the Equality Act.
“Some research projects were proposed but it is likely that these can be accommodated from within the Disability Unit budget.
“The Disability Action Plan, published in advance of a general election and with around an eight-month life span, was always going to be a very limited document.
“Its scope and ambition fall far short of what is needed, a transformational ten-year plan to tackle systemic and deep-seated inequalities and injustices.”
Paula Peters, a member of the national steering group of Disabled People Against Cuts, said: “A Disability Action Plan with little or no additional funding in place means the action plan will never bring any improvements to disabled people’s lives.
“It shows yet again the low regard the government have for disabled people.
“A pitiful plan that won’t amount to anything. Shame on them.”
Asked how the government justified not having any funding figures for its DAP actions, and why it had been able to provide figures for the National Disability Strategy but not for the Disability Action Plan, a spokesperson for the government’s Equality Hub declined to add to the FoI response.
The action plan is intended to run alongside the longer-term National Disability Strategy, which itself was heavily criticised by a cross-party committee of MPs late last year.
The Commons women and equalities committee published a follow-up report last week showing the government had accepted just two of its recommendations, and had dismissed a call to collaborate with disabled people on developing a new ten-year strategy.
The committee said in December that the National Disability Strategy was merely “a list consisting mainly of pre-existing departmental actions with minimal strategic thinking behind how those actions interact”.
14 March 2024
Labour’s DWP team ‘split’ over universal credit safety
Labour’s work and pensions team appears to be split over whether the party should pledge to act on serious concerns about the safety of the universal credit working-age benefits system.
The party’s shadow minister for disabled people, Vicky Foxcroft, told Disability News Service (DNS) this week that she was concerned about three recent deaths of disabled people linked to universal credit, and promised that Labour would “learn lessons from them”.
But she told DNS to ask her boss, shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, for a detailed response on the safety issues relating to universal credit.
But despite DNS first approaching Kendall’s office last Friday with a request to comment on the serious safety concerns around universal credit, and making repeated further attempts to secure a detailed comment, she had failed to produce one by noon today (Thursday).
Labour’s failure to take the safety issues seriously was highlighted last week when Foxcroft failed to address these concerns in a statement, despite the suicides of two disabled people that were each linked to universal credit by coroners in prevention of future deaths (PFD) reports sent to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
It appears likely that party figures senior to Foxcroft prevented her mentioning universal credit in the statement Labour released in her name last week.
The first PFD report was written by a coroner who warned work and pensions secretary Mel Stride in November that he needed to act to prevent flaws in universal credit leading to further deaths, following the suicide of Kevin Gale, from Penrith, Cumbria, who had become overwhelmed by the application process.
Last month, another coroner linked DWP and universal credit with a suicide, this time following the death of Nazerine Anderson, from Melton Mowbray, with the PFD highlighting how DWP missed six opportunities to record her “vulnerability” on its IT system while it was reviewing her universal credit claim, including failing to act on the mental distress she displayed in phone calls.
DNS has also alerted Kendall to a series of other cases of significant harm associated with universal credit, including another suicide for which an inquest has yet to be held.
Kendall has also failed to express any concern about a Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit report that ministers kept hidden for four years and which revealed significant flaws at the heart of universal credit and how DWP supported “vulnerable” claimants.
Her refusal to speak out came as disabled activists prepared to travel to Geneva to try to hold the UK government – and particularly DWP – to account over its lack of progress since being found guilty of grave and systematic violations of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2016 (see separate story).
A member of Kendall’s staff told DNS last night (Wednesday): “The response is that it is not true that we ignore these issues. And it is not true that we don’t care about them.”
He had failed to comment further by noon today.
14 March 2024
DWP figures ‘show how rise in staff workload led to mental health crisis’
A huge increase in the workload faced by civil servants managing universal credit cases led to significant increases in how many of them took time off after experiencing mental distress and other ill-health, new government figures suggest.
The figures, secured through a freedom of information (FoI) request, show the proportion of universal credit caseload managers who took time off with a mental health condition rose from seven per cent in 2019 to 23 per cent in 2022 and 26 per cent in 2023.
Over the same period, the proportion of caseload managers who spent more than four weeks off sick during the year nearly doubled, from 14 per cent in 2019 to 23 per cent in 2022 and 27 per cent in 2023.
But the figures also show that the average number of universal credit cases each caseload manager was expected to deal with had more than doubled, from 550 in January 2020 to 1,230 in January 2023.
Although corresponding figures for work coaches did not show a similar link between an increased caseload and ill-health, they did show the proportion of work coaches taking at least four weeks off sick during the year rose from 14 per cent in 2019 to 24 per cent in 2022, and then 22 per cent in 2023.
The proportion of work coaches taking time off due to mental health concerns increased by more than three times from four per cent in 2019 to 16 per cent in 2022 and 15 per cent in 2023.
Disability News Service (DNS) requested the figures after reporting in November how whistleblowers had revealed that more than a third of work coaches on a single floor of a jobcentre in Oxford experienced a mental health crisis in less than a year, due to the “dysfunctional” Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its “toxic” policies.
Written and oral evidence seen by DNS showed conditions for work coaches at the jobcentre became so stressful that 15 of those in one team of 23 quit within a 12-month period.
All the Oxford resignations and episodes of mental distress followed preparations that began in November 2021 for DWP’s Way to Work Initiative, which was launched publicly in January 2022 by the then work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey.
Jake Baker*, a former work coach at the jobcentre, said the new DWP figures “irrefutably demonstrate that working conditions are causing increasingly more incidences of sickness and mental health distress for UC work coaches and especially UC case managers across the UK”.
He said: “It is now clear that the systemic abuse of DWP employees has become normalised, and acceptable, despite being predictable and as such avoidable.
“The DWP’s lazy and ineffectual response of simply and continually recruiting new employees to replace their burnt out and injured predecessors is unacceptable and neglectful.”
And he said it was “abhorrent” and “extremely distressing” that the “highly dysfunctional” and “dangerous” DWP working practices that led to the “unacceptable suffering” of Oxford jobcentre work coaches remained unchallenged.
The month after DNS exposed conditions at Oxford jobcentre, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) concluded that DWP was massively under-staffed and was a “failing organisation in a state of crisis”, as it submitted a “devastating” dossier of evidence from its own staff to Peter Schofield, DWP’s permanent secretary.
PCS said the staffing crisis was “creating an epidemic of mental ill health amongst staff and failing to protect the most vulnerable citizens in society”.
The new figures secured by DNS appear to confirm the existence of that “epidemic of mental ill health” and raise concerns not only about the health of DWP staff but about the impact on disabled people who need support from work coaches and universal credit case managers.
DNS has continued to report on safety concerns within universal credit, including two coroners in just three months linking the system with the suicide of a claimant.
PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “The data shared by the DWP in response to the FoI request conclusively support PCS demands for more staff and the testimonies provided by our members in November.
“The data makes it clear that excessive workloads are creating unacceptable pressure for our members which is resulting in a mental health crisis in DWP.
“Despite repeated attempts by PCS to engage with DWP leadership about finding solutions to the staffing crisis we have hit a brick wall.
“We have requested meetings with the secretary of state, Mel Stride, and the permanent secretary, Peter Schofield, to discuss the staffing crisis but these requests have been refused.
“Rather than acknowledge the scale of the problem, DWP is burying its head in the sand.
“We will use this important data to continue to press our demands for more staff to create a social security system that is fair to staff and to claimants.”
Asked if it was worried about the increase in ill-health absence among its staff, and whether it accepted that this was linked to an increase in workload, DWP declined to answer the question.
But it said it provided a wide range of support for staff to help with their physical health and mental, social and financial wellbeing, including access to an employee assistance programme and the presence of mental health first aiders and “ambassadors for fair treatment” throughout its organisation.
It claimed it was committed to building health and wellbeing confidence across DWP by developing its leaders to recognise early signs of ill-health.
It also said it had prioritised lower-paid employees in its 2023-24 pay award, while its recruitment campaigns continued across the country.
A DWP spokesperson said: “We are committed to supporting the wellbeing of our staff and provide access to a comprehensive range of assistance for their physical and mental health.
“We have recruitment plans in place to maintain key services – providing excellent opportunities for existing staff and new recruits who are playing a vital role in our next generation welfare reforms to help thousands back into jobs, grow the economy and drive down inflation.”
*Not his real name
14 March 2024
UN committee set to examine UK government’s ‘absolutely shocking’ behaviour
A delegation of disabled activists will travel to Geneva this week to help the United Nations hold the UK government to account for its continuing breaches of the UN disability convention.
Members of the delegation, representing leading disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) and allies, are likely to brief members of the UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities on the government’s failure to meet its obligations under the treaty.
Representatives of more than 10 DPOs from across the UK, more than half of them grassroots organisations, will be joined in Geneva by representatives of five unions.
Although they will not be giving evidence publicly, they will keep a close eye on the public evidence given by the UK government during its cross-examination by the committee, to ensure its evidence is both factually correct and not misleading.
The UN committee will question the government on the progress it has made since being found guilty of grave and systematic violations of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2016.
It was the first such high-level inquiry carried out by the committee and was the result of years of research and lobbying by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), which will be sending several of its members to Geneva.
The committee found in November 2016 that the UK government had discriminated against disabled people on the right to an adequate standard of living and social protection, work and employment, and independent living.
Ellen Clifford, who has been coordinating work by the coalition of UK disabled people’s organisations that monitors implementation of the convention, said this week: “It’s clear the United Nations are very, very upset with the UK government.
“They think what they’re doing is absolutely shocking.”
She told an online event organised by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) that the 2016 findings had been “unprecedented”.
She told the event, arranged to brief journalists on the convention ahead of next week’s session: “Disabled people felt validated by it. They felt finally that they were being listened to, but the government, of course, dismissed it.”
Clifford, award-winning author of The War on Disabled People, said the written reports already submitted to the committee by DPOs were “very, very comprehensive” and carefully researched “because the government dismisses everything it possibly can”.
The government was supposed to be examined last August on its progress but failed to send a representative.
It refused at the time to offer an explanation, with the then minister for disabled people Tom Pursglove declining three times to offer an excuse at last October’s Conservative party conference.
It was only last week, in its response to a critical report by the Commons women and equalities committee about its National Disability Strategy, that it finally produced an explanation.
It told the committee that the decision not to attend in August had been due to “competing pressures and commitments” and that “by the time we received the date of the dialogue we would have been unable to adequately prepare”.
14 March 2024
Stammering charity calls on parliament to act on ‘febrile atmosphere’ in debates
Disabled campaigners are calling on the House of Commons to address its “febrile atmosphere” and ensure that those with communication differences who take part in parliamentary debates no longer have to fear being “ripped to shreds”.
They have drawn up a petition* after a disabled politician announced he would not stand for his party at the next general election because of the rising and “intolerable” levels of hate crime directed towards him as someone with a stammer.
Chris Nelson had stood for the Liberal Democrats four times in Kettering, but he announced last month that he would not be standing at the next general election.
He is now backing a parliamentary petition* drawn up by the disabled people’s organisation STAMMA, which campaigns for people who stammer.
The petition will call for parliamentary authorities, the government and political parties to ensure that debates take place in “an inclusive environment for those who communicate differently by changing procedures and modelling behaviours where all members are treated with respect”.
It will say it is “unacceptable” that the way parliamentary debates are conducted “creates a febrile environment where people who communicate differently fear they’ll get ripped to shreds”.
The petition will say that this needs to change.
Nelson told Disability News Service: “What MPs do sets the tone for the behaviour of political activists, social media firms, the police and above all ordinary people, and too often that tone is behaviour unfit even for the school playground.
“The culture of bad behaviour that the House of Commons tolerates within its ranks is a symbol of society’s continued unwillingness to get a grip on abuse.
“All sides claim to condemn it, but what we walk past is what we accept.
“Every single day that politicians walk past abuse, and act as though bad behaviour need only be condemned if it is done to their political friends, is another day that prejudice is normalised.”
Among organisations supporting the petition is Disability Rights UK (DR UK).
Kamran Mallick, DR UK’s chief executive, said: “Creating an inclusive society that works for everyone has to start with the government.
“Their role is to set the example, ensure that different voices and experiences are heard, and create environments that value and respect difference.
“Parliament should be a space to debate robustly and not a place where disabled people fear bullying and discrimination.
“Our country will only benefit from diversity in political life. We stand in solidarity with STAMMA in calling for a change so that individuals who stammer can realise their ambitions of a role in public life.”
Paul Fix, STAMMA’s chair, said: “It can’t be right that people fear to stand for parliament, believing they won’t be heard or listened to because of their difference.
“We want parliament to hold a debate to examine how they debate, and whether name calling, jeering and booing should be allowed.”
Paul Gerrard, director of campaigns and public affairs at the Co-op Group, said: “For nearly 30 years I have worked with parliaments and politicians across the UK and have done so with a stammer.
“It isn’t something to be overcome, it’s part of me. Too many people, especially in politics, see it as a weakness or a vulnerability to be exploited.
“It is hurtful, it is plain nasty, but above all else it prevents talent from entering public service, which is something we can ill afford.
“This petition is asking those who represent us and make our laws to act with respect and welcome all views, not just those who sound like them.”
*The petition will be added to the UK parliament website when approved by parliamentary authorities
14 March 2024
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
Bereaved relatives have accused ministers of dragging their feet over an inquiry into the death of almost 2,000 patients across NHS mental health trusts in Essex. The inquiry has still not started more than eight months after the announcement that it would be relaunched with beefed-up powers: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/12/bereaved-families-continue-to-wait-for-essex-mental-health-inquiry
A charity for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) says it fears many of them have lost their jobs because they cannot get their medication. ADHD UK says many employers have lost patience with workers who have faced interruptions to their medicine supply since the autumn. The medication helps manage symptoms of the condition, which can include an inability to focus on a single task: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-68502496
14 March 2024
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
