Contents
DWP destroyed recordings that would have proved link to daughter’s suicide, says grieving mum1
Wheelchair-user ‘humiliated’ after driver bans him from coach for complaining about safety and discrimination3
‘Our members are raging’: Shock and anger as Scottish government’s ‘sham’ co-production leads to ‘weak’ disability plan6
Disabled activists and unions come together to fight threatened cuts to benefits in Labour’s first budget8
Minister casts fresh doubt on Kendall’s ‘I’ll send work coaches into mental health wards’ claim11
Chair of government’s ‘economic inactivity’ board says he wants to ‘ramp down’ use of benefit sanctions and strict conditions on sick and disabled people12
Charity Commission launches second inquiry into disabled people’s organisation14
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week16
DWP destroyed recordings that would have proved link to daughter’s suicide, says grieving mum
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) breached its own rules by destroying recordings that would have shown how a work coach told a traumatised disabled woman to attend a face-to-face jobcentre meeting, days before she took her own life.
DWP’s rules say it must keep recordings of phone calls with benefit claimants for at least 14 months – and even longer if the claimant has taken their own life – but it has admitted thatrecordings of conversations with the woman’s work coach were not retained.
The call took place on 8 April 2022, just seven days beforeRebecca* died.
DWP had been told repeatedly of her mental distress, suicidal thoughts and fear of the department and the universal credit system.
Although Rebecca had been given a six-month “fit note” by her doctor that explained she was not well enough to work, she was still expected to have regular appointments with a work coach until her fitness for work could be assessed.
Following intervention from a mental health service, DWP agreed that her appointments could take place on the phone.
But on 8 April, Rebecca – who had multiple sclerosis and weighed less than five stone at the time she died – was told by the work coach: “We have let you off this time, but you will have to come to the jobcentre next time.”
An entry in her universal credit online journal stated that there would be a meeting in the jobcentre on 22 April, her mothersays.
Seven days after the phone call, on 15 April, she ended her life by suicide.
Her mother, Debra*, has spent more than two years since her death trying to obtain records that would show DWP’scontacts with her daughter.
She and her son – the executor of his sister’s will – approached the jobcentre where the work coach was based in February 2023, 10 months after Rebecca’s death, to ask for the recordings.
They were told that all phone conversations from the jobcentre were recorded.
But the recordings were never provided and when Debra’s MP contacted DWP to ask for them again, he was told they had “not been retained”.
They also asked for a copy of the secret internal process review (IPR) the department had carried out into Debra’s death.
But despite DWP telling Disability News Service in September 2022 that IPRs could be released “with the signed written consent of the administrator or executor of thedeceased person’s will”, the department refused to release the IPR to Debra’s son.
Now Debra has accused DWP of a cover-up.
Last week, she received a report from the Independent Case Examiner into her complaint about DWP’s actions.
But the report includes no discussion of DWP’s failure to provide the recordings of the work coach’s phone calls; of what took place during the 8 April call; and of whether DWP had arranged a face-to-face jobcentre meeting to take place on 22 April; and no mention of the contents of DWP’s own secret review into Rebecca’s death, or that DWP’s refusal to release the review to the family was in breach of its own promise.
Instead, Joanna Wallace, the Independent Case Examiner, failed to uphold Debra’s complaint and concluded that DWP “did as they should in [your daughter’s] case, and properly investigated your allegation that their actions were a contributing factor to [her] taking her own life in April 2022”.
Debra told DNS this week: “I think it’s a cover-up, I think the whole thing is a cover-up.
“Why would you destroy recordings if there is nothing incriminating on them?
“Why they haven’t addressed that [in the ICE report], I don’t know.”
Debra has previously told DNS that the idea of always having to be under the surveillance of DWP and its universal credit system left her daughter in despair.
She would shake and cry every time she had to log onto her universal credit “journal”, which she was forced to do every weekday to avoid having her benefits sanctioned.
Rebecca had told her mother: “They will always want to know where I am going, how much money I have got. They will always be in my life, they will always want to know.”
She was so concerned that she might make an error and have her benefits sanctioned by DWP that she did not turn on the central heating in her house for the last two months of her life, and she would not allow her parents to pay her heating bill in case DWP saw the payment in her bank account.
It is not the first evidence of DWP destroying records that implicate the department in the death of a claimant.
Only four months ago, DNS revealed how senior DWP civil servants destroyed vital documents relating to the case of Michael O’Sullivan – who had taken his own life in September 2013 after being wrongly found fit for work – months after a coroner linked his death with DWP’s work capability assessment.
The latest revelations should add to pressure on the new Labour government to order a public inquiry into the links between DWP and the deaths of countless disabled claimants**.
They add to years of evidence of systemic negligence by the department, a culture of cover-up and denial, and a refusal to accept it has a duty of care to those disabled people claiming support through the social security system.
DWP refused this week to explain why it destroyed the recordings and why it failed to pass the IPR to the family.
It also refused to comment on: why the ICE report included no discussion of DWP’s failure to provide the recordings of the work coach’s phone calls; why it included no discussion of what took place during the 8 April call, when the work coach said Rebecca would have to attend a meeting in the jobcentre; why it included no discussion of whether DWP had arranged a face-to-face jobcentre meeting to take place on 22 April; and why it ignored the contents of DWP’s IPR into Rebecca’sdeath, and DWP’s refusal to release the review to the family in breach of its own promise to do so to such families.
But a DWP spokesperson said: “Our sincere condolences remain with the family in this case.
“We have noted the Independent Case Examiner’s report and its conclusions.”
*Not their real names. For family reasons, Debra has asked for their names not to be used until an inquest takes place
**The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, John Pring’s book on the deaths linked to DWP, is published by Pluto Press
24 October 2024 ‘
Wheelchair-user ‘humiliated’ after driver bans him from coach for complaining about safety and discrimination
A wheelchair-user was left “humiliated” after a coach driver refused to allow him to board his vehicle, and then told him he was a “liability” and “banned” because he had previously complained about discrimination and safety issues.
Arriva Midlands has already had to make two payments of compensation to wheelchair-user Charley Jonstone-Brent, from Coventry, because its drivers repeatedly failed to strap him in safely.
In August, Arriva paid him £6,500 after Disability News Service (DNS) reported how he had been left with a broken ankle and two broken wrists and had to complain at least 15 times about the failure of drivers to ensure his wheelchair was safely attached to the floor and strapped in.
But its drivers have continued to discriminate against him and put his safety at risk on his journeys to Leicester, and Arriva agreed last month to pay him another £3,500 compensation.
In one incident, the driver failed to strap him down and said he did not know how to do it, while on another occasion the driver failed to strap him in correctly, and then – when Jonstone-Brent said his wheelchair was moving about – told him not to worry about it.
Now the company is facing yet another hefty payout after one of its drivers recognised him from pictures believed to have been circulating on a drivers’ WhatsApp group, and refused to allow him to board the coach.
Arriva has told DNS that the driver has been suspended pending an internal investigation, and that it is providing “refresher training for staff”.
It has described the treatment Jonstone-Brent received as “unacceptable”.
Jonstone-Brent, who is autistic, had been planning to travel on from Leicester to East Midlands Airport to enjoy a few hours of plane–spotting.
He had arrived early for the 10.20am coach service last Thursday and was first in the queue, but he said the driver immediately recognised him.
He said: “He opened his door and huffed and puffed and said, ‘You’re the guy who keeps putting complaints in.’”
The driver said the safety harnesses were not on board – which would have been unlawful – and then wrongly suggested that Jonstone-Brent and his wheelchair would be too heavy for the lift, which had a capacity of 300 kg (more than 47 stone).
A video of the incident taken by his partner Chloe Child shows the driver telling them: “I am very sorry but unfortunately I am unable to serve you, sir.
“You are free to call the depot and report this, you have the bus number, everything.
“This is a technical issue because there is a weight limit. You can call me on discrimination, whatever… it is for my own safety.”
He eventually closed the door of the coach and drove off, making no alternative arrangements for the pair’s journey.
Jonstone-Brent said: “I felt humiliated, especially because he was shouting all this business in front of at least 20 to 30 passengers.
“He had a full coach and they were all filming and taking photos.”
He said the treatment he continued to receive from Arriva was “disgusting” and the driver’s behaviour had been “completely toxic”.
The incident is particularly embarrassing for Arriva because its executives had invited Jonstone-Brent to one of their depots next month to explain how the company was failing on access and safety.
But he said: “I have no faith in them now. Each time they say, ‘We will make sure it never happens again.’ And then it does.”
Disabled activist Doug Paulley, who has supported Jonstone-Brent with his case, and tested the route and experienced the same safety failings, said: “This is blatant victimisation of Charley for daring to sit down for his rights to travel on public transport like everybody else, with something like the same safety and ease and lack of fuss that non-disabled people expect, and that Arriva is legally obliged to provide to Charley.
“The unprofessionalism, DARVO (deny, accuse, reverse victim and offender), labelling and blaming, the private discussions on WhatsApp, are all so wearily familiar, so off-putting and have such a massive emotional toll, especially where Charley is still reliant on the bus company.
“It is truly disgraceful.
“Hats off to Charley for what he’s done and doing, and shameon those who behave so terribly.”
Ryan Dunne, area director for Arriva Midlands, told DNS this week: “We’re aware of an upsetting incident in which a customer was wrongly refused access to our X6 service.
“As soon as the incident was brought to our attention, we contacted the customer to apologise for the unacceptable way in which they were treated, which fell a long way short of the service all our customers rightly expect and deserve.
“The driver involved has been suspended pending the outcome of an internal investigation, and we are also providing refresher training for staff to help prevent a similar situation from happening again.”
It updated the statement this morning (Thursday) to say that the driver “no longer works for Arriva”.
Arriva said it does “not endorse WhatsApp” and does not issue its drivers with mobile phones or communicate with staff through their mobile phones.
A spokesperson said: “We are investigating what’s happened here and a possible line of inquiry will be whether our social media policy may have been breached.
“We’re investigating why this has happened and we’re working with the customer, our drivers and depot management so we can try and make things better in the future.
“As part of our plans to try and get things right going forward, we are rolling out more refresher training to drivers, plus printed guides.”
24 October 2024
Our members are raging’: Shock and anger as Scottish government’s ‘sham’ co-production leads to ‘weak’ disability plan
Three national disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) have attacked the Scottish government over a “sham” process of co-production that has led to a “weak” and “diluted” Disability Equality Plan for Scotland.
Disability Equality Scotland, Glasgow Disability Alliance (GDA) and Inclusion Scotland say they spent 20 months working “tirelessly” with the Scottish government, investing “considerable time and energy”, in developing a “bold” plan that would change lives.
But they say their collaboration – which began “as a genuine attempt at co-design” – has now ended in a “collapse of all promises and ambition”.
They believe the SNP government has failed to deliver on its promises.
And they say they have been left “struggling to defend” their involvement to their disabled members because of what has “turned out to be a sham process”.
The three DPOs have now launched a two-week campaign – #DisabledPeopleDemandJustice – to ask for justice and equality for disabled people, and they have written to first minister John Swinney to demand an urgent meeting.
They say disabled people are in the middle of a “perfect storm”, as austerity measures; cuts to services, benefits and budgets; and the Covid pandemic, have had a disproportionate effect on disabled people.
They have backing from other Scottish DPOs, including Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living, Lothian Centre for Inclusive Living, Self Directed Support Scotland, and the mental health network VOX Scotland.
Tressa Burke, GDA’s chief executive, said they had seen a draft version of the new Disability Equality Plan but were unable to endorse it because it offered “no commitment to meaningful action and no progress towards disabled people’s equality”.
She said: “After 20 months we are really struggling to justify involvement in the working group because the plan is weak, it’s not got meaningful action, it’s really diluted in ambition… and it’s all apparently been justified because of resources.
“We weren’t asking for the world. We were asking for a progressive plan with steps.
“We are angry. Our members are raging, they feel like they have been led up the garden path.”
She said the DPOs were shocked at how bad the draft plan was, and that the Scottish government “have not taken on board anything we said”.
She said progress had “stagnated” and “stalled” over the last year.
She added: “We are shocked and we feel that disabled people have been betrayed and we feel in turn that we would be betraying our members if we went along with it.
“I think it’s really clear that every time there is a social or economic challenge, disabled people are relegated to the bottom.
“We are at the back of the queue, at the bottom of the pile, and it’s shocking and it’s shameful.”
The three DPOs say disabled people have experienced increasing poverty and inequality and regression in their rights and have been “forgotten” and “left behind” by those in power.
They called this week on the Scottish government to take “urgent and bold action so that disabled people get the essential support we are entitled to”.
They are demanding immediate funding to improve the accessibility of projects to provide information and support on welfare rights and debt; an end to social care charges; and an investment in the country’s DPOs.
They point to a survey carried out this summer by GDA, and published earlier this month, which found that 97 per cent of disabled people who responded were concerned they had been forgotten about by the government when it was setting priorities and plans.
The survey also found that 71 per cent of more than 600 disabled people who were surveyed said they did not have enough money to meet their needs.
In response to their concerns, Scottish social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said in a statement: “We recognise the multiple barriers disabled people face every day and we are working collaboratively to tackle them.
“This week, we launched our pension age disability payment, which will be worth between £290 and £434 a month to people of state pension age and over who are disabled or have a long-term health condition.
“We are committing a record £6.1 billion for benefits expenditure this year – including £300 million additional investment in adult disability payment, and the reopening of the Independent Living Fund will help up to 1,000 more disabled people to access the support needed to lead independent lives.
“We continue to call on the UK government to introduce a social tariff for those who need the most support with energy costs and we have established a working group, which includes disabled people’s organisations, to help demonstrate how this policy could work.
“The Disability Equality Plan is the first phase of a wider strategy.
“We have made difficult decisions to ensure that what is set out in the plan can be achieved in the challenging economic situation Scotland faces.
“It has been developed with dedicated input from disabled people’s organisations.
“The Scottish government recognises the aspirations of disabled people and their organisations lie beyond what could be achieved in this first phase of the plan.
“We greatly value their commitment to continue to work with us as we lay the necessary foundations to ensure accountability and pave the way for systemic change.”
The government said the first minister met with DPOs to discuss their concerns in August, and would respond to their letter in due course.
A Scottish government spokesperson added: “We have engaged with DPOs throughout every stage of the development of this plan and continue to do so, as this is only the first phase of a wider strategy.
“We are committed to delivering what we can achieve within our budgetary constraints and the limits of devolved powers.
“We will continue to work with disabled people’s organisations to progress disability equality and build towards a fairer Scotland.”
24 October 2024
Disabled activists and unions come together to fight threatened cuts to benefits in Labour’s first budget
Disabled activists and unions have come together to fight what they fear will be a renewed, hostile attack on disabled people who rely on social security at next week’s budget.
A parliamentary meeting this week heard disabled campaigners and senior union figures discuss how to fight cuts to social security that – it has been widely predicted – will form a key part of the first budget of Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves.
They say disabled people are again being scapegoated for the country’s financial problems, just as they were in the 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s and by the last Conservative government.
They say that this hostile rhetoric, which is yet again “demonising” claimants of out-of-work disability benefits, is “contributing to a narrative that is miles away from the reality” of disabled people’s lives.
And, they say, it encourages disability-related hostility and hate crime.
Monday’s meeting was supported by the coalition of disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) that is monitoring the implementation of the UN disability convention in the UK.
Among the unions who have promised to play a key role in the new campaign is PCS, which represents many frontline Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) workers.
Paula Peters, from Disabled People Against Cuts, who chaired the meeting, said disabled activists were “scared, anxious, burnt-out and tired from fighting” but were “still fighting”, and she said there were now even more people who were angry than there were in 2010.
She said: “We will take the fight to the government, we won’t give in, we won’t give up, and we will never, never stop resisting… we will take the fight to Labour.”
She said the campaign would have to build “a massive anti-austerity movement that brings everybody with us”.
She pointed out that further cuts to disabled people’s support were being discussed as a backbench Labour MP, Kim Leadbeater, is introducing a bill to legalise assisted suicide, which will be debated and voted on by MPs next month.
Peters said: “If they bring that bill into law, what’s to say[they won’t tell us], ‘You don’t need social security, you don’t need housing, you don’t need healthcare, because you can have this instead.’”
Disabled campaigners later discovered that Leadbeater and fellow campaigners were about to hold a meeting to discuss her bill in the adjoining committee room in Portcullis House.
Martin Cavanagh, DWP group president for PCS, told Monday’s meeting that there had been a return to the harsh narrative of the pre-pandemic years in which claimants were seen as “workshy” and “sponging off the taxpayer”.
If anything, he said, “it’s actually getting more hostile now” than it was before the pandemic.
He said he believed Labour’s first budget in 15 years would see a “continuation of the Tories’ cuts to the benefit system” with “the same oppressive, punishing regime that the Tories have administered over the past 15 years”.
He said that unless there is a “seismic sea change… then our campaigning has to continue” and “we have to build the biggest coalition that we possibly can”.
Cavanagh told the meeting: “We are long past the time where we can just tinker round the edges of the benefits system.
“We believe we need a fundamental review of the benefits system, one that places dignity and respect at the heart of the system rather than the punitive regime that we have come to expect, sadly, over the past two decades or so.”
He added: “We know as a fact that where we as a union are better organised, and we have a stronger membership density… the conditionality and sanctions regime is nowhere near as brutal as it is in other parts of the country where our membership density is significantly reduced.”
He said PCS would continue to work with DPAC and other unions such as Unite, Unite Community and Equity – which were represented at the meeting – to campaign for a “better and fairer system”.
John McDonnell, Labour’s shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, who hosted the meeting and is currently sitting as an independent MP, said the campaign coalition would need to “dominate” any debate on the consequences of cuts or reforms that would impose “further pressure” on benefit claimants.
He said: “It is true that it is a toxic inheritance from the Tories, there’s no doubt about that.”
But he said the argument “must be that there is no need for any cuts in welfare” and what they should be doing is “halting Tory proposals” from the last government, particularly those that are set to tighten the work capability assessment (WCA)from next April.
He said there had been contradictory briefings from the government but “from the rhetoric that we have heard so far around welfare benefits, they might well continue on with the Tory reforms”.
He said campaigners needed to be able to explain how disabled people’s “wellbeing, suffering and even survival” could be at stake.
John McArdle, co-founder of Black Triangle Campaign, who travelled to Westminster from Edinburgh for the meeting, said he believed disabled people needed to “prepare ourselves for the worst” and consider legal action if any cuts wereproposed, because they would lead to “hundreds of deaths”.
He said: “I think we have demonstrated through our campaign work over the last 14 years how lethal the system is.”
Other organisations represented at the meeting included Disability Rights UK, WinVisible, London Unemployed Strategies and the Commission on Social Security.
Meanwhile, disabled activist Ellen Clifford – who helped co-ordinate the campaign meeting – is awaiting a judicial review that will hear her claim that the last government acted unlawfully when it announced plans to tighten the WCA.
The case will be heard in the Royal Courts of Justice on 11 and 12 December.
Clifford said last year that a DWP consultation on the plans to tighten the assessment process appeared to have been used as a “smokescreen for cuts”.
She also argued that the eight-week consultation period on the changes – which are due to be implemented in April – was too short and that the consultation was not accessible to many disabled people.
The Resolution Foundation said this month that the changes would save DWP an estimated £1.3 billion in 2028-29.
According to DWP, the changes will mean 424,000 disabled people will lose their entitlement to extra support of up to £4,900 a year – and will start being subject to conditionality and sanctions – by 2028-29 as they are moved out of theuniversal credit limited capability for work and work-related activity group.
The reforms will increase employment by just 15,400 by 2028-29, the Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated(PDF).
It is not yet clear whether these cuts will be implemented by the new Labour government.
An answer to that question is likely to emerge at next week’sbudget.
24 October 2024
Minister casts fresh doubt on Kendall’s ‘I’ll send work coaches into mental health wards’ claim
A minister has cast fresh doubt on claims by work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall that she is planning to send work coaches onto mental health wards to push people in severe mental distress off benefits and into work.
The response by employment minister Alison McGovern to a written parliamentary question appears to quash claims made in a BBC interview by Kendall, which caused anger and concern among disabled activists last week.
Kendall told the BBC – although some of her comments were later removed from the article – that the roll-out of existing projects which already see work coaches sent into mental health hospitals would form part of her drive to cut spending on disability benefits, and that existing schemes had produced “dramatic results”.
Following the BBC article, and the anger that followed, Labour’s Clive Lewis asked Kendall in a written question to “publish the evidential basis supporting her statement that trials of employment advisers giving CV and interview advice in hospitals has produced dramatic results”.
In a written response on Tuesday, McGovern pointed to evidence on the Individual Placement and Support (IPS)scheme, which provides “intensive, individually tailored support to help people to choose and find the right job, with ongoing support for the employer and employee to help ensure the person sustain their employment”.
McGovern made no mention of IPS schemes sending work coaches into hospitals, and she claimed that “people who receive Individual Placement Support show employment rates of 30-40 per cent compared to rates in the control group of 10-12 per cent”.
She said the government’s “severe mental illness Individual Placement Support programme aims to support an additional 140,000 people living with severe mental illness to access the services by 2028-29”.
One research report has evaluated Work Well, an IPS-type scheme that was run in conjunction with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.
A campaigner has secured confirmation from the trust that this was the scheme Kendall was referring to in her BBC interview, and that employment specialists on the scheme “do not visit inpatient wards”.
Although the Work Well report suggests the scheme had some success in supporting some people into work – 10 per cent sustained employment for 26 weeks or more – it says it worked with “unemployed or economically inactive people who were experiencing common mental health problems such as anxiety and depression”, some of whom were not receiving any mental health services.
Meanwhile, research last year by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) cast doubt on the effectiveness of IPS schemes.
As Disability News Service (DNS) reported 14 months ago, reports on two IPS-type trials showed they had had “no discernible impact” on helping people with “mild-to-moderate mental and physical health conditions” into work.
The research found that the intensive support provided through the scheme had no impact on employment or earnings for those who began the programme out of work, andconcluded that – despite the intensive support – those who took part “continued to face major barriers to finding work”.
These barriers included persistent health problems “which continued to be challenging in a work context and which respondents did not always feel were helped by being in work”.
The research also found that – contrary to DWP’s expectations – those who took part did not experience work “as a therapeutic outcome”.
DWP declined to add to McGovern’s written response.
24 October 2024
Chair of government’s ‘economic inactivity’ board says he wants to ‘ramp down’ use of benefit sanctions and strict conditions on sick and disabled people
The academic tasked by ministers with leading efforts to tackle “spiralling” levels of “economic inactivity” has said he wants to “rethink welfare” by “ramping down” the use of strict conditions and sanctions on sick and disabled people.
The comments by Professor Paul Gregg, who is chairing the government’s new Labour Market Advisory Board, may ease the concerns of some disabled activists after recent comments by work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall.
When she announced his appointment, Kendall made it clear that the board’s key aim was tackling the “spiralling inactivity” caused by a record number of people out of work due to long-term sickness.
She has spoken recently of sending work coaches into mental health wards (see separate story), and has also confirmed that the government’s plans for a new fraud bill – ordering banks to “spy” on the bank accounts of benefit claimants – would be based on draft laws prepared by the last government.
She also shared a platform at Labour’s annual conference with an outsourcing giant linked to the deaths of disabled benefit claimants.
And prime minister Sir Keir Starmer recently suggested in an interview with the BBC that all claimants of long-term sickness benefits would be expected to look for work under Labour’s social security reforms.
But Gregg, who was delivering an online lecture yesterday (Wednesday) on Understanding and Reducing Economic Inactivity, stressed that he wanted to focus on “ramping down conditionality”.
He was responding to a question from Disability News Service (watch from 43 minutes), which asked why his lecture had not yet covered the issue of safeguarding of disabled people on out-of-work disability benefits, highlighting the “disastrous” impact of the coalition government’s post-2010 efforts to push disabled claimants off those benefits.
Gregg, who is director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Policy at the University of Bath and has studied the UK labour market for several decades, said: “Conditionality is part of the problem we have here.
“I’m not wanting to say that what we’re doing is going to move lots of sick and disabled people into a highly conditioned, conditional, sanctioning kind of welfare system.
“That’s totally not what I think needs to go on.
“The sanctioning conditionality system is part of the problem here. It’s definitely not part of the solution.
“So we need to rethink welfare in terms of that intense pressure. Yes, safeguarding, yes, yes, there needs to be some.”
Gregg conducted a review of personalised support and conditionality in the social security system for DWP in 2009 and helped design employment and support allowance (ESA), but he was later highly critical of the work capability assessment (WCA), the test used to determine eligibility for ESA and which was linked with hundreds, and probably thousands, of deaths.
He said yesterday that there needed to be “fast tracking”, so claimants are “put into places which [are] appropriate for the health conditions they have”.
But he said the government also needed to “develop a system that’s built around the needs, capabilities, and desires of the individual, not waving a big stick”.
He said that being out of work was “extremely damaging to people” and was “often damaging to their health and… it’s certainly damaging to their earnings capacity and living standards, and if you’re young, then that’s really extreme in terms of the damage it does”.
But he said that that “doesn’t mean that you’re forcing people to work”.
He also suggested that there needed to be an “integrated package” that was “engaging people in terms of thinking about work, offering supports in terms of workplace, offering support in terms of health conditions, and connecting people with employers who are potentially sympathetic enough to accommodate people with health conditions”.
He said earlier in the lecture that the number of economically inactive people had increased by almost one million since just before the start of the pandemic, so it had now risen from about 20 per cent of the working age population to almost 25 per cent, with a significant proportion of this increase people who were “inactive” due to long-term health problems.
Much of this, he said, was due to young people (those under 35), with “big increases in people being economically inactive for reasons of mental health, principally anxiety and depression”, while increases in the state pension age were“pulling older people into the working-age population”.
He said the low proportion of young people returning to work after health-related issues was “potentially writing off a section of society from the workplace”, which was “very, very scary” and was “sort of driving the concerns now that we need to do something quite radical to try and change this”.
The lecture was part of a series hosted by the centre-right thinktank Bright Blue, which had close links to the last Conservative government.
24 October 2024
Charity Commission launches second inquiry into disabled people’s organisation
The Charity Commission has launched a second inquiry into a disabled people’s organisation (DPO) over “serious concerns” about the way it is being run.
Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL) was already being investigated over its failure to meet its statutory reporting requirements, with an inquiry launched in 2022, after it was identified as being “persistently late in filing its accounting information”.
But the Charity Commission has now opened a much wider inquiry after “serious concerns arose regarding its general management and governance”.
Among its concerns is how LCIL’s trustees are complying with their legal duties relating to the administration, governance and management of the charity, and its accounts.
But the Charity Commission said it was now also concerned about whether trustees have the necessary “financial and strategic oversight”, including over the management and supervision of staff, and whether the charity is “operating for the public benefit” and is being managed correctly.
LCIL’s website was this week displaying a message stating that it was “under construction”.
But information about LCIL on Leicestershire County Council’s website suggests that the organisation is thriving, while a member of staff confirmed this week that it was still operating.
LCIL, which is based in Leicester, describes itself as a user-led organisation that works to support disabled people to “exercise choice and control for independent living”, and is run and controlled by disabled people.
It hosts a disability hate crime reporting centre, and says it runs legal surgeries in partnership with Irwin Mitchell Solicitors, and Nottingham-based barristers at Ropewalk Chambers.
Neither Irwin Mitchell nor Ropewalk had commented on the inquiry or their work with LCIL by noon today (Thursday).
The council website says that LCIL also runs a UK-wide independent living roadshow, Choice Unlimited, and a consultancy that offers its “expertise on a wide range issues faced by organisations across the private, public and voluntary sectors to respond to disability equality”.
In past years, LCIL played a crucial role in exposing the failure of Leicestershire police to take disability hate crime seriously in the years before a woman was driven to kill herself and her disabled daughter in October 2007, followinga sustained campaign of harassment.
And from the early months of the pandemic, it was part of the Our Voices group of DPOs that promoted disabled people’s interests and provided mutual support.
Disability News Service contacted LCIL for a comment, but it had not responded by noon today.
24 October 2024
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
The bill for special needs education in England has hit £10billion a year, with the number of children and young people entitled to government support in the form of education, health and care plans set to double to one million within a decade, a report has found. The investigation by the National Audit Office found that despite record levels of spending there had been no signs of improvement in the lives of children with special educational needs: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/oct/24/special-educational-needs-bill-england-10bn-school-council-funding
A “catalogue of failures” led to the death of two wheelchair-users after a boat capsized in a Devon lake, marine accident investigators said. Alison Tilsley, 63, and Alex Wood, 43, drowned after being thrown from a wheelchair-accessible boat, at Roadford Lake, near Okehampton, on 8 June 2022. In its investigation report, the Marine Accident Investigation Branch found South West Lakes Trust, which owned the activity centre that ran the boat trip, had not maintained the vessel or considered the risks: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyzl0x186zo
Health secretary Wes Streeting will vote against changing the law on assisted suicide, the BBC has confirmed. Labour MP Kim Leadbeater has put forward a bill proposing that terminally–ill adults nearing the end of their lives get the right to choose to shorten their deaths if they wish. But in a meeting of Labour MPs on Monday, Streeting said he did not believe the palliative care system was good enough to support assisted suicide: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2lyl8jrvlo
Senedd members, including first minister Eluned Morgan and health secretary Jeremy Miles, have voted against a motion calling for a new law to allow assisted suicide in Wales and England. Miles had earlier warned of “huge ramifications” for Wales if the law changed. In total, 19 Senedd members voted in favour of the motion, with 26 against and nine abstentions. The Senedd does not have the power to change the law on assisted suicide in Wales, so the vote was symbolic: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8912eld73o
24 October 2024
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
