Contents
Rail companies are using access stats from mystery shoppers who pretend to be disabled 1
Government fails to act over minister who shared post on ‘dangerous’ DWP policies 6
Could clickbait news articles help explain why PIP claims are rising so fast? 7
Two years since ‘toothless’ watchdog pledged to act on benefit deaths, and still no action 12
Stop this onslaught of attacks, say disabled people in letter to PM 14
Train companies admit inflating stats on pre-booked rail assistance 15
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week 18
Rail companies are using access stats from mystery shoppers who pretend to be disabled
Rail companies are using evidence on the accessibility of their rail services that has come from “mystery shopping” exercises carried out by freelance workers pretending to be disabled, Disability News Service can reveal.
Analysis of assignments offered by a market research firm used by multiple rail companies shows that it regularly uses “role-playing” passengers who pretend to be disabled to carry out mystery shopping assessments of services at rail stations and on trains.
One train company said this morning (Thursday) that it had been unaware that non-disabled people were being used instead of disabled customers.
And it said that data from surveys carried out by the company – Mystery Shoppers Ltd (MSL), which is based in Holsworthy, Devon – was regularly passed on to the Department for Transport.
Furious disabled campaigners spoke out this week to express their alarm at the practice.
They fear that role-playing passengers have been providing inaccurate information about the accessibility of the transport system, which has been used by rail companies to justify plans to close ticket offices and make rail staff redundant.
At least some of the false information is also passed on to the government and again is likely to provide an overly-positive picture of accessible transport.
An investigation by Disability News Service (DNS) has revealed that rail companies have been using MSL to test their services for more than three years.
Those carrying out the mystery shopping exercises at stations and on trains are paid a small fee and travel expenses.
The “assignments” are advertised on the company’s website and in emails to those signed up to the service, but many of the tasks that request a passenger to test how the rail company performs in providing assistance to disabled people say they can be carried out by passengers who “can role play that they need assistance”.
One task, from 2023, described the assignment, relating to a visit to Haywards Heath station in Sussex, as “an assitance [sic] shop, which can be a genuine need, or role played, here are some examples – Visual impairment – Hearing impairment – Physical disabilities, such as using a wheelchair or walking aids”.
A recent assignment for the Brighton area says the passenger “will need to roleplay/present with an assistance need”, which “can be a hearing/sight impairment or it can even be a hidden disability such as autism”.
A current assignment seen by DNS last week asked for someone to “present a simple question to the station staff member” at Market Harborough station, Leicestershire, and added: “We are looking for shoppers who require assistance or can role play that they need assistance whilst visiting the station.”
Another was looking for someone willing to use a Southern service from London Victoria to East Grinstead in West Sussex, and it asked: “We are looking for shoppers that would need assistance whilst travelling, to purchase a train ticket, ask a staff member a question and feed back on the experience.”
It then added: “You can either have or role play requiring assistance (eg help with boarding a train).”
And an assignment for Swindon, in Wiltshire, said the mystery shopper would need “to have or present with an additional need such as a disability or mobility need”.
The freelance mystery shoppers are often told by MSL: “If you get your first 5 completed in good time you may be able to complete many more!!”
This could mean that those who are role-playing being disabled people could be responsible for multiple fake results that are then being fed back to train companies, and probably also the government.
Sarah Leadbetter, national campaigns officer for The National Federation of the Blind of the UK, said her first reaction when hearing about the use of mystery shoppers who are role-playing being disabled was “anger and frustration”.
She said: “They have not got the right lived experience. They can’t walk in our shoes. They won’t have a clue.
“This is a very sneaky, disgusting way to make figures look a lot better than they really are.”
Leadbetter, who continues to experience significant problems with securing the assistance she needs to travel safely on the rail system, said she believed the assignments completed by role-playing passengers will be providing the rail companies and the government with an overly positive picture of the support provided to disabled passengers.
She fears this could be used to fuel fresh plans by the industry and government to close ticket offices across the rail network.
She said: “They can’t get away with it. It’s disgusting.”
Emily Yates, co-founder of the Association of British Commuters, said: “Researching disabled people’s access needs by role-playing would be shocking at the best of times, but is particularly grotesque given this government’s record on rail consultations.
“It has been many months since the collapse of proposals to close every ticket office in the country, and a three-year delay since the government first promised a ‘National Rail Accessibility Strategy’ consultation.
“Passengers have been shouting about the issues, and activists have published mountains of evidence to prove widespread breaches of the Equality Act.
“Yet, here is the railway conducting secret, low-quality research through a company that clearly has no rail accessibility expertise behind it.
“There are more than enough access experts with real lived experience to design credible research projects and gain genuine feedback on the problems with the railway.
“Whoever is behind this research – whether train operators, Rail Delivery Group, or Great British Railways – it will have zero credibility with disabled people as well as railway professionals.”
Sam Jennings, a disabled activist whose new website #DisabledByTheRailway highlights the access barriers faced by disabled rail passengers – and shows how railway staff are often disabled people’s “reasonable adjustment” and ensure the system is accessible – said it was “another low blow from the industry”.
She said: “I’m disappointed, but not surprised at all, because they’ve got a funny relationship with disabled people.
“They only want the disabled people that nod along and agree with everything.”
Jennings said the information provided by MSL would be completely invalid.
She said: “Until you’ve actually had the impairment, you won’t notice the nuance and the different things that could really be dangerous. You don’t have that knowledge.
“It’s ridiculous. What they’re doing is dishonest, it makes a mockery of it.”
She said the use of role-playing mystery shoppers demonstrated the “rubbish” attitude of the rail industry to disabled passengers.
She said: “There are specialist firms out there that disabled people with a range of impairments can sign up to, so it’s shoddy on the part of the mystery shopping company, but it’s even shoddier on the rail industry for selecting it.
“I think they are probably using it as a really disingenuous way to make it look like things are better by cosplaying, by cripping-up, by role-playing.”
DNS approached three rail companies about their use of MSL.
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which operates Southern, said it was unaware that MSL was using non-disabled people instead of disabled customers for mystery shops.
It said it uses MSL to carry out mystery shopping surveys as part of its quality control regime, and shares data from those surveys with the Department for Transport.
It also contracts MSL to carry out additional mystery shopping surveys designed to help it improve its service for disabled customers.
Carl Martin, GTR’s accessibility lead, said: “We were unaware that non-disabled people were being used in place of disabled customers for mystery shops, and we are urgently discussing with our supplier the circumstances in which they use this approach.
“At GTR we are always looking for feedback to improve customer service, and mystery shopping surveys are just one of the tools we use.
“We also have an access advisory panel of disabled customers who use our services and provide invaluable advice, which informs our staff training and the processes we use to improve the service we give our disabled customers.”
Great Western Railway (GWR) refused to answer several questions about its use of MSL, including whether its data was being passed on to the Department for Transport, and whether it was aware that MSL was using “role-playing” non-disabled passengers instead of disabled people.
But a GWR spokesperson said: “The mystery shopping programme looks at how colleagues respond to specific journey enquiries from customers.”
He added: “We use both disabled and non-disabled real-life mystery shoppers to carry out this work, and our supplier makes this clear when advertising for researchers.
“However, this is just one small part of our wider research in this area.”
He said GWR also partners with several charities not led by disabled people, and runs its own “passenger-led Accessibility Advisory Panel, Assisted Travel post-journey research and customer satisfaction analysis”.
East Midlands Railway (EMR) refused to answer questions about its use of MSL, but a spokesperson did not dispute that EMR used the company and its role-playing mystery shoppers.
He said in a statement: “The requirement set for us is to measure the assistance asked for at stations and on train – which anyone can request.
“We are not asked to report on specific types of disability as part of this process.
“The information required is whether the assistance was delivered by friendly and helpful staff in a timely manner.”
He said EMR also had its own internal mystery shopper programme “that engages with customers with lived experiences who audit our services from their perspective”, and an accessibility and inclusion panel.
Mystery Shoppers Ltd issued a statement yesterday (Wednesday) in which it admitted paying mystery shoppers to role-play being disabled passengers.
It also said it would now carry out an internal review of its “communication and practices”.
And it appeared to suggest that the rail companies using its services were aware that it often used role-playing mystery shoppers instead of disabled people.
But it refused to say how long it had been allowing role-playing mystery shoppers to test rail assistance services, and which rail companies were using its services, and it appeared to insist that it would continue to use role-playing to test access on the railways.
In a statement emailed to DNS, it claimed its “intentions may have been misunderstood” but it insisted that “in some instances, it is necessary for us to use role play in testing the accessibility of certain services”.
It claimed role-playing was “a vital tool in mystery shopping, used to ensure that a wide range of service experiences are thoroughly tested”.
And it said: “It is fully communicated to clients that mystery shoppers are not real customers and the assessment form the mystery shopper completes is designed only to measure objectively what took place, with questions focusing on factual information.
“Where there is use of role play, this is transparent to our clients.”
The statement added: “We understand and respect the concerns you’ve raised regarding the representation of disabled individuals in accessibility assessments.
“Our aim is never to diminish or misrepresent the experiences of people living with disabilities and we would always choose to allocate the assignments to those with a genuine need as a priority.”
It claimed it had a “dedicated accessibility testing mystery shopper panel on our database”, but it added: “Whilst we are always continuing to strive to increase the size of our accessibility testing panel, we have carefully considered our approach and decided that, when it does not compromise data integrity, role-playing is a valuable tool that enables us to thoroughly and objectively assess services and facilities.”
The statement added: “The emails that have been sent to you by the mystery shopper cover a range of different assignments and projects.
“It is apparent from your email that these emails have been perceived in a way we would not intend.
“We will conduct an internal review to see where we may be able to make improvements to our communication and practices to ensure it is clear to all who read them that role playing an assistance need is conducted with the utmost respect and sensitivity.”
9 May 2024
Government fails to act over minister who shared post on ‘dangerous’ DWP policies
The government is refusing to act or criticise its minister for disabled people after she shared a social media post that attacked her own department’s disability benefit reforms.
Last week, Mims Davies shared a post on Twitter by a disability charity that described government reforms of personal independence payment (PIP) and out-of-work disability benefits as “dangerous”.
The post by the charity Scope also accused ministers of “demonising” disabled people.
Davies has refused to explain to Disability News Service (DNS) why she shared the post, or to say whether she shares the charity’s concerns about PIP and reforms such as tightening the work capability assessment, speeding up the rollout of universal credit, and ending what the prime minister has called – in a speech last month – a “sicknote culture”.
But Davies appears to have breached the long-standing convention of ministerial “collective responsibility”, which states that all ministers are bound by decisions made by the Cabinet.
As described in a briefing document published by the House of Commons Library, this means that “if a minister disagrees with a government policy, he or she must still publicly support it”.
A minister who cannot accept this collective responsibility “is expected to resign”.
Her actions have fuelled speculation that Davies may become the latest Conservative MP to defect to Labour, after yesterday’s move by Dover MP Natalie Elphicke.
A Conservative party spokesperson refused to comment on the actions of Mims Davies and instead said he had passed on the concerns to the government’s special advisers in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
They had not responded by noon today (Thursday).
The party spokesperson also suggested that DNS contact the Cabinet Office.
The Cabinet Office declined to comment, and suggested DNS contact DWP.
DWP has also refused to comment on Davies’ decision to share the post, but referred DNS instead to a separate post in which Davies encouraged disabled people to engage in the PIP consultation.
Davies has now had several opportunities to clarify to DNS why she shared the post, and has repeatedly failed to do so.
Barry Ginley, chair of the Conservative Disability Group, also raised concerns about the government’s reforms this week.
He told DNS: “I can’t say why the post was shared, only Mims can answer that question.”
But he added: “I do recognise and understand the concerns of Scope and many disabled people, in which I share.
“I would like to see more information of how any changes would impact disabled people.
“I have recommended to everyone I speak to to respond to the consultation and let the government know their thoughts.
“The speech from the prime minister has made many disabled people nervous about their futures and their independence.
“I understand the need to reduce the growing benefits bill, but as a disabled individual, I hope the reforms assist disabled people to continue to lead independent lives with the benefits to ensure this happens.”
Vicky Foxcroft, Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people, said: “The government’s minister for disabled people appears to disagree with her own government policy, encouraging stakeholders to brand it ‘dangerous’.
“This government really is a shambles. After 14 years of failing disabled people, it really is time for change.”
9 May 2024
Could clickbait news articles help explain why PIP claims are rising so fast?
Questions have emerged over the role played by local news websites across the country in increasing the number of disabled people applying for disability benefits, casting fresh doubts on the government’s key argument for spending cuts.
Last week, ministers announced proposals for significant cuts and reforms to personal independence payment (PIP), which they said were necessary to address “spiralling costs”.
They pointed to figures which showed PIP spending was expected to grow by nearly two-thirds between 2023-24 and 2028-29 and that there were now more than 33,000 new awards for PIP per month compared to 17,000 before the pandemic.
Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, said last week: “It’s clear that our disability benefits system isn’t working in the way it was intended, and we’re determined to reform it to ensure it’s sustainable for the future, so we can continue delivering support to those who genuinely need it most.”
Many disabled people argued instead that the increase in new PIP claims was not due to a disability benefits system that was too generous but to years of austerity cuts to the NHS and other services and the impact of the Covid pandemic – including the emergence of long Covid – on the nation’s health.
But after being alerted by a disabled campaigner, Disability News Service (DNS) is now asking if the publication of countless news stories on local media websites over the last couple of years could also be playing a significant role in the increasing number of disabled people applying for PIP.
This would suggest that the increase in claimant numbers could be partly because there are hundreds of thousands of disabled people who do not currently claim the benefits they are entitled to.
These “clickbait” news stories follow a familiar pattern, with headlines telling readers “DWP to pay extra £362 a month for one of these 23 conditions”, “DWP says it’ll pay £691 to people with any of 87 common conditions” or “87 common muscle and joint conditions that qualify you for £737 from DWP”.
The headlines are written in a way that is likely to encourage people with those health conditions to visit the news website to investigate if there is financial support that they could qualify for, particularly in a cost-of-living crisis.
Most of the articles, published by local news websites across the country, encourage readers to apply for PIP.
The articles examined this week by DNS were mostly published by two of the largest UK media companies, Newsquest and Reach plc.
DNS asked both companies this week whether the stories had been successful in driving visitors to their websites, and if they believed they were partly responsible for the steep rise in disabled people applying for PIP.
A Reach spokesperson refused to comment on the company’s role in increasing the number of PIP recipients, or whether the stories had been successful in driving visitors to its websites.
A spokesperson for Newsquest, which is owned by Gannett, the largest US publisher of newspapers, said: “Since the beginning of 2024, Newsquest titles have published more than 200,000 stories on a wide range of issues of interest to our readers, with less than a dozen focused on specifically on [sic] generic DWP/PIP stories.
“Our mission is to report the facts as accurately as possible with no agenda.”
When DNS questioned those figures and suggested that some of the articles appeared on multiple Newsquest websites, the company declined to comment further.
Newsquest also suggested that most PIP stories were written by other publishers.
A DWP spokesperson refused to comment on the role of the news stories in increasing new PIP claims.
But the department said that PIP payments were awarded based on how conditions affect the claimant.
And it claimed that it was consulting on PIP reforms to modernise the benefits system, which – it claimed – would better reflect the country’s changing health landscape.
9 May 2024
It’s ‘time for a conversation’ on assisted suicide dangers, says Liz Carr, ahead of her BBC1 documentary
Disabled actor and activist Liz Carr has described her hopes that her BBC1 documentary about assisted suicide will finally explain the dangers of legalisation to a mainstream audience.
Better Off Dead?, to be broadcast on Tuesday (14 May) at 9pm, sees Carr travel to Canada to examine the impact of some of the most permissive assisted suicide laws in the world, but she also interviews two key campaigners who support legalisation in the UK.
She told Disability News Service (DNS) that she believed her documentary was particularly important in the context of years of austerity cuts, and the rates of suicides already linked to austerity and the actions of the Department for Work and Pensions.
Legalising assisted suicide, she said, would be even more dangerous at a time when “we are absolutely removing our welfare state, and we are dismantling our incredible NHS”.
Last week, at a protest outside the Houses of Parliament, she told DNS she was terrified by the government’s latest proposals to cut spending on personal independence payment.
She said: “I don’t even think the other side will make the connection over how terrifying that feels to disabled people yet again.
“We know disabled people have killed themselves because of DWP reforms in the past.
“That’s what terrifies me: the kind of thing happening in Canada where people for socio-economic reasons are choosing to end their lives through euthanasia.”
In Canada, she interviewed Amir Farsoud, a disabled man from Ontario, who requested an assisted suicide because his landlord was planning to sell off his apartment building, and he was terrified at the prospect of being left homeless on the freezing streets.
He eventually changed his mind about seeking an assisted suicide after a crowd-funding effort raised tens of thousands of dollars to support him.
He told Carr – best known for her role in BBC drama Silent Witness, but also a prominent member of the disabled people’s movement – that it was easier and quicker in Canada to apply for medical assistance in dying (assisted suicide) than disability benefits.
Carr also told journalists and other guests at an event previewing her documentary that it was “quite frightening” to have the Labour party led by someone, Keir Starmer, who is in favour of assisted suicide.
She said: “I’ve always been a little bit worried about Starmer getting in power, because he introduced the guidelines [on prosecuting cases of assisted suicide, in 2010] when he was director of public prosecutions.
“I’ve known he’s been pro, we all have, for over 10 years.”
She said this was “quite frightening” and “makes it difficult for voters like me to know what to do for the next election”.
Asked if she had a message for Starmer, she said: “I would say, please watch the documentary.
“I want you to talk to those who have concerns. Don’t sideline us as being marginalized and religious. There are a lot of people who are really concerned.”
She also spoke of the “chilling” attitude of Canadian doctor Dr Ellen Wiebe – who is herself disabled – who has provided assisted suicide to hundreds of Canadians since it was legalised and is shown in the documentary telling Carr she was “so glad, so glad” that they had medical assistance in dying laws in Canada.
She told her: “I love my job. This is the very best work I have ever done.”
Wiebe is also shown saying that she had never had so many grateful patients, which Carr said was “one of the most terrifying things in the documentary”.
She said: “When she says that doctors like grateful patients, that is chilling to me.
“And as somebody that’s had a lot of involvement with, you know, medics, that really frightens me.”
Carr told the audience at the preview event: “If we ask the question, ‘Do you want to stop dying people’s suffering?’ everybody has to say yes to that, or you’re a psychopath.
“We all, I believe, want everyone to have a good death, so the answer is how we do that.
“And the only difference between me and [those supporting legalisation] is how you do that. That’s the only difference.
“I don’t want people to suffer. I want people to have a good death. I just think people will suffer more if we introduce assisted suicide.”
And she said there was “an absolute PR machine that keeps [legalisation] in the news and tells us that we’re going to get a change in the law. It’s not if, it’s when.”
But she said there was “nothing inevitable about it, nothing at all… I still think it’s time for a conversation and it’s not inevitable.”
Carr said she did not understand why those fighting for legalisation did not put their resources into pushing for improved healthcare and palliative care, or “into giving people choice and control in their lives”.
She said: “Because choice isn’t choice when you’ve got no choice. It absolutely isn’t.
“And I meet people in my life who are suffering absolutely because they do not have choices in their life.”
One of the things she wanted to do with the documentary, she said, was to ensure that the disabled activists who are “a big part of my life” and “who have waited for this voice for years… feel heard and seen”.
A series of disabled actors, artists and activists opposed to legalisation are either seen on film or interviewed in the documentary, including Lisa Hammond, Ellen Clifford, Jamie Hale, Paula Peters, Eleanor Lisney, Penny Pepper and disabled peers Baroness [Jane] Campbell and Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson.
During the film, Carr also interviews some of those who have campaigned for legalisation in the UK, including Labour peer Lord Falconer, and disabled journalist Melanie Reid.
Reid tells her she has “a human right to decide what happens to my body”, while Lord Falconer says the need for legalisation is “about control… not about the intensity of the pain… there are a group of people who will always want to be in control”.
But Carr said that, while filming her interview with Reid at her home in Scotland, “actually, most of the time we shared the experiences of being two disabled women, living in contemporary society, and the struggles and the fights to get our care needs met”.
9 May 2024
Two years since ‘toothless’ watchdog pledged to act on benefit deaths, and still no action
The equality watchdog has been accused of bowing to political pressure by failing to force the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to prevent further deaths of disabled benefit claimants, two years after promising to take legal action.
It is now more than two years since the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) announced it was drawing up a legally-binding “section 23 agreement” with DWP that would force it to act.
But every time EHRC has been challenged about its failure to act in the last two years, it has said it is legally prevented from commenting on any discussions it is having with DWP.
EHRC said in April 2022 that it expected DWP to sign a section 23 agreement by the summer of 2022.
The agreement, EHRC said at the time, would commit DWP “to an action plan to meet the needs of customers with mental health impairments and learning disabilities” and it said it had concluded that action was necessary “given the seriousness of the issues”.
The commission only announced that plan after failing to follow through on proposals for an inquiry into the deaths of countless disabled people that had been linked to DWP’s actions.
But this week, more than two years on, disabled people and allies have spoken of their anger and frustration at the commission’s continuing refusal to follow through on its promise of legal action.
Mark Harrison, a member of the steering group of the Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance (ROFA), said: “In the two years the EHRC has failed to sign the section 23 agreement, many more unnecessary benefit-related deaths have occurred and many more disabled people have been harmed psychologically by the DWP and their repressive policies.
“ROFA has been raising this issue with the EHRC over the last 18 months as we know this government has no intention of signing this agreement.
“The truth is the EHRC has failed to protect the human rights of disabled claimants.”
He added: “Unfortunately, the leadership of the EHRC, appointed by the Tory government, are political stooges who are preventing holding this administration to account.”
Debbie Abrahams, Labour MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, who for years has led parliamentary efforts to hold DWP to account over the deaths, said EHRC’s actions showed that it “has no teeth” and she said it was “staggering” that “absolutely nothing has changed”, two years after the commission’s section 23 statement.
She pointed to last month’s report by the UN committee on the rights of disabled people, which found the UK government had made “no significant progress” since being found guilty in late 2016 of “grave and systematic” violations of the UN disability convention.
She said that, if anything, the discrimination was “getting worse”, and she pointed to the “scapegoating of sick and disabled people” by the prime minister in his “sick note culture” speech last month.
Disabled campaigner Alison Burton, whose father-in-law Errol Graham starved to death after DWP wrongly stopped his benefits when he missed a work capability assessment, told Disability News Service she was “seriously disappointed” at the commission’s failure to act.
She said: “I am disappointed that the EHRC has not exercised its powers to its full capacity.
“They have let down an awful lot of vulnerable and disabled people who look on the EHRC to uphold their rights and protect them.
“I feel that they have failed them.”
Carolin Ott, a solicitor with Leigh Day, which represents Errol Graham’s family, said Burton was “disappointed and concerned” that nearly six years after his death and two years after EHRC’s section 23 announcement “little has been done to ensure that what happened to Errol does not happen again and the agreement has yet to be signed”.
She pointed to last month’s report by the UN committee, which said the committee was “appalled” by reports of “benefit deaths” in the UK.
The committee said the deaths linked to benefit claims had a “disturbingly consistent theme”, with disabled people “resorting to suicide” following the denial of adequate support through social security.
It called for the government to take urgent action to “prevent, review and respond to” benefit-related deaths and provide appropriate compensation for the victims’ families.
And it concluded that the government had made “no significant progress” since 2016.
Ott said: “This begs the question: how many more people have to die before the relevant bodies take responsibility to effect meaningful change?”
An EHRC spokesperson said: “Due to legal restrictions set out in section six of the Equality Act 2006, the EHRC is unable to disclose further information about our ongoing discussions with the DWP.”
DWP refused to comment but claimed that it was continuing to work with EHRC over its concerns.
9 May 2024
Stop this onslaught of attacks, say disabled people in letter to PM
The prime minister has been asked to explain his government’s “onslaught” on disability rights, in a letter signed by more than 25 disabled people’s organisations and allies.
They have accused Rishi Sunak of trying to “scare people into good health” and forcing disabled people into inaccessible jobs.
And they say Sunak was guilty of issuing “harmful misinformation” when he tried to justify a new round of social security cuts and reforms.
They stress in the letter how successive Conservative governments have now had more than seven years to address serious breaches of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, since a UN committee found the government guilty of “grave and systematic” violations of the treaty.
Last month, the UN committee on the rights of disabled people concluded that the UK government had made “no significant progress” since the finding in late 2016.
The committee even found “signs of regression” – backward steps – in the UK’s progress towards fully realising the rights described in the convention.
The committee said the government’s social security reforms were based on the idea that “disabled people are undeserving and wilfully avoiding employment” and are “defrauding the system”, which has led to “hate speech and hostility towards disabled people”.
This week’s letter says that Sunak, when announcing his attack on “sicknote culture” last month, claimed social security had become a lifestyle choice, which the letter says was “harmful misinformation”.
The letter has been sent to 10 Downing Street by Disability Rights UK (DR UK), and co-signed by disabled people’s organisations including Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, Wiltshire Centre for Independent Living, Inclusion London, and West of England Centre for Inclusive Living.
It says that last week’s Modernising Support for Independent Living green paper – which revealed proposals for cuts and reforms to personal independence payment – “undermines the very principle of an extra cost benefit” for disabled people.
The letter adds: “You cannot scare people into good health, and you cannot force people into inaccessible jobs.”
And it points to the UN committee’s concerns over inadequate support for disabled refugees and asylum-seekers, as well as highlighting the more than six million people who are on NHS waiting-lists for treatment in England, chronic underfunding of the NHS, proposals to enable the segregation of trans people in the NHS, inadequate housing and the cost-of-living crisis.
It also criticises the government’s consistent failure to “closely consult and actively involve” disabled people and their organisations in drawing up policies that affect their lives.
The letter calls on Sunak and his government to “build a radical and transformative disability strategy” that addresses the violations of disabled people’s rights “and eliminates the root causes of inequality and discrimination”, and to build on a blueprint for such action laid out in The Disabled People’s Manifesto.
Kamran Mallick, DR UK’s chief executive, said: “Despite mountains of evidence pointing to disabled people being disproportionately poor, marginalised and starved of essential income, support and services, the government continues to fail to tackle deep-rooted inequalities and injustices.
“Instead, the government has introduced a string of proposals to create an even more hostile and punitive benefits process, failed to increase funding for public services such as social care and special educational needs, and produced a lacklustre Disability Action Plan.
“The letter asserts that it is government policies that are forcing people into poverty and ill health, and that this is where it should focus its effort, rather than attacking disabled people.”
The letter came as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced the first pilots of its WorkWell work and health support programme.
The voluntary scheme, first announced at last year’s spring budget as part of the government’s Back to Work Plan, will see 15 areas across England aim to connect about 60,000 people to local support services so they can secure “the tailored help they need to stay in or return to work”.
The service aims to provide advice on workplace adjustments, “facilitate conversations with employers”, and provide access to local services such as physiotherapy, employment advice and counselling.
9 May 2024
Train companies admit inflating stats on pre-booked rail assistance
Figures passed to the rail regulator by train companies have repeatedly inflated the success of the industry’s pre-booked passenger assistance service, potentially adding weight to the push to close ticket offices and cut station staff.
The data showed the number of disabled passengers booking assistance for rail journeys in advance skyrocketing last year.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) this week described RDG’s failure as “concerning” and has had to remove data on assisted journeys from its website because of the “data quality concerns”.
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents the companies that run Britain’s railways, admitted to ORR that it had been including – in figures showing the number of “booked assists” – the assistance provided to disabled passengers who had arrived at a station and requested support using their legal right to “turn up and go” (TUAG) travel.
RDG admitted that TUAG figures had been included in its statistics for booked assistance since April 2021.
ORR published a note on its website earlier this year explaining that it had been forced to remove the assisted travel data from the site.
A freedom of information request from disabled campaigner Doug Paulley has now revealed why ORR removed these figures.
Emails released through his request show one RDG executive telling ORR that the “data we have supplied has always included Turn Up and Go”, with another admitting that “it does include both unbooked and booked”.
The emails show that it is only after ORR raises the issue that RDG offers to separate the two sets of figures.
ORR tells an RDG executive in one email: “We’ve never been informed the data now includes unbooked assists.”
The emails show how the sudden realisation that RDG has been sending through inaccurate statistics causes the regulator to cancel publication of the latest figures a day before they were due to go live in January.
RDG’s actions had led to inaccurate figures showing a huge rise in the number of disabled passengers using Passenger Assist – pre-booked assistance – in the second quarter of 2023-24.
RDG had originally told the regulator that the data was accurate but later admitted that in fact it included TUAG assistance “and always has done”.
RDG’s actions are important because both the government and rail operators are desperate to encourage disabled people to book their assistance in advance rather than taking advantage of their right to TUAG travel.
A move towards more booked assistance could boost the industry and government’s arguments for cutting staff at stations and might even help them push again for a mass closure of ticket offices.
Paulley said: “The inability of Rail Delivery Group to create accurate statistics on passenger assistance bookings is a clear sign that the technology, people and organisation aren’t fit for purpose.
“Metrics on disabled people’s transport rights and experiences are important, yet RDG doesn’t seem to treat them as such.
“That RDG didn’t even notice that the data were problematic demonstrates once again their evident incompetence in accessibility.
“It’s terrible that they still can’t get their figures right four months on.
“Conflating a minority of Turn Up And Go assistance provisions with statistics on bookings is worrying and undermining our rights. It fits the narrative of expecting us always to book.
“What we need is the inalienable right to Turn Up And Go and for RDG to be disbanded as the dysfunctional, two-faced organisation they are.”
ORR said the inconsistency in the data RDG supplied on passenger assistance was “concerning”, although a spokesperson said it had “worked constructively with RDG to investigate and resolve issues”.
An ORR spokesperson said: “As the provider of official statistics on rail, it is imperative that data is of a high quality and consistent.
“As soon as ORR became aware of the inconsistencies in the passenger assistance data from RDG, we took action to withdraw the data and work with RDG to investigate and resolve issues.
“We are aiming to publish latest available full year (April 2023 to March 2024) and corrected historic data for booked assistance in July.”
RDG refused to apologise for its actions, or to explain why it did not inform ORR that the Passenger Assist numbers were being inflated by TUAG figures.
It also refused to say if the inflated figures could have helped with the push to cut staff and close ticket offices.
But an RDG spokesperson said in a statement: “We strive to make sure that all the data the Rail Delivery Group provides to industry partners is of a high standard.
“Since we were made aware that Passenger Assist (PA) data was not comparable we have been working collaboratively with the ORR to provide greater clarification of the data set for PA.
“Our industry is committed and will continue working with stakeholders and accessibility groups to ensure that we provide an inclusive and barrier-free travel experience.”
9 May 2024
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
A disabled pedestrian who shouted and waved her arm at a cyclist, causing her to fall into the path of an oncoming car, has had her manslaughter conviction overturned. Auriol Grey was seen on CCTV shouting at retired midwife Celia Ward to “get off the f***ing pavement” in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, causing her to fall into the road, where she was struck by a car. Grey denied manslaughter but was found guilty after a retrial and was jailed for three years in March 2023, but three Court of Appeal judges have now overturned her conviction: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/auriol-grey-court-cyclist-case-b2541520.html
A disability rights campaigner has said he felt like “an extra burden” after he could not board his chosen train home. Doug Paulley, a wheelchair-user, tried to get a Northern Rail service from Chesterfield to Leeds. But when he attempted to board, a pillar blocked access to the train’s ramp, and staff said they could not get the wheelchair onto the train. A video of the incident now has more than 2.1 million views: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-68977074
The Metropolitan police have said their refusal to routinely go to mental health calls means officers can spend more time at crime scenes, but charities say the policy could endanger lives. Six months ago the Met introduced a scheme called Right Care Right Person, aiming to cut the time officers spent dealing with mental health calls, which it said was diverting the force from fighting crime: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/09/met-police-policy-on-mental-health-calls-may-be-putting-lives-at-risk-say-charities
Shortages and funding cuts are causing a “full-blown crisis” in special education for children and young people in England, according to school leaders who say they are struggling to give pupils the support they require. Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the school leaders’ union NAHT, accused the government of treating schools as a “sideline” compared with headline-grabbing issues such as immigration: https://www.theguardian.com/education/article/2024/may/04/school-leaders-warn-of-full-blown-special-needs-crisis-in-england
9 May 2024
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
