Contents

Minister admits signing off on order that led to widespread cuts to Access to Work 1

All the evidence from Labour conference points in one direction: More cuts to disability benefits 2

DWP paid nearly £90,000 to disabled claimant left homeless and at risk of harm after years of errors 6

Disability minister struggles to point to any significant achievements in his first year in post 8

Labour ignores disabled people and accessible housing crisis – again – as it announces plans for new towns 10

Labour uses conference to sideline disabled people… unless they are working 11

Labour’s attacks on rights ‘have led to massive resurgence’ in disability movement, protest hears 12

Minister asks DWP to consider releasing secret reports on deaths to grieving relatives 15

No 10 meeting sees Labour hold out olive branch to disabled activists after breakdown of trust over cuts 17

Activist tells conference meeting: Hostile rhetoric under Labour has left me feeling hounded and unsafe 19

Disability Labour priced out of conference after cash-strapped party withdraws financial support 20

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week 23

 

 

Minister admits signing off on order that led to widespread cuts to Access to Work

The disability minister has admitted signing off on orders that have led to widespread cuts to disabled people’s Access to Work support packages since Labour came to power.

Disabled campaigners have been warning for more than a year of DWP cuts and inconsistent decisions on their Access to Work (AtW) claims, while there have also been mounting concerns about lengthening waiting-lists for decisions on claims.

But when social security and disability minister Sir Stephen Timms was challenged by an MP on the apparent cuts earlier this summer, he insisted that no changes had been made to Access to Work policy, although work was “underway to improve Scheme decision-making by applying the guidance with greater consistency”.

He still insists that ministers have made no changes to AtW policy.

But Sir Stephen has admitted to Disability News Service (DNS) that he signed off on an order for Access to Work (AtW) staff to apply the guidance more “scrupulously”, after being presented with a “proposal” from civil servants which they submitted to him to approve.

The confusion over who was responsible for the move began when DNS asked him who in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had asked AtW civil servants to carry out the demand to be more “scrupulous” in applying the guidance.

He replied: “Well, the department, I guess.”

Asked if it was definitely not him, he said: “I’m not sure… I don’t want to give you a misleading answer.”

But when asked by DNS why he thought AtW staff were suddenly following guidance more scrupulously, he said he had no “no doubt seen a submission, which I have said ‘OK’ to, saying that it’ll be scrupulously applied, to achieve consistency apart from anything”.

He added: “The way things work is a proposal goes into a submission, which comes to me, and I say, ‘OK,’ and it’s very likely that I’ve been advised that we are going to apply the guidance more scrupulously.”

During the interview at Labour’s annual party conference in Liverpool, Sir Stephen said he could not remember when he signed off on the order, but that he would find out.

But when DNS suggested it would then be possible to secure this order through a freedom of information request, he suggested that DWP would resist this request because such an order would have been “advice to ministers” – which would not have to be released under the Freedom of Information Act – even though the instructions would then have been sent out to all relevant AtW staff.

Just minutes earlier, he had claimed that Labour DWP ministers were “very substantially changing the culture of the department in a pro-transparency direction” (see separate story).

Sir Stephen then claimed that the order to AtW staff might not have been written down, and that it might only have been passed on through “a conversation, a staff meeting; who knows how it’s promulgated”.

He later declined several opportunities to welcome the increase in AtW claims, which he called a “huge surge in the number of applications”.

He said the increase meant “people are having to wait longer” to have their claims dealt with, which was “a big part of why we need to reform Access to Work and why we’re consulting on it”.

Asked again if it was a good thing that more disabled people were applying to AtW, he said: “I think there’s a lot to be said for Access to Work and the opportunities it opens up to people.

“But we’ve got to have a system that works efficiently and does not keep people waiting for weeks and weeks and weeks.

“And that’s the aim of our reform that we consulted on in the [Pathways to Work] green paper.”

The government’s decisions on AtW reform are set to be announced later this year.

2 October 2025

 

 

All the evidence from Labour conference points in one direction: More cuts to disability benefits

Information from Labour ministers and other party sources has shown beyond any doubt that the government is preparing for further attempts to cut spending on disability benefits over the next 12 months.

As disabled people who rely on benefits await the publication of a disability benefits white paper in the next couple of months, it became clear at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool that further cuts are being planned.

Disability News Service (DNS) has this week interviewed the minister for social security and disability; spoken to disabled party members; attended fringe events; spoken (briefly) to a former employment minister; and listened to speeches by the prime minister and the new work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden.

DNS has also received a Labour briefing; read articles by other journalists with better government connections than DNS; and listened to a broadcast interview with Sir Keir Starmer, in which he said there was a “moral case” for reducing the number of young people with “mental health issues” on benefits.

The weight of this evidence makes it clear that – despite this summer’s government U-turn over billions of pounds of cuts to personal independence payment (PIP) – further cuts to disabled people’s support are on the way.

Two key targets for cuts are likely to be PIP and the health element of universal credit, and almost certainly one focus will be on those receiving support on the grounds of mental distress and trauma, particularly younger people.

On Monday, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced new details of a “youth guarantee” – first announced last year – through which every 18-to-21-year-old in England would be guaranteed either a place in college or university, an apprenticeship, or one-to-one support to find a job.

Any young person still out of work, education or training after 18 months would be given a paid work placement.

The party later confirmed to DNS that there would be “conditionality” – which is likely to mean their benefits would be cut or stopped if the placement was turned down – although there would be “exemptions”, likely to include some sick and disabled young people.

Details on whether those forced onto these placements would receive at least the minimum wage will not be announced until next month’s budget.

McFadden strongly linked “dignity” with work in his speech to the conference, and he said he wanted an “opportunity welfare state” rather than a “dependency welfare state”.

Opportunity, he said, “starts with work”, and he added: “Make work the pathway to dignity, security, and pride.”

McFadden had already alarmed many disabled people before the conference, when he claimed there were “incentives” in the system for people to declare themselves unfit for work so they can “double their money”, and also claimed people were “declaring themselves long-term sick”.

Asked about those earlier comments this week, Sir Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, said he thought McFadden was “onto something here” and had not made a mistake with those comments.

He pointed to the increase in the universal credit basic allowance and the cut in the “health premium” which he said were designed to prevent “quite a serious problem in the current system that is forcing people to aspire to be designated LCWRA* as a kind of destination” so they receive more benefits.

But he did insist that Labour ministers “have the backs of disabled people who can’t work”.

He said: “We are determined to open up opportunities for those who can work, but also to make sure that those who cannot work, and there will always be people who cannot possibly work, and we well understand that, that they will be properly supported.”

He insisted that government ministers had not “dialled up the rhetoric” on disabled claimants, were “making a very good fist of managing a challenging situation”, and that they were not scapegoating disabled people.

He said: “That is not our intention, and I don’t think that’s what we’re doing.

“What we are wanting to do is opening up opportunities for disabled people who for too long have been barred from opportunities they ought to be able to take advantage of.”

But Ellen Morrison, one of the most influential disabled activists in the party, as the representative of disabled members on Labour’s national executive committee, told DNS this week that McFadden had been “hinting at the worrying direction that this is going to take”, which looks like “increased conditionality”.

She said: “They are consistently making young people the target. We have to be really careful in the disabled people’s movement not to allow young people to become the target.”

In combination with the existing cuts to the universal credit health element, to be implemented for new claimants from next April, she said the government’s new policies suggest there will be “people who might be forced into either taking inaccessible or unsuitable work, or they are going to be faced with sanctions or destitution.

“I don’t think you give people the support that they need by punishing them.”

She said this was combined with the government’s failure to commit to increased funding for the Access to Work disability employment scheme (see separate story).

Morrison said: “I don’t think it’s really about supporting people into work at all.

“I don’t believe that’s the motive behind this. It’s to get people off benefits and off any kind of financial support. It’s really short-term thinking.

“It’s going to be young people first and there’s more to come for disabled people. A lot more to come.”

The i Paper reported that McFadden was working with Reeves to “craft changes to the welfare system” as a replacement for the cuts the government had to abandon over the summer, and that they would be “laid out step by step over time rather than launched in one big package, in a bid to minimise the risks of a major political backlash once again”.

It also reported that Reeves told a conference fringe event on Tuesday: “A thousand people are going onto PIP claims a day, the majority of those are young people going on to disability benefits with mental health problems.

“I’m not denying there are mental health problems; there are massive mental health problems, especially post-Covid.

“But I would prefer to be using money to help support people to get into work and to get that treatment in the health service than to pay people to be on benefits and often have them trapped out of work without the support that they need.

“I didn’t win that argument, we didn’t win that argument this year, but we can’t go on like this and keep adding to welfare costs.”

The concerns that the government plans to target young people with mental distress were further heightened by the prime minister in an interview yesterday (Wednesday) with BBC Radio Four’s Today programme.

Sir Keir Starmer was asked by the BBC’s Nick Robinson if he was “prepared to say, as prime minister, that being anxious, even being depressed, is a terrible thing to have, but it’s not a good enough reason to stop looking for work”.   

In response, the prime minister made it clear that cuts were coming and he suggested that the government wanted to provide support services for those with mental distress instead of – as highlighted by at least one concerned disabled activist – both benefits and support.

He told Robinson: “I think we need to look again at this issue of mental health and ask ourselves a fundamental question, which is: would we not be better putting our money in the resources and support that is needed for mental health than simply saying it’s to be provided in benefits.

“And we’re not saying you shouldn’t have benefits for mental health issues, but I do think we need to examine this quite carefully.”

He said he was “particularly concerned about young people” and the number of young people who are on benefits for mental health reasons.

He said that was “wrong” because “if you are on benefits in your 20s, it is going to be extremely difficult to get off benefits for the rest of your life”, adding: “So there’s a moral case for changing that that I’m perfectly prepared to make.”

The government’s reluctance to reassure those unable to work was demonstrated by a brief exchange between DNS and former employment minister Alison McGovern, now a minister for local government and homelessness, who was speaking in a fringe meeting on the “dignity of work”.

Asked what her message was to those disabled people unable to work because they were not well enough to do so, and about the shortage of jobs that are available and suitable for sick and disabled people, she offered only half-hearted reassurance.

She said: “My message to disabled people is we believe in their right to work, like everybody else.

“All the discussions we have been having [are] about trying to make that work suitable and appropriate.

“We must always protect people who can’t work, but through new technology and forms of work I think that opens up chances and opportunities for disabled people and others and I want to make sure that people are able to take up those opportunities.”

After the meeting, DNS tried twice to engage with McGovern to ask her to provide further reassurance for sick and disabled people concerned about the government’s policy, but she twice declined to comment further, even briefly, saying she had another engagement to attend.

During the event she had heard from the non-profit organisation Timewise, which has just published research showing that only 2.5 per cent of sick and disabled people who are off work long-term move back into work in any given year.

Of the few that do, more than half (57 per cent) go into jobs that are physically demanding and are associated with higher levels of unpredictable, inflexible and excessive hours.

This contributes to another finding, that more than half of the jobs taken by those who were formerly “inactive or long-term sick” do not last for more than four months.

*Limited capability for work-related activity

2 October 2025

 

 

DWP paid nearly £90,000 to disabled claimant left homeless and at risk of harm after years of errors

A disabled person was left with “ongoing risks” of harm for more than five years – and was even left homeless – after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) missed multiple opportunities to provide them with the benefits they were entitled to.

It took the intervention of the Independent Case Examiner to correct the years of errors with their various claims, which led to them receiving a payment of £55,000, as well as compensation of £3,000 for the “hardship” DWP had caused.

They had already received an arrears payment of nearly £30,000 in 2023, after their state pension had been wrongly stopped for four years.

The case was discussed in the annual report from the Independent Case Examiner, Joanna Wallace, who deals with complaints about DWP, and she revealed that years of errors by the department had caused “ongoing risks” to the claimant, who had “very poor physical health and housing problems”.

Her report shows DWP made at least nine significant errors with the case from 2018 – including multiple missed opportunities to rectify its mistakes – when it started the process to move the claimant from disability living allowance to personal independence payment (PIP).

The errors included a missed opportunity to consider if the claimant needed extra support with their PIP claim; failing to act on a letter explaining they had moved home; and failing to follow up a letter that was returned unopened.

DWP also failed to act in 2020, when the claimant asked why they had not been receiving any pension or benefits since the previous year.

Even when the claimant contacted DWP in 2023 to explain that the lack of benefits had caused a significant deterioration in their physical and mental health, which had left them homeless, the department “continued to miss putting things right” and failed to consider any reasonable adjustments for a new attendance allowance claim.

It also failed to review the claimant’s suspended pension payments.

It was only when the claimant contacted DWP again later in 2023 that their state pension was reinstated, and arrears of nearly £30,000 were paid.

But there was no evidence of an apology, and DWP still failed to consider the suspended pension credit claim, while making a further error with a new pension credit claim later that year.

Eventually, ICE was notified of the case, and it “took the exceptional step of reaching out to DWP immediately so we could work together urgently to put things right for our customer”.

This led to DWP making a payment of nearly £55,000 in connection with the claimant’s DLA, state pension and pension credit claims.

Wallace also recommended a “consolatory payment” of a further £3,000 because of “the errors and lack of vital support to an extremely vulnerable customer, which had clearly exacerbated the long-term issues with their health and their housing situation” while DWP had “continued to miss opportunities to put things right”.

Asked this week if the case showed there were still multiple problems with the benefits system, and how one claimant could have faced so many errors, DWP said it had introduced thorough procedures to investigate and learn lessons from cases where mistakes were made.

It also said that it used sources such as internal process reviews (see separate story) and its Serious Case Panel to identify and address systemic issues, as well as ICE’s reports.

A DWP spokesperson said: “We regret the mistakes that were made in this case and we are determined to learn from them.

“We support millions of people every year and our top priority is they get the benefits to which they are entitled as soon as possible, and to ensure they receive a supportive and compassionate service.”

The report says ICE cleared 2,232 complaints in 2024-25, of which 1,514 were investigated, 567 were resolved (an agreement reached before evidence in the case is requested), 97 were settled (an agreement reached after evidence is submitted but before any investigation is carried out), and 54 were withdrawn.

Of the 1,514 that were investigated, 892 (59 per cent) were fully or partially upheld, 618 (41 per cent) were not upheld and in four cases (less than one per cent) ICE was unable to reach a finding.

Of 205 cases relating to disability benefits that were dealt with in 2024-25, 73 were resolved or settled to the complainant’s satisfaction, 121 ICE investigation reports were issued, and 11 were withdrawn.

Of the 121 investigation reports, 53 (44 per cent) were upheld or partially upheld, 66 (55 per cent) were not upheld and in two cases ICE was unable to reach a finding.

*The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, DNS editor John Pring’s book on the years of deaths linked to DWP, is published by Pluto Press

2 October 2025

 

 

Disability minister struggles to point to any significant achievements in his first year in post

The minister for social security and disability has struggled to point to any significant achievements on disability equality after more than a year in post, but he insisted that the government does not need a separate minister for disabled people.

The Labour government has been consistently criticised for not appointing a stand-alone minister for disabled people and instead combining that role with the social security brief under Sir Stephen Timms.

But in an interview with Disability News Service (DNS) at this week’s annual Labour conference in Liverpool, Sir Stephen struggled to point to any significant achievements in the 14 months since his appointment, excluding employment and work and pensions issues.

Asked for three key achievements, he pointed first to the publication in July of new five-year plans to improve the use of British Sign Language (BSL) by government departments.

This followed the British Sign Language Act, a private members’ bill introduced under the last Conservative government, which legislated for the government to report on how departments use BSL in their communications.

He also pointed to the government signing the Solfagnano Treaty (PDF) – a watered-down version of the UN disability convention – during a G7 ministerial meeting in Italy last October.

The treaty appears to have been mentioned just once in parliament – last December – since it was signed, and has been almost completely ignored by politicians, the media, and disabled people.

Sir Stephen also highlighted the “preparations” the government was making for a “cross-government plan” on disability.

Asked why there did not appear to have been any discussions with disabled people’s organisations about this plan, he said: “Internally, there’s been lots of discussion, and the fruits of that will become apparent in the coming months.”

Asked about the lack of progress in his role as disability minister, he said: “I think a lot’s been done, actually.

“And I’m hoping that the fruit of that will become increasingly apparent as time goes on.”

He said he did not believe his job – with responsibility for both social security and disability – was too extensive, and he said predecessors under Conservative governments also had responsibilities that were “actually quite wide” and extended outside the “strict disability group”.

But disabled activists at the conference – and outside it – repeated the long-standing calls for a separate minister for disabled people.

Emily Pomroy-Smith, a member of Disability Labour’s executive committee, told DNS that disabled people had been calling repeatedly for a separate minister to cover disability, which was a “very, very important” demand.

She said: “The brief is massive, and it is too big for one person to do on their own.

“We would [also] prefer it wasn’t sat under the Department for Work and Pensions.”

Disabled activist Klint Durham, who took part in a Disabled People Against Cuts protest outside the conference on Monday (see separate story), said he would also like to see a stand-alone minister for disabled people.

He said the remit of that post would need to cover areas across government, including housing, transport, employment and community engagement.

2 October 2025

 

 

Labour ignores disabled people and accessible housing crisis – again – as it announces plans for new towns

Labour has again ignored disabled people when making a major housing announcement, after revealing plans for a “new generation of new towns” but refusing to explain how it will ensure they are designed to be accessible to disabled people.

Housing secretary Steve Reed told his party’s annual conference in Liverpool on Sunday that the 12 new towns across England would include GP surgeries, libraries, schools, green spaces and transport links.

Building work on three of the new towns will begin before the next general election, with the government working with “world class architects”.

Reed said he would do “whatever it takes” to build the homes.

But Labour this week failed to make any pledge that accessibility would be central to the design of the new towns.

Asked for Reed’s promise to disabled people on the new towns, the Labour party had refused to comment by noon today (Thursday), three days after Disability News Service (DNS) asked the question.

Nearly 15 months after the general election, disabled people are still waiting for the new government to say whether it will introduce stricter minimum accessibility standards for new-build homes in England, three years after a pledge by the last Conservative government – which was never fulfilled – to take action to address the critical shortage of accessible housing.

At last year’s conference, after DNS questioned the party on the failure of ministers to mention the accessible housing crisis, a Labour spokesperson had promised that the government would “set out its policies on accessible new build housing shortly”.

A year on, and disabled people are still waiting for that promise to be fulfilled.

Reed was also the latest Labour minister to say the government was fighting for “hard working people”, apparently ignoring those who are unable to work, including many disabled people who need accessible homes.

He was speaking as an independent report – commissioned by the government – recommended 12 potential locations for new towns across England, with at least 10,000 new homes in each location.

But a brief search through the 135-page report appears to show no mentions of disabled people or the accessible housing crisis, although there is a brief reference to the need for “homes for older people, as well as specialist housing built to accessible and adaptable standards”.

Emily Pomroy-Smith, a member of Disability Labour’s executive committee, said the new towns appeared to be a “really exciting opportunity to set the benchmark for accessibility” and it was crucial for disabled people to be involved in those plans from the beginning.

She said there was no reason why accessibility could not be built into the foundations of the programme.

Disabled activist Flick Williams, a retired disability equality trainer and access consultant, who was in Liverpool to take part in a Disabled People Against Cuts protest outside the conference (see separate story), said she was not at all optimistic about the new towns announcement.

She said the “signs were there” when there was no mention of the accessible housing crisis in last autumn’s National Planning Policy Framework.

She said: “We are just missing from everything they do.”

She said her message to Reed was: “If you want disabled people to be active in the labour market, you need to build us accessible homes.”

2 October 2025

 

 

Labour uses conference to sideline disabled people… unless they are working

The Labour party has used its annual conference to stress – once again – that its focus is on supporting “working people”, rather than disabled people who are unable to work.

In his 6,300-word speech to the conference on Tuesday, the prime minister did not mention disabled people once, other than in relation to the work of carers, care workers and volunteers, and a brief mention of his late disabled brother who he said was “badly failed by the education system”.

In contrast, he mentioned “working people” 17 times, including telling the conference audience that the state will be “accountable to working people”, that he wanted to see “working people in control of their public services”, and arguing that it was “working people who paid the price of Tory decline”, while stressing that “Labour is the party for working people” and that he would “fight for working people”.

The concerns about Sir Keir Starmer’s focus on “working people” date back to 2022 and a speech he made to Scottish Labour’s annual conference, at which he declared publicly that Labour was “the party of working people”.

His chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has an even longer troubling track record, having said 10 years ago that Labour did not want to be seen as “the party to represent those who are out of work” and that it was “not the party of people on benefits”.

In his own speech, earlier on Tuesday, health and social care secretary Wes Streeting stressed his determination to build a National Care Service “worthy of the name”.

Labour’s only significant social care announcement was the first ever fair pay agreement for care workers, with an initial £500 million in funding to deliver “better pay, terms and conditions” for adult care workers across England.

In contrast to the prime minister’s speech, Streeting mentioned disabled people three times, highlighting how many disabled people were now surviving with conditions “that would have cut their lives short thanks to breakthroughs in medical science that allows them to not only survive, but to thrive”.

He said that “if we want to match longer lives with better lives, then we must build a social care system to meet their needs”.

And he highlighted the government’s decision to provide more funding for disabled facilities grants, which has provided “safety, dignity, independence and quality of life”, as well as “the biggest uplift in carers’ allowance since the 1970s”.

It has been clear since at least 2022 that Labour’s priority in government would be lifting the pay of care workers before any moves to reduce or scrap care charges.

Any firm decisions on long-term reform will wait for the conclusions of an independent commission, led by former civil servant Baroness [Louise] Casey.

The first phase of the commission will report next year, but the second phase, with recommendations for longer-term reform, will not be completed until 2028.

Last year, Disability Law Service published research which found that disabled people across England were continuing to face unlawful discrimination and inequality on an “unparalleled” scale because of “unjust” social care charging policies.

2 October 2025

 

 

Labour’s attacks on rights ‘have led to massive resurgence’ in disability movement, protest hears

The Labour government’s attack on disabled people’s support has led to a “massive resurgence” in the disabled people’s movement in the last year, a protest outside the party’s annual conference has heard.

Monday’s protest highlighted Labour’s failure to stop the “slow violence” that has led to the killing of countless disabled benefit claimants at the hands of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and the government’s refusal to act on the genocide in Gaza.

The Genocide Abroad, Democide at Home protest was held just outside the boundary fence of Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool.

The speeches were at one point being watched by nearly 100 protesters and passers-by.

The aim of the protest was to draw parallels and links between the genocide in Gaza and the “democide at home”, with activists believing that thousands of disabled people have been killed by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) state violence in the last 15 years.

But it also expressed solidarity with trans rights activists and called for links between the three movements.

The protest began with a recording of the names of more than 100 disabled people who had lost their lives through DWP’s actions and failings, including Errol Graham, Jodey Whiting,  Stephen Carré, Roy Curtis and Faiza Ahmed and more recent victims of DWP bureaucratic violence such as Tracie, Kevin Gale, and David.

The protest was organised by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) branches from Merseyside, Leeds, Manchester and York.

Rick Burgess, from Manchester DPAC, said the Labour government had not tried to reverse the Conservative cuts to disability support but instead “attempted to push farther and further”.

He said the attempted cuts to personal independence payment would have led “to many more deaths”, but disabled people forced the government to back down.

He said: “We did that. We started the end of this absolutely pathetic and failed Starmer government.”

He then led a chant of “no more benefit deaths”.

Burgess added later: “We still have a political system that absolutely denies disabled people’s right to live a good life on equal terms with everyone else.

“We need social security, we need social care, and we need social justice.”

Referring to Gaza, he said: “If governments see genocide is a viable policy solution, they will start thinking about using it elsewhere.”

Billie Gibson, from Crips Against Cuts Merseyside, led a series of chants, including “Keir Starmer, disabled harmer” and “don’t cut PIP, tax the rich”, before telling the protest that the “warfare on disabled people needs to stop”.

Dr China Mills, who leads the Deaths by Welfare project at Healing Justice Ldn, told protesters: “Disabled people have been telling us for well over a decade that the welfare system is killing people, and Labour, from New Labour to now, have cooked up many of the policies that kill people.

“People are being killed because the government doesn’t think that disabled people matter or have any value and because to them work equals worth.

“We think that these killings go deeper than mistakes or flaws in the system.

“The system isn’t broken; it is functioning exactly as it was designed.”

Jessica Ryan, from Disability Rebellion, which helped promote the protest online for those who could not attend in person, highlighted the impact of Labour’s cuts on the next generation of disabled people, and the unfairness of the government’s treatment of disabled people.

Rhi, from Merseyside DPAC, but also a researcher for the Trans Safety Network, said: “This is a government that seems extremely determined to be remembered for its genocidal foreign policy and its democidal domestic policy, as well as attacking our right to protest.

“As a disabled and trans person, I have long insisted that disabled people’s liberation and trans people’s liberation will be one and the same fight, and that our oppression is built with the same tools, but these last few years have made this increasingly clear to more and more of us.

“It is a terrifying time to be a disabled person in the UK right now and it is a terrifying time to be a trans person here, too.

“Disabled people and trans people are under attack but when we join together to fight back, we are much, much stronger.”

Emma Hewitt, from Leeds DPAC, said she had been a disability rights activist for 20 years but it had only been in the last 18 months that she had “really seen the attacks on us”.

She said: “It’s not just the fact that they are cutting our services, it’s the fact that they are attacking us, they are attacking our right to live.

“It’s so painful that not only do they not care about us, but they are quite happy to spend the money that we need for our support on genocide (in Gaza).

“There has been a massive resurgence in the disabled people’s movement, and it just fills me with so much hope.

“Every town in this country, every city, has got a disability rights group, not just Disabled People Against Cuts, we’ve got Crips Against Cuts, who are this amazing new group, Disability Rebellion, you guys are my heroes, you’ve been finding new ways for us to be able to campaign so no-one gets left behind, so everyone has a voice.”

Disabled activist Flick Williams, from York DPAC, said it was “so important” to be at the protest because the imminent DWP white paper – which is expected to include a series of further cuts to benefits – will be published later this year.

She said she had been struck by the names of those who had been killed due to DWP “slow violence”.

She said: “I just thought: there are going to be so many more.”

Another disabled activist, Klint Durham, told DNS he had travelled to Liverpool from Leeds to show his “contempt for the Labour government and its attack on disabled people and the welfare cuts”.

After 14 years of Conservative austerity, he said, he could not believe that a Labour government “would think to introduce more cuts”, and that it was “very clear” that the Labour-run DWP needed to “listen to organisations of disabled people and not charities”.

*The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, DNS editor John Pring’s book on the years of deaths linked to DWP, is published by Pluto Press

2 October 2025

 

 

Minister asks DWP to consider releasing secret reports on deaths to grieving relatives

A minister has asked the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) whether it could release secret reports to families whose relatives’ deaths have been linked to DWP’s actions and failings.

Ever since Disability News Service (DNS) first revealed the existence of the secret reviews in October 2014, DWP has repeatedly refused to even alert the families of those who have died that an investigation has been carried out.

The department has insisted – as it did last week when it again refused to tell lawyers for the family of Jodey Whiting whether it carried out a probe into her case – that such reviews are “internal retrospective investigations focused on organisational learning, not public accountability”.

The probes were previously known as peer reviews but are now called internal process reviews (IPRs).

The only IPRs ever to be released to grieving relatives have come after orders made by a coroner or a judge.

DNS is aware of only two such cases, including the IPR ordered to be released by the coroner who heard the 2021 inquest into the death of Philippa Day.

But DNS told the social security and disability minister Sir Stephen Timms this week that safeguarding adults reviews and domestic homicide reviews are released to families and are published, although the identities of the subjects of the reviews are disguised.

DNS also pointed to the eight-year campaign for justice and accountability led by Jodey Whiting’s mother, Joy Dove, and her struggle to secure the IPR she believes was carried out into the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s death.

Speaking during an interview with DNS at Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, Sir Stephen said: “Internal process reviews are what the name implies, they are for internal consumption within the DWP to look at where we got things wrong and how are we going to put them right.

“So that is kind of the nature of them, so I don’t think it’s surprising inherently that they are not shared more widely.”

But he then said that DNS was “raising a very reasonable issue here, and particularly asking whether families should, in certain circumstances, be able to see them”.

He said he had asked DWP civil servants “to take a look at this, and I am going to be receiving some advice on that subject”, although he said it was “difficult and there is a duty of confidentiality that the department owes to people”, even after they have died.

He added: “There might be a need to change the law here.

“Anyway, I’ve asked officials to have a look at this and to come back to me.”

His comments came after Steve Darling, the Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesperson, told DNS last week that he was hoping to use the government’s new Hillsborough Law to force DWP to release IPRs to relatives.

During Sunday’s interview, Sir Stephen admitted that it was only because of a DNS news story that he became aware that a report – commissioned by Conservative work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey in 2020 – had called for DWP to reduce suicides of benefit claimants and other “very bad cases”.

The Complaints, Suicides and Other Matters report was written by Tory peer Baroness [Lucy] Neville-Rolfe, but DWP has told DNS that it would be too expensive to find out what happened in response to the 11 recommendations she made five years ago.

Among her recommendations was for DWP to set up a new register of “very bad cases”; to review its safeguarding system, including an analysis of its effectiveness in reducing suicides; and to review the IPR system.

Sir Stephen said on Sunday: “I actually did not know that Baroness Neville-Rolfe had done a report for the DWP until my office told me that you were likely to ask me about it.

“That’s the first time I was aware of this report having been done.”

DNS has been writing news stories about the report since May this year, but it appears that no-one in DWP briefed him on the report or those stories until the lead-up to the conference.

Sir Stephen said he would now ask civil servants what happened in response to the 11 recommendations made in the report.

He said: “I will find out about it.”

He said Labour ministers were now “very substantially changing the culture of the department in a pro-transparency direction.

“I’m not claiming that we’ve entirely got there yet, but we’ve made a lot of headway.”

Sir Stephen also confirmed that the disabled members of his new independent disability advisory panel would no longer be expected to sign non-disclosure agreements, following a backlash over the “completely unacceptable” measure.

Instead of an NDA, DWP said it would “collaboratively agree the confidentiality arrangements as part of the terms of engagement with the panel once the membership is confirmed”.

The deadline for applications has now been extended by two weeks to 13 October.

*The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, DNS editor John Pring’s book on the years of deaths linked to DWP, is published by Pluto Press

2 October 2025

 

 

No 10 meeting sees Labour hold out olive branch to disabled activists after breakdown of trust over cuts

Senior figures in the Labour party pledged to try to rebuild trust with disabled people at a meeting with activists earlier this month at 10 Downing Street, Disability News Service can reveal.

The 90-minute meeting between a delegation of seven disabled people and senior figures within the Labour administration took place on 2 September.

It came after a text message from Joe Watkinson, deputy vice chair of Disability Labour, to Claire Reynolds, who was at the time the party’s political director in Downing Street, but is now Labour’s executive director of stakeholder relations.

Watkinson had suggested the need for a meeting to try to rebuild Labour’s relationship with disabled people after the damage caused by the government’s attempts – later abandoned – to cut billions in spending from personal independence payment, and the cuts that will be introduced through its Universal Credit Act, and to ensure disabled people “have a voice and can be heard in a constructive way”.

He told Disability News Service (DNS) at this week’s Labour conference in Liverpool: “Disabled people cannot afford a Reform government.

“The only hope we have is via a Labour government. We need to reset the relationship with disabled members and that’s at the core of everything we need to do.”

Among the disabled people who attended the meeting were representatives of the Co-operative Party – where Watkinson is chair of the party’s disability network – union activists and representatives of Disability Labour (DL), including Kathy Bole, DL’s chair, and Emily Pomroy-Smith, another member of DL’s executive committee.

As well as Reynolds, other Labour representatives at the meeting included a work and welfare special adviser, and a representative of the party’s general secretary.

It is not yet clear what promises the party will make to those who attended the meeting, other than a pledge to hold further such meetings.

But Watkinson said: “It was a very constructive meeting. It was taken seriously. It was a very frank and honest discussion.

“For the majority of the meeting, they sat there and listened.”

Pomroy-Smith said: “It was about using our lived experience to inform what they were doing. They were ready and listening.

“Claire really did fight for this. She really fought for the meeting to happen, and she’s continuing that in her new role.”

She said the government representatives they met were aware of the level of anger among disabled people at the way the PIP and universal credit cuts had been handled earlier this year.

She said: “What we were coming with was solutions. The focus was how can we rebuild and what does that look like.

“It was about moving forward. How do we prevent it from happening again.”

Among the issues raised were the kind of language used by ministers, and inaccurate briefings on social security reform.

Pomroy-Smith added: “At the moment there is a real need to amplify the voices of disabled people and not be spoken about.”

2 October 2025

 

 

Activist tells conference meeting: Hostile rhetoric under Labour has left me feeling hounded and unsafe

One of the only disabled activists to speak at Labour’s annual conference has delivered a powerful rebuke to ministers who have failed to do anything to curb the rising levels of disability-related hostility.

Fingers, a disabled RAF veteran who campaigns with Crips Against Cuts and the new group Disabled Resistance, told a fringe event on Monday how her car had been attacked and she had been called a “scrounger” after a young man saw her blue parking badge on the dashboard.

She told an Amnesty International UK fringe event on fixing the broken social security system: “What the language of the last 18 months has done to me is, for the first time in my life… I feel hounded, I feel unsafe.”

She said she felt as though the hostile rhetoric directed at disabled people had turned her into “a non-person”.

She said: “You’re looking at someone who is unsustainable. Why do I have to be a unit of productivity in this country?

“The words we use are fundamentally important. Not one newspaper has run an editorial or article about how these words are making us feel.

“I fought for the country, I worked for the NHS, and now I am effectively a ‘useless eater’.”

Fingers, who also used to chair a mental health charity, told Disability News Service (DNS) after the meeting that four young men had walked past her car as she was waiting at traffic lights in Loughborough about a month ago.

They had seen her blue badge and one of them then bounced on the bonnet of her car and shouted: “Bloody scrounger!”.

She wound down the window and gave them a “stream of obscenities and invective”, but later her anger turned to fear for her safety and that of other disabled people.

She told DNS: “The rhetoric surrounding people who require support because of ill-health has become positively threatening.

“It has been encouraged tacitly by the government.

“It dehumanises people who can’t work and there has been not one shred of fightback by the government about the knock-on effects of their rhetoric.

“It has given a licence for anybody at all to pick on and say hateful things about disabled people, and it’s everywhere, and that makes me feel unsafe.”

The former Labour member, who joined the party to vote for Jeremy Corbyn as party leader and left when he was replaced by Sir Keir Starmer, said she had expected this kind of rhetoric from a Conservative government, but it was “shocking” that it had continued under a Labour government, which had even made the situation worse.

She was also critical that the fringe event had been held on an inaccessible stage without a ramp, as highlighted by Daily Mirror columnist Susie Boniface, who chaired an event in the same location within ACC Liverpool.

Although she is not a wheelchair-user, Fingers has a physical impairment and struggled with the inaccessible stage, which she said was “shameful for Labour”.

Because of the lack of chairs in the conference centre, she had already been forced to resort to sitting in the accessible toilet to prepare for her presentation at the fringe event.

She said: “I was in quite a bit of pain when I left that conference. It would have been alleviated if I had had anything other than a disabled loo to sit on.”

DNS reports elsewhere this week that Disability Labour – which often provides free access advice to the party at its annual conference – was priced out of attending this year’s event by the party.

Meanwhile, disabled Labour MP Nadia Whittome told the Amnesty fringe event that she was “really proud” to have played a small part in the backbench rebellion that led to the government withdrawing its planned cuts of billions of pounds to spending on personal independence payment.

But she pointed out that cuts to the health element of universal credit for most new claimants are still going ahead next spring.

She said campaigners must continue to fight against further government cuts to disability benefits, and against disability discrimination, and for investment in public services.

She echoed Fingers’ comments on the political rhetoric and told the fringe event: “People’s worth is not determined by their economic contribution.”

2 October 2025

 

 

Disability Labour priced out of conference after cash-strapped party withdraws financial support

The campaigning organisation that represents disabled people within Labour had to cancel plans to attend this week’s conference in Liverpool after the party asked it to pay thousands of pounds in fees.

Members of Disability Labour appealed for last-minute financial help during a visit to 10 Downing Street earlier this month (see separate story) but were told the party could no longer afford to help it cover its costs at conference.

For the first time since 2018, Disability Labour – which has spent years providing free advice to the party on access issues – was asked to pay for a space for a stand at Labour’s annual conference, but it was told this would cost £2,500.

Disability News Service (DNS) has been told that other Labour-affiliated socialist societies have also had to pull out of attending the conference this week because they could no longer afford the increasing cost and because of the lack of financial support from the party.

The party has told DNS that the changes to financial arrangements at the conference were applied equally to all 21 socialist societies and were not unique to Disability Labour.

Disability Labour said this week that it did not believe it had been singled out.

Last year, it had to pay only a few hundred pounds to cover the cost of electricity and other costs, including hiring a small stand where its members could provide advice to other disabled party members and use as a base to lobby politicians and delegates on disability issues.

It would likely have had to pay thousands more to hire a venue at the conference for a fringe event, and hundreds of pounds more for accommodation in Liverpool.

Emily Pomroy-Smith, a member of Disability Labour’s executive committee, said the party “did express regret” that it had not been able to offer the same support as in recent years, and Disability Labour was now in discussions with the party about future support.

She said: “We want to work with the party to get us back here.

“We are asking the party to meet us halfway and work with us so next year we can be back. It’s really important.

“In a year where we have seen difficulties and damaged relationships with disabled people and communities, it’s really important that we see a willingness to rebuild that, which we have had.

“Obviously, it’s disappointing that we are not able to be here in our normal capacity.

“The Disability Labour stand is a hub for disabled people. We end up supporting disabled members and visitors’ access issues and signposting them [to support].

“We do provide a service.”

She added: “Conference is getting more and more expensive. That’s not just for Disability Labour.”

Local hotels have increased prices by as much as six times their usual rates, she said.

Joe Watkinson, deputy vice chair of Disability Labour, said: “Disabled members need us to be here. It’s important that we are here.”

Pomroy-Smith and Watkinson were only able to attend because the independent transport trade union TSSA covered many of their expenses, paying for Pomroy-Smith’s accommodation and travel, and travel for Watkinson.

Kathy Bole, Disability Labour’s chair, said they were told at the No 10 meeting in early September that the party’s financial problems meant it could not support Disability Labour at this year’s conference.

Bole said Disability Labour executives had reluctantly decided not to use a large chunk of the society’s limited funds to hire a stand and host a fringe event.

Disability Labour is a socialist society affiliated to the Labour party, but has members from across the Labour spectrum, although its leadership and membership have traditionally supported causes on the left of the party.

It has a long history of acting as a “critical friend” of the party at its annual conference, raising concerns about access, policy and the need for co-production.

It has also spent years lobbying Labour to do more to address disability discrimination within the party.

Last year, it was critical of the new Labour government’s decision to appoint only a part-time disability minister, and supported a disabled delegate who was refused entry to the conference with her assistance dog.

In September 2022, its members supported calls for the party to do more on eliminating the barriers faced by its own disabled members.

It raised similar concerns the previous year, prompting a pledge from the party’s general secretary that he would put an end to the years of discrimination experienced by disabled party members.

And, as part of the party’s online conference in September 2020 – in the early months of the pandemic – Disability Labour pushed the party for a stronger commitment to plans drawn up by disabled people that would solve the social care crisis by setting up a co-produced National Independent Living Service.

Disability Labour has also hosted important fringe events, and in September 2023 its event was attended by four shadow ministers.

This event drew the promise from shadow disability minister Vicky Foxcroft that, if Labour won power, “every single one of our ministers will be ministers for disabled people”.

A Labour party spokesperson said in a statement this week: “We are committed to providing a safe and accessible environment at conference for disabled people.

“There are more accessibility stewards working at conference this year compared to last year, and we have also provided these stewards with an increased level of training.

“We also continuously engage with Disability Labour on a wide range of issues, including greater celebration of Disability History Month which the party has begun work on.”

2 October 2025

 

 

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week

The family of a disabled man who died after not being given any food for nine days while being treated in an NHS hospital has told ITV News, “we thought he was having nutrition… but as it turns out, they were starving him.” This comes as an ITV News investigation has revealed a crisis in the care of people with learning difficulties and autistic people. Bereaved families have told ITV News they believe their children died due to failures in NHS care: https://www.itv.com/news/2025-10-01/i-dont-want-to-die-downs-syndrome-man-starved-to-death-in-hospital

2 October 2025

 

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com