DWP’s ‘truly shocking’ disability poverty stats are ‘terrible indictment’

The proportion of families with disabled children who are living in poverty rose by nearly a third in two years, even before the cost-of-living crisis, according to a new poverty measurement being developed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The measurement – which aims to provide a more accurate way of calculating deprivation – shows that nearly half of all individuals in families with at least one disabled child and one disabled adult in the UK were living in poverty by 2021-22, according to a DWP report published quietly last Thursday.

The new measurement, which calculates “individuals in low resources”, found the proportion of people in families with disabled children who were living in poverty increased from 33 per cent in 2019-20 to 43 per cent in 2021-22.

The rise was even higher for those in families with disabled children but no disabled adults, increasing from 25 per cent in poverty in 2019-20 to 38 per cent in 2021-22, a rise of more than half in just two years, according to the new DWP progress report and consultation.

The proportion of people in families with at least one disabled child and one disabled adult who were living in poverty, according to the new measure, rose from 39 per cent in 2019-20 to 46 per cent in 2021-22.

These figures compare with 17 per cent of individuals in families with no disabled members who were living in poverty in both 2019-20 and 2021-22.

This means that people living in families with disabled children were more than twice as likely to be living in poverty than those in families where no-one was disabled in 2021-22, while those in families with both a disabled child and a disabled adult were more than two-and-a-half times more likely to be living in poverty.

As the figures for 2022-23 are not yet available, there is no account taken of the impact of the subsequent cost-of-living crisis.

The individuals in low resources figures – known officially as a “below average resources” (BAR) measure – are being developed by DWP and are based on work by the Social Metrics Commission.

The commission’s own report (PDF), released just days before Christmas, calculated that, under the new measures, there were 14.9 million people living in poverty in the UK in 2021-22, of whom 8.6 million were living in families that included a disabled adult or child, and 6.3 million in families that do not include a disabled adult or child.

It also found that, of the 14.9 million people in poverty, 4.7 million of them were disabled, with 3.2 million disabled working-age adults, 600,000 disabled children and 800,000 disabled pension-age adults.

The aim of producing the new BAR figures is to provide a more accurate measure of poverty than the existing households below average income (HBAI) figures.

One of the reasons the BAR figures are likely to provide a more accurate measure of how many disabled people are living in poverty is that they account for what is known as “inescapable disability-related costs” (IDC), which HBAI ignores.

This means that the new figures take account for the first time of the extra disability-related costs that disabled people face, although DWP is continuing to develop this IDC figure to make it more accurate.

Among other improvements to HBAI, the BAR figures also take account for the first time of overcrowded households and childcare costs.

It means that the more accurate BAR measure “tends to find even higher poverty rates for the most disadvantaged… in comparison to HBAI”, such as families with children and those with a disabled family member.

Ellen Clifford, a member of the national steering group of Disabled People Against Cuts and author of The War on Disabled People, said: “It’s very welcome to finally see poverty measures that take account of disability-related costs and which therefore provide a more accurate picture of the scale of disadvantage faced by disabled people.

“This enables us to prove what we know anecdotally and gives greater weight to our calls for a fundamental overhaul of the social security system.”

She added: “The findings are consistent with projections published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2018, which warned that families with disabled children and where there are both disabled adults and disabled children would be worst hit by tax and welfare reform changes up until 2021-22.”

But she said the figures that now show the scale of that disadvantage were “still shocking”, with the Social Metrics Commission’s report showing that more than 57 per cent of poverty was disability-related in 2021-22.

Clifford said: “This is a terrible indictment of a country as rich as Britain, where, over the same two years that the new measures show very sharp increases in disability poverty, the number of billionaires in the UK rose by 20 per cent.”

Ken Butler, welfare rights and policy adviser for Disability Rights UK, said: “While the DWP attempting to develop a more accurate measure of how many disabled people are living in poverty is welcome, it is decades overdue.

“That its pre-cost-of-living crisis draft measurement shows that 4.7 million disabled people were likely to be living in poverty is truly shocking.

“That level of deprivation must be far worse now.”

He said it was “bitterly ironic” that the government was not using the new figures to push for disabled people’s benefits to be increased to relieve this “extreme poverty”.

Butler said: “Instead, the government intends to abolish the work capability assessment (WCA), that will see around 632,000 disabled people worse off, with those who receive the universal credit support component losing around £4,700 a year.

“What’s needed instead is a benefits ‘essentials guarantee’ that also accurately reflects ‘inescapable disability-related costs’.”

A consultation on DWP’s ongoing BAR work will run until 11 April.

Despite the report being written and published by DWP, a spokesperson for the department refused to comment on whether ministers were concerned at the rise in disability poverty it showed, or to explain what action they would take to address it.

He also refused to say whether ministers accepted that the figures showed that making it even harder to claim disability benefits through its WCA reforms would be reckless and dangerous.

Instead of commenting on the new BAR statistics, he referred in a statement to HBAI figures, and also to overall poverty levels, and made no reference to the number of people in disability-related poverty.

He said: “While there are 1.7 million fewer people living in absolute poverty compared to 2010, we know the challenges disabled people and their families face.

“That is why are investing billions breaking down barriers to work, cutting taxes and curbing inflation to make everyone’s money go further, while our £104 billion support package includes raising disability benefits by 6.7 per cent from April.

“The development of this measure will sit alongside DWP’s existing poverty statistics to give us a better understanding of those who are struggling.

“The households below average income statistics remain the source of official poverty estimates and will be published as usual in March this year.”

25 January 2024

DWP dismisses coroner’s concerns over universal credit suicide

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has completely dismissed a coroner’s call for action to prevent flaws in its benefits systems leading to further deaths, following the suicide of a disabled man who became overwhelmed by the application process.

Kirsty Gomersal sent a prevention of future deaths (PFD) report to work and pensions secretary Mel Stride in November, following an inquest she held into the death of Kevin Gale, from Penrith, Cumbria.

But in its response, DWP has now told the coroner that it disagrees with each of the three key concerns she raised about the way its systems are working, particularly for universal credit claimants.

The inquest had heard how DWP’s actions were having a significant “debilitating” impact on service-users, particularly those trying to claim universal credit.

One witness said that mental health service-users at Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust were often “living on pennies” and “can’t afford to feed themselves properly” because their benefit claims had been rejected, while their mental health was “often made worse by the DWP’s inefficiency”.

Another witness from the trust said the “debilitating” impact of DWP’s actions on people with mental distress was a “national issue”.

Gomersal subsequently told Stride in her PFD report: “The evidence revealed matters giving rise to concern.

“In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken.”

She pointed to the “number of and length” of the forms that have to be completed, which “can be overwhelming for someone with a mental health illness”, and which are “perpetuated if the applicant cannot get help to complete the paperwork”, while she also highlighted the “long telephone queues to speak to a DWP advisor”.

She added: “Having to travel long distances for appointments can be detrimental for those with a mental health illness.”

She had been told by a trust psychiatrist that one service-user with a “major mental disorder” had been forced to travel across the Pennines to Darlington to be assessed for their benefits. 

DWP did not give evidence at the inquest, because the concerns were not raised until the hearing, so the coroner was unable to make a “causal link” between Gale’s death and his anxiety about his universal credit application.

But in its response to the PFD report, DWP has now dismissed all the coroner’s concerns.

The department said the universal credit IT system only prompts claimants to provide “necessary information”, with its system “far more streamlined” than “traditional paper-based forms”.

It said help was available by phone, in the jobcentre or through home visits, or from other “partner” organisations, including the government-funded Help to Claim support provided by Citizen’s Advice, as well as local public bodies and community organisations.

Gale was unable to apply for universal credit online, but DWP said its “telephone claim script for gathering information is designed so claimants are asked only questions relevant to their circumstances” although it accepted that his self-employed status “would have made it more complicated than for someone with no work at all”.

It added: “Mr Gale expressed confusion over how his payment amounts had been calculated on several occasions.

“On each occasion either his Work Coach, Case Manager or a UC Telephony Agent were supportive in explaining how his benefit had been calculated.”

DWP said it “continually seeks to improve the content” of its written communications.

It also claimed that universal credit enquiry lines “have rarely had any problems with high call waiting times” and most such calls “are answered within minutes”, although “unplanned events such as technical issues or labour market instabilities can increase demand with a knock-on effect on wait times”.

The response appeared to dispute evidence given in the inquest, with DWP claiming that the average time taken to answer a call in the week of Gale’s death was two minutes and 26 seconds.

DWP also told the coroner in its response that most universal credit claimants communicate with work coaches via the online journal, and so “only need visit their Jobcentre for a limited range of reasons such as identity verification interviews”.

And it said Gale had “informed the department that he suffered with mental health problems” but “did not declare any health condition that affected his ability to work and declared that he was self-employed” and so “was not asked to attend a Work Capability Assessment”.

It concluded: “Upon reviewing the full circumstances of this case, we are satisfied that appropriate support is already available to allow claimants with complex needs to access benefits.

“I trust that my response helps assure you of the measures DWP has in place, and on which it is committed to building, to meet your concerns.”

Although the coroner’s PFD report was addressed to the secretary of state, the response was written by a member of the department’s customer experience directorate.

It also did not appear to take into account that the coroner’s concerns were not based solely on Gale’s experience but on the evidence from witnesses from the mental health trust who raised concerns about many other service-users.

In her PFD report, the coroner had told Stride: “During their evidence, the Associate Specialist Psychiatrist expressed concerns about the experience of mental health service users with DWP. These concerns were not just specific to Mr Gale.

“Evidence was also given by the Trust’s Group Nurse Director (a Registered Mental Health Nurse) who considered that the issues identified by the Psychiatrist were national.”

Gale, a self-employed window-cleaner – who was well-liked and supported by family and friends – had repeatedly told mental health professionals from the trust of the anxiety being caused by his universal credit claim, in the weeks before his suicide on 4 March 2022.

Although other factors – such as a recent diabetes diagnosis and other physical health problems – were also heightening his anxiety, the inquest heard that universal credit was his key concern.

He had received a text from DWP the day before he died, asking him to contact the department, which “appeared to have escalated his anxiety”, according to a trust witness.

A mental health duty worker who spoke to Gale on the phone the day before he died said his key concern had been universal credit “and his worry that he was being fraudulent in trying to claim benefits”.

Dr Judith Whiteley, a psychiatrist from the trust, told the inquest that she had waited with Gale “in a very long queue” in an attempt to get through to DWP, but eventually had to abandon the phone call when his appointment ended.

She told the coroner: “The amount of paperwork they subject our patients to, and you can imagine if you’re severely depressed, if you can’t concentrate, if your memory is poor, being asked to complete a 20-page document is essentially impossible.”

She said DWP’s inefficiency “perpetuates their illnesses, their depressions continue, their anxieties continue, and they don’t respond to medication as well as they should, the ability to function from day-to-day”.

*The following organisations are among those that could be able to offer support if you have been affected by the issues raised in this article: Samaritans, Papyrus, Mind, SOS Silence of Suicide and Rethink

25 January 2024

DWP’s 14-year history of dismissing coroners’ concerns over benefit claimant deaths

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has repeatedly dismissed concerns raised by coroners who have investigated the deaths of benefit claimants, in a pattern of behaviour that stretches back 14 years, analysis by Disability News Service (DNS) has revealed.

DNS carried out the analysis after the latest response to a coroner by DWP was published by the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, this time following an inquest into the suicide of self-employed window cleaner Kevin Gale.

The coroner had called on work and pensions secretary Mel Stride to act to prevent flaws in the benefits system leading to further suicides, through a prevention of future deaths (PFD) report (see separate story)

But in its response, published this month, DWP told the coroner it disagreed with each of the three key concerns she raised about the way its systems were working, particularly for universal credit claimants.

PFD reports are written by coroners who believe – at the end of an inquest – that individuals or organisations should take action to prevent similar deaths happening in the future.

DWP has now been sent at least seven PFDs since the start of 2010, and in each report the coroner has called for significant action from the department to prevent further deaths.

But the DNS analysis has shown that only twice has the department promised to take anything more than superficial action in response to those PFDs.

And in four of the cases – including that of Kevin Gale – the department refused to accept that it had made any errors in the lead-up to the death of the claimant.

The first report followed the suicide of Stephen Carré in January 2010, which led to a coroner raising concerns about the work capability assessment (WCA), and DWP’s failure to seek medical evidence from a GP or psychiatrist “if someone applying for out-of-work disability benefits had a mental health condition”.

The coroner had concluded that Carré’s decision to take his own life had been triggered by the rejection of his appeal against being found fit for work through the WCA process.

According to a draft response that apparently lay in DWP files for six years before eventually being sent to the coroner, the department said it remained “unclear to us how further medical evidence would have changed the outcome” and insisted that it had “acted responsibly and appropriately”.

Three years later, the suicide of Michael O’Sullivan led to almost identical concerns about the WCA being raised by another coroner.

This time, although DWP accepted that its policy on further medical policy had “regrettably” not been followed, it promised only to “issue a reminder to staff about the relevant guidance”.

The following year, Faiza Ahmed took her own life, after telling her work coach during a jobcentre meeting that she intended to take her own life.

In DWP’s PFD response, the department dismissed both the coroner’s plea to take action and the findings of an inquest jury which had concluded that the jobcentre’s failings had contributed to her death.

DWP even claimed that its processes “were followed both diligently and correctly”.

The only action it promised to take was to issue a reminder to all DWP staff about its existing guidance on claimants with suicidal ideation.

DNS research would reveal years later that at least six secret DWP reviews between 2014 and 2019 into the deaths of claimants would recommend that its staff should be reminded of this guidance.

In 2019, DWP did take action in response to a PFD report, following the death of Alexander Boamah, who had died on 26 January.

A coroner had told the department to take urgent steps to prevent further deaths after Boamah, who had a history of drug misuse, died two months after receiving a huge back-payment in disability benefits.

A senior DWP civil servant told the coroner in response to his PFD report that the department’s policy to pay benefits “as soon as reasonably practicable… may not be the most appropriate form of action in some circumstances”, and promised that the needs of claimants such as Boamah would be “reflected in updated policy and guidance to ensure necessary safeguards are in place”.

The death of Philippa Day, on 16 October 2019, led to the only time in the last 14 years in which DWP has accepted a coroner’s verdict, expressed remorse for its failings, and carried out extensive changes to policy and practice after a PFD report.

The high-profile inquest had led to coroner Gordon Clow highlighting 28 separate “problems” with the administration of the personal independence payment (PIP) system that helped cause the 27-year-old’s death.

He subsequently issued PFD reports to both DWP and Capita, one of the department’s two PIP assessment contractors.

DWP was forced in its response to announce significant reforms across call handler training, how calls to the PIP helpline were recorded, and how civil servants dealt with assessment appointments.

In a rare expression of regret, a DWP director-general told the coroner that the department was “determined to learn from this deeply tragic case and takes the Coroner’s concerns very seriously”.

But the department’s response to the PFD report into the death of Terence Talbot, who died on 9 April 2020, saw DWP again failing to admit any blame, disputing a coroner’s findings and refusing to change its policies, just as it did this month in response to the Kevin Gale PFD report.

It refused to “make any changes”, despite admitting that Talbot had been told by DWP contractor Serco a couple of months before he died that he had to leave hospital to visit a jobcentre, even though he was severely ill with the condition that later killed him.

Health professionals had told the inquest into his death that they had never heard of such a “severely ill inpatient” being told to leave hospital to make a benefit claim in person.

DWP said in its PFD response that it had not been aware of the “severity of Mr Talbot’s illness” at the time of his universal credit application and had not “held any evidence” to suggest that he had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

It said it did not plan to make any changes to its policies or practices in response to the concerns raised by the coroner.

*The following organisations are among those that could be able to offer support if you have been affected by the issues raised in this article: Samaritans, Papyrus, Mind, SOS Silence of Suicide and Rethink

25 January 2024

Government could be forced into further delays to social care charging reforms, senior civil servant suggests

The government could be forced into further delays to its social care charging reforms, if it decides under-pressure councils will not be able to cope with the “big new chunk” of “complicated work”, evidence from a senior civil servant suggests.

Sir Chris Wormald, permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), was giving evidence yesterday (Wednesday) to the Commons public accounts committee as part of its inquiry on reforming adult social care in England.

In November 2022, chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced a delay of another two years to long-awaited government reforms – widely seen as regressive and unfair – that would have introduced a lifetime cap of £86,000 on how much anyone pays for social care in England.

The reforms were based on some of the recommendations made by the 2011 Dilnot commission on care funding.

Hunt said the government was delaying their introduction from October 2023 to October 2025, telling parliament he had listened to the “very real concerns from local authorities, particularly about their ability to deliver the Dilnot reforms immediately”.

Sir Chris told the committee yesterday that the government had been “considering what form the rollout from October 2025 will take and we will be making further announcements on the implementation planning in due course”.

Michelle Dyson, DHSC’s director general for adult social care, said the department had been ready to start the reforms in October 2023, with six “trailblazer” local authorities “who were ready to turn on the system”.

But she said “it wasn’t a delivery challenge, it was a money challenge, so that’s why we delayed it and that’s why we redirected the money from charging reform into the system”.

But Sir Chris suggested just five minutes later that there had also been a delivery challenge.

He said: “One of the reasons for the delay in the first place was the capacity of local authorities to be able to do the work alongside all the other pressures, and that continues to be a concern for us.

“The government has been considering exactly what the form of the rollout is and one of the considerations will be what are local authorities able to do, given all the other pressures on local authorities.”

He added: “We all know the pressures on local government and what they’re having to do, not just in social care but across the piece, and before we give them a big new chunk of…. really quite complicated work we will want to be sure that they are able to do it well.”

The committee was hearing its evidence as Michael Gove, the levelling up, housing and communities secretary, announced £500 million in new ringfenced funding for social care in England.

He said the government had “listened to the sector” and “recognises that pressures on social care, including for children, have increased significantly”.

He suggested that much of the funding should be focused on children’s social care, telling MPs: “Where possible, councils should invest in areas that help place children’s social care services on a sustainable financial footing, whilst being mindful of the level of adult social care provision.”

But his written statement was published while the public accounts committee was taking evidence from Sir Chris, Dyson and a senior civil servant from Gove’s own department.

The committee’s chair, Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, said: “We are investigating why that has been out late today because it is significant and it is sub-optimal, if I put it politely, that it appears mid-way through a public accounts committee hearing when it is pertinent to the subject we are discussing.”

25 January 2024

Disabled women’s collective searches for more of Frida’s sisters

A disabled women’s collective is looking to recruit fresh blood to help it spread the intersectional feminist values that lie at the heart of its groundbreaking work, in what it says is a “pivotal moment” in its history.

For the first time since it was founded in 2013, Sisters of Frida has secured funding that will allow it to pay members of its steering group.

It is now calling for disabled women, including those who identify as queer, non-binary and trans, and women of colour, to put their names forward as potential steering group members.

It says it needs “new energies, directions, ideas, drive, and most importantly, people”.

It hopes the funding from London-based network Propel, together with an influx of new members, will help it develop leaders in marginalised communities, while keeping intersectional feminist values at the heart of its work.

Since it was founded, it has shaped conversations in the UK and internationally about disabled women within both the feminist and disability rights movements. 

Among its work, Sisters of Frida has highlighted the barriers faced by disabled women in a series of reports to the UN, and has supported work around the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

It also researched disabled women’s experiences of independent living during the pandemic; campaigned for changes to the law on violence and domestic violence against disabled women; ran a year-long peer-led skills development course for disabled women; and spoke publicly about the importance of intersectionality.

Eleanor Lisney, a founding member of Sisters of Frida, said she believed the collective’s biggest achievement so far had been to “promote the voices of disabled women and our visibility in issues related to disabled women”.

She said she hoped any recruits would bring “some freshness and passion” into the disabled people’s community through new voices and ideas, and “inspire and support each other to be leaders”.

They are particularly looking for disabled women with skills in fundraising, finance, strategy, organisational development and communications, and with a knowledge of intersectional feminist values and lived experience of disability. 

Bethany Young, co-director of Sisters of Frida, said: “Since joining Sisters of Frida, I have worked on lots of wonderful opportunities.

“We are unique because we recognise people don’t exist in clinical, clear-cut tick boxes.

“Real-life diversity is social, human and multi-layered. Together, as Sisters of Frida, we spark better, bolder conversations to create change.”

She said she had become “a better communicator, collaborator and activist” while working with the collective.

She added: “Working with these women shifted how I saw myself. I know my worth. I found my voice by listening to them. I found answers by learning from them.”

25 January 2024

Council stops activist using care funding for first holiday in 20 years

A disabled campaigner is fighting his local council for the right to use some of his social care funding to take his first holiday in more than 20 years.

Nathan Lee Davies, who has a life-limiting condition, has not been away from home for more than a day trip since 2000, and is desperate for a break and a change of scenery.

Because of his health condition, he believes time is running out to take a holiday, and he says he has a right to do so.

Davies believes all disabled people who rely on significant levels of support through their local council should be allowed to use some of that funding to take an annual break.

He cut back on trips to the cinema, restaurants, pubs and other social activities over the last few years so he could build up enough credit in his direct payments account to fund a six-day break in Florida.

After years of activism around disability rights, including writing three books and leading the #SaveWILG campaign, which fought successfully for concessions from the Welsh government after the closure of the Independent Living Fund, he was awarded an honorary fellowship from Glyndwr University.

But he is now 47, and has the life-limiting condition Friedreich’s Ataxia, which has an average life expectancy of between 40 and 50.

Although he loves his home, he does not want to be forced to stay there for 365 days a year, which he says makes him “effectively a prisoner”.

He says he has earned the right to take a short break, and so spent months planning a six-day package holiday to Florida with an accessible travel company.

He said: “I decided that the time to act is now. I am going to be a long time dead, so I have to live in the here and now.

“I had enough money in my direct payments account to make this trip a reality for every year for the rest of my limited life.

“I have managed to save a little over the years to ensure that I can fund my own short break.

“This is how it should be, and I do not want any special treatment.

“What I do need help with is to fund the flights and accommodation for my two personal assistants who I need to travel with me.”

But instead of supporting his plans, he says he has been penalised by Wrexham County Borough Council for being “responsible and prudent” with his direct payments funding.

Although the council will pay for the wages of his two personal assistants (PAs) in Florida, it is refusing to allow him to use his direct payments surplus to cover their flights and accommodation.

His appeal against this decision has already been rejected, an outcome and process that he believes was unfair.

The council has also now clawed back most of his £53,000 surplus.

Davies says he is being denied “a basic human right to enjoy a change of scenery for just six short nights”.

He has started a petition to the Welsh parliament, and has secured the 250 signatures needed for it to be discussed by the Senedd’s petitions committee.

He calls in the petition for local authorities in Wales to focus more on “well-being, voice and control and co-production”, which are core principles of the Welsh government’s Social Services and Well-being Act 2014. 

Wrexham council this week refused to clarify the actions it had taken or confirm that Davies would not be allowed to use his direct payments surplus to cover the flights and accommodation of his PAs.

It also refused to confirm that his appeal against this decision has already been rejected.

And it refused to confirm that it had clawed back most of the £53,000 surplus, and that it realised that he would therefore not be able to take his holiday. 

But a council spokesperson said in a statement: “As a social care department we have worked with Mr Davies to support him to meet his needs and explore the outcomes that he is seeking to achieve on an ongoing basis.

“His direct payments are designed to support him to meet those needs.

“Should they not be fully used by Mr Davies, or anyone else for that matter, monies are returned to the council in accordance with department policy.

“With regards to Mr Davies’ holiday, we have agreed to provide the funding to meet his care and support needs during that holiday as well as providing clear options as to how that care could be put in place during his holiday.”

25 January 2024

Claimants who chose to take part in DWP’s work programme were more likely to find jobs, research suggests

Disabled people who have taken part voluntarily in a government employment support programme have been more likely to find jobs than claimants who were forced into the scheme, research has found.

An updated research report on the programme, carried out on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and first published last October, analyses the success of the Work and Health Programme (WHP), which was launched in England and Wales between November 2017 and April 2018.

The programme has been delivered by various private sector and charity service-providers, and taking part was voluntary for those referred to the “disability group”.

But taking part in the WHP was compulsory for claimants of jobseeker’s allowance and universal credit who had been unemployed for two years – before the government introduced its Restart programme in 2020 – although many in this group would also have been disabled people.

Researchers compared the results under the private and voluntary sector WHP providers with the kind of support being offered by DWP through Jobcentre Plus.

They found that those who took part in the WHP voluntarily were significantly more likely than those who received the typical jobcentre job support voluntarily to have done some paid work since starting the programme (27 per cent compared to 22 per cent).

But those who took part voluntarily were also working longer hours than those who were forced to take part, and they were more likely to be employed full-time.

More than a quarter (26 per cent) of those who took part in the WHP voluntarily had started some paid work since being referred, compared with just 17 per cent of those who were forced to take part, while the proportion in work at the time of the survey in 2021 was also higher (17 per cent compared with 11 per cent).

More than 80 per cent of those who received WHP support said they were either fairly or very satisfied with that support.

One said: “They seem to want to get people back into work, while the [other programme] workers could not have cared less.”

By May last year, 410,000 people had been referred to the programme, with 316,000 of them in the disability group.

Referrals are due to end in September, with most new referrals now likely to be disabled people.

Under the programme, each participant is allocated a key worker who meets them regularly and provides support for up to 15 months, as well as referring them to specialist support if needed.

Support includes financial, housing, health and childcare advice, as well as in-work support for many of those who secure jobs.

The report concluded: “Voluntary participation was highlighted as a critical aspect of the WHP and created a basis for genuine conversation with key workers about readiness for work, the barriers participants faced and their individual needs, for those in the voluntary groups.

“The extended time available for key workers to build rapport with participants was also mentioned as a significant development.

“In contrast, the JCP Work Coaches interviewed, acknowledged that time constraints meant they were not able to focus on individuals as much as they might have wanted to.”

It added: “The overall findings indicated a range of positive outcomes for all WHP participants.

“However, the impact analysis showed that outcomes were generally more positive for voluntary participants than mandatory participants.”

The ongoing research has been carried out by Kantar Public on behalf of DWP since 2018.

25 January 2024

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week

Four care workers who were convicted of abusing patients at a secure hospital have been given suspended sentences. An undercover BBC Panorama investigation showed disabled people being mocked by staff at Whorlton Hall, a specialist private hospital, in County Durham, between 2018 and 2019. The four former staff, who are all men, were sentenced on Friday after being convicted by a jury last year. Judge Chris Smith said Whorlton Hall was an “unpredictable and inherently frightening place to live”: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-68021858

A woman is hitting out at a London home care company for “neglect” after finding her father looking “like he had been caged for years”. Cindy Peirce says after years of lost contact with her father, she found him “very thin” and struggling to walk due to “ulcers and sores on his feet”. Ms Peirce believes Mayfair Homecare, which has provided care on behalf of Merton Council, is to blame. Mayfair says it delivered the care package set out by the council: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67994420

More than a hundred suicide and self-harm incidents have been recorded at jobcentres and other benefits providers since 2014, it can be revealed. The worrying figures, uncovered through freedom of information requests, will reinforce fears over the effect of the government’s punitive welfare policies, such as disability tests and sanctions: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/shock-figures-expose-number-suicides-31950102

25 January 2024

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

Government finally makes ‘shocking’ confession on power cut protection

The government has decided not to draw up any plans to protect disabled people who rely on life-saving medical equipment in their own homes in the event of a power cut, after more than a year of delays and excuses.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has finally admitted that it will be left up to individual disabled people and their “care teams” to draw up plans for “how they can prepare for and respond to loss of power to their home”.

The admission comes 15 months after Disability News Service (DNS) first started asking DHSC and other government departments what plans they had to protect people who rely on equipment such as ventilators, oxygen saturation monitors, dialysis machines and feeding pumps if there was a major blackout.

The disabled Liberal Democrat peer Baroness [Sal] Brinton, who first asked questions in parliament about such protection in October 2022, told DNS this week she was “absolutely horrified” by the government’s admission.

She said: “This is a merry-go-round of civil servants trying to push the problem onto somebody else. It’s finally landed back with disabled people.”

Fazilet Hadi, head of policy for Disability Rights UK, said: “The DHSC decision not to act to protect disabled people using health-related equipment in the event of a power cut is shocking.

“It follows recent government decisions including not progressing the implementation of an energy social tariff and pushing future disabled benefit claimants on to lower rates of social security.

“The Covid public inquiry showed the complete lack of government leadership, prioritisation and planning in respect of disabled people and it appears this is an ongoing situation.

“What the DHSC should do is to work with NHS England and social care leaders to publish guidance on the measures that should be put in place to protect disabled people when threatened by power cuts.”

Mark Baggley, manager of Choices and Rights Disability Coalition in Hull, who uses a ventilator at night while he’s sleeping, told DNS he was “shocked” by DHSC’s decision, and said he had “never felt more like a second-class citizen than in the last few years as a disabled person in the UK”.

He said: “It’s further proof that this government doesn’t care about disabled people and is not even interested in working with us to find solutions.

“It would seem to me that the government wants us to pay for our electricity (and more than the average customer, if we have to use lifesaving equipment), but then doesn’t feel we are entitled to any support if there is a crisis.

“Surely, the government’s role should be identifying possible solutions to the problem?”

Grant Shapps, who was secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy at the time, told MPs that the government had “very developed plans” for “that sort of thing”, when questioned on support plans for “vulnerable customers” in December 2022.

DHSC told DNS in the same month that it would not release any information on how it might protect people who rely on medical equipment at home because it “relates to policy options not taken forward at that time which Ministers may choose to pursue in future”.

Even after the 2022-23 winter was over, DHSC again refused to release any information because it “continues to relate to ongoing policy formulation and development”, and it concluded that “the public interest lies in favour of withholding this information”.

Now, following another DNS freedom of information request, DHSC has finally admitted that it decided last year not to draw up any guidance or develop a “specific plan” for “individuals who are reliant on at-home medical devices during a power outage”.

It told DNS: “We have concluded that, due to the specificity of individual needs and circumstances, individuals and their care teams are best placed to develop plans for how they can prepare for and respond to loss of power to their home.”

DHSC did share the “key messages” that it developed with NHS England which aim to advise patients, carers and clinical teams “how users of at-home medical devices can best prepare for a power outage”.

These messages were passed to the energy industry for use in their own advice for disabled customers.

But they make it clear that the advice that healthcare professionals and the energy industry should pass on to those whose lives depend on such equipment is no more than to make sure they “understand how the equipment works” and to draw up their own “clear plan of action” in case there is a power outage.

They also advise them to join their local priority services register, but DNS established in 2022 that this offers no protection in the event of a blackout other than the usual “extra help”, with the industry stressing that such customers would not be exempt from any blackouts and “should seek advice from their local health service provider”.

The “extra help” is only likely to mean a warning of an impending blackout, provision of heating and cooking facilities to some customers, and the signposting of customers in vulnerable situations to support, with one power company suggesting that this signposting would include being referred to the Red Cross for “hot meals and drinks”.

Hadi said: “Being on a priority service register is in no way a guarantee of safety.”

None of the integrated care boards approached by DNS 15 months ago were able to provide any indication that they had detailed plans drawn up.

Baggley suggested that healthcare providers could be funded to provide extra batteries or mini-generators to disabled people who rely on life-saving equipment, with this funding obtained “from some of the vast profits electricity-providers are making”.

Last week, DNS reported how UKPN, one of six distribution network operators (DNOs) responsible for maintaining the electricity network across Britain, was trialling a scheme that would loan a free portable battery pack to those relying on life-saving equipment who were signed up to the priority services register, if there was a power cut over four hours long.

But it refused to answer any questions about its plans, while the Energy Networks Association, whose members include UKPN, refused to say if the other five DNOs would run similar schemes for their disabled customers.

18 January 2024

DWP and Cabinet Office can’t find secret report that exposed universal credit flaws

The government has lost or destroyed a secret report that was set to reveal crucial details about the impact of universal credit on “vulnerable” claimants in its early years.

The existence of the report was not known about outside government circles until the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was forced by a tribunal to release a follow-up report late last year.

But this week, two government departments claimed – after each of them originally suggested it was being held by the other – that they no longer held a copy of the report.

The report was written by the former Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit (PMIU), which was based within the Cabinet Office, but has since been scrapped.

The follow-up report, How Effective is Support for Vulnerable Universal Credit Claimants?, revealed significant flaws at the heart of the universal credit system and how DWP supports claimants it sees as vulnerable.

This report, produced in autumn 2019 and finally released in November 2023, concluded that the design of universal credit was “inadequate for vulnerable groups” who therefore needed extra help from staff through adjustments and specialist support.

It also said the support provided by universal credit was “inconsistently effective”, with some claimants “not adequately supported”, while the system for managing individual cases was “suboptimal”.

It made it clear that the introduction of universal credit in 2013 – combining six working-age benefits into a single monthly payment through a “digital interface” – had presented “more acute challenges for some vulnerable claimants”.

DWP said in November that universal credit had “transformed significantly” the support it provides to claimants, “especially those who are vulnerable”, since the report was written, and that it had “made a large number of changes to improve how vulnerable individuals are supported”.

Disability News Service (DNS) had been seeking a copy of the report since late 2021, alongside Owen Stevens, from Child Poverty Action Group, and John Slater, who first secured the universal credit papers that revealed its existence.

But the document also referred to an earlier PMIU report which “brought together what is known about the claimant experience, identifying DWP’s support mechanisms for vulnerable claimants”.

DNS submitted a request on 11 November to DWP’s freedom of information team to release this earlier report.

But when it responded a month later, it said: “We confirm that we do not hold the information you have requested.

“The report referred to within the PMIU report was commissioned and is held by Cabinet Office, not DWP.”

DNS subsequently submitted a similar request to the Cabinet Office, on 11 December.

When the Cabinet Office replied, last Friday (12 January), it said: “We are writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, we have established that the information you requested is not held by the Cabinet Office – Equality Hub.

“You may wish to redirect your request to the Department for Work and Pensions.”

DNS asked both departments this week why they were blaming each other for not being able to provide the missing report.

Neither of them would provide a statement, but DWP suggested that both departments had searched their records and had not been able to find the report.

18 January 2024

Government ‘smokescreen’ prevents release of crucial ticket office information

The government has refused to release its assessment of how plans to close nearly 1,000 ticket offices across England would have affected disabled people and other groups protected under the Equality Act, even though those proposals have now been abandoned.

The Department for Transport (DfT) is claiming the decision not to release the assessment is in the public interest and that releasing it could undermine the commercial interests of train companies.

But the disabled-led campaigning organisation Transport for All (TfA) said this week that these excuses were just a “smokescreen” to prevent significant government failings being revealed and to stop future reforms being undermined.

TfA believes the information in the equality impact assessment (EIA) would have shown how similar future proposals could have “negative impacts” on disabled rail passengers.

DfT had rejected a previous freedom of information request by TfA to see the document, arguing that it could be used to “formulate” government policy if passenger watchdogs objected to any of the proposed closures and train companies decided to ignore those objections.

Weeks later, transport secretary Mark Harper announced that ministers had asked train operators to withdraw their closure plans, reversing the government’s previous position supporting the closures.

Disability News Service submitted a fresh freedom of information request after the proposals were abandoned, but Harper’s department confirmed this week that it was still refusing to release the EIA.

It claimed its decision was still in the public interest.

DfT argued – as it had last year – that the scope of the EIA was “wider than just the proposal to close station ticket offices” as it also covered “other aspects of the stations reform policy that are subject to ongoing consideration by the Department”.

DfT also argued that train operating companies – and their Rail Delivery Group umbrella organisation – would be “less likely to share commercially sensitive information” if the EIA was released.

And it suggested that information within the EIA could undermine the position of the train companies in their ongoing negotiations with trade unions on “modernisation of employment terms and conditions and roles”.

The DfT civil servant who reviewed the decision not to release the EIA concluded: “I should reiterate that the Department does fully recognise that there is a strong public interest in favour of disclosure of the equality impact assessment, and once the policy on station reform has been settled, we expect to be able to disclose it.”

But Ezra Johnson, campaigns and communications officer for Transport for All, said: “We continue to disagree with the refusal of freedom of information requests on live policy formulation grounds, as it means vital information is not disclosed at the right time to the very people who would be most impacted.

“In this case, we suspect that the EIA would not only reveal significant failings on the government’s part during the ticket office process, but would also highlight the scope for future, similar proposals to have their own negative impacts.”  

He added: “We maintain that the government should have released the documents during the consultation period, so the public could make an informed decision.

“We’re also concerned that some of the disastrous ‘mitigations’ in the original proposals could still be under consideration, and without publication of the impact assessment there can’t be a transparent assessment of the consequences.”

These mitigations included the increased use of mobile staff teams that would cover multiple stations, and an “increasingly heavy reliance” on digital ticketing and information finding “without meaningful offline alternatives”.

He added: “Ultimately, industry have admitted that the ticket office closures were designed to save money.

“While ticket offices have been saved for now, industry and government are likely to be looking at how they can cut spending in other ways.

“We have to remain vigilant, and ensure that any other projects being proposed under the banner of ‘rail modernisation’ will actually benefit our community, rather than being a smokescreen for more cuts, fewer staff, and a less equal treatment of disabled passengers.”

18 January 2024

DWP set to waste thousands fighting release of two secret reports

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is set to waste thousands of pounds of public money fighting two rulings by the information commissioner that it must release secret reports affecting millions of disabled people.

It is the latest example of how the department has used delaying tactics for many years to avoid being held to account over its own actions that have been linked to countless deaths of disabled benefit claimants.

The information commissioner ruled late last year that DWP should release both reports to Disability News Service (DNS).

The first report was a written assessment of how the government’s decision to abolish the work capability assessment (WCA) would impact millions of disabled people and other groups protected under the Equality Act.

DNS has been seeking the information since the move to abolish the WCA was announced in the spring budget, with details included in the government’s new Transforming Support white paper.

Under the plans, disabled people who cannot work will only be able to qualify for a new health element of universal credit if they also receive personal independence payment (PIP), disability living allowance, or, in Scotland, adult disability payment.

But this would also mean that it would be left to DWP’s over-worked work coaches – who will usually have no health-related qualifications – to decide if a disabled person should carry out work-related activity.

DNS had told the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) that although the WCA has been “closely linked to the deaths of hundreds of disabled people”, the plans to scrap it could lead to further deaths of claimants.

In a decision notice, the information commissioner said he “considers that DWP has failed to consider the strength of the public interest in the timely understanding and scrutiny of the decision to remove the Work Capability Assessment” and noted “a particularly strong public interest in disclosure of information relating to disability benefits reform”.

The second report describes the impact of DWP errors on “vulnerable” benefit claimants, which it has admitted could have a “negative” impact on its reputation.

The report contains “worst case scenario” information that DWP has calculated about the impact of its errors on claimants, which it appears keen to keep hidden from the public, and probably includes estimates of how many claimants have been harmed by its errors.

DWP has argued that this information was only intended to be considered by its serious case panel and that “some of the information, if presented in its current format, could have a negative reputational impact on DWP”.

But the information commissioner said there was a “strong public interest in the timely understanding and scrutiny” of the recommendations made by the report, and “in understanding DWP’s approach to preventing future errors and safeguarding issues”.

ICO has confirmed to DNS that DWP is appealing both decision notices to the information rights tribunal.

DWP declined to comment because of this ongoing legal action.

18 January 2024

Laws on self-driving vehicles risk creating new access barriers, disabled peers warn

Legislation that will set up a safety framework to allow the introduction of self-driving vehicles across the UK must not be allowed to create new access barriers, two disabled peers have warned the government.

They told the House of Lords this week that changes to the automated vehicles bill would have to be made to ensure that all self-driving vehicles were accessible to disabled people.

Conservative peer Lord [Chris] Holmes told the Lords on Monday, during the bill’s committee stage: “Automated vehicles are either accessible, or they should not be pursued.

“They have such potential to enable mobility through technology, transforming people’s lives, be they older people, disabled people or any member of our society.

“If accessibility is not the golden thread that runs through all their development and deployment, this project should not proceed any further.”

He proposed an amendment that would ensure the transport secretary had to prepare a “statement of accessibility principles” – with disabled people involved – that would be applied when assessing if an automated vehicle met the necessary level of accessibility.

He said that the vehicle itself as well as the booking platform and physical infrastructure such as kerbs and drop-off points would all need to be accessible.

He added: “We have spent many decades putting right inaccessible buildings, infrastructure and public realm that was built and conceived of long before accessibility, inclusion and inclusive by design were even considered, let alone deployed.

“That is still a work in progress, but we need to be absolutely certain that we are not potentially building new systems, vehicles and infrastructure that are inaccessible by design.”

His fellow disabled peer, Baroness [Sal] Brinton, former president of the Liberal Democrats, who supported his amendment and is also pushing for changes to the bill, said: “This is not something that affects a few people; it is a major, really important part of automated vehicles, increasingly so as we become an elderly society, because it is less likely that people will be able to make their own journeys.

“One reason why so many disabled people cannot travel around is because they do not have access to the right vehicles.”

She proposed an amendment that would set up a statutory advisory panel – with disabled members – to design national minimum standards on the accessibility of self-driving passenger service vehicles.

She told fellow peers: “If we do not tackle this right at the start, it will prevent disabled people using these vehicles, because they will not be involved in the process.”

They were supported by the Green peer Baroness Bennett, who said it was likely that automated vehicles would initially be used as public transport, rather than by private individuals.

She pointed to hearings held by the Commons transport committee, which had “exposed insufficient accessibility right across the transport sector”.

She said the UK was “starting from scratch” with self-driving vehicles and “could get it right from the beginning, so we should absolutely aim to do so”.

Lord Tunnicliffe, a Labour shadow transport minister, said he was “very sympathetic to the whole problem of access” and supported the “general direction” of the amendments proposed by Lord Holmes and Baroness Brinton.

But Lord Davies, a junior transport minister, said the measures in the bill “already provide scope to consider accessibility at every stage” and will mean that anyone seeking authorisation to run a service would have to explain how it would consider accessibility and how they would avoid their vehicles “unfairly discriminating against particular groups”.

He said equality and fairness were “likely to be included” as part of a statement of safety principles, so ordering “a second set of accessibility principles may create overlap”.

And he said that those organisations applying for permission to run self-driving public services “will not only be required to show how they are designing services to meet the needs of older and disabled people but obliged to publish reports on how those needs are being met in practice”.

He said public bodies would also have duties under the Equality Act’s public sector equality duty.

And he said the government was already planning to set up an accessibility advisory panel to “advise on the granting of permits and assist in the development of national minimum accessibility standards”, while it would continue to receive independent advice from the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee.

He agreed to discuss the issues with Lord Holmes and Baroness Brinton before the report stage of the bill in early February.

But Lord Holmes told him: “The reality is that the current measures on accessibility in the bill are not specific and are insufficient.

“The bill needs to be beefed up on accessibility, otherwise it will be a game of catch-up and missed opportunities.

“The minister said in winding up that there is ‘scope’ for that, but scope is not actuality.

“He said that there is potential and opportunity, but opportunity is not inevitability.”

He added: “The opportunity that accessible automated vehicles provide cannot be left to go the way of other transport developments over the previous 200 years.”

18 January 2024

Labour’s election ‘campaigning bible’ ignores disabled people… and the care crisis

A new Labour party “campaigning bible” is likely to concern disabled activists after the 24-page document failed to mention disability, social care or accessible transport and housing, but mentioned “working people” 18 times.

The document (PDF) was sent out to Labour parliamentary candidates this week ahead of a general election that is almost certain to be held later this year.

Let’s Get Britain’s Future Back suggests that issues of crucial importance to disabled people are unlikely to feature as priorities in Labour’s election campaigning.

Although this does not mean there will be no disability policies in the party’s election manifesto, it does suggest that disabled activists will have to fight hard for their concerns to be heard during the general election campaign.

The failure to reference disabled people, disability or social care was first highlighted by a disabled campaigner yesterday (Wednesday) on social media.

Although there is a section on repairing the NHS, there is no mention of repairing the social care system.

There is also no mention of addressing the harm caused by social care charging, which research by disabled campaigners has shown leads to tens of thousands of people across the country every year having debt collection action taken against them by their local authorities over unpaid charges.

Disability News Service (DNS) reported in October that Labour had dodged a promise made in 2022 that it would produce a policy on whether it would reduce or scrap care charges if it won power at the next general election.

Although Let’s Get Britain’s Future Back fails to mention disabled people, there are 18 mentions of “working people”.

The party, and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, have been continually criticised for their focus on working people, and their failure to highlight the many concerns faced by disabled people and those who cannot work.

Both Labour and the Conservatives almost completely sidelined disabled people at their party conferences, DNS research revealed in October.

In Manchester, only three of 21 Conservative ministers mentioned disabled people or disability in their main conference speeches, with just nine mentions of the words “disabled” or “disability” out of 44,000 words.

In Liverpool, only three of 24 conference speeches by Labour shadow ministers mentioned disability or disabled people, with 10 mentions in a total of 36,000 words, although there were commitments made by one shadow minister to the social model of disability, co-production and independent living.

18 January 2024

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week

Hundreds of thousands of disabled people could be refused financial support in government plans for universal credit, new research has revealed. These people will be at risk of benefit sanctions if they do not engage with the jobcentre, as the Department for Work and Pensions is set to tighten its regime to drive people into work. Around 230,000 people with serious mobility problems preventing them from working will not get any extra universal credit by 2029, according to figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility requested by anti-poverty charity Z2K: https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/dwp-benefits-disabled-ill-universal-credit-lcwra/

Care providers in England are warning they can’t afford to keep operating, and increasingly are handing back contracts to provide care as their financial struggles continue. A survey found that 43 per cent of providers have been forced to hand back contracts or close part of their service in the last 12 months. The survey from Care England and the charity HFT also found many providers struggling to cover increases in the national living wage: https://www.channel4.com/news/crisis-in-adult-social-care-the-charities-having-to-turn-away-those-needing-care

ParalympicsGB has expressed “deep concern” at the UK government’s decision not to have a minister of state for disabled people. Chief executive Dave Clarke said the move means disabled people “do not have a voice at the top level of government”. The role was downgraded to a junior level last month. An open letter to the prime minister, signed by 57 sporting bodies, has called for the role to be reinstated: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/disability-sport/67955065

18 January 2024

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

‘Overwhelmed’ claimant admits chemical weapon charge after jobcentre suicide attempt

A disabled man who swallowed poison in a jobcentre in an attempt to take his own life, after becoming “overwhelmed” by the harmful actions of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), has pleaded guilty to possessing a chemical weapon.

David Rollins had emailed Disability News Service (DNS) earlier that day – 23 June – to say he intended to take his own life, and that he wanted to draw attention to the harm caused by DWP and its assessment providers Maximus and Capita.

He had been waiting for a decision on his personal independence payment (PIP) claim and had also just been told he needed to have a work capability assessment (WCA), and he feared losing both PIP and part of his universal credit.

He has spent the last six months on remand in prison, after recovering from the suicide attempt, but he has now been released on bail before he is sentenced next month.

He had already pleaded guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance, but on Monday, at Leicester Crown Court, he also pleaded guilty to possessing a chemical weapon.

A further charge of developing or producing a chemical weapon will lie on the court’s files.

Rollins, from Orchardson Avenue, Leicester, had told DNS in the 23 June email: “I already know from the experiences of my friends where this is going, and I will not starve to death.”

He added: “The DWP and Capita and Maximus will deny any association with my suicide so this letter is one of the ways I intend to make it clear to them and the public.

“Without the encroaching sense of impending dread caused by the prospect of losing half of an already stretched income I would not be doing this.

“Without a pip and esa assessment either or both of which will destroy the life I have struggled to build I would not be doing this.”

DNS editor John Pring had emailed a response, asking Rollins not to take his own life, and directing him to organisations that could offer support.

Pring then contacted Leicestershire police to ask for an officer to check on his welfare, but by the time they arrived at his flat, Rollins had arrived at Leicester’s Wellington Street jobcentre, where he took the poison.

He emailed from a hospital bed that evening to say he had taken this action because of the stress of waiting for both his PIP decision and a WCA.

He said he had informed DWP’s universal credit department that he was at high risk of suicide and so should not be put through a WCA – which has been associated with countless suicides since its introduction in 2008 – but “they sent a robot reply and the form anyway”.

He added: “I’m exhausted being a drop in the huge ocean of claimants unfairly refused disability benefits.”

He has told DNS that he was becoming “overwhelmed by the dwp”.

After taking advice, DNS decided not to publish a news story in June*, because of the risk that other disabled people experiencing mental distress caused by DWP would take similar action in the hope of DNS writing about their suicide note after their death.

In his email, Rollins had described his own work over the last 10 years supporting other disabled people with their benefit claims.

He said he had seen an increasing number of benefit appeals reach the tribunal stage over those 10 years that “clearly should not have done so”, mostly because Capita and Maximus assessors had “lied and misled” DWP, while he said DWP’s PIP, employment and support allowance and universal credit departments had “acted openly in tacit agreement, underscoring and zero-ing claimants”.

He said he was tired of seeing friends “forced to survive on almost nothing while they wait even longer than ever for successful Tribunal results”, with a backlog, he said, that meant they would wait a year for their appeal to be heard.

He said one disabled person with cerebral palsy he was supporting had just received a mandatory reconsideration notice from DWP that confirmed his previous PIP award for enhanced daily living and mobility had been removed completely, even though it had previously been awarded by a tribunal.

Rollins said: “I had to tell him we would win at tribunal in a year’s time again.”

He added: “Most of my claimants and friends have fibromyalgia and poor mental health like myself, we all have the same dread of DWP letters, we know that the DWP will dismiss our overwhelming symptoms and multiple diagnosis with a zero across the board outcome.

“This is a drop in the ocean. I am a drop in the ocean.”

DWP declined to comment.

Leicestershire police also declined to comment.

*DNS will not report on suicide notes emailed to the editor by claimants aiming to highlight the harm caused by DWP. This is because of the risk that running such reports could encourage other people in mental distress to take similar action

21 December 2023

Disabled Tories threaten to quit party after disability minister role is downgraded

Disabled Conservatives are considering tearing up their party memberships in protest at the decision to downgrade the importance of the role of minister for disabled people.

They spoke out after a chaotic day last Thursday (14 December) saw the government originally brief a journalist that the post would be scrapped altogether, before appointing a new minister for disabled people, Mims Davies, just hours later.

It soon emerged that Davies would be combining her new role with her existing job as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) minister responsible for young people and social mobility.

The government also confirmed that Davies would continue to be a junior minister – a parliamentary under-secretary of state – in contrast to Tom Pursglove, her predecessor as disability minister, who had been a minister of state.

The downgrading of the role came just one day after the Covid public inquiry heard how disabled people were left without protection, written out of key investigations and proper consultation, and had their rights ignored by the UK government during the pandemic.

Following the decision to downgrade the role, Barry Ginley, chair of the Conservative Disability Group (CDG), wrote to prime minister Rishi Sunak to express his concerns.

He said he was “extremely angered and disappointed”, and he urged Sunak to reverse the decision “to ensure that our rights as the largest minority group in the UK are championed in parliament and Westminster”.

He said it was a “retrograde step diminishing the rights of disabled people to be effectively represented”.

He later told Disability News Service (DNS) the decision showed “the government does not hold disabled people’s interests at the heart of policy” and that it meant disabled people would now “not believe the government” when it announces any future policy which aims to improve their lives.

He added: “Feedback from some CDG members is that they are considering not renewing their membership in annoyance with the prime minister’s decision last week.”

There was further embarrassment for the government after DWP announced the appointment of Mims Davies through an inaccessible post on social media that failed to include “alt text”, which allows disabled people using screen-reading software to listen to a description of a picture.

Despite the downgrading of the role, Davies has been given the title of minister for disabled people, health and work, the same title held by Pursglove.

There was also criticism of the delay of seven days in appointing a successor to Pursglove, with the disability charity Scope suggesting this was the longest period between disability ministers in 30 years.

In fact, the gap between Chloe Smith (who was promoted to work and pensions secretary on 6 September 2022) leaving the post and the appointment of Claire Coutinho on 21 September 2022 was even longer, at 15 days, during the short-lived leadership of Liz Truss.

Commenting on Twitter, Davies said she was “honoured” by her appointment and would “work as hard as I can to ensure disabled people’s voices are heard loud and clear”.

But she said she would also have a “continued focus on social mobility – both reflecting the voice and needs of young people in DWP and all across Govt”.

She said later: “My Dad lived with head injury for over 25 years, as a result we were on benefits.

“I was the Charities Minister and have co chaired the [all-party parliamentary group] for carers and this has been a passion of mine, I’ve been at DWP since July 2019 and I know the teams, policymakers and [jobcentres]. Be assured I get it.”

She later told Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people, Vicky Foxcroft, that her lower seniority as a junior minister “makes no material difference” to disabled people.

There was also criticism of the decision to again appoint a non-disabled person to the post, even though the same ministerial reshuffle saw one of parliament’s few disabled MPs, Paul Maynard, appointed as DWP’s pensions minister.

When DNS asked if Maynard had turned down the position of disability minister, his spokesperson referred all questions to DWP.

The government this week refused to say why Sunak changed his mind about scrapping the role of minister for disabled people; whether DWP would apologise for failing to add alt text to the social media post; whether Maynard was offered the post of minister for disabled people; why the post had been downgraded; and how it justified handing Davies the role in addition to her existing duties, when it now had two immigration ministers.

DWP said the role of minister for disabled people had delivered for disabled people at both minister of state and parliamentary under-secretary of state level in the past, and pointed to Davies’ extensive experience within the department and with the issues disabled people face.

A DWP spokesperson said in a statement: “Minister Davies will build upon this government’s track record of supporting disabled people, having delivered millions of cost-of-living payments and helping over one million more disabled people into work five years earlier than planned*. 

“The minister will help ensure there is always a strong safety net for the most vulnerable in our society, while tearing down barriers so that every disabled person can realise their potential and thrive.”

*Previous DNS stories have exposed this claim as deeply misleading, pointing to mounting evidence that suggests years of government employment policies have had little or no impact on reducing the discrimination disabled people face in the jobs market

21 December 2023

‘Game-changing’ £1.5 million will fuel ALLFIE’s fight for inclusive education

A £1.5 million grant has helped secure the long-term future of the disabled people’s organisation (DPO) that leads the fight for inclusive education in the UK.

The Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE) said the grant would be spread across the next 10 years and will provide it with “crucial space, time, and opportunity to secure our future”.

ALLFIE was one of 13 charities to benefit from “game-changing” long-term core funding of almost £14 million for organisations fighting inequality across London, from City Bridge Foundation, under the first round of its Anchor funding programme.

Michelle Daley, ALLFIE’s director, said she hoped the grant would encourage other funders to support the work of DPOs on inclusive education, which was vital for the “collective success” of the disabled people’s movement.

She said funders had “hesitated” for too many years to view inclusive education as a social justice issue.

She said: “Education is not an isolated issue; it intersects with various areas, such as independent living, transport, housing, as well as issues of gender injustice and abuse.”

She said the funding would give ALLFIE 10 years to make progress on its vision for inclusive education in mainstream settings “as a human right for all disabled people”.

News of the funding emerged after ALLFIE led a parliamentary event last week that called for an end to the degrading treatment, dehumanisation and even torture that young disabled people are subjected to in institutional settings.

Daley told Disability News Service this week that ALLFIE had experienced short-term funding challenges and uncertainty over its future for more than 30 years.

She said: “We cannot definitively say that ALLFIE would have folded without the Anchor funding, but what we do know is that the grant has provided crucial space, time, and opportunity to secure our future.

“This support enables us to advance our strategy, addressing the issues of ableism and disablism within the education system, and continue to move forward the work for inclusive education.”

As well as contributing to its core costs, the funding will allow ALLFIE to recruit two new staff members. 

Daley said the funding would also support the wider inclusive education movement.

She said: “Campaigning on issues that centre around the denial of any human right is emotional and tough.

“Therefore, having a funder support ALLFIE’s work over the span of 10 years makes a huge difference in promoting and advancing inclusive education as a social justice issue.

“We hope that this will bring better support in understanding the need for advocacy services for inclusive education, centring inclusive education within campaigns, increasing resources and initiatives and addressing the broader issues.”

It will also help the campaign for new legislation that would give all disabled people the right to inclusive education “without it being a constant struggle”, she said.

Daley expressed ALLFIE’s “sincere gratitude” to City Bridge Foundation and called on other funders to provide long-term funding for DPOs and “collectively support the work of the disabled people’s movement as a social justice issue”.

Other recipients of Anchor funding include Inclusion Barnet, which will receive £980,000 over the next seven years.

Inclusion Barnet said the funding would “play a crucial role in helping us keep core roles within our organisation going strong” and allow it to “continue work on addressing the ongoing problems that are making life difficult for disabled people and other marginalised groups in Barnet”.  

The funding will mean it can “continue to develop and grow” and “focus on building our organisation infrastructure so that we can continue advocating for meaningful difference in society”.

It added: “We can’t emphasise enough how excited and grateful we are for getting this Anchor funding. 

“City Bridge Foundation has been an amazing supporter, and this is a huge achievement for our organisation.

“We’re really proud of what we’ve accomplished in getting this grant.”

21 December 2023

Equality watchdog told to ‘come clean’ over DWP benefit deaths discussions

The equality watchdog has been told to “come clean” over its failure to hold the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to account on deaths linked to benefit claims.

It is now 20 months since the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) announced it was drawing up a legally-binding “section 23 agreement” with DWP to force it to act, following concerns raised with the commission about the deaths of DWP claimants in vulnerable situations.

It said then that it expected the agreement to be signed by the summer of 2022.

But, 20 months on from the announcement in April 2022, no such agreement has been signed.

Two months ago, the Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance (ROFA) sent an email to the commission’s chief executive and chair, calling on them to explain the lack of progress.

It then sent another email a week later.

But EHRC has so far failed to respond to the emails, which had called for it to act “as a matter of urgency”.

Both were sent direct to the email addresses of the chief executive, Marcial Boo, and the chair, Baroness Falkner.

Although Disability News Service (DNS) has verified the email addresses they were sent to, EHRC claimed this week that neither of the emails was received.

In its first email, ROFA said the “unnecessary deaths and misery inflicted on Disabled people by the DWP has continued unchecked” and it called on the commission to “disclose the truth and come clean”.

It highlighted a series of reports by DNS that have linked universal credit with serious harm caused to claimants.

Among them was a disabled woman left traumatised by the daily demands of universal credit, who took her own life just days after being told she would need to attend a face-to-face meeting with a work coach.

Another was a disabled man left suicidal and without any income because of the serious flaws within universal credit.

Since ROFA’s emails to the commission, evidence has continued to emerge of safeguarding flaws within the department, particularly in relation to universal credit.

Earlier this month, DNS reported how senior mental health figures had told a coroner that DWP’s actions were having a significant “debilitating” impact on service-users, particularly those trying to claim universal credit.

Meanwhile, the PCS union has handed DWP a dossier of evidence that suggests the department is a failing organisation in a “state of crisis” and faces a “near collapse” of its benefits systems.

Mark Harrison, a member of ROFA’s steering group, said the commission’s failure to sign the section 23 agreement showed it was not fit for purpose.

He also accused the commission of misleading the UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities about the section 23 agreement.

In a report for the committee, published in August, EHRC said it was “currently in negotiations with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to enter into a legally binding agreement to improve its treatment of disabled benefits claimants”, but failed to point out that those negotiations had already lasted 16 months.

Harrison said this failure to be clear about the situation was “disgraceful”. 

He said: “We need a real, independent and functioning human rights body to protect us from the vicious attacks of this government.”

An EHRC spokesperson said in a statement: “We did not originally receive the letters sent by the Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance. 

“Now we have received them, we will respond in due course.

“As with all correspondence we receive, we will carefully consider the issues raised and take action where appropriate.”

Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, who has led parliamentary efforts to secure justice for DWP’s victims and push for a public inquiry into the countless deaths linked to its actions, asked in the Commons this week for an update on the section 23 process, asking work and pensions secretary Mel Stride: “Why has the department still not reached an agreement?”

But Stride said: “By virtue of the legislation that underpins those interactions, the discussions are necessarily held in private.

“I am informed that they have resulted in positive engagement, and that the department and the EHRC will come forward with a response as soon as possible.”

21 December 2023

Third of young people with SEN experienced violent bullying last year, says government

One-third of young people with special educational needs (SEN) in England experienced violent bullying in the last year, according to a major government-funded survey.

Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of those surveyed, who were all 12 or 13, said they had experienced some kind of bullying, with reports more common among young people who were autistic or had social, emotional or mental health difficulties.

This compares with a similar study of all young people aged 13 and 14 that asked the same questions in 2013, and which found that 40 per cent had experienced bullying in the previous year.

The new study says name-calling was reported by nearly half (47 per cent) of those with SEN while 35 per cent said they had been threatened with violence, and 33 per cent had been victims of violence in the last year.

Just under one in five (18 per cent) reported that they had been called names which were related to their impairment.

About 3,000 young people with SEN completed the survey last year for the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), in collaboration with the National Children’s Bureau and on behalf of the Department for Education.

In all, nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of young people with SEN reported being happy with their life as whole, with 90 per cent saying they were happy with their family, but just 55 saying they were happy with their school.

The vast majority of young people with SEN (94 per cent) said they expected to go on to have a job in the future, while more than half (54 per cent) wanted to go to college or university after leaving school.

Young people with SEN who attended mainstream schools (56 per cent) were more likely to want to continue in education than those in alternative provision (42 per cent) or special schools (38 per cent).

The study also says that young people with SEN and an education, health and care (EHC) plan were much less likely to spend unsupervised time with a friend than those without a plan.

Of those with an EHC plan, 38 per cent never spent unsupervised time with friends, compared with 16 per cent of those who did not have an EHC plan.

Three-quarters (76 per cent) of those whose parents reported that the school supported their child well reported high levels of happiness with their life compared with two-thirds (67 per cent) of those whose parents were not satisfied with the school’s support.

The study concluded that young autistic people and those with social, emotional and mental health difficulties were at greater risk of negative outcomes than other young people with SEN.

The study is part of long-term work by the government to set up a large-scale survey of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England.

As well as the 3,000 young people, about 3,500 parents and guardians also completed the survey.

Of the young people analysed by the study, 85 per cent attended a mainstream school, 12 per cent a special school, and two per cent were attending alternative provision.

21 December 2023

Alan Benson: Tributes from ‘heartbroken’ colleagues to ‘astounding campaigner’

Countless tributes have been paid by friends, fellow campaigners and colleagues following the death of Alan Benson, an “astounding campaigner and ambassador” who played a major role in the fight for an accessible transport system.

As well as being co-chair of Transport for All, he was a long-serving deputy chair of London TravelWatch, a founder member of the Campaign for Level Boarding, and co-chaired the Department for Transport’s inclusive transport stakeholder group.

Transport for All (TfA) said it was “heartbroken” by his death on Sunday and described him as “an astounding campaigner and ambassador for the disabled community”.

Benson was awarded an MBE for services to public transport for disabled people last year.

He described at the time how his activism began when – as a powerchair-user – he was left stranded on a train platform in the run-up to the London 2012 Paralympics.

He had secured a degree in computing and economics, and a masters in management innovation and change, and used those skills mostly in jobs in further and higher education before moving to London in 2011.

He told TfA last year: “I moved to London and started regularly commuting around 2012, when the plans for the Paralympics were in full swing, and there was this huge push from the government to present London as an accessible capital.

“And then, while there was all this publicity about the legacy of the Paralympics, how accessible our transport was, what an example London was going to be, I was left stranded on a train platform.”

After attending a couple of parliamentary meetings on accessible transport and contributing to a Channel 4 investigation, he was introduced to TfA and became a board member.

He then played a key role in a series of TfA campaigns, including the battles to make Crossrail accessible; to ensure reliable, accessible patient transport; and to improve access to rail stations.  

He told TfA in 2022: “The campaigns I remember are the ones that make the greatest amount of change, even if they’re not obvious, even if most people won’t see them.

“So, for example, there is now a new standard of lift signage across the London Underground: it makes a lot more sense, is less technical, more human, more accessible. And a lot of people won’t have noticed this change.

“But for many disabled people, this makes a huge difference to their ability to navigate stations and move through the world freely.

“I’m also really proud of the training we did with senior staff at the Underground.

“Often the most important work we do is changing attitudes, changing industry standards, because this is what results in lasting, widespread change.”

He stressed the importance of collaboration and co-production and the support of other campaigners, organisations, charities, transport operators and allies.

Last year, he was given the freedom of the borough of Richmond, where he lived, and the council’s leader, Gareth Roberts, spoke this week of his “remarkable contribution to the lives of disabled and older people, particularly in London” and his “immeasurable legacy”.

The user-led charity Ruils, which is based in south-west London, paid tribute to the “major role” he played – which included nearly seven years as a board member – and said it would miss his “drive, determination and wry humour”.

His influence and popularity were reflected this week in the many online messages of condolence from fellow disabled activists and industry professionals.

Among the messages left on an online tribute page, many spoke of his kindness, generosity and sense of humour, as well as his “massive contribution to improving transport accessibility”.

One said: “Heartbroken. Alan was the most fearless of campaigners – his legacy will live on and we can but try our best to carry on with his work the best we can – he has changed the life of so many.”

Another described him as “one of the kindest, wisest and best people you could ever meet”.

Among the messages from industry figures, Andy Lord, London’s transport commissioner, said the news of his death was “absolutely devastating and heart-breaking”.

Peter Wilkinson, managing director of passenger services at the Department for Transport, said: “Alan was a star and a truly committed and passionate champion of passengers. He will leave a giant hole behind him.”

London TravelWatch – London’s statutory transport watchdog – said it was “devastated” by his death and that he was “held in deep affection by everyone here”.

Tony Jennings, a fellow co-founder of the Campaign for Level Boarding, said Benson was “a friend and a pragmatic disability rights campaigner, who worked tirelessly in collaboration with the transport industry to help improve accessibility and remove the barriers. 

“He was a supportive advocate for disabled people and generous with his time, leaving a legacy for other campaigners and activists to continue the fight for equal access.”

He said they shared a “passion for cricket and cake”, with Benson a loyal supporter of Surrey, who would frequently post on Twitter about his frequent trips to the Oval.

He said: “He will be greatly missed by family, friends and the disabled community.

“Strength to Yvonne, his soulmate and constant support at this terribly sad time.”

Another accessible transport campaigner, Doug Paulley, described Benson as “a true diplomat, committed campaigner and gentleman” and said his death was “a giant loss”.

He said: “I got to know him through the First Bus case, where he was a stalwart supporter, and have conspired with him ever since, along with his lovely partner Yvonne.

“But he also had become a firm friend, with his cheeky and impish sense of humour yet kindly advising and reeling me in where required.

“I mourn his loss for me, for disabled and other groups he supported, but particularly for his friends and his lovely partner.”

21 December 2023

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week

The UK government has agreed to pay £31,500 compensation after accepting that a 15-year-old boy with serious mental health problems was subjected to “inhuman or degrading treatment” by being kept in solitary confinement for almost two months. The boy, identified in court documents as AB, was locked alone in his cell for more than 23 hours a day for at least the first 55 days of his detention in Feltham prison, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform, which represented him: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/18/boy-kept-in-solitary-confinement-wins-31500-pound-payout

UK phone companies have paused making “vulnerable” customers switch to digital landlines, following “serious incidents” where telecare devices stopped working. Nearly two million people are thought to use such equipment, which can be used to summon help in an emergency. Digital landlines can fail in some circumstances, such as a power cut. Phone providers have signed a charter under which people can only be moved from an analogue to a digital line if there is no impact on telecare: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67750235

Changes to the Tory voter ID clampdown are desperately needed to stop people being locked out at the next general election, peers warn. Ministers have been warned that the rules – which require people to show valid proof of their identity in order to vote – risk locking tens of thousands of people out. In a letter to local government minister Simon Hoare, the cross-party House of Lords constitution committee said a number of groups, including disabled people, over-85s and unemployed people, are less likely to have the ID they need: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-voter-id-failings-alarm-31700830

Post-Brexit restrictions on the free movement of workers from the EU have contributed to modern slavery becoming “a feature” of the care sector in England, the Care Quality Commission has told MPs. James Bullion, chief inspector of adult social care and integrated care at the watchdog, told the Commons health and social care committee that the end of free movement significantly increased the possibilities of exploitation, which have included cases of care workers not being paid for months and dozens being squeezed into overcrowded lodgings: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/dec/19/modern-slavery-care-sector-england-brexit

Schoolchildren will soon be able to take a GCSE in British Sign Language. A new qualification will teach students to sign effectively using BSL and give them an understanding of the history of sign language in the UK. Parents, teachers and the deaf and hearing communities have taken part in a 12-week consultation on what should be included in the course. The finalised content for the new qualification has today (Thursday) been published by the Department for Education: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/kids-take-gcse-british-sign-31717935

21 December 2023

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

‘Devastating’ dossier shows DWP is in ‘state of crisis’

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is a failing organisation in a “state of crisis” and faces a “near collapse” of its benefits systems, according to a “devastating” dossier of evidence from its own staff.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) this week accused DWP of “deliberate neglect”, after its members said they believed benefit claimants in vulnerable situations were “falling through the gaps” in the system.

The union’s dossier details multiple concerns about universal credit (UC), with one manager describing staff facing “completely overwhelming” workloads.

In one of the most concerning warnings, a DWP staff member who works in counter-fraud, compliance and debt, said: “We are also experiencing more threats of suicide by claimants, in some cases already attempted, sometimes successfully.”

A universal credit case manager told their union: “The absolute bare minimum is getting done and vulnerable customers are falling through the gaps.”

Another PCS member warned: “Dealing with the move to Universal Credit on top of an already unsustainable workload will end in vulnerable claimants falling through the cracks.

“Who knows what will happen to them.”

The union pointed to serious understaffing across the department, a failure to recruit and retain staff, poor working conditions, and low pay.

The dossier was delivered to DWP as Disability News Service (DNS) published its latest report highlighting serious safeguarding concerns around universal credit (see separate story).

That story describes how senior mental health figures told an inquest last month that DWP’s actions were having a significant “debilitating” impact on service-users, while this impact of DWP’s actions on people with mental distress was a “national issue”.

Only last month, DNS reported how conditions at the Oxford jobcentre became so stressful that 15 members of a team of 23 work coaches quit within 12 months, with at least eight experiencing a significant collapse in their mental health, due to a huge, sudden increase in workload in late 2021.

Also last month, DNS reported on a “deeply troubling” government report that ministers kept hidden for four years and which revealed significant flaws at the heart of the universal credit system, and how its design was “inadequate for vulnerable groups”.

The PCS dossier contains multiple warnings that the staffing problems within DWP, and the way the department is being run, could drastically affect disabled claimants, and in fact already have.

Many of those who gave evidence to the union spoke of huge backlogs in dealing with messages on claimants’ universal credit online journals.

A universal credit case manager told the union: “The absolute bare minimum is getting done and vulnerable customers are falling through the gaps.”

One work coach added: “We are dealing with more and more people with serious mental health conditions, and have only very basic of training for this.”

A newly-qualified work coach said: “We are hugely understaffed. I am shocked at how we are being pressurised into sanctioning our customers instead of offering a whole load of assistances available to help them get out of Universal Credit and back into work.

“We are expected to sanction people for ridiculous reasons.”

One PCS member said employment and support allowance (ESA) was “a ticking time bomb due to the lack of experienced staff” and warned that “millions of ESA claims are incorrect and these vulnerable customers could be owed thousands”.

Within the PCS dossier is evidence from an autistic staff member who said his reasonable adjustment of working two days a week from home had been “stolen away” due to staffing issues.

Many PCS members spoke of their “unsustainable” workload and the stress and depression they now experienced because of these staffing issues.

One said: ‘I have worked for DWP for over 40 years and to be honest I am totally worn out physically and mentally.

“My health has suffered enormously, having to struggle with always being understaffed.

“This is because of constant pressure, poor pay and staff leaving to go [to] better jobs with better pay and less stress. So I have resigned… I felt I had no other option.”

Another said: “The level of staffing for service delivery in my office is astonishingly low, stressful and unsustainable.

“The levels of staff leaving, sickness etc are by far the worst I’ve ever seen. I feel unsafe at times and under considerable pressure.”

On Tuesday, the PCS dossier was handed to Peter Schofield, DWP permanent secretary, and it contains a sample of more than 250 pieces of evidence collected from members who work within the department.

The union warned that DWP was currently running at 30,000 below required staffing levels, and it called for an urgent meeting with Schofield and work and pensions secretary Mel Stride.

The evidence compiled by PCS came after an email was sent out in early October following concerns raised on the union’s website about “staffing chaos”, and which asked members how this was affecting them.

The union’s DWP group president, Martin Cavanagh, said the union had been “overwhelmed by the power and volume of the responses”.

He said: “The responses contained in this document demonstrate that DWP is a failing organisation in a state of crisis.

“This crisis has been created by a government whose policies are vindictive towards claimants that need support and not the punishment that our members are expected to dish out.

“The members’ testimonies demonstrate that the staffing crisis in DWP is creating an epidemic of mental ill health amongst staff and failing to protect the most vulnerable citizens in society.”

He added: “Many of society’s most marginalised are becoming desperate.

“We call on ministers to read as much of this dossier as they can stomach, take responsibility, and provide our members with the tools to do the job and the standard of living they have earned.”

DWP yesterday (Wednesday) declined to provide a response from Mel Stride to the dossier, or to say if the department accepted that there were problems with staffing levels, safeguarding flaws and unsafe conditions for both staff and claimants, including with universal credit and ESA.

It also declined to provide a response from Stride to the concerns in the dossier about universal credit and the risk of “vulnerable” claimants “falling through the gaps”.

DWP also refused to say if Stride would meet with the union, and how he responded to the union’s claim that DWP was a failing organisation in a state of crisis and that this crisis had been created by a government whose policies were “vindictive” towards claimants who need support.

Instead, the department insisted that its priority was ensuring a supportive and compassionate service for claimants, while it had safeguards in place to protect “vulnerable” customers.

It claimed it prioritised lower-paid employees in its 2023-24 pay award, and that its recruitment campaigns remained ongoing, while it provided a range of support to help staff with their physical health and mental, social and financial wellbeing. 

A DWP spokesperson said in a statement: “We are committed to supporting the wellbeing of our staff, and provide access to a comprehensive range of assistance for their physical and mental health.

“We have recruitment plans in place to maintain key services – providing excellent opportunities for existing staff and new recruits who are playing a vital role in our next generation welfare reforms to help thousands back into jobs, grow the economy and drive down inflation.”

7 December 2023

DWP failings that helped trigger suicide ‘are a national issue’, NHS manager tells coroner

The actions of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are having a significant “debilitating” impact on service-users, particularly those trying to claim universal credit, senior mental health figures have told an inquest.

One witness said service-users at a mental health trust are often “living on pennies” and “can’t afford to feed themselves properly” because their benefit claims have been rejected, while their mental health is “often made worse by the DWP’s inefficiency”.

Another witness from the trust told the inquest into the death of Kevin Gale – who took his own life on 4 March 2022 – that the “debilitating” impact of DWP’s actions on people with mental distress was a “national issue”.

Disability News Service (DNS) reported last month that coroner Kirsty Gomersal had sent a prevention of future deaths (PFD) letter to work and pensions secretary Mel Stride, warning him that he needed to act to prevent flaws in the universal credit system leading to further deaths.

She had been told how Gale, a self-employed window-cleaner who was only able to work sporadically in the months before his death, took his own life after becoming overwhelmed by the universal credit application process.

But DNS has now secured a recording of the inquest from the coroner’s office, and it details the depth of concerns within Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust about the failing service provided by DWP.

It is just the latest evidence of serious safeguarding flaws at the heart of the department, particularly around universal credit and the department’s over-stretched workforce.

This week, DNS is also reporting how a “devastating” dossier of evidence compiled by the PCS union – based on evidence from its DWP members – shows how the department is a failing organisation in a “state of crisis” which faces a “near collapse” of its benefits systems.

Only last month, DNS reported how conditions at the Oxford jobcentre became so stressful that 15 members of a team of 23 work coaches quit within a year, with at least eight experiencing a significant collapse in their mental health due to a sudden, huge increase in workload in late 2021.

Also last month, DNS reported on a “deeply troubling” government report that ministers kept hidden for four years and which revealed significant flaws at the heart of the universal credit system, and how its design was “inadequate for vulnerable groups”.

The coroner who heard the inquest into Gale’s death decided to send a PFD to Stride after hearing evidence from several witnesses from Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust.

They each described how Gale’s long-term anxiety had been repeatedly triggered by the problems he faced applying for universal credit.

The inquest heard that he had a history of anxiety and depression stretching back several decades, as well as obsessive compulsive disorder, and had been sectioned for six weeks in November 2021.

The inquest heard how Gale – who was well-liked and was supported by family and friends – had repeatedly told mental health professionals from the trust about the anxiety being caused by his universal credit claim, in the weeks leading up to his suicide.

Although other factors – such as a recent diabetes diagnosis and other physical health problems – were also heightening his anxiety, the inquest heard that universal credit was his key concern.

One witness from the trust said, in a written statement: “Kevin’s anxiety had been unfortunately exacerbated by the process of having to apply for universal credit. He couldn’t cope with the paperwork.”

She said he had received a text from DWP the day before he died, asking him to contact the department, which “appeared to have escalated his anxiety”.

A mental health duty worker who spoke to Gale on the phone the day before he died said his main concern had been universal credit “and his worry that he was being fraudulent in trying to claim benefits”.

Dr Judith Whiteley, an associate specialist psychiatrist with the trust, said Gale had told her during a face-to-face appointment on 2 March – two days before his death – that he had been due to receive a call from DWP the following day so he could “at last secure some social welfare benefits”.

She said he had been advised several times to contact Citizen’s Advice or The Lighthouse community mental health hub, while she had waited with him “in a very long queue”, trying to get through to DWP on the phone, but eventually had to abandon the attempt because his appointment had ended.

The coroner was only able to hear from the trust about Gale’s universal credit claim – and not DWP – because the concerns were raised for the first time during the inquest and so no-one from the department had been asked to attend the hearing.

As Dr Whiteley ended her evidence, the coroner asked her if there was anything she would like to add.

She told her: “The DWP. The hurdles that our service-users have to go through to get any financial support.

“Kevin struggled with this for several weeks, they bombarded him with forms to complete.

“They weren’t accessible on the telephone that day… It’s a recurring theme within our service with our patients.”

She added: “The amount of paperwork they subject our patients to, and you can imagine if you’re severely depressed, if you can’t concentrate, if your memory is poor, being asked to complete a 20-page document is essentially impossible.

“Most of my service-users fortunately have the support of a family member to get that completed, so there’s the paperwork, there’s the endless queues on the telephone to get through, to speak to somebody.”

She said one of her service-users with a “major mental disorder” had been forced to drive across the Pennines to Darlington to be assessed, while she was “regularly hearing about service-users that have been declined benefits”.

Dr Whiteley said service-users’ mental health was “often made worse by the DWP’s inefficiency”.

She said: “It perpetuates their illnesses, their depressions continue, their anxieties continue, and they don’t respond to medication as well as they should, the ability to function from day-to-day.

“Often, they’re living on pennies. They can’t afford to feed themselves properly.”

Her colleague, Anna Williams, the trust’s group nurse director for north Cumbria, told the inquest that the concerns raised by Dr Whiteley were “increasingly” a “common factor” and were “a national issue”.

She said the trust’s crisis teams had been forced to start their own foodbanks three years ago.

And she said she had asked for a DWP representative to join meetings of the director of public health’s north Cumbria suicide prevention group.

Asked by the coroner if a PFD report sent to DWP would be useful in helping prevent suicides, she said: “I think it’s really important that we address this issue. It’s just so debilitating for people.”

DWP continues to claim that it provides a supportive and compassionate service, and a strong financial safety net, while funding support for universal credit applications through its Help to Claim service, provided by Citizens Advice and funded by DWP.

It says it has appointed more than 30 advanced customer support senior leaders (ACSSLs) across Britain since 2020, and that their role is to develop relationships with other organisations that provide support to claimants in local communities.

And it says that the ACSSL who covers Cumbria has established links with the Cumbria and Lancashire suicide prevention groups.

A DWP spokesperson said: “Our condolences are with Mr Gale’s family.

“We will review the coroner’s report and respond in due course.”

7 December 2023

MPs say government’s disability strategy is ‘a strategy in name only’

Cross-party MPs have delivered a powerful attack on the government’s discredited National Disability Strategy (NDS), describing it as “a disability strategy in name only”.

A report published yesterday (Wednesday) by the Commons women and equalities committee said the strategy was merely “a list consisting mainly of pre-existing departmental actions with minimal strategic thinking behind how those actions interact”.

The cross-party committee’s report echoes concerns raised by disabled people after the strategy’s publication in summer 2021, and will be particularly embarrassing for Justin Tomlinson, the much-criticised Conservative MP who was minister for disabled people at the time.

Leading disabled campaigners described the strategy on its publication in 2021 as “all front and nothing behind it”, and “full of tweaks and not much substance”, while analysis showed it provided just 28p of new funding for every disabled person in the UK.

This week’s publication – the first of three reports that will follow the committee’s inquiry into the NDS – describes the strategy as a “list of un-coordinated and largely pre-existing short-term policies”.

And it says that only a strategy that integrated policy areas such as education, health, social care, employment and transport would have a “truly transformational effect on the lives of disabled people”.

In its evidence to the committee, Inclusion London said the actions laid out in the strategy “could not be called strategic or transformative”, while Disability Rights UK said it failed to provide “the kind of systemic challenge that was needed to the inequality that the strategy had set out quite clearly”.

The report calls for the government to collaborate with disabled people to develop a 10-year strategy, with an action plan for the first five years that outlined “clear targets and timescales for delivery”.

Again mirroring previous concerns raised by disabled people’s organisations (DPOs), the report says that the government’s process of engaging with DPOs when developing the strategy was “not as good as ministers claimed”.

It contrasts the fate of the government’s DPO Forum – which was abandoned by Tomlinson after just four meetings in 2020 – with its engagement with non-user-led disability charities.

The government met with the Disability Charities Consortium 10 times in the run-up to the publication of the NDS in July 2021, with the consortium’s co-chairs having access to Disability Unit officials throughout the strategy’s development and charity chief executives able to read an early draft.

The committee said the government “needs to improve its engagement with disabled groups, to listen to and act on what disabled people want, if its policies on improving their lives are to be effective”.

The report says ministers should set up a new national advisory group of the DPO Forum England (whose members are all leading DPOs) and the chairs of the government’s regional stakeholder networks to “review disability policy proposals, advise ministers on key issues, and develop, implement and monitor the NDS”.

And it calls for the government’s Disability Unit to have the final say on all disability policy “to ensure that the whole of government works towards the same long-term strategic objectives”, with the power to challenge ministers in other departments.

The high court ruled the National Disability Strategy was unlawful in January 2022 because its consultation process was unlawful, with the government then pausing 14 policies it said were directly connected to the strategy, while continuing progress on another 100.

The committee’s report is also highly critical of the current minister for disabled people, Tom Pursglove*, for failing to set up a mechanism to monitor progress on the 100 actions, and allowing the government to remain “unaccountable to the very groups who relied on the implementation of those policies – disabled people”.

It says that this “failure to update disabled people on those actions that remained ongoing only served to exacerbate confusion and anxiety”, while the government’s decision to appeal the high court judgment “created many months of uncertainty and frustration for disabled people and their representative organisations”.

The Court of Appeal eventually overturned the high court’s judgment earlier this year.

The report also criticises the government’s failure to send a representative to the UN in Geneva in August for a public examination of its progress since being found guilty of grave and systematic violations of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

The UN committee found in November 2016 that the UK government had discriminated against disabled people on the right to an adequate standard of living and social protection, work and employment, and independent living.

The new report says the government has made “little to no progress” against the committee’s recommendations.

It says the government’s refusal to attend the meeting in Geneva was “disrespectful to both the UN committee and disabled people” and “sends the wrong message, both nationally and internationally,” about the UK’s commitment to upholding the rights of disabled people.

It adds: “The Government should set out why it refused to attend the meeting, how and by when it will implement the UN Committee’s recommendations, and what specifically it is doing to ensure that the whole of Government follows the principles of the treaty.”

Svetlana Kotova, director of campaigns and justice at Inclusion London, welcomed the committee’s report.

She said: “We knew from the start the so-called National Disability Strategy was a shambolic PR exercise with no real intent to address the fundamental injustice and inequality we as disabled people face. 

“The government chose not to talk to us and then defended this position in court. 

“We are pleased to see the committee saw NDS for what it is. 

“This report is the first report I have seen that talks about disabled people’s organisations and the need to engage with DPOs in such an extensive way. 

“And we welcome the strong criticism from the committee of the failure to make progress towards implementing the recommendations from the UN inquiry, which found welfare and austerity policies leading to grave and systematic violations of disabled people’s rights.”

She said some of the government’s latest policies – such as reforms to the work capability assessment, increased conditionality for benefit claimants, and changes announced in the disability benefits white paper in March – would cause “further harms”. 

Kotova said: “We urgently need the government to listen to disabled people and align its policies with its obligations under UNCRPD.”

Caroline Nokes, the Conservative MP who chairs the committee, said: “It is clear disabled people want more influence over the strategies, action plans, and policies affecting them.

“Ministers need to work much more proactively with disabled groups and develop the National Disability Strategy beyond short-term actions that were already in progress.

“The government needs to listen to the concerns that disabled people and their representative organisations had with the strategy and work closely with them to deliver meaningful, long-lasting improvements to the lives of disabled people.”

The government will now be expected to respond to the committee’s report in the coming months.

*Pursglove left his post today (Thursday) to be an immigration minister in the Home Office

7 December 2023

Disabled people ‘will feel the sharp end’ of Cleverly’s immigration ‘crackdown’

Disabled people who rely on care workers are likely to “feel the sharp end” of the government’s planned changes to the immigration system, campaigners have warned.

The new home secretary, James Cleverly, announced the government’s latest “crackdown” on Monday, with plans to reduce immigration numbers through a new five-point plan.

This will include new rules to stop overseas care workers bringing family dependants* with them to the UK, and ensuring that only care firms in England that are regulated by the Care Quality Commission will be able to sponsor visas.

About 120,000 dependants accompanied 100,000 care workers and senior care workers in the year to September 2023, he said.

The government will also increase the annual immigration health surcharge from £624 to £1,035.

Although Cleverly also announced an increase of a third in the minimum salary a skilled worker needs to earn to secure a visa – so it will be £38,700 from next spring – this will not apply to those arriving on health and social care visas.

Care workers are currently on the “shortage occupation list”, which means they must earn at least £20,960 a year.

Svetlana Kotova, director of campaigns and justice at Inclusion London, said: “Disabled people will feel the sharp end of the changes to migration rules. 

“We already hear from many who stay without support because of staff shortages.

“Changes to migration rules show how the contribution of those who come to work in health and social care is not valued. 

“We want those who provide support to disabled people to be paid a good wage, to be able to bring and live with their families. 

“Instead of imposing more restrictions on migrant workers, the government should invest in social care so care workers are paid the wage that reflects the huge value of their work.”

John Evans, a pioneer of the independent living movement, said he was concerned that the changes could make it harder for disabled people who employ personal assistants (PAs) from other countries.

He said there was an “already dwindling PA market following Brexit, the pandemic and now the rise in the cost of living”.

He said: “It has never been more difficult finding new staff in my experience of 40 years of employing my own PAs.

“This puts an enormous burden on us as well as an increase in stress because of the worries about remaining living independently that could result in the loss of our freedom.

“Now we are in a position of limbo until this situation gains some clarity.”

Donald O’Neal, an adult social care user for more than 35 years, and author of The Lack of Care Act 2014, accused the government of “electioneering with disabled people’s wellbeing”.

He said the home secretary was acting with “little regard to the current context of a large worker shortage in the social care industry”.

He said: “At this point, with such a large shortage of care workers, the UK government needs to make it easier, and more attractive, for foreign workers to want to come and work in the social care industry, not harder.

“The Care Act 2014 has a significant focus on preventing people’s needs from becoming worse.

“If we see a large decrease in foreign workers coming to the UK to work in the social care industry because of these new immigration rule changes, then that will have the opposite effect.

“Many people will continue to go without the care they need, and their health needs will become worse.

“This could see some people needing more nursing intervention and even being admitted to hospital.

“With about 150,000 job vacancies in the social care industry, now is not the time to place restrictions on foreign workers wanting to come to the UK and work in the industry.”

Christina McAnea, general secretary of the public service union Unison, said the government’s announcement delivered “the final hammer blow to our crumbling social care system”, and would “sacrifice migrant care workers and risk a total collapse of the UK’s care system, just to appease extremist Tory backbenchers”.

She said that “any plans to curb the migrant care workforce will cause utter disaster” and that not allowing migrant care workers to bring dependants with them to the UK “will do exactly that”.

She predicted that staff vacancies would “soar” from the current number of 152,000.

Cleverly said in the Commons that he was “determined to crack down on those who try to jump the queue and exploit our immigration system” and that his five-point plan would “deliver the biggest ever reduction in net migration”.

He said he was taking “decisive action to reduce legal migration”.

When asked about the potential damage to the care sector, he said: “Although an individual with a family might be dissuaded because of the restrictions on family members, someone who does not have those family commitments will almost certainly be willing to put themselves forward, so we do not envisage a significant reduction in demand because of the changes.”

But Labour’s shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, told him: “Social care visas have gone up from 3,500 a year to more than 100,000 a year because the government have failed for years to heed warnings about recruitment and retention in social care.

“They halved the budget for social care workforce recruitment and support back in the spring, and they are still not listening and still refusing to adopt Labour’s plan for a proper workforce strategy for social care, including professional standards and a fair pay agreement.”

Meanwhile, legal firm Leigh Day has published a new guide (PDF) to help disabled people know their rights to support during lengthy stays in hospital or respite care.

The guide, commissioned by Inclusion London, followed the case of Cameron Mitchell, a disabled man who challenged cuts to his benefits which threatened to leave him without the care he needed while in hospital.

Thanks to Leigh Day, his claim was resolved.

*The government says a dependant can be “a spouse, partner, child, grandchild, parent, or someone who depends on you for care”

7 December 2023

State of accessible transport is ‘unjust and unacceptable’, says report

The current state of accessible transport is “unjust and unacceptable”, and the government’s efforts to offer “equal access for disabled people” by 2030 have “stalled”, according to a major new report.

Are We There Yet?, released yesterday (Wednesday) by the disabled people’s organisation (DPO) Transport for All, shows that access barriers are “rife” across every form of transport, and at every stage of a journey. 

The report details the findings of a survey carried out during 2022 and 2023, with more than 500 disabled people in England asked about journeys they had made between September 2021 and September 2022.  

It covers public transport (bus, train, tram, metro and light rail), private transport (cars, taxis and private hire vehicles), and active travel (walking, wheeling and cycling).

Among its findings, Transport for All (TfA) says in the report that disabled people make far fewer journeys than non-disabled people, with an average of just 5.84 journeys per week, a third of the national average of 17 trips a week. 

But those disabled people who wanted to make more journeys said they would make an average of 10.84 journeys a week if transport was fully accessible.

Nearly half of respondents (44 per cent) said they thought that the accessibility of transport and streets would worsen in the next 10 years, while only 28 per cent felt it would improve.

With buses, 51 per cent of respondents experienced issues with priority seating and spaces, such as seats being occupied or not clearly defined, or there being too few of them.

On trains, the most frequent barrier to travel was cost, with 65 per cent of respondents saying this had been a barrier in the last 12 months, while 49 per cent reported overcrowding of trains and stations and 43 per cent highlighted the lack of step-free access or level boarding.

With taxis and private hire vehicles, the most frequent barrier was again cost (with 64 per cent of respondents), while more than a third (34 per cent) said there were not enough wheelchair-accessible vehicles and 29 per cent highlighted the negative attitude of drivers.

One wheelchair-user said: “Taxi turned up with broken ramp despite the booking having been specifically for a wheelchair user.

“I was unable to get to my appointment on time and I had to re-book. This meant that I waited an extra five months for urgent medical treatment. It made me feel angry and upset.”

Seven in 10 survey respondents (71 per cent) said they would like to use environmentally-friendly forms of transport more often – such as walking, wheeling, cycling or taking the bus – but were prevented from doing so by a lack of accessibility and availability. 

TfA said transport has the highest greenhouse emissions of any UK sector of the economy, so investing in accessible public infrastructure “is crucial in tackling the climate crisis, and removing barriers would allow millions more journeys to be made sustainable each year”.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents (62 per cent) said they had to plan every journey to make sure it was safe, but the information they needed to do this was often unavailable, inaccurate, or inaccessible.  

And 77 per cent of respondents said poor pavement surfaces had caused a barrier to them while they walked or wheeled in the previous 12 months, including problems with bumps, potholes, tree roots, broken tiles, and narrow width.

This was the most frequently-cited barrier of any form of transport.

One respondent said: “The road to my nearest bus stop is in awful repair. I have damaged my wheelchair and nearly fallen out of it due to bad paving.

“I have to go on an alternative route which takes twice as long to get me to the bus stop. And my chair is now damaged.”

Among its many recommendations, the report calls for the government to investigate why progress towards its 2030 target of “equal access for disabled people” – laid out in its 2018 Inclusive Transport Strategy – has stalled.

It also calls for “meaningful” engagement with disabled people and DPOs by government and transport bodies; a new regulator to enforce the right to accessible transport under equality laws, and gather data on compliance; and ring-fenced investment in “accessible and reliable public transport options”.

And the report calls for a “significant and swift change to the approach to concessions for travel for disabled people, overhauling the eligibility criteria, and standardising concessions across modes to ensure equity and fairness”.

Caroline Stickland, TfA’s chief executive, said: “It is unacceptable that millions of us are still prevented from going out, seeing loved ones, accessing work, education, and medical care because of inaccessible transport.

“It is now the responsibility of decision makers to listen to our experiences and remove the discriminatory barriers that are holding our community back.” 

7 December 2023

Report exposes lack of adjustments for neurodivergent prisoners

A new report has exposed how often neurodivergent people in the criminal justice system fail to receive the reasonable adjustments they need.

The report by User Voice, a charity led by ex-offenders, describes the “unedited” experiences of neurodivergent people in prisons, the probation service, the courts and the police system.

For the study (PDF)*, commissioned by NHS England, User Voice interviewed 104 service-users – all of them diagnosed or self-diagnosed as neurodivergent – across 11 prisons in England, as well as surveying 250 neurodivergent service-users.

Those who took part in the study included prisoners who were autistic, had ADHD, Tourette’s, dyslexia or acquired brain injuries.

Only 15 of the 104 service-users said they been offered adjustments around their neurodiversity while in prison.

These adjustments included being given single cells, being let out for a walk when they felt overwhelmed or frustrated, having access to the gym to burn energy, being provided with noise-cancelling headphones, or being given plates that allowed different foods to be kept separate.

Many interviewees spoke of the lack of access to health care and mental health services, and those with ADHD particularly felt the whole criminal justice system was dismissive about their condition “and treated them accordingly”.

Interviewees said adjustments and support were not delivered systematically by all staff, and some staff deliberately ignored adjustments.

One said: “I cut my stomach. And they literally… they just called me pathetic.”

Some of those who were interviewed shared experiences of “provocation and abuse” from prison staff, and officers not always believing them when they disclosed their neurodiversity.

One 63-year-old, who was autistic and had ADHD, said: “Out of all the staff I’ve known in all the prisons I’ve been in, so thousands of staff… there’s only, I would say, five members of staff in all these years that I actually got a lot of time for.

“They actually went out of their way to try and help, and then they’re ridiculed by staff for helping me… ‘Are you going to help the spastic today Mel?’”

Three interviewees spoke positively about a “neurodiverse wing” at Pentonville prison in north London, where it is less crowded, there is more freedom, and staff have a better understanding of neurodivergent prisoners.

But interviewees said there were not enough staff in prisons who were qualified to understand neurodiversity, or enough opportunities to be assessed or screened for neurodiversity.

One said: “I need help. I need specialist help. I should not just be slammed in here all the time.

“If someone was to speak to me and give me some medication to chill me out I’d be fucking right.”

Another interviewee, who is autistic, with ADHD and other conditions, said he had been “coming to prison from the young age until now” and “every time they send me to prison I always come out worse”.

Most of those interviewed spoke of the “ignorance, lack of information and misinformation” they encountered, and said that those working in the criminal justice system needed to learn more about neurodiversity and the needs of neurodivergent people.

One autistic man described how one officer who had an autistic sister “knew how to deal with me” after he mentioned that he was autistic and that he was then “a lot better and I’ve got on with him ever since”.

Most of those questioned said courts had made no adjustments for them.

Some said they had wrongly pleaded guilty in court without understanding what it meant because their solicitor had asked them to.

A service-user with learning difficulties had been asked by his solicitor not to speak at a court hearing because of his stammer, while a dyslexic interviewee was told by his solicitor that he did not need to read all the court papers because he was taking longer than usual to read them.

“This resulted in incorrect information being put across to the judge which affected his sentence,” the report says.

Many of those interviewed described how they had been over-medicated throughout their lives, with no other support offered, while many said they were “easily manipulated, coerced, groomed, or susceptible to peer pressure”, which had led them into trouble and contact with the criminal justice system. 

More than half of those questioned for the study had experienced abuse in their early life (47 per cent of the men and 76 per cent of the women), and one third had spent time in care before entering the criminal justice system.

More than seven in 10 of the men (71 per cent) and nearly half of the women (47 per cent) said they had been labelled “bad”, “naughty” or “thick” at school.

A third of the women had an acquired brain injury, mostly caused by domestic abuse.

Many of those interviewed said they had lived their entire lives “in crisis” due to neglect, isolation and a lack of understanding or support from their families and education, healthcare, and social care institutions.

Many of the men had turned to drugs and alcohol to cope, and eventually committed crimes such as theft, robbery and assault, while many of the women had been victims of domestic abuse, lost their children to social services, or suffered bereavement, which had led to drug use and crime.

Among the report’s recommendations is for more adjustments to be made for neurodivergent prisoners, such as providing single cells, one-to-one learning, more physical activities, peer support, as well as more thorough and consistent assessments and screening for neurodiversity.

Simon Boddis, chief executive of User Voice, said: “It is hard to look at our report and not to conclude that we as a society are locking up people who are in desperate need of help.”

He added: “Whilst the numbers of neurodiverse individuals in the community stands at one in 20, in prison and on probation it is closer to half.

“This report tells the unedited experience of neurodiverse people in the criminal justice system.

“It is often uncomfortable reading, as people tell us about their lives before prison, which often featured addiction or neglect.

“Once in the system, police and prison staff rarely have the knowledge to help and we see people being punished repeatedly.

“We hope that through this report, the criminal justice system will sit up and listen and make reasonable amendments for a significant proportion of the prison population.”

*‘Not Naughty, Stupid, or Bad’: The Voices of Neurodiverse Service Users in the Criminal Justice System

7 December 2023

Anger over ‘incompetence’ and delays within DWP’s Access to Work scheme

An autistic woman has been left without the workplace support she needs for more than 15 months because of repeated delays and incompetence by the government’s Access to Work scheme.

Laura’s* employer, the autism support charity Autistic Nottingham, says it is “genuinely flabbergasted” at the “incompetence” displayed by Access to Work (AtW).

Her ordeal has emerged as a “devastating” dossier of evidence from DWP union members this week reveals that DWP is a failing organisation in a “state of crisis” (see separate story).

Laura started her new job with Autistic Nottingham in September 2022, and her application for support from AtW was submitted the following month, but she had to work from home while she waited for an assessment.

When she was finally given an appointment for an assessment at the charity’s offices, on 27 March 2023 – five months after she had submitted her application – the assessor failed to turn up, with no explanation provided.

It was only when Laura’s manager called AtW for an explanation that they were told the assessor had been off sick.

A follow-up assessment took place online two days later, and Laura received a letter in April which described the services and equipment AtW would fund.

Autistic Nottingham, which is a disabled people’s organisation, put all of this in place within a month, apart from a specialist chair the assessor had recommended.

This was because the AtW assessor had put the wrong cost on the award, and there was a substantial difference between that figure and the actual cost of buying the chair from the supplier.

For the last six months, Autistic Nottingham’s chief executive, Claire Whyte, has been asking AtW to update this quote so she can go ahead and order the chair.

Every time she contacted AtW to check on progress, she was told the “task” had been “assigned to someone”.

But when she followed up later, she was told: “It was assigned, and they didn’t action it; I will reassign it.”

After two months of repeatedly being told the task had been assigned – and then not actioned – Whyte lodged a formal complaint.

But AtW was not even able to deal with its own complaints process correctly, with Whyte being told again, when she asked why there had been no response: “It was assigned but never actioned.”

She complained a second time, and had the same response, so she has now been forced to lodge a third complaint.

Eventually, AtW decided to carry out a new assessment, which took place last week.

Meanwhile, Laura has still not had all the support she was assessed as needing, and is still working from home, nearly 15 months after starting her new post with Autistic Nottingham.

Whyte told Disability News Service: “I am genuinely flabbergasted at this level of incompetence from a government organisation whose sole purpose is to support disabled people to stay in work.

“It is December now. This has been half a year of a disabled person not being able to engage in their employment fully when all that was required was one updated quote.”

DWP claims it has made several attempts to establish the details of the additional cost of the chair.

It did not address the concerns about the complaints process.

A DWP spokesperson said: “Our priority is to ensure everyone who applies for support through Access to Work has their claim progressed as quickly as possible.

“We have recruited additional staff to meet customer demand, which has already improved processing times, and a new digital claims process is being tested to help customers better track progress of their claims going forward.”

*Not her real name

7 December 2023

Protesters say ‘obscene’ profits from ‘inhuman’ asylum housing conditions must end

Disabled refugees and allies have protested outside the Home Office at the “inhuman” treatment that disabled people seeking asylum receive from private sector companies paid to provide their accommodation.

The protest called for an end to the “obscene profits” made by the companies, and for the contracts to be handed to local authorities, so the services can be run on a non-profit basis.

Disabled allies who helped organise the protest warned that one of the companies – the outsourcing giant Serco – will soon be carrying out disability benefit assessments in the south-west of England on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Aida, a member of the Manchester-based human rights organisation RAPAR, told the protest that her Serco housing is “miserable” and plagued by rats and insects.

She said: “[Serco] are being paid a lot of money and get to ride around in their fancy cars, while we are being treated terribly.”

She said the way she had been treated by the Home Office since arriving in the UK had caused her impairment, and she added: “The way Serco treats us lacks so much respect. It’s inhuman.”

One Serco staff member barged into a female friend’s room without knocking when she had just come out of the shower, she said.

Another protester, Mariatu, who also lives in Serco housing, said: “Asylum-seekers have no dignity, they have no choice because we are not [seen as] human.

“They treat us like we are inhuman, especially when you are disabled.”

Sami, who has lived in Home Office accommodation provided and managed by another Home Office contractor, Clearsprings Ready Homes, spoke of how residents have to plead for toilet paper and toothbrushes, and how staff sometimes do not arrive to help when an emergency button is pressed.

He said disabled people living in Clearsprings properties stay silent about their treatment because they are “afraid” that speaking out will harm their asylum cases.

DNS has previously reported how more than 50 disabled people seeking asylum have been living in “cramped, unsafe conditions, without adequate food or care” in Clearsprings accommodation in Essex.

Nanou Thassinda, a volunteer at Migrants Organise, said: “Clearsprings has been profiting from our misery, providing unsafe, undignified and inadequate accommodation for people seeking asylum.

“These places aren’t a home or a hotel. These places are detention hotels and an open-door prison.

“It’s time for the government to return the contract to the local authorities to provide asylum accommodation on a non-profit basis.”

The protesters attempted to deliver a letter about the “cramped, unsafe conditions” at the accommodation provided by Clearsprings in Essex, but Home Office staff refused to accept it.

The letter says that disabled people are experiencing “horrific and unnecessary suffering”, and it pleads with the Home Office “to intervene to provide decent conditions”.

It points out that Clearsprings made £62.5 million profit on its Home Office contracts last year, an increase on the £28 million it made the previous year.

Friday’s protest was organised by disabled people’s and migrant justice organisations including the Disability and Migration Network.

Rebecca Yeo, from Disabled People Against Cuts, an activist and academic on disability and migration, and one of the organisers, told the protest: “The restrictions put on people in the asylum system are actively designed to prevent people from meeting physical and emotional needs.

“The asylum system is deliberately disabling.

“Some people arrive in the UK as disabled people, other people become disabled as a result of the deprivation in the asylum system.”

Bethany Bale, from Disability Rights UK, said the protest had highlighted the “horrific” standards of accommodation and the “disregard for life” and “abhorrent disrespect” faced by disabled people seeking asylum who were staying in Serco and Clearsprings accommodation.

She said this treatment was “completely immoral and unacceptable”.

Rensa Gaunt, from Inclusion London, compared the provision of asylum accommodation to the benefits assessment system.

She told the protest: “It’s the same system that keeps all of us down. We need to keep it out of the hands of private companies.

“Your fight is our fight.”

She told DNS later that both systems were profit-making schemes, and that handing Serco the benefits assessment contract was a “huge safeguarding risk”, because of its track record in delivering Home Office contracts.

Svetlana Kotova, director of campaigns and justice at Inclusion London, had said earlier: “Disabled asylum-seekers must be treated with dignity. This not only includes a safe and accessible place to live, but also appropriate care and support, so people can do basic everyday things.

“We are calling on the Home Office to respect the basic human rights of disabled asylum-seekers.”

A Serco spokesperson said the company did not accept accusations that it was providing inadequate housing and support to disabled people seeking asylum; or that the accommodation was miserable and run down; or that its accommodation was overcrowded, with people treated in an inhuman way.

He said: “Serco provides accommodation for asylum seekers on behalf of the Home Office in two of the six regions of the UK and all the accommodation we provide is regularly inspected and complies with the terms of our contract with the Home Office and with all appropriate housing standards.  

“Our teams are committed to supporting the asylum seekers accommodated by Serco with compassion, dignity and respect. Their safety and wellbeing is always our top priority.”

He said he could not comment on the claims that some accommodation was overrun with insects and rats, that people had acquired impairments because of the conditions they experience in the UK, or that a Serco staff member had entered a woman’s room without knocking, because DNS was unable to provide further details.

But he added: “Our housing officers are highly professional individuals. 

“An appointment will always be made, and our processes and procedures do not permit entry to a resident’s room without knocking.”

Clearsprings declined to comment on the protest and referred DNS to the Home Office.

The Home Office said that asylum accommodation providers are contractually obliged to ensure that accommodation is accessible and complies with the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act, while asylum-seekers who have problems with their accommodation can contact the charity Migrant Help.

It does not accept hand-delivered letters.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of those in receipt of asylum support and have extra provisions in place for people with disabilities.

“Asylum accommodation providers are contractually obliged to ensure accommodation is accessible for disabled people and where concerns are raised, we work with providers to ensure they are addressed.”

7 December 2023

Ruth Bashall: Tributes and affection for ‘mighty’ and ‘formidable’ activist

Friends and fellow activists have paid tribute to the “mighty”, “formidable” and much-loved Ruth Bashall, who has died at the age of 71.

She leaves a commitment to the women’s movement stretching back half a century, and to fighting for the rights of lesbians, and later for disability rights, through years of “extensive, ground-breaking and dynamic” work.

Friends within the disabled people’s movement this week spoke of a “fierce activist and advocate” who “never stopped fighting to make a positive difference”, while also forming “enduring friendships and relationships” and inspiring huge affection among her friends.

She had spoken publicly of how her upbringing in France in the 1960s had a significant impact on her later life as a human rights activist.

Asked in 2014 by fellow activist Eleanor Lisney why she called herself an activist, and what had shaped that journey, Bashall spoke of the influence of her feminist, communist mother.

But she also spoke of growing up as a foreigner in xenophobic France in the 1960s – she was once tied to a tree as a punishment “for having burnt Joan of Arc” – when she learned through her family of the mass murder by French police of 200 Algerians who had been marching in Paris for independence in 1961.

The atrocity was “hushed up”, and she said that “for me as a child that was an impression that really… stayed in my memory, and it still does.

“The injustice of the silence around that. The mass murder of a group of people who were simply fighting for their right to self-determination.”

She also described another hugely influential experience, when she “dutifully went off and threw paving stones at police officers” during the student revolt in Paris in 1968, and how they “retaliated by raping a friend”.

She came to Britain in the early 1970s to study at university, at the beginning of the women’s movement, bringing her “internationalist experience”.

She had a daughter in 1972, before breaking up with her husband and coming out as lesbian.

She fought for the right of lesbians to keep their children, she said in 2014, just as today disabled women often have to fight to be allowed to keep their children, and she worked on anti-racism campaigns and in community politics.

She said: “I’ve always been a kind of grassroots activist in my own neighbourhood in east London, and when I became disabled I got kind of ‘dragooned’ into the disability movement by a couple of friends, who basically said, ‘Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get on with it, there’s a demonstration to organise,’ and I was used to organising demonstrations, so I did, and I haven’t looked back.”

Among her jobs and roles, she spent time as a bus conductor; a worker for Centerprise, a community centre and bookshop in Hackney; a researcher at the Centre for Independent Transport Research in London, which included examining the barriers faced by disabled passengers; a London Lesbian Line volunteer; a founder member of the Lesbian Mothers’ Group; and a freelance disability equality trainer and consultant.

In 2014, she spoke about being one of the founder members of the Campaign for Accessible Transport (CAT) and how the campaign’s development of inclusive ways for disabled people to be involved in direct action “had an impact way beyond” the 100 or so people who were on CAT’s mailing list at the time.

Her friend Kirsten Hearn said this week that she had met Bashall in 1984 while working at Greater London Council, and got to know her better several years later “when she joined a rota of lesbians supporting me when I broke my leg falling off a tandem”.

She said that a “typical habit of Ruth’s was the commitment she gave to those who needed her. If there was an emergency, she’d be right there, supportive, kindly and generous.”

They later worked together at Waltham Forest council, where she was an access officer, and Hearn remembers her friend’s “cavalier attitude to deadlines”, while also being a “brilliant and tenacious worker”.

Hearn said Bashall was a “powerful mentor and encourager of others”, who “liked nothing more than to support and nurture disabled people, who she knew could be amazing advocates for other disabled people”.

As two of the “Oxford Street 16”, who were arrested after a CAT direct action in London, they spent several hours together in a police cell “while the police hunted out a means of getting 16 disabled people to an inaccessible court”.

Bashall would use her experience of direct action – dating back to her youth in Paris – as an active member of the Disabled People’s Direct Action Network (DAN).

She and Hearn attended the second international disabled lesbian and gay conference, in the Netherlands, and from then she worked to challenge violence against disabled women across Europe.

Together with Anne Novis, Bashall formed the Metropolitan police’s Disability Independent Advisory Group (DIAG) in the early 2000s, working to make the force take disability hate crime seriously.

Katharine Quarmby, a disability rights activist and journalist, had known Bashall for more than 15 years, and first met her when she was news editor at Disability Now magazine and covered a transport meeting where she and Novis were advocating for disability rights.

She said: “Ruth was then and later quietly spoken and yet formidable and I warmed to her immediately.”

Bashall and Novis read drafts of Quarmby’s ground-breaking Getting Away with Murder report on disability hate crime “and were as always both generous and knowledgeable”.

She said: “I continued to meet Ruth at meetings – and for occasional convivial lunches afterwards. I learned so much from her and feel privileged to have known her.

“Her work on disability rights and the intersection with feminism was, and remains, groundbreaking.”

Bashall’s work on disability hate crime led to her helping to set up Stay Safe East, a disabled people’s organisation providing advocacy and support to Deaf and disabled victims or survivors of domestic and sexual violence, hate crime and harassment and other crime in London.

She only retired from her role as policy manager a few days before she died, having previously been its chief executive.

Outside her work and activism, Hearn said she also remembers her friend as a “lesbian mother and proud grandmother” who “formed enduring friendships and relationships” and for whom her “lesbian family, made up mainly of disabled lesbians, was hugely important to her.

“She was a big-hearted woman, who was always there in an emergency.

“Ruth was a mighty woman and leaves so many people who are thankful for having her in their lives.”

Novis, another close friend, said they had found “common ground, the same sense of humour, and a determination to make a difference and get justice for Deaf and disabled people” after meeting when setting up DIAG.

They supported each other through “the same barriers, the challenge of exhausting care reviews, benefit assessments, care charges assessments, access to equipment and the services we needed”.

She said: “I recall Ruth being called a ‘formidable woman’ by a government minister. It was so true.

“Yet mostly I think of Ruth as a dear friend who I miss so much.

“Always a phone call away, willing to travel long distances to get to my home, so we could have a natter and change the world with our words.

“A dynamic woman, and best of friends, whose presence empowered my life, and many others. Ruth made a huge difference, with her life and words, for us all.”

Another friend, Savi Hensman, who had known Bashall for more than 30 years, spoke of her “warmth, determination and humour”.

She said the eulogy at her funeral described how she “fought for spaces for people who were marginalised, in particular those at risk of deportation and other forms of state racism, women and children who were under threat of male violence and disabled people denied full access to society”.

Bashall’s daughter, Tamsin, said her “mother and proud grandmother of my two children” died on 11 November following a period of illness, and that “we remain proud of all she stood for and will miss her greatly”.

Angie Airlie, the new chief executive of Stay Safe East, said that she, like many others, was “completely inspired by Ruth”.

She said: “She was a fierce activist and advocate and never stopped fighting to make a positive difference.

“She will be missed by staff and clients alike and I know her death will resonate much more widely.”

*To add to the many tributes already paid to Ruth Bashall, visit the online condolence book set up by Stay Safe East

7 December 2023

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week

The head of the UK Heath Security Agency is facing a backlash after it emerged she suggested that discharging Covid-infected hospital patients to care homes would be “clinically appropriate” to protect the NHS from collapse. Care home providers and the families of those who died after contracting Covid while in residential care said the revelations confirmed their suspicions at the time, adding that it disproved the claim of ministers to have thrown a “protective ring” around the homes: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/02/she-sacrificed-care-home-residents-health-chief-jenny-harries-under-fire-after-uk-covid-inquiry-revelations

Plans for a footbridge to replace a level crossing over a railway line near York have been dropped after complaints about accessibility. Network Rail has withdrawn its planning application for the bridge across the Copmanthorpe crossing. Objectors called for a bridge with a ramp rather than one with steps. The rail company said it would now take the opportunity to “evaluate solutions” and look again at “the benefits of all options”: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-67618683

Some disabled children have to go home to use the toilet because their schools lack the necessary adaptations, east Yorkshire councillors have heard. The issue affected “a minority of children” across 103 schools, East Riding of Yorkshire Council was told. The authority said it was working to adapt schools where necessary, but was limited by financial constraints: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-67588351

The BBC has apologised and pulled a Christmas episode of University Challenge after two disabled contestants complained about a lack of access provision. The festive spin-off from the BBC Two quiz show, hosted by Amol Rajan, features teams of distinguished alumni who compete on behalf of their former universities. A contestant, who is blind, told BBC News that audio description had been promised but not provided, and a request for subtitles for a neurodivergent contestant is also understood to have been turned down: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/dec/01/university-challenge-special-axed-for-not-supporting-disabled-contestants

7 December 2023

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

And on twitter: https://x.com/wet_suwet_en_UK/status/1726339843326988525?s=20

Anger over Labour’s ‘shameful’ silence on universal credit’s ‘deadly faults’

Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people has angered activists after failing to express concern about safeguarding flaws at the heart of the universal credit system, including a suicide linked by a coroner to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Vicky Foxcroft made no mention of the coroner’s concerns about the safety of universal credit, or of a series of recent reports on the flawed universal credit system, in a statement likely to have originated in Labour’s press office.

A coroner warned work and pensions secretary Mel Stride earlier this month that he needed to act to prevent flaws in universal credit leading to further deaths, following the suicide of Kevin Gale, from Penrith, Cumbria, who had become overwhelmed by the application process.

Disability News Service (DNS) approached Foxcroft for a comment after Labour’s silence following this and other reports that have highlighted significant safeguarding concerns about the universal credit system and within jobcentres.

Among those stories were the coroner’s comments about the death of Kevin Gale, as well as a secret DWP report that revealed that the design of universal credit (UC) was “inadequate for vulnerable groups” and that some UC claimants were “not adequately supported”.

Foxcroft was also reminded that whistleblowers had told DNS how DWP safeguarding failures at an Oxford jobcentre had put the lives of benefit claimants at risk.

The whistleblowers also described how conditions at the jobcentre became so stressful that 15 members of a team of 23 work coaches quit within a 12-month period, with at least eight experiencing a significant collapse in their mental health following a sudden increase in workload in late 2021.

DNS had asked Foxcroft whether all this evidence – including the coroner’s warning – raised fresh concerns over the safety of universal credit and the government’s latest welfare reforms.

But the statement from Foxcroft made no reference to the suicide of Kevin Gale or to the serious safeguarding concerns about DWP.

Her statement failed to even mention universal credit.

Instead, she said: “Labour has been saying for a long time that the current flawed system, which has forced too many disabled people into desperate circumstances, needs to be reformed. 

“A future Labour government will work with disabled people to carry out a comprehensive review of welfare and support so that the system works with other services to incentivise those who can work to find a job, whilst providing full support for those who can’t.

“Under Labour, people will be able to try work without fear of losing their income or having to be reassessed if the job doesn’t work out. 

“We will combine these plans with our ambitious programme to drive down NHS waiting lists, transform mental health provision and introduce a new deal for workers.” 

But her statement has caused anger and frustration at Labour’s latest betrayal of disabled people, particularly those within the social security system.

Kathy Bole, chair of Disability Labour, which is affiliated to the Labour party, said: “I am concerned that there has been nothing from Labour about the significant developments which have come to light with regard to the safety of the universal credit system and further safeguarding at a job centre.

“I don’t understand why it seems impossible for Labour to express any outrage about the deadly faults at the heart of universal credit.”

She added: “There should be outrage about the lack of safeguarding and deaths related to universal credit.  

“The lack of reaction is a bad look for Labour when they are wanting to show voters that they are the party of the people and fit for government.

“If they don’t speak out when these things come to light, how can disabled people and their families trust them to change things and to save more people from dying?

“We need Labour to speak out and challenge the government.

“They also need to show the families of those who died some compassion and call for action on the safeguarding issues.”

Bob Ellard, a member of the national steering group of Disabled People Against Cuts, said: “Labour obviously couldn’t give a damn about safeguarding our lives from the evils of universal credit.

“This shouldn’t be a surprise from the party that inflicted the work capability assessment on us in 2008. 

“Labour have a long tradition of not giving a shit about disabled people.”

And John McArdle, co-founder of Black Triangle, said: “Labour should be hammering the Tories on the litany of deaths and avoidable harm that the Tories have caused to disabled people and continue to cause.

“The fact that they are silent on the issue just makes them complicit in the harm and leaves disabled people thinking that the Labour party actually supports everything the Tories are doing.

“It’s high time that they stood up proudly in defence of disability rights and stopped their shameful silence.”

Meanwhile, the Commons public accounts committee has warned that the government could deliver a new service for claimants of disability benefits without important improvements to claimants’ experience of the system.

DWP began its much-delayed Health Transformation Programme more than five years ago, and aims to digitalise the benefits process, allow applications to be made online and improve the way benefit claims are handled.

The department plans to roll out its new Health Assessment Service for managing assessments and claims for personal independence payment by 2029.

But in a new report, the committee warns that “the greatest risk to this work is that the DWP focuses exclusively on the delivery of a new digitalised service, without achieving the important transformational change for the experience of claimants”.

The MPs said DWP was more likely to improve the service “if it works with disabled people and their representative bodies”, but the report raises concerns that DWP has “not done enough to communicate and engage with the public and claimants about what they can expect from the revised service”.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, a Conservative MP and the committee’s deputy chair, said: “Disability benefits are designed to help people both with extra living costs and with everyday life.

“The government’s work to reform the complicated, stressful and lengthy application process is hugely significant for the approximately 3.9 million claimants, their relatives and advocates.

“These reforms will only be successful if they truly transform service users’ experience, rather than simply delivering the bells and whistles of a new digital platform.”

30 November 2023

Activists welcome decision to reassess status of UK’s ‘pathetic’ human rights watchdog

Disabled activists have welcomed an international body’s decision to consider downgrading the status of the UK’s much-criticised and “discriminatory” human rights watchdog.

The chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Baroness Falkner, decided to leak the information that its “A” status as an international human rights institution was under threat by publishing a column in the right-wing Daily Telegraph.

The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), which will review EHRC’s status, made it clear this week that recommendations made by its sub-committee on accreditation (SCA) were still “considered confidential”, although they would be published soon.

It is not yet clear whether GANHRI will only be examining concerns around EHRC’s stance on the rights of trans people, which Baroness Falkner focused on in her article, or whether it will also address concerns raised by disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) about the commission’s failure to hold the UK government to account on disability rights issues.

GANHRI is partly funded by the UN and oversees national human rights institutions around the world.

DPOs have been calling for EHRC to lose its prestigious “A” rating for more than a year, after concerns that it has become a cheerleader for the UK government.

In August, EHRC faced accusations that it was failing to hold the government to account on disability rights, after a high-profile submission to a UN body was branded “not fit for purpose”.

The commission had been asked to assess the progress of the UK government since it was found guilty of “grave and systematic” violations of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2016, but a report submitted by EHRC and the UK’s three other equality and human rights bodies contained far more criticism of the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland than it did of the UK government.

Linda Burnip, co-founder of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), said this week: “Following the pathetic report made by EHRC for the UN reporting last August, we feel it is essential that their A status ranking is reviewed by GANHRI as soon as possible.”

Dorothy Gould, founder and coordinator of the user-led, rights-based organisation Liberation, said: “I’m strongly encouraged by GANHRI’s decision to review the EHRC’s status – the discriminatory position which the commission has adopted towards trans people is deeply troubling.

“The EHRC is meant to be setting the lead on human rights in the UK, not undermining them.

“My strong hope is that GANHRI will also address ways in which the EHRC is badly letting down disabled people.

“It was shocking and hugely distressing that the commission produced a report for the UNCRPD committee last summer which let disabled people down in so many ways: for example, in its flawed approach to welfare benefit issues, despite the devastation which that system has caused and continues to cause; in its praise for the draft mental health bill, despite the bill’s major breaches of our rights under the UNCRPD; in its use of only 2.5 lines out of an 85-page report to cover recent evidence about the major abuse and neglect of people detained against their will in psychiatric hospitals and huge numbers of deaths among them.

“Yet even now, there is no sign of fundamental change at the EHRC.

“Do our full human rights not matter to it? Do our very lives not matter to it? If not, then this is in no way a commission that deserves the status it has.”

There have been many other criticisms of the commission’s recent record on disability rights and its failure to hold the government to account.

Earlier this month, EHRC struggled to explain why its major report on Britain’s “equality and human rights landscape” ignored key breaches of disabled people’s rights by the UK government.

In the same week, DNS revealed that EHRC had failed to follow through on threats to take legal action against the government over its efforts to cut the number of autistic people and people with learning difficulties who have been detained in secure hospitals in England.

There have also been repeated concerns about the commission’s failed attempts since April 2022 to persuade DWP to sign a section 23 legal agreement that would force the department to improve its treatment of disabled claimants of benefits.

Last year, DPAC said the commission was “not fit for purpose”, that it had been “co-opted” by the government, and that its primary mission appeared to be to “avoid rocking the boat”.

That criticism came as DPAC submitted a statement to GANHRI, along with a similarly-critical statement about its stance on transgender issues from the LGBTQ+ organisation Stonewall, with support from the Good Law Project.

In a letter to GANHRI last year on behalf of DPAC, Stonewall and the Good Law Project, law firm Bindmans criticised EHRC’s “lack of actual and perceived independence” from the government.

The letter said the commission had been seen as “increasingly close to, and unwilling to criticise” the government since 2015 and particularly since the election of a Boris Johnson-led government in 2019.

Among the concerns raised by DPAC last year was EHRC’s refusal to carry out an investigation into countless deaths of disabled benefit claimants that have been linked to the failings of the Department for Work and Pensions, despite “ample evidence”.

DPAC said last year that EHRC’s leadership and policy direction represented a “serious threat to not just the rights of disabled people, but all communities targeted by this Government”, including those who were trans and non-binary.

In a statement this week, Baroness Falkner said: “We take seriously our duty to protect and promote equality and human rights for everyone.

“That includes considering, carefully and impartially and on the basis of evidence, how the rights of one person, or group, might be affected by the rights of another.

“We are disappointed that we will have to defend our accreditation status in this way and remain very confident that we will be able to respond robustly to any questions the SCA may have.

“We have already written to the committee to highlight inaccuracies in the submissions made against us, and to strongly reject claims that we are not compliant with the Paris Principles*.

“We take great pride in our independence from government and continue to demonstrate our impartiality through our willingness to robustly challenge them.

“At the EHRC, we keep our eyes on our first public duty, which is to protect and promote equality and… everyone’s rights – not merely those that shout the loudest.”

*The Paris Principles set out the minimum standards that national human rights institutions must meet “in order to be considered credible and to operate effectively”. They include “independence from government”

30 November 2023

Disabled HGV driver accuses ‘back to work’ ministers of hypocrisy over equality laws

A disabled lorry driver is accusing ministers of hypocrisy after they called for more people on disability benefits to go back to work, while refusing to make simple changes to equality laws that would help him and many others keep their jobs.

David Chambers says the Equality Act offers no protection to disabled HGV drivers who need simple adjustments made for them when they deliver or collect loads at depots run by large companies like Amazon and Tesco.

He says this is because the act only protects employees from discrimination on business premises, but it offers no protection to disabled people who are not employed by the owners of those premises.

This is the case with all the large depots he delivers to, because they are not obliged to make reasonable adjustments for him under the Equality Act.

And he says the same lack of protection will apply to disabled people in other jobs, such as travelling salespeople, who need to visit premises that are not owned by their employers.

Chambers says he is appalled that the government is publicly insisting that more disabled people must find work, while ministers are refusing to make the small change to legislation needed to ensure that he and other disabled drivers can stay in work.

Although he is legally fit to drive a heavy goods vehicle (HGV), his mobility impairment – he has a blue badge for parking and receives personal independence payment – means he finds it difficult to walk, and he uses a mobility aid.

But when he delivers a load to a depot, he is often asked to wait in a drivers’ room while it is unloaded – due to safety rules – but this can mean a walk of up to half a mile to get there and back.

On other occasions, when he is collecting a load, he faces a long walk to pick up the relevant paperwork.

On one recent occasion, he was told he would have to climb 50 steps to collect the paperwork before he was allowed to take delivery of a load.

Fortunately, a helpful worker overheard the conversation and offered to collect the papers for him.

He believes the adjustments he would need – allowing him to stay in his cab while it was being unloaded, with relevant safeguards put in place, or having someone collect his paperwork for him – would be cheap, safe and not time-consuming.

But without a change in the Equality Act, he fears he may soon have to give up the job he loves and start claiming out-of-work benefits.

Chambers praised the efforts of his MP, Labour’s Cat Smith, who has written letters to ministers and asked questions in parliament about what she sees as a gap in the law.

He told Disability News Service (DNS) that his employer has also been “fantastic” and has made all the reasonable adjustments he requires, including ensuring that he does not have to deliver to sites where he needs to climb up from the ground to secure the load.

But he said: “They can only do so much. They cannot control what bay I go on, or how many steps I have to climb to get paperwork.

“If the law does not change so there are reasonable adjustments for everyone, regardless of where or who you work for, I won’t be able to continue to work for much longer.”

Smith told DNS: “David has identified a loophole in disability legislation which is clearly letting down HGV drivers and other workers who are required to work on premises which are not directly owned by their employers.

“Earlier this year, I asked the government if they would consider amending the Equality Act to require employers to make reasonable adjustments for people with a disability visiting a premises for work purposes, such as HGV drivers visiting a depot.

“Sadly, they refused to do so, with no reasonable explanation as to why.

“This is extremely disappointing and frankly hypocritical of a government which is threatening to take away the benefits of disabled people who do not find work.

“I will be looking for further opportunities to raise this with ministers.”

Despite repeated requests, no-one from the Government Equalities Office had commented by noon today (Thursday).

An Amazon spokesperson said: “Disability inclusion is very important to us.

“We have mechanisms in place to review any requests for adjustments from the third parties we work with as well as their employees and partners.

“We are happy to review this isolated case.”

Chambers said: “They say they have policies in place but I think they need to let their staff know.”

He said he had been told by one depot manager that they would need to contact Amazon head office for guidance.

Tesco did not provide a statement but said this morning that the needs of those working with the company were extremely important and it would encourage drivers to make distribution centre staff aware of their requirements.

It also said it would be happy to talk to Chambers to understand what it could do in the future to assist him.

30 November 2023

‘Warrior’ disabled mum takes crucial step in ‘justice for Jodey’ fight

The “warrior” mum of a disabled woman who took her own life after her benefits were cut has welcomed another crucial stage in her fight for justice, which is now well into its seventh year.

Joy Dove was at Teesside Magistrates’ Court in Middlesbrough on Friday for a pre-inquest review, ahead of a second inquest into the death of her daughter, Jodey Whiting, which is set to take place in the spring.

The Court of Appeal ordered a second inquest into the 42-year-old’s suicide in March so there could be a public examination of the “consequences” of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) stopping the benefits of disabled people who rely on social security.

Senior coroner Clare Bailey pledged on Friday that there would now be a “full and fearless” inquest.

The first inquest into the death of the mother-of-nine and grandmother, from Stockton-on-Tees, took place in May 2017 and lasted just 37 minutes.

It failed to examine DWP’s role in her death or take evidence from any DWP witnesses, and it lasted just 37 minutes.

There was no criticism of DWP by the coroner, even though Jodey’s mother had told the inquest that she blamed the department for her daughter’s death, her sister Donna had said that having her benefits stopped had been a “triggering factor” in Jodey taking her own life, and Jodey’s daughter Emma had blamed DWP for her mum’s death.

Joy, who is also disabled, has been campaigning for justice for her daughter since approaching the local newspaper, the Gazette, just days after Jodey’s death.

Jodey’s sister Donna told Disability News Service (DNS) this week: “I have watched my mam crying her eyes out in the first video interview she did, and then gone from that to this warrior woman.

“What she’s done, it amazes me. Now my mam is a political activist and warrior. I’m proud of her.”

Joy told DNS that she did not believe she had changed over the years of her battle for justice.

She said: “I am just me and I just thank everybody who has helped me get this far.

“I don’t look at the enormity of it even though I know it’s important and it’s taking on the government and the DWP.”

She said earlier that the pre-inquest review was “an important step” in her legal journey, and she thanked her family and her legal team at solicitors Leigh Day, led by human rights partner Merry Varney, for their crucial support.

She said: “I hope that the full inquest will help us finally get to the truth and will initiate vital change, as well as providing justice for Jodey.”

Jodey Whiting took her own life in February 2017, 15 days after her employment and support allowance (ESA) was wrongly stopped by DWP for missing a work capability assessment.

She had been a long-time claimant of incapacity benefit, and then ESA, and DWP and its assessors had previously noted the severity of her mental distress, and the risk of harm if she was found fit for work, and they were aware of her long history of suicidal thoughts.

The high court rejected Dove’s request for a second inquest in September 2021, despite two key pieces of new evidence.

But the Court of Appeal ruled in March that it was “in the interests of justice” for there to be another inquest.

Among the new evidence that will be considered by the second inquest will be a report by the Independent Case Examiner, which concluded in February 2019 that DWP failed five times to follow its own safeguarding rules in the weeks leading up to her suicide.

A second piece of evidence – which was crucial in persuading the Court of Appeal to overturn the high court judgment and order a second inquest – was a report by psychiatrist Dr Trevor Turner, who said Whiting’s mental state was likely to have been “substantially affected” by DWP’s actions.

Varney said: “It is a privilege to represent Joy and her long legal battle has not just been about getting justice for her daughter Jodey, but also has shone a light on DWP failings more generally and the impact these can have.

“The pre-inquest review hearing today marks the first step in the second inquest into Jodey’s death, which the Court of Appeal ordered must take place earlier this year so that the question of whether the DWP’s failings in stopping Jodey’s employment and support allowance caused or contributed to Jodey’s death can be fully, fearlessly and publicly examined.”

30 November 2023

Disabled students told their access needs are ‘a nuisance’, survey finds

A significant proportion of disabled students are being told by university staff that their access needs are a nuisance or unreasonable, or even that they are trying to cheat the system by asking for adjustments, according to a groundbreaking survey.

One in five (20 per cent) of the disabled students who took part in the survey said they believed they had faced disability discrimination by their university.

The first Annual Disabled Student Survey is the largest ever carried out into university accessibility, with more than 1,300 responses from disabled students.

Analysis of the responses was published this week by Disabled Students UK (DSUK) in its Access Insights Report 2023.

Among the findings, the report says only one-third of disabled students (36 per cent) said all the adjustments agreed for them by their university were put in place.

But of those who felt they had received sufficient information about the possible adjustments that could help them, and who had not had a requested adjustment rejected, and had all the agreed adjustments put in place, 85 per cent reported having all the support they needed at university.

Among the reasons given by university staff for rejecting an adjustment, 33 per cent of students who had support rejected were told the adjustment would not be fair to other students, and 25 per cent were told they did not really need the adjustment.

Only a third of students with mobility impairments (36 per cent) said their university campus was accessible, while half of disabled students believed they had received a lower mark due to an inaccessible assessment.

Although 65 per cent of students reported that a staff member had stated or implied that it was ok to need support, more than one in four (26 per cent) reported having been made to feel unwelcome by staff at their university due to their impairment.

More than two-fifths (43 per cent) of those with a mobility impairment had felt isolated by the adjustments that were made for them, such as being made to use a separate entrance or sit apart from their fellow students.

More than one in five (22 per cent) said they believed staff members had stated or implied that their accessibility needs were a nuisance or unreasonable, and more than one in seven (15 per cent) said staff members had stated or implied that they were trying to “cheat the system” by asking for adjustments.

One student told DSUK: “I wonder why it is so incredibly challenging for institutions to be inclusive.

“I worry about the long-term impact feeling like an after-thought in a field I have worked for so many years to sit within, will have on my happiness.”

Only one student in 10 said they believed that those staff members who worked to make their university accessible had enough resources to do so.

One student said: “The University needs to speak to disabled students and stop silencing or ignoring us when we make our concerns known.

“I was part of a group that wrote an access report to the university detailing everything that is unacceptable and needs improvement.

“It’s been about 2/3 years now and I’ve seen very very little change. They created working groups from this but it was clear they didn’t actually want to change.”

Among the report’s recommendations are for disability advisors to have the time and knowledge to be able to give the right advice to disabled students who ask for support, and for university disability services to provide support that is tailored to each individual student, rather than providing “tick box adjustments”.

The report also calls for disability services to have a “clearly signposted process of appeal”, so disabled students who have an adjustment rejected have somewhere to turn.

Mette Anwar-Westander, founder and chief executive of Disabled Students UK, said it had become clear over the years how the views of disabled students have been overlooked.

She said: “With conventional routes being unsuccessful, we knew we needed to build a way for disabled students’ voices to be heard, systematically and in large numbers.”

DSUK started building the survey two years ago, working with university accessibility staff and consultants, although it stressed that the survey was written by disabled students, for disabled students.

It was designed to map disabled students’ experiences of university accessibility over a 10- year period, allowing DSUK to “find solutions and track progress over time”.

30 November 2023

Music festival operator signs legal agreement after multiple access failings

The UK’s leading music festival operator has been forced to sign a legal agreement with the equality watchdog after serious access failings at events it ran both this summer and last year.

Live Nation, which runs Festival Republic, has signed a section 23 agreement* with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), following concerns raised by disabled festival-goers about its Wireless festival in 2022 and Download in June 2023.

Despite the agreement, Disability News Service understands that some disabled people are still taking legal action of their own under the Equality Act following the events that took place at this year’s Download rock festival in Leicestershire.

There were reports at Download of disabled people being forced to camp on gravel because of overbooking, of dangerously-long waits for accessible shuttle buses, a lack of accessible toilets and grab rails, and poorly-trained staff.

One disabled festival-goer reported at the time how the accessible campsite was “overbooked to the point of being a fire hazard” and that she and her partner were unable to find staff to support them, while there was a shortage of accessible toilets and charging points for powered wheelchairs.

EHRC said its concerns followed “multiple reports of poor accessibility” at Wireless in July 2022, with these concerns “heightened” after reports of access issues at Download in June 2023, including obscured stage visibility and poor facilities.

Under the section 23 agreement – which will also cover other Live Nation festivals, including Latitude, Wilderness, Reading and Leeds – the company has promised to carry out a “robust lesson learning exercise” to investigate the causes of the problems at the two festivals, and “ensure they are not repeated”.

It will also introduce a new accessibility manual “to assess and promote accessibility on all existing and new festival sites”, which should act as “a one-stop shop for all accessibility-related policies and processes”.

And it will review all its policies and procedures to “ensure accessibility provisions are included”, carry out organisation-wide training on “disability awareness and accessibility”, and employ mystery shoppers “to ensure that staff are responding properly to accessibility needs in festivals”.

Melvin Benn, managing director of Festival Republic, said: “Our disabled fans are incredibly important to us and to the festivals they love.

“We acknowledge and apologise for the fact that two of our festivals fell short and people’s experience was not what it should have been.

“We are grateful to the EHRC for working with us to develop a constructive action plan to improve accessibility going forwards.”

At the time that this year’s festival was taking place, Download is believed to have held a “gold” rating with the accessible music charity Attitude is Everything (AiE) under its Live Events Access Charter, but that now appears to have been removed.

Despite repeated requests, AiE had not provided details of the current and former charter ratings of Download and Wireless, and had declined to comment on the legal agreement by noon today (Thursday).

But an AiE spokesperson said in a statement: “Attitude is Everything will be working with the organisers in the months ahead as they work to implement the points outlined in the agreement prior to next summer.

“As part of this, we hope to assist the event access teams to reapply the standards of our Live Events Access Charter as they work up revised plans to make the events in question accessible for disabled live event attendees in 2024.”

Baroness [Kishwer] Falkner, EHRC’s chair, said: “Live music and festivals are a pivotal part of British culture, and we are lucky to have such a vibrant array of events each year that can cater for every individual taste.

“Festivals deserve to be enjoyed by all, including disabled people.

“No one should be subjected to poor treatment when attending or being put off from attending altogether due to unacceptable access issues.

“The reported experiences at both Wireless and Download festival were unacceptable and should never have happened.

“We welcome Live Nation’s commitment to improve their services and the signing of this agreement will ensure disabled people are not left behind at future events.”

*Under a section 23 agreement, an organisation “commits to not breaching equality law, usually in a specific area where there have been previous concerns”

30 November 2023

Disabled people ‘must rediscover appetite for fighting oppression’

A leading disabled activist has issued a call in a new book for the disabled people’s movement to rediscover its appetite for fighting oppression and transforming society.

In Disability Praxis*, Bob Williams-Findlay argues that the disabled people’s movement has gradually drifted away from focusing on how disabled people are “disabled by society” and instead now emphasises the removal of disabling barriers.

But the campaign for civil and human rights should have been seen as “a means to an end”, he writes, because the focus on barrier removal meant the movement lost sight of “the bigger picture” and the need for a critical evaluation of capitalist society.

He criticises how influential parts of the movement, such as the British Council of Disabled People (BCODP) – he is a former BCODP chair – the UK Disabled People’s Council and the National Centre for Independent Living, gradually re-invented it as a rights-based movement in the post-1997 New Labour years.

In so doing, they “moved away from exploring how disabled people are materially excluded from and marginalised within capitalist societies”.

Global capitalism, he says, is “the bedrock of disablement” and should have been the focus through fighting for “transformative change”.

“Whilst it is understandable for disabled people to want to end their social exclusion and be rid of discriminatory practice,” he writes, “one must question the politics behind the belief that the entitlement to rights would automatically confer ‘social acceptance’, or lead to an end to social oppression.”

A key element of the book is his argument that there are four “cornerstones” of disability politics in Britain: the fundamental truth that disability is a “social” issue; the self-organisation of disabled people through the disabled people’s movement; de-institutionalisation and the tensions and contradictions around promoting independent living; and disability culture and identity.

In the second half of the book, he begins to discuss how disabled people can do more than just engage in “firefighting” against austerity and can instead “build a strategy for furthering disabled people’s emancipation”.

Williams-Findlay says that disabled activists should combine campaigning for rights with the fight for social change and transforming wider society.

Over the last decade, he says, there have been repeated calls for action to breathe “new life into the Movement”, and that has been partially successful with the launch of the Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance (ROFA), although he says ROFA remains “small and marginal”.

He expresses his frustration at the “complete lack of resources and political will” for disabled people to self-organise, despite the emergence of organisations such as Disabled People Against Cuts in 2010 and disabled people in Britain finding themselves in “one of the most oppressive” situations in living memory, facing brutal cuts to services and benefits and the fear that many of them would be forced back into institutions.

Campaigning against austerity, he writes, is “little more than a form of firefighting” when what is needed is “collective political leadership” that will propel disabled people forward in their “struggle for social and political emancipation”.

He also suggests that the insights offered by UPIAS (The Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation), Vic Finkelstein and Mike Oliver – all closely associated with the development of the social model and the idea that disability is about disabled people’s oppression and is caused by the way society is organised – should not be “simply assigned to the past” but should still be “reflected upon in the present”.

Williams-Findlay concludes that the prospect of developing a new “disability praxis”** in Britain appears to be “bleak”, particularly as a decade of trying to resist a “punitive” state has left many disabled activists in survival mode.

But he says that developing any such praxis must be done through co-production, and that it must acknowledge the intersectional nature of oppression, remembering that the movement has a history of marginalising intersectional issues.

*Disability Praxis: The Body as a Site of Struggle, by Bob Williams-Findlay, published by Pluto Press

**Praxis refers to the process of putting a theory into practice, or, in Williams-Findlay’s words, critically appraising and then “taking action” to address disabled people’s social oppression and “disturbing, disrupting and ultimately destroying” capitalist society’s dominant position

***John Pring’s book, The Department, will be published by Pluto Press next year

30 November 2023

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week

People with Covid-19 were discharged to care homes over fears about the NHS getting “clogged up”, the pandemic inquiry has heard. Professor Dame Jenny Harries, England’s deputy chief medical officer during the pandemic, told the inquiry how an email she sent in mid-March 2020 described the “bleak picture” and “top line awful prospect” of what needed to happen if hospitals overflowed: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/jenny-harries-nhs-people-sajid-javid-covid-b2455450.html

Women dealing with severe mental illness are still being jailed despite prisons being “ill-equipped” to offer suitable care, a major review has warned. Many women and health providers view the prison environment as “unfit for purpose”, while six in 10 inmates said the “inconsistent” health and social care services across England’s 12 women’s prisons needed improvement, the long-awaited NHS and Prison Service review found: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/prison-women-mental-health-care-b2452523.html

30 November 2023

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

Ministers push ahead with ‘highly damaging’ plans on ‘fit for work’ assessment

The government is to push ahead with “nightmare” cost-cutting plans to tighten the work capability assessment, which will save the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) nearly £1.3 billion a year by 2028.

Confirmation of the changes to the assessment were made as part of the autumn statement, as chancellor Jeremy Hunt said it was “wrong economically and wrong morally” to provide support for so many disabled people without forcing them to look for work.

He claimed the tightening of the assessment reflected “greater flexibility and availability of home working after the pandemic”.

The changes were confirmed less than a month after the end of a public consultation, although they should only take place if the Conservatives win the next general election.

In the aftermath of the budget, disabled people’s organisations and allies wrote to work and pensions secretary Mel Stride to express their “deep concern” over the work capability assessment (WCA) changes.

In their letter (PDF), they say the “overwhelming consensus” among those attending consultation events held by DWP was that the proposals would be “highly damaging”.

And they add: “Given the weight of opposition to these proposals that was evident during the consultation period, it is unfortunately hard to avoid the conclusion that in part its outcome was already determined.”

The letter was signed by Disability Rights UK and Inclusion London, and coordinated by the anti-poverty charity Z2K, with organisations including Child Poverty Action Group and the National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers also supporting it.

Disabled activist Ellen Clifford has already begun a legal action that aims to force the government to carry out a fresh consultation into its WCA proposals, with the support of Public Law Project.

There was also confirmation yesterday of plans announced last week that will mean some claimants – although not those with a disability-related allowance – who refuse to comply with conditions imposed on them by work coaches could have their universal credit claim closed entirely and lose their entitlement to additional benefits such as free prescriptions.

These measures could affect some disabled people found unfairly fit for work, including those appealing against that finding.

Evenbreak, the disabled-run online job board for disabled people, was highly critical of the government’s approach.

Jane Hatton, Evenbreak’s chief executive, said the reforms were based on “completely false assumptions”, most importantly that “disabled people who don’t work are lazy, and need to be forced into work by the use of harsher and harsher punishments”.

She said: “The government says that work improves people’s wellbeing, but not if you have a severe mental health condition or severe pain or fatigue.

“In some cases, work can make you significantly worse.

“The other assumption is that there are jobs that disabled people could do working from home.

“For many, just like non-disabled people, working from home may not be an option, but even if it is, those opportunities are becoming fewer and fewer. 

“Instead of demonising unemployed disabled people as ‘benefit scroungers’, this government – any government – needs to look at the real barriers that prevent disabled people from working, many of which they have manifested themselves.”

Justin Donne, chair of the autistic-led charity Autistic Nottingham, said: “The only ‘moral wrong’ is the government’s callous attitude to people who are long-term unemployed, including the autistic people our charity supports.

“What’s concerning about the chancellor’s announcement is that it ignores the fact that few employers offer that kind of work-from-home flexibility and adequate pay, to make such plans realistic.

“We do not live in a dream world where these jobs exist, thus creating a nightmare for autistic people on benefits who are long-term unemployed due to a lack of accessible work.”

The autumn statement also confirmed that working-age benefits would be uprated next spring by 6.7 per cent (September’s inflation rate), with the state pension rising by 8.5 per cent*.

And Hunt confirmed last week’s announcement of an expansion of employment support through the new Back to Work Plan, much of it aimed at those with mental health conditions.

Alongside the chancellor’s statement, DWP published its response to the consultation on its proposed changes to the WCA.

The response came only three weeks after the consultation ended.

Documents released as part of the autumn statement say the number of people found to have limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA) through universal credit – who therefore do not have any work-related conditions imposed on them by DWP – has increased by 0.7 million to about 2.4 million since May 2019.

The document confirms that many of the WCA proposals will go ahead from 2025 at the earliest.

Although ministers no longer plan to scrap the criteria that protects those seen as being at “substantial risk” of harm if found able to carry out work-related activity, they still aim to amend this safety net so that it only applies in “exceptional circumstances”, protecting those with “the most severe mental or physical health conditions”.

They will also go ahead with changes to the WCA’s “getting about” and “mobilising” activities, removing the mobilising descriptor for eligibility for LCWRA and reducing the points scored for the “getting about” descriptor for limited capability for work eligibility.

But they will not go ahead with proposed changes to the WCA descriptors for continence or social engagement.

The changes will apply to new claims for employment and support allowance (ESA), and to UC claimants who report a health condition and need a WCA, but DWP says they will “not affect existing claimants whose circumstances remain the same”.

The changes will save DWP an estimated £125 million in 2025-26, £500 million in 2026-27, £900 million in 2027-28, and £1.265 billion in 2028-29.

And, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (PDF), this will mean 371,000 disabled people will lose their entitlement to extra support – and start being subject to conditionality and sanctions – as they are moved out of the LCWRA group (or the ESA support group) by 2028-29.

The WCA reforms will increase employment by just 10,000 by 2028-29, the Office for Budget Responsibility estimates.

DWP received more than 1,300 written responses to the WCA consultation, and it claims they have all been “reviewed and carefully considered”.

The DWP document admits that the responses “express concern” about the proposals, including the impact of disabled people losing out on the LCWRA additions – worth £390 a month at current rates – and “fears of being brought into a benefit regime with conditionality and the possibility of benefit sanctions”.

It also says there will be a new “offer” from 2025 which will mean that those already assessed as having LCWRA will be able to try work but will not face another WCA if that job does not work out.

But although they promise this means that almost all people currently assessed as having LCWRA “will never face a WCA reassessment again”, the government has already announced plans to scrap the WCA in the years after the next election, with the much-criticised personal independence payment assessment system to be used instead to decide eligibility for out-of-work disability benefits.

*Some disability benefits are devolved in Scotland, so the Scottish government will decide on how they are uprated, while all DWP benefits are devolved in Northern Ireland

23 November 2023

DWP told to release ‘worst case scenario’ report on impact of errors on claimants

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been ordered to release a secret report that describes the impact of its errors on “vulnerable” benefit claimants, which it admits could have a “negative” impact on its reputation.

The report contains “worst case scenario” information that DWP has calculated about the impact of its errors on claimants, which it appears keen to keep hidden from the public.

A decision notice by information commissioner John Edwards, instructing DWP to release the report, suggests that the document contains estimates of how many benefit claimants have been harmed by the department’s errors.

The report is said to contain “a narrow, informal snapshot of information relating to some errors which may impact on the experience of some of its customers as well as case-specific information”.

DWP says the information was only intended to be considered by its serious case panel.

And it told the information commissioner that “some of the information, if presented in its current format, could have a negative reputational impact on DWP”, while also noting the report’s “informal language and candid tone”.

It is the third time in a month that DWP has been told to release a document to Disability News Service (DNS) that describes how its policies affect disabled people claiming benefits, particularly those experiencing mental distress*.

And it is the latest setback – now stretching back nearly a decade – to its continuing attempts to hide evidence of how its failings are harming disabled people, often fatally.

The report was considered by DWP’s serious case panel in October 2022 (PDF), and DNS has been trying to obtain a copy since March.

DWP has refused to release the document, claiming that publication “would be likely to inhibit candour and likely prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs”.

After DNS complained to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), DWP told the information commissioner that “maintaining the safe space for free and frank conversations, at the time of the request, outweighed the public interest in disclosure”.

It suggested that if the report was released now, it was “likely to lead to pressure for quick solutions or responses, rather than time and space to implement the most effective changes, which is ultimately in the greater public interest”.

DWP also told the commissioner that the report “includes details of a sensitive nature” and publishing it “could harm the overall working of the Department”.

The information commissioner said he accepted that the serious case panel “handles complicated and sensitive matters such as those relating to welfare and safeguarding” and that there was “a public interest in allowing DWP the time and space to implement the recommendations made in the paper”.

But he told DWP that this was “outweighed by the strong public interest in the timely understanding and scrutiny” of the recommendations made by the report, while he was “not persuaded that it is in the public interest to wait until after these actions have been implemented” before publishing the document.

He also said there was “strong public interest in understanding DWP’s approach to preventing future errors and safeguarding issues”, which would “allow scrutiny of the quality of the analysis put to the Serious Case Panel and whether the recommendations are accepted and implemented”.

The information commissioner also found that DWP breached the Freedom of Information Act by failing to respond to the original request by DNS within the correct timeframe.

A DWP spokesperson said: “We are aware of the decision notice from the Information Commissioner’s Office and we are currently considering our position.”

*Last week, DWP released a report that ministers had kept hidden for four years and which revealed significant flaws at the heart of the universal credit system and how DWP supports “vulnerable” claimants, after being ordered to do so by the information rights tribunal, thanks to the efforts of campaigner John Slater. Earlier this month, the information commissioner told DWP to release its written assessment of how the decision to abolish the work capability assessment would impact disabled people and other groups protected under the Equality Act

23 November 2023

Flawed universal credit means government’s plans for sanctions ‘are inexplicable’

Disabled campaigners have questioned government plans to tighten the benefit sanctions regime and even end access to free prescriptions for some claimants, at a time of mounting evidence of a deeply flawed universal credit system and fatal safeguarding failures.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and work and pensions secretary Mel Stride announced a “tougher” sanctions regime alongside an expansion of “tailored, intensive support” last week, as part of a new Back to Work Plan that will have the universal credit working-age benefits system at its heart.

The plan will mean some claimants – although not those with a disability-related allowance – who refuse to comply with conditions imposed on them by jobcentres could have their universal credit claim closed and lose their entitlement to additional benefits such as access to legal aid and free prescriptions.

These measures could still affect many disabled people, including those who have been wrongly found fit for work, and those appealing against such a finding.

There will also be an expansion of employment support, much of it aimed at those with mental health conditions, including the Individual Placement and Support programme.

Ministers claim that expanding the NHS Talking Therapies programme will “help those with mental health conditions stay in or find work”, while the Universal Support scheme will match 100,000 people per year in England and Wales with existing vacancies and support them in their new jobs, and the WorkWell service in England will support people “at risk of falling into long-term unemployment due to sickness or disability, through integrated work and health support”.

But the announcements came after weeks of revelations highlighting continuing concerns about the safety of the universal credit system, and the pressures that jobcentre work coaches are already subjected to.

Only last week, Disability News Service (DNS) revealed that a coroner had warned Stride he needed to take action to prevent flaws in universal credit (UC) leading to further deaths, following the suicide of a disabled man who had become overwhelmed by the application process.

In the same week, DNS reported how a “deeply troubling” government document that ministers had kept hidden for four years revealed significant flaws at the heart of the UC system and how DWP supports “vulnerable” claimants.

But DNS has also reported in the last month how whistleblowers from an Oxford jobcentre have raised serious concerns about safeguarding failures that have put the lives of benefit claimants at risk, with Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union, saying it was “beyond disgraceful” that many of his DWP members were “becoming too ill to work because of chronic understaffing”.

Dr Sally Witcher, former chief executive of Inclusion Scotland and founder of the social enterprise Inclusive New Normal, and a former chair of the UK government’s Disability Employment Advisory Committee, told DNS this week: “It’s inexplicable why, instead of a fundamental rethink, government chooses to double-down on a demonstrably failed approach that is linked to suicides.

“Yet they seem to think the answer is to throw more tax-payers money at it and compel people to engage with it, by issuing threats of dire destitution, gaslighting real sickness, barriers and employer discrimination, and accusing people of lack of effort to find jobs that are, in fact, wholly fictitious.

“By what stretch of warped imagination could that possibly constitute support of any kind?

“This does nothing to acknowledge the real reasons sick and/or disabled people are not in work and it will achieve nothing except compound exclusion and exacerbate mental ill-health.

“And, if benefits are totally withdrawn, be in no doubt that people will die.”

Disabled researcher Stef Benstead, author of Second Class Citizens, which describes the harm caused to disabled people by a decade of cuts and reforms, said the government was “good at creating new names for the same old ideas of increasing conditionality and sanctions whilst calling it increased support and incentives” but was “less good at understanding the lives of the people it is affecting”.

She said: “The DWP regularly designs employment support policy based on over-optimistic expectations of what claimants are able to do.

“Their own work coaches report being over-stretched and unable to help many of the people the DWP expects them to get into work.

“Now we hear that a 2019 report found that UC does not support vulnerable claimants properly.

“This is not surprising, given the DWP’s beliefs around benefit claimants, but it is further evidence that their constant focus on making benefits harder to access is badly misguided.”

David Hayes, from Disabled People Against Cuts Sheffield, which has warned for years of the flaws at the heart of universal credit, said DWP had access to “a plethora of research that shows the current system of disability payments is causing huge levels of impoverishment, distress and death”.

But he said the government, including Hunt, Stride, and prime minister Rishi Sunak, “seem determined to continue persecuting disabled people, and treating us with utter disdain”.

He said: “We all know the lived reality of the situation that their ideology has caused, despite their trying to convince people they come as ‘friends’.

“If all you have left in the tank is stripping disabled people of our meagre means to live so as to distract from the countless humanitarian failures you’ve presided over, forcing us to work when years of high-level research and the application of medical science prove that we are not fit to work, then it’s time to go or prepare to be removed.”

Meanwhile, the announcement by Stride and Hunt has been accompanied by a return to some of the harmful rhetoric of the post-2010 coalition years, with Laura Trott, chief secretary to the Treasury, telling Sky News: “Ultimately, there is a duty on citizens that if they are able to go to work, that’s what they should do.”

Hunt, who wrongly stated that “work is good for everyone” – contradicting research commissioned and frequently quoted by DWP over the last two decades* – also warned: “Anyone choosing to coast on the hard work of taxpayers will lose their benefits.”

Those words echo the language of David Cameron at the Conservative party conference in October 2010, when he told party members: “If you really cannot work, we will always look after you.

“But if you can work, and refuse to work, we will not let you live off the hard work of others.”

That speech, and others like it by coalition ministers, including Iain Duncan Smith, who spoke the following year of how incapacity benefit was “too often abused as an excuse for avoiding work”, were followed by years of deaths linked to tightening of the sanctions regime and the disability benefits system.

*The 2006 research (PDF) by Gordon Waddell and Kim Burton is often criticised by disabled activists, but it still found only that work is “generally” good for health, while more recent research has concluded that there is only “limited evidence on the effect of employment on health, with some studies showing a positive effect of work on health yet others showing no relationship or isolated effects”

23 November 2023

Research exposes hardship and emotional harm caused by care charges

New research has exposed the financial hardship and emotional harm caused by charging working-age disabled people for their care and support.

It is believed to be the first time that research has focused solely on how care charges impact on working-age adults in England.

Although it was only a small study, Inclusion London – which supported the research – said this week that it “evidences and exposes the cruelty of the social care charging system” and shows how the charging system “makes people powerless, demeans them and makes them more dependent”.

Participants in the study spoke of the considerable stress caused by the poverty and fear of poverty they experienced due to rising care charges.

The research, carried out by former BBC journalist Claire Bolderson for a masters dissertation, also suggests that charging can inflict “emotional harm” on disabled people and carers.

Her study says: “People drawing on care and their family members feel devalued by the unequal and often humiliating way in which they are treated by a charging system that undermines autonomy and independence.”

Of seven interviewees, all of whom lived in different local authority areas, two had recently ended their council-funded support after “significant increases” in how much they were being asked to pay.

Those with no family living nearby, or who were estranged from their family, appeared to live “in the most disadvantaged circumstances”, with the study adding: “This included those who had given up their care because of the scale of their assessed contribution, both of whom described emotionally as well as materially deprived lives in which they were very isolated.”

One of these two participants said: “I wash my hair once a month [that’s] why it’s always covered. Shower maybe once or twice a week. Flat is usually a Tip. I don’t eat great.”

The other said: “I’m missing my appointments… I’m missing getting my medications, I’ve got no social inclusion.”

One of the key concerns examined in the study is that most disability benefits are taken into account in the means test that determines how much a disabled person should contribute to their support.

For several disabled people who took part in the study, the percentage of their benefits deducted through the care charge was “significantly higher” than the basic rate of income tax, which crystallised their feelings about how society values those who cannot work.

Bolderson says in the study that the anger about charging was most apparent when participants discussed disability-related expenditure (DRE), disability-related costs that should be considered by a council when assessing how much a disabled person can afford to pay in care charges.

One participant in the study spoke of the “powerlessness” and “humiliation” she felt during lengthy negotiations over what spending could be included as DRE, which can “require disclosure of the most intimate personal care needs”.

One parent said she had asked for a small allowance under DRE to help pay for a particular type of sanitary wear for her daughter, but the local authority (LA) said a claim could only be made for a different item which did not meet her daughter’s needs.

The study says: “This was not a case of suggesting a cheaper product. It was the wrong product, accompanied by the LA arranging what the parent felt was an unnecessary and intrusive medical appointment for the young person.”

It adds: “Throughout the interviews, participants implied that the negative impacts of care charging are intrinsic features of the social care system.

“Without exception they portrayed that system as unhelpful at best, and openly hostile at worst.”

Some of the participants described living conditions of “extreme poverty – eating poorly and irregularly and being unable to afford heating through the winter”, while all three parents who were interviewed said they had been forced to subsidise their disabled adult son or daughter so they could have “some quality of life beyond a basic existence”.

Among the recommendations, the study calls for local authorities to review their charging systems to ensure they are cost-effective and “fair and transparent” for the service-user.

It also suggests reforming the means test to exclude all disability benefits from the income assessment.

In her conclusion, Bolderson says her research “provides some evidence that care charging can lead people assessed as needing care to reject it on cost grounds with potentially serious implications for their health and welfare”.

Svetlana Kotova, Inclusion London’s director of campaigns and justice, said: “This research evidences and exposes the cruelty of the social care charging system.

“It shows not only how the system pushes disabled people into financial hardship but also demonstrates emotional harm done to those who have the highest support needs.

“The system makes people powerless, demeans them and makes them more dependent. This is wrong.

“This research is [more] powerful evidence of why the system needs to change urgently.

“This is why we have been calling on the government to scrap care charges and in the interim stop taking disability benefits as income for the purpose of charging.

“This research must be a starting point for a more comprehensive study, and we will be looking to work with academics to build on it.”

23 November 2023

Rail industry unable to point to single train company ‘getting it right’ on access

Senior figures in the rail industry have been unable to point to a single train company that is even close to “getting it right” when it comes to providing an accessible service to disabled passengers.

Iain Stewart, the Conservative chair of the Commons transport committee, told three senior representatives of the industry yesterday (Wednesday) that he and his colleagues had heard “quite alarming stories” about the difficulties disabled people face when using the railways.

And he said that this situation “seems to be getting worse since the pandemic”.

Jacqueline Starr, chief executive of Rail Delivery Group – which represents the companies that run Britain’s railways – said she recognised there were “inconsistencies across the network” but she “would not support the statement that it is in absolute deterioration”.

She claimed there was evidence from the industry’s Passenger Assist mobile phone app – which has been heavily criticised by disabled campaigners – of “increased satisfaction from customers”.

But she added: “I do acknowledge that there are still way too many cases and instances where disabled customers experience difficulties when they’re traveling with us.”

Stephanie Tobyn, director of strategy, policy and reform at the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), the rail regulator, said the examples of access failures previously provided to the committee were “very alarming” and “very difficult to watch”.

She said ORR’s research showed that “the majority of people do have a positive experience”, but when just one step of the process does not go to plan “then effectively the whole system collapses for that passenger” although “for the wide variety of passengers, when it goes well, it goes extremely well”.

Asked if there was a single operator that had “got it right” or was close to “getting it right”, Starr was unable to provide an example, and said there were “good and bad examples across all operators”.

Tobyn was also unable to suggest an example and said it would be “very difficult to highlight one particular operator”.

Alison Smith, accessibility and inclusion lead for Network Rail, also failed to provide an example of a rail operator in Britain that was getting it right on access, but she said there were “some really good examples of best practice”, although she did not name them.

Members of the committee were hearing evidence on the industry’s legal obligations on accessible transport as part of an ongoing inquiry.

The SNP’s Gavin Newlands challenged Tobyn on criticisms from the disabled people’s organisation Transport for All about ORR’s failure to take action when there were assistance failures by train operators, and its tendency to rely on an “informal” approach to dealing with such issues.

Tobyn said that most people don’t see “the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes [at ORR] and the amount of things that we do change where we intervene and change behaviour and we don’t necessarily shout about it”.

She said ORR was currently taking a “deep dive” into areas such as the transfer of information about disabled passengers between rail operators, lift reliability, and how easy it is for disabled passengers to complain.

But she admitted that ORR had only issued one health and safety improvement notice to a train operator, because taking such action was “a last resort”.

Smith was asked by one MP why her organisation was “still building new, inaccessible infrastructure”, such as footbridges.

Disability News Service revealed in September that Network Rail had been forced into admitting it had no idea how many inaccessible footbridges it was building across Britain, while claiming it was too time-consuming and expensive to find out.

The public body, which owns and runs most of the country’s rail infrastructure, has admitted building at least 17 inaccessible footbridges across England, Scotland and Wales in 2022, 2023 and 2024, but the real figure is likely to be far higher than this.

Smith told the committee that it would be “very rare” for Network Rail to install an inaccessible footbridge in a station, but for other locations it had to “think very carefully and balance what can be quite often a set of competing needs”.

She said these bridges were often in locations that could not provide power for a lift, and that ramps “can be very substantial bits of infrastructure not always supported by the community”, so Network Rail makes decisions that are “in the best interests of the taxpayer”.

Labour’s Grahame Morris asked Starr about the concerns from campaigners that train companies saw the demands of disabled passengers for “turn up and go” access to the railways as a customer services matter rather than a “fundamental issue of human rights”.

Starr claimed there was a “huge appetite across operators to deliver against the needs of disabled customers, and they hear loud and clear what they’re calling for in relation to turn up and go”.

But she added: “Are there some challenges in terms of people really recognizing that and showing appropriate empathy? Yes.

“Are we doing something about that? Yes.

“So we’re undergoing significant training to help people better understand.”

23 November 2023

New bill should lead to strict quotas on access services for streaming platforms

A new government bill should lead to streaming services having to meet strict quotas on providing programmes with audio description, subtitles and audio description for the first time, but disabled journalists say the legislation should do more to tackle inequality.

MPs this week debated the government’s media bill, which also includes a wide range of other measures on broadcasting and newspapers and appears to have broad cross-party support.

Among the measures proposed by the government are new quotas for the scores of streaming platforms regulated by the communications watchdog Ofcom, such as Disney+, Amazon Prime, catch-up services run by public service broadcasters such as Channel 4, and many smaller, lesser-known platforms.

This would mean they would each have to provide subtitles for 80 per cent of their programmes, while 10 per cent would have to include audio description and five per cent would need to be accompanied by British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation.

There are currently no laws that oblige on-demand platforms to provide these access services.

Ofcom reported in May that, of those regulated on-demand providers that responded to its survey, only 82.4 per cent provided subtitles on any of their programmes, 14.3 per cent provided BSL, and just 22.4 per cent offered any audio description.

Of those that did provide access services, 72 per cent of programming hours were subtitled in 2022 (up from 66 per cent in 2021), with 15 per cent of hours offering audio description (down from 17 per cent in 2021) and just two per cent of hours were provided with BSL (2.3 per cent compared with 2.0 per cent in 2021).

Campaigners have been waiting for years for the government to act on quotas.

It has had powers since 2017 through the Digital Economy Act to impose quotas on on-demand providers, but failed to use those powers. The new legislation would finally make quotas law.

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) welcomed some of the measures, but it called on the government to go further.

Dr Natasha Hirst, NUJ president and disabled members’ representative, said: “Although there are some important improvements to access being proposed in this long overdue bill, they need to be more ambitious with this.

“This is the opportunity to get it right.

“Our disabled members’ council will be working through the union’s cross-party parliamentary group to reinforce points about the importance of access for achieving disability equality and accessibility on media platforms and streaming services.

“We are also flagging disability representation – both in front of and behind the camera – and we will call for the Ofcom code to apply to video-on-demand services to tackle discrimination against disabled people.”

Sir John Whittingdale, the media minister, told Disability News Service in a statement on Tuesday: “People who are blind, partially sighted or have hearing impairments, should be able to access their favourite TV and radio shows, no matter where or how they choose to tune in. 

“Our media bill, being debated in parliament today, will modernise the UK’s decades-old broadcasting rules, requiring video-on-demand streaming giants to meet subtitling, audio description and signing requirements that traditional broadcasters already follow. 

“This means Britain’s estimated 12 million people with hearing impairments and 350,000 who are blind or partially sighted will be able to better enjoy world-class content on-demand.

“New rules in the bill will also secure the ongoing availability of licensed UK radio stations on voice-activated smart speakers, ensuring blind or partially sighted listeners can continue to easily tune in to British programming on their connected devices.”

23 November 2023

UK Disability History Month begins with call for action on disablism in education

Disabled activists have called for action to address the discrimination and disablism faced by disabled students and pupils, and to enforce the laws that should be protecting them.

They were speaking at the launch of UK Disability History Month (UKDHM), which this year is focusing on disability, children and youth.

Mette Anwar-Westander, founder and chief executive of Disabled Students UK, was part of the Disabled Students Network at University College London (UCL) when it published a report in early 2020 that described the discrimination they were facing.

After the report was published, she told the launch event, she began to be contacted by disabled students at other universities who were reporting similar concerns.

A meeting with fellow students from across the country led to the creation of Disabled Students UK (DSUK).

This year, DSUK has carried out the largest survey yet of disabled students in higher education in the UK, with input from more than 1,300 disabled students.

Anwar-Westander said the project had shown that the disability rights movement had brought advances in support for disabled university students that would have been “unthinkable 25 years ago”.

But she said the results also showed that “in many ways the law is not being enforced”.

She said: “Despite the right to access their education on equal terms with their non-disabled peers, only 35 per cent of our students actually stated that they have the support and adjustments needed to do so.”

The 2020 report – which was welcomed at the time by UCL – included results from a survey of disabled students, which found two-thirds of them (67 per cent) had experienced disablism by UCL and about three-fifths (58 per cent) said they had been made to feel unwelcome by the university because of their impairments.

Suzanna Chen, a postgraduate disabled student and disabled students’ officer at UCL, and campaigns assistant at DSUK, said many disabled students at UCL had “reported losing trust in the system” because their previous feedback, including the 2020 report, “has not really resulted in any substantial changes”.

She called for changes such as enforcing reasonable adjustments at universities, setting up complaints procedures to hold those responsible for disablism “accountable”, and ensuring there was disability awareness and equality training for all students and staff, to make “campus culture more inclusive”.

Richard Rieser, founder of UK Disability History Month, said there was “much to be fought for and much to be changed”, with 191,000 disabled children currently being educated in segregated schools.

He said there was a need to “value difference” and “remove the barriers for access and communication” within an education system that is being run on “eugenicist lines”, which “needs to be challenged as a human rights abuse”.

Rieser said there was also a need to enforce existing disability equality laws that should outlaw discrimination and harassment in schools and colleges but are rarely used.

And he said he regretted seeing the return of David Cameron to government, as the new foreign secretary was responsible for the 2010 coalition government’s policy of reversing what the former prime minister saw at the time as a “bias towards inclusion” in schools.

Rieser said: “We need a new leap forward now so that all children are included and can become part of the community.”

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, which hosted the launch event in central London, said: “I absolutely fundamentally believe that with adequate resources, properly funded, most of our students can thrive alongside their peers, and that is something that we must absolutely be fighting for.”

He said the government’s focus “should be on making a school system that is inclusive and fit for purpose for educating all young people”.

But he said that “building inclusion requires investment, in terms of funding, and time for staff to do their jobs properly, and changing the overall culture of education”.

He added: “With the government’s SEN* and disability policy being directed largely towards saving money, rather than providing what young people need to thrive in an inclusive education system, putting the emphasis back onto the young people and empowering them to advocate for themselves is crucial.”

Yewande Akintelu-Omoniyi, Our Voice youth officer at The Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE), told the UKDHM event that discovering the disabled people’s movement at the age of 19 had changed her life, after a mainstream education where she had faced disablism and discrimination.

She said: “I understood that the discrimination that I had been facing was not my fault.

“I was able to identify with other young people who were experiencing the same barriers.”

But she said she still felt left out as she was often the only black disabled person at disability rights events.

She said: “That’s why joining ALLFIE’s Disabled Black Lives Matter group has been so helpful.

“I’ve been able to meet other people who understand my experience as a black disabled person.

“I would say to every young disabled person who is growing up and struggling with their identity: anything that you are experiencing now is not your fault. The world has not woken up to how amazing you are.

“I and many others will keep fighting for you so that we get close to an equal world for you; but until then, keep believing in yourself.”

Dr Miro Griffiths, co-director of The Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds, advised against trying to “establish a youth voice” within the disability movement.

He said: “I think that does a disservice really to what we are trying to achieve within disability activism, which is to think about how all our ideas within the process of resistance and… articulating an alternative vision for inclusive societies, how that can flourish because of the collaboration and ideas that come from different communities, whether that’s youth groups, whether that’s people from ethnic communities, whether that’s those who are bringing in the intersections of sexuality and disability.”

Disabled self-advocate Ellen Goodey described how she had enjoyed a mainstream education from nursery school through to college in the east London borough of Newham, which pioneered an inclusive education system in the 1980s.

She said: “It meant I was part of my community, I have lots of friends and have a great life.”

Her mother, Linda Jordan, was one of a group of parents who worked with Newham council in the early 1980s to close special schools and enable their disabled children to attend local mainstream schools.

Jordan stood for election to the council and became chair of Newham’s education committee.

She said: “We came at it very much in terms of the human rights perspective that these were eugenic ideas that were no longer acceptable, and it was just morally wrong to segregate people on the basis of socially-constructed labels.

“What we discovered was that by kids going to their local schools, actually it was great for everybody; education for everybody improved, the teachers had much more joy in their teaching because they were having to think about how they could include everybody.

“We managed to break that barrier so we no longer thought that if you were clever you were more important… and education attainment actually improved dramatically and education attainment for all children increased.”

She told the meeting that the “backwards movement” on inclusion under the current government had been “shocking and utterly frustrating”.

*Special educational needs

23 November 2023

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week

The high court is to consider for the first time whether universities owe a legal duty of care to their students, which campaigners argue would save lives and bring England and Wales in line with other countries. The landmark hearing next month comes at a time of widespread concern about declining student mental health and a number of widely reported suicides, including that of Natasha Abrahart, who was a second year physics student at Bristol University when she killed herself in 2018: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/20/high-court-to-consider-whether-universities-owe-students-legal-duty-of-care

One in three people have missed work in the last year because of delays in accessing NHS care, according to new research. Opposition politicians said the findings showed that long waiting-times and the NHS’s record waiting-list were damaging the economy by leaving people too sick to work. Pollsters Savanta surveyed 2,235 people in the UK this month on behalf of the Liberal Democrats: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/20/a-third-in-uk-missed-work-in-2022-due-to-delays-accessing-nhs-care

Soaring costs of school transport for disabled children is causing councils to warn of service cuts and potential insolvency, according to local authority leaders. The County Council Network, which represents mainly rural local authorities in England, says its 37 members are spending more than £700 million a year on school transport for 85,000 children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND), compared with less than £400 million five years ago. They blame the sharply rising costs on an acute shortage of SEND school places and lack of competition for specialist transport contracts: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/nov/18/soaring-special-needs-school-transport-costs-unsustainable-say-councils

23 November 2023

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

You can stick your f*cking duty up your arse!

Join DPAC & allies and tell the government that they can Stick their fucking duty up their arse!

Friday 24th November

6pm

Downing Street

Laura Trott’s recent comments about the conservative party’s latest welfare plans have are just downright bloody insulting.

Telling disabled people they have a “duty as citizens” to work, after what they have put us through in the last 13 years is an insult to everyone of us who have survived since they came to power.

Trott was happy to dismiss our valid fears about the Government’s latest attack and the harm it will cause.

Where was the conservative partys sense of duty when they imposed austerity-cuts to vital public services including:

Social Care

The NHS

Local Councils

The Independent Living Fund

Disability Benefits

Disabled Students Grant

The Access to Work Fund

And many many other vital services?

And at the same time cut benefit level and introduced the Bedroom Tax, capped benefit payments and brought in the two child limit

All of which created isolation and destitution for the lucky – and cold dark graves for too many unlucky victims of Tory cruelty.

Where was their sense of duty when millions were living in fear of the dreaded brown envelope coming through the door because of the Work Capability Assessment and the dehumanising, degrading process that meant for them?

Where was their sense of duty when they left 100s of 1000s of disabled people to die during Covid, while they stepped over the corpses on their way to their parties?

There was no sense of duty, only self interest and greed.

Well, don’t tell us what our duty is – when you so flagrantly failed in yours.

We didn’t go to the country and ask for their vote, their trust and then let everyone down.

It was your duty to respect and empower us as equal citizens with a stake in our society.

Not to take every opportunity to attack, demean and other us.

You failed in that duty.

Don’t dare to tell us what ours is.

You can stick your fucking duty up your arse.

PRESS RELEASE
18/11/23

For immediate release.

Disabled people in Sheffield say they are not ‘coasting’ on benefits, in response to recent
comments made by The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt. Hunt’s comments relate to the government’s
‘Back To Work Plan’ which DPAC say will see disabled people forced into job search activity which
they cannot cope with due to their medical conditions, leading to sanctions, loss of healthcare,
essential means of living, greatly increasing disabled people’s risk of death through poverty,
neglect and suicide.

A spokesperson for DPAC Sheffield said:

“ When Hunt spoke of people ‘coasting’ on taxpayers’ money, people may have thought he was
referring to corporations who dodge billions of pounds every year, bosses and shareholders of the
numerous companies that governments are so fond of bailing out with public money to the tune of
many billions and to whom they also give taxpayers’ money for crony contracts, people like
Sunak’s wife, or MPs and ministers like himself who receive a very generous salary from the public
purse each year along with heavily subsidised travel and meals, or The Royal Family who receive
over £86m a year from the public, enough to support thousands of families. However, Hunt was
dredging up his ideological obsession with punishing disabled people by forcing people who are
unfit to work into work, something that not even the Victorian workhouse system tried to do. So we
have the obscene sight of people who have everything taking everything off people who already
have very little.

This is part of the government’s well-worn tactic of creating scapegoats to cover up and distract
from the complete misery and mess they have created for most people in the country. We don’t
believe most people are willing to keep falling for it. Like most people, disabled people face a cost
of living disaster created by the government, trying to exist on incomes which are not keeping up
with true inflation, whilst the companies for which governments really work are increasing their
already obscene profits and shareholder payouts, living the high life and coasting off everyone
else’s efforts whilst people from all walks of life are becoming destitute because of daily living
costs.

We’ve seen Cameron retrod and reintroduced to the cabinet by Sunak, yet his
Conservative/LibDem coalition introduced the needless, ideological policy of austerity on behalf of
the bailed out financial institutions that caused the global economic crash in 2008. That ideology
has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths through cuts to social security, the NHS, social care
and other essential services, and it is still killing people. The ‘Back to Work Plan’ will lead to more
people like myself dying and our conditions deteriorating through forcing disabled people into job
search activity, looking for jobs that we cannot do and cannot cope with due to our medical
conditions, whilst Works and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride whose salary exceeds £150k before
expenses has threatened us with losing our NHS prescriptions if we don’t comply. The current
disability payments regime has already caused many people to take their own lives and put
thousands of disabled people into poverty. We know the sanctions system runs as a parallel penal
system for claimants, treating us worse than prisoners, causing misery and impoverishment for
people, a system that actually ends up costing the government money. None of this makes any
sense other than as an expression of hatred from government for disabled people. The biology of
disabled people’s bodies and medical conditions does not care about the ideologically warped
views of government ministers; if we are unfit for work then we are unfit for work, and we are not
going to be miraculously cured by a government white paper.

We urge all disabled people, their families and supporters to resist the government’s plans to vilify
disabled people as part of their ever advancing shift to the far-right.”

ENDS

Coroner tells DWP to act on universal credit safety after claimant’s suicide

A coroner has warned work and pensions secretary Mel Stride he needs to act to prevent flaws in the universal credit system leading to further deaths, following the suicide of a disabled man who became overwhelmed by the application process.

It is believed to be the first time a coroner has sent a prevention of future deaths (PFD) report to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) relating to the flawed universal credit system.

It comes as a “deeply troubling” report that ministers kept hidden for four years reveals shortcomings at the heart of the system and in how DWP supported “vulnerable” claimants of universal credit, including those experiencing mental distress (see separate story).

An inquest into the death of Kevin Gale earlier this month heard from his psychiatrist, who expressed significant concerns about the way mental health service-users were supported with their universal credit claims within DWP.

The inquest also heard from the trust’s nursing director, who told the coroner that they considered the issues identified by the psychiatrist to be “national” and said they were “debilitating for service users”.

The inquest heard that the trust’s crisis team even started its own foodbank for service-users three years ago.

Kevin Gale, who is believed to have worked previously as a window cleaner, took his own life on 4 March 2022.

Disability News Service (DNS) has learned that he resigned days before from an unpaid position as a director with the management company responsible for the block of flats where he lived in Penrith, Cumbria.

The inquest heard that he had a long history of depression and anxiety but had been engaging with mental health services, and that he had been “well supported by his family and friends”.

His worsening mental health had led to him being detained under the Mental Health Act in November 2021, before he was discharged on 4 January 2022.

A psychiatrist who saw him on 2 May, two days before he took his own life, told the inquest that they believed his anxiety had been exacerbated by his universal credit application.

The psychiatrist had called DWP during the appointment but, the coroner wrote in the PFD report, “the call was not answered before the end of the consultation”.

Gale had been expecting a call from DWP the following day, and he spoke to the duty registered mental health nurse at 11am on 3 May.

The coroner reported: “He remained very anxious and his main concern was the application for Universal Credit.”

He took his own life at home the following day.

Following the concerns raised by Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust during the inquest, coroner Kirsty Gomersal sent a PFD report to Stride.

She told him: “The evidence revealed matters giving rise to concern. In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken.”

She pointed to the “number of and length” of the universal credit forms that had to be completed which “can be overwhelming for someone with a mental health illness”, and which are “perpetuated if the applicant cannot get help to complete the paperwork”, while also highlighting the “long telephone queues to speak to a DWP advisor”.

She added: “Having to travel long distances for appointments can be detrimental for those with a mental health illness.”

DWP did not give evidence at the inquest, the coroner said, because the concerns about universal credit “did not come to light until the hearing”, which meant she was unable to make a “causal link” between Gale’s death and his anxiety about his universal credit application.

There have been just a handful of PFD reports sent to DWP by coroners since 2010, despite more than 250 secret internal reviews carried out by the department into the deaths of claimants since 2012.

DNS has approached the family of Kevin Gale through their solicitor, but they had not responded by noon today (Thursday).

Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust refused to comment on the inquest or repeat any of the concerns raised by its staff.

A trust spokesperson said it “wouldn’t be appropriate for us, as an NHS organisation, to ask staff to give a media interview commenting on government policy”.

A DWP spokesperson said: “Our condolences are with Mr Gale’s family.

“We will review the coroner’s report and respond in due course.”

16 November 2023

Secret report finally reveals flaws in universal credit support for ‘vulnerable’ claimants

A “deeply troubling” government report that ministers kept hidden for four years has revealed significant flaws at the heart of the universal credit system and how the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) supports “vulnerable” claimants.

The report, produced in autumn 2019, concludes that the design of universal credit “is inadequate for vulnerable groups” who therefore need extra help from staff through adjustments and specialist support.

It also says the support provided by universal credit is “inconsistently effective” with some claimants “not adequately supported”, while the system for managing individual cases is described as “suboptimal”.

Its release, following a two-year freedom of information battle, comes as Disability News Service (DNS) also reports how a coroner has warned work and pensions secretary Mel Stride that he needs to take action to prevent flaws in the system leading to further deaths, following the suicide of a claimant who became overwhelmed by the universal credit application process (see separate story).

The 2019 report said universal credit’s design was “challenging” for “claimants with vulnerabilities”, such as many disabled people, care leavers and victims of domestic abuse, because it “requires behavioural and lifestyle changes which they are unable to meet”.

The authors of the 24-page report found evidence that not all frontline DWP staff were aware of some “headline policies”, which raised fears that “some claimants are not being paid their full entitlement”.

DWP has been trying to prevent the release of the report by the former Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit (PMIU) since its existence was revealed in October 2021 in universal credit papers secured by campaigner John Slater.

But the information rights tribunal told DWP last month that it must release the How Effective is Support for Vulnerable Universal Credit Claimants? report.

DNS had been seeking a copy of the report since late 2021, alongside Slater and Owen Stevens, from Child Poverty Action Group.

Following the tribunal ruling, DWP has now released the report, and its contents are likely to revive concerns about the impact of universal credit on countless disabled claimants and others in vulnerable situations.

The PMIU report made it clear that the introduction of universal credit (UC) in 2013 – combining six working-age benefits into a single monthly payment through a “digital interface” – had presented “more acute challenges for some vulnerable claimants”.

It concluded: “We know that vulnerabilities can make it harder for claimants to engage with UC across their claimant journey, when making a claim, managing their claim, and managing their finances.”

Slater said that the report’s conclusion that the design of UC was “inadequate for vulnerable groups” was “deeply troubling”.

He told DNS: “The statement that UC by design is challenging for vulnerable claimants is a terrible indictment of the UC team and suggests that vulnerable claimants have been an afterthought.”

He said there was so much in the report “that should have caused the senior leaders of UC and the DWP sleepless nights”.

Although the report said DWP staff can “deliver a more tailored service” for those who need more support with their UC claims and that some of them “go beyond what is expected of them to help”, it also warned that “there is not a consistent understanding of whom this support works for”.

It added: “Knowledge gaps, lack of clarity on expectations, and uncertainty on best practice in handling the most complex cases means some individuals are not adequately supported.”

Slater said: “The fact that [jobcentres] and individual work coaches are doing such good work is fantastic, but it seems to me that they are doing it in spite of the UC and senior DWP leaders rather than because this is the behaviour that has been encouraged and fostered.

“Vulnerable claimants are clearly at the mercy of a postcode lottery in respect of the support they will get from [jobcentres] and individual work coaches.

“This isn’t acceptable.”

The PMIU report also said problems were intensified by delays in accessing mental health treatment, with many jobcentres reporting a “large number of claimants presenting with mental health conditions, for which there is little immediate provision because of long NHS waiting times”.

It added: “Problems with the availability, suitability or timeliness of access to services from third parties reduces the effectiveness of support.”

These issues are almost certain to have worsened since 2019.

The report – written before the pandemic, and the subsequent worldwide economic downturn – also warned that frontline staff were “working close to capacity”, and that jobcentres “may not be resourced to deliver the enhanced support currently available as the caseload increases or in the event of an economic downturn”.

Only this month, DNS reported how conditions at one jobcentre became so stressful from late 2021 onwards that 15 of those in one team of 23 work coaches quit within a 12-month period, with at least eight of them experiencing a significant collapse in their mental health due to a huge, sudden increase in workload.

Even before that increase in workload from late 2021, the PMIU report warned that work coaches only have “up to 15 minutes for meetings with existing claimants”, which was “unlikely to be sufficient for claimants with complex needs who are furthest from the labour market and need the most support”.

Meanwhile, a parliamentary committee heard yesterday (Wednesday) how one of the architects of universal credit admitted to a benefits expert that he and his colleagues were not thinking about “health problems and caring responsibilities at all” when they created universal credit and that they “sort of assumed that this was going to be an operational problem that other people could deal with down the line”.

In an email accompanying the release of the PMIU report to DNS, DWP claimed that UC had “transformed significantly in the support it provides all individuals, especially those who are vulnerable” since 2019, and that it had “made a large number of changes to improve how vulnerable individuals are supported”.

These included creating a new “customer experience directorate”, “re-mobilising” its complex needs team, introducing a new UC team for “understanding, and resolving barriers identified for claimants in accessing the service”, and introducing 38 advanced customer support senior leaders to “underpin our relationships with other organisations who provide support for our customers”.

DWP added: “In line with our well-established design principles, we continue to test and iterate how best to support claimants who are in scope to move to UC.

“It should also be noted that this report was never a statement of government policy, rather it reflected the observations of individuals in the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit at the time.”

16 November 2023

Tomlinson’s ‘tokenistic’ engagement in early months of pandemic ‘was scandalous’

The attitude of the former disability minister to engagement with disabled people during the early months of the pandemic has been described as “scandalous” and “tokenistic”, days after he gave evidence about it to the Covid inquiry.

Justin Tomlinson, who was minister for disabled people from the start of the pandemic until September 2021, told the inquiry last week that it would be “hard pressed to find a minister who probably did more stakeholder meetings”.

He also told the inquiry (PDF): “I’ve always enjoyed stakeholder engagement; I’ve found it makes for better policy development, it provides you with insight that even the most academic policymakers, unless they’ve got that lived experience, would not necessarily appreciate.”

And he said engagement was something he “passionately wanted to see not just for myself as a minister, but to be embedded as a given across government”.

But figures from his own former department show that Tomlinson took part in an average of fewer than five meetings a month with “stakeholders” in the first six months of the pandemic, at a time when tens of thousands of disabled people were dying from Covid.

He told the inquiry there had been “an absolute understanding across government that those with underlying health conditions and disabilities were the most likely to be impacted by Covid”.

But Department for Work and Pensions figures show that Tomlinson only carried out 27 meetings (either face-to-face or online) with external organisations from the beginning of March until the end of August 2020.

Of those meetings, just 18 – across six months – were with disability organisations, and only eight involved a disabled people’s organisation (DPO).

Throughout August 2020, he carried out no external meetings at all.

The DWP records also suggest that only about 15 of his meetings with stakeholders in the first six months of the pandemic were focused on Covid, and only about six of those meetings involved a DPO.

Tracey Lazard, chief executive of Inclusion London, said: “Tomlinson’s comments at the Covid inquiry about the frequency and importance he put on stakeholder engagement in the pandemic bears no resemblance to our experience as a DPO.

“We had no contact with him for the first three months of the pandemic and when we did manage to engage him it was about specific issues relating to Access to Work in the summer of 2020.

“The only engagement with Tomlinson after that were the three DPO forum meetings starting on 22 July 2020 and unilaterally ended by Tomlinson on 12 Nov 2020.

“The three forum meetings were characterized by a lack of any strategic approach, including a failure to provide any written information, briefings or presentations that left us as forum participants unable to have any meaningful input on either pandemic issues or the National Disability Strategy.

“Such a casual, tokenistic and dismissive approach to engagement with DPOs is not acceptable at any time but it’s simply scandalous at the very time that thousands of disabled people were dying as a direct result of our needs being overlooked or ignored.”

Nuala Toman, head of innovation and impact for Disability Action Northern Ireland, one of the four national DPOs that have been given core participant status in the current Covid inquiry module, said: “Publicly available meeting records show that the former minster for disabled people did not effectively engage with disabled people at a time when disabled people were dying as a result of the pandemic.

“There is little evidence to even suggest that the former minister made any significant or credible attempt to involve disabled people in decisions at a time when deaths of disabled people were soaring.

“Instead, public records indicate a very limited and cosmetic approach to engaging with disabled people, which was more about looks than actual action.”

She added: “It is absolutely essential that lessons are learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This will not be achieved unless ministers and those making decisions are open and honest about the extent to which disabled people were locked out from decision-making, and the extent of avoidable harm which disabled people experienced at this time, including loss of life.

“Now is the time for honesty, not fudge.”

Tomlinson did not respond to questions emailed to his parliamentary office this week about his record on engagement during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the disabled Conservative MP Paul Maynard – who has previously held posts in the Department for Transport and Ministry of Justice – has been appointed as a junior DWP minister in this week’s government reshuffle.

He appears to have been given responsibility for pensions policy, although that has not yet been confirmed.

Tom Pursglove remains the minister for disabled people.

16 November 2023

EHRC struggles to justify key omissions from equality and rights report

The human rights watchdog has struggled to explain why its major report on Britain’s “equality and human rights landscape” has ignored key breaches of disabled people’s rights by the UK government.

The Equality and Human Rights Monitor report*, published today (Thursday), is supposed to assess the status of equality and human rights across Britain since 2018.

But analysis of the report by Disability News Service (DNS) has again raised questions about the commission’s ability and willingness to hold the government to account over its repeated breaches of disabled people’s rights.

Among the concerns about the report is its failure to mention two legal interventions it has made in the last two years, both of which were supposedly aimed at forcing the government to act over major breaches of disability rights.

DNS has highlighted the report’s failure across at least five key areas – housing, disability benefits, social care, inappropriate detention in mental health settings, and education – although there are likely to be more.

Although there is a small section on the inappropriate detention of people with learning difficulties and autistic people in inpatient mental health settings, there is no mention of the legal warning EHRC issued the government last year about its lack of progress in this area (see separate story).

On disability benefits, the report makes a couple of low-key references to concerns, mentioning the work capability assessment (WCA) and, in reference to statistics showing the worsening mental health of disabled people, stating: “Some of these trends may be linked to changes in benefits paid to disabled people.

“Analysis has found changes to the work capability assessment corresponded with increased mental health problems.”

This refers to research published in 2016, without explaining that it actually linked the WCA with 600 suicides between 2010 and 2013.

There is also no mention in the EHRC report of a series of deaths linked to the actions and failings of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) since 2018, including those of Philippa Day, Errol Graham, Roy Curtis, James Oliver, Philip Pakree, Ker Featherstone, Sophia Yuferev, Stephen Smith and Christian Wilcox.

And there is no mention of EHRC’s own attempts since April 2022 to persuade DWP to sign a section 23 legal agreement that would force the department to improve its treatment of disabled benefit claimants.

On education, the EHRC report appears to welcome funding that allowed the opening of a string of new special schools, with provision for up to 3,000 disabled pupils, without pointing out that the UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities has criticised the UK government for the “persistence of a dual education system” that segregates increasing numbers of disabled children in special schools.

The report also fails to point out that article 24 of the UN disability convention requires the development of a fully inclusive education system.

On social care, there is a brief, uncritical paragraph that fails to mention the social care crisis other than saying that the sector “has long been under pressure”.

The report fails to mention that tens of thousands of disabled people face debt collection action every year over unpaid care charges.

And it also fails to mention that, two years ago, the commission itself warned the government that social care was at “crisis point” and called on ministers to introduce a legal right to independent living.

In the housing section, the EHRC report appears to praise the UK government for its commitment in July 2022 to “raising mandatory accessibility standards for all new homes in England”, while failing to point out that the promised consultation on the changes has still not been launched 16 months on.

The government originally suggested these changes nearly three years ago.

In its press release, the commission focuses on the impact of home working on disabled people, rates of domestic abuse, access to justice and workplace discrimination.

It also mentions the employment gap between disabled and non-disabled people, which it claims has narrowed, despite analysis by researchers suggesting such figures are essentially “meaningless” because disability equality for disabled people has remained almost static when it comes to finding and keeping jobs.

Baroness Falkner, the commission’s chair, said in the press release: “Our Equality and Human Rights Monitor represents the most extensive review of Britain’s progress towards greater equality and respect for human rights.

“By addressing disparities that affect specific groups, we can collectively improve services and work towards a fairer society.”

Of seven recommendations made by the report in its disability section, three relate to disability employment, one to disability poverty, one to the increase in disabled people’s mental ill-health, another aims to address the risk of experiencing crime, and one calls for action on the impact of digital exclusion.

Asked how it justified producing a report that omitted so many key concerns about disabled people’s rights, and ignored recent deaths of disabled people linked to DWP’s actions, an EHRC spokesperson said: “The Equality and Human Rights Monitor offers a comprehensive overview of the equality and human rights landscape in Britain over the last five years.

“The report is data led, offering a bespoke analysis of a range of data from different surveys and sources, including a widely advertised call for evidence and extensive consultation with disability-led organisations.

“Additionally, as the report includes a broad range of evidence and issues, across all protected characteristics, not all issues can be examined in full depth, and we have not included a comprehensive account of all our enforcement actions taken.

“Our methodology is detailed on our website.

“Our independence is guaranteed in statute, and we reject any claim that our report has been weakened to protect the government or any other body.

“It is not the role of the EHRC to make policy recommendations on behalf of government, public bodies or others.

“The purpose of the report is to provide these groups with the data and tools they need to improve public services to benefit all.”

*Separate reports focus on Scotland and Wales