DPAC response to TUC statement on PIP today

All Posts, Access to Work, Motability, News, PIP, Speeches, Universal Credit, welfare cuts, Welfare reforms 1 Response »

May 182026

We are disappointed with the TUC statement on PIP today calling for reform on PIP by linking PIP with work.

General secretary Paul Nowak says: “The Government has a vital opportunity to support more disabled people into work through the Timms Review…. Only a genuine reform of Pip will ensure that disabled people who can work receive the support they need to move into and stay in work.”

But PIP is paid to people who work and who don’t work. It is not paid on the basis of work – it is paid on the basis of daily living and mobility/getting around. Work does not come into the assessment, nor should it. It may help people to access work, but that is not the primary purpose of it.

The TUC statement suggests that PIP reform and the Timms review is justified and should involve consideration of work. It is now being reported in the media as ‘PIP rules should be changed to get disabled people into work.’

DPAC member Bill Scott says: ‘I’m a lifelong trade union member and long time activist but I feel utterly betrayed by what Paul Nowak has said and so will hundreds of thousands of other disabled people. Honestly I’ve spent over 20 years trying to build bridges between the trade union movement and disabled people and I feel as though I’ve totally wasted my time as all the suspicions that disabled people had about them are borne out.’

DPAC member Lee Starr Elliot moved a motion at the CWU conference calling on the TUC to do better when it comes to the gov attack on social security for deaf and disabled people: Recommitting to Action Against Disability Cuts. It was passed unanimously. Video and text below.

I stand before you today because we are witnessing a coordinated, systemic attack on disabled workers – an attack that is being dressed up as “reform” but feels like a declaration of war on our class. Last year, at the TUC Congress, we stood together. Motions 38 and 39 were passed unanimously. The entire trade union movement pledged coordinated and sustained action against disability cuts. The CWU was at the heart of that fight.

But today, there is a dangerous silence coming from Congress House.

The TUC leadership has suggested that because of minor concessions on PIP, the “emergency” has passed. They claim they no longer need to implement the actions we voted for.

Conference, they are wrong.

These concessions are a sticking plaster on a gaping wound. They are temporary, lasting only until the conclusion of the Timms Review. And let’s be clear: the promised “co-production” with disabled people is a sham. We aren’t being consulted; we are being managed.
While the TUC waits, our members are suffering. Cuts to Motability, the gutting of Access to Work, and the squeezing of the Universal Credit Health Element are not “policy adjustments” – they are life-altering emergencies.

And it’s not just the Department for Work and Pensions. Decades of austerity and the systematic underfunding of local councils have decimated social services, transport, and education. When a council can’t provide a bus or a carer, it is the disabled worker who is imprisoned in their own home.

Perhaps most sickening is the targeting of the next generation. Through the Milburn and Streeting reviews, we see a government obsessed with “over-diagnosis” and “work-readiness.” They are threatening to abolish Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and forcing 55,000 young disabled people into compulsory placements under the shadow of sanctions.

This is not “support.” This is state-sponsored bullying.

That is why this motion is vital. We are instructing our NEC to stop the TUC from dragging its feet. We are calling for:

1. *A coordinated movement-wide campaign* that exposes the cumulative impact of these cuts.

2. *An accessible, static demonstration* and a mass lobby of Parliament. We need to show them our faces and our strength.

3. *A weekend demonstration against Labour’s austerity plans.* We must send a message to this government: You cannot balance the books on the backs of disabled workers.

4. And finally, we demand an *independent disability review* – one led democratically by disabled people and trade unions, not by Whitehall bureaucrats working for the benefit of their mates and their pockets.

Conference, we don’t just want a seat at the table; we want to change the menu.

The TUC must recommit and be led by the disability community not the politicians. We must support the movement to move united and We must stand with our disabled members, not just in words, but in struggle. I move. Solidarity

Disability News Service December 11th

All Posts, Assisted Dying Bill, Benefits, DWP, Independent Living, legal challenges, local authority cuts, Mental Health, Motability, News, PIP, Politics, transport, UNCRPD, Universal Credit, welfare cuts, Welfare reforms No Responses »

Dec 112025

McFadden brags about cutting disability benefits, just as his own strategy warns of ‘deep material poverty’ 1

Minister misleads MPs as mystery deepens over new £2 billion cuts to disability benefits 3

Duty to disabled passengers in railways bill is ‘too vague’ and must be strengthened, MPs are told 5

Peers urged to ‘err on the side of caution’ and raise minimum age limit in assisted suicide bill 7

Scottish and UK governments are failing to uphold disability rights, says watchdog 9

Thousands of disabled people in one county should benefit from care charging legal case victory 11

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week 14

McFadden brags about cutting disability benefits, just as his own strategy warns of ‘deep material poverty’

The work and pensions secretary has bragged about cutting disabled people’s support, three days after launching a child poverty strategy which warned that more than a million children in families where someone was disabled were living in “deep material poverty”.

Pat McFadden told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday that his government had halved the health element for new claimants of universal credit because “under the Tory system we inherited, people got double the money for declaring themselves unfit for work”.

And he said he did not rule out further cuts to benefits.

But his comments on Sunday morning came three days after his Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), alongside the Department for Education and the prime minister, had launched Labour’s new Child Poverty Strategy.

The strategy’s evidence pack states that “single parent families and families where someone has a disability (are) particularly overrepresented in deep material poverty”.

In 2023-24, according to the strategy, there were 1.3 million children in a family where someone is disabled (22 per cent of those children) who were in “deep material poverty”.

The evidence pack points to disabled people’s “high additional living expenses such as transport, home adaptations, or specialist equipment”, while “caring responsibilities or accessibility issues can mean that it is difficult or not possible to find work that suits [those families’] requirements”.

The report itself says that “deep material poverty is especially pronounced for children in single parent families and children in families with disability”.

And it adds: “There are parents who may not be able to work, for example due to severe disability, or who fall on difficult times outside of their control.

“It is not right that we have a system where children are penalised through no fault of their own.”

Three days later, McFadden boasted to Kuenssberg about doing exactly that by slashing the health element of universal credit for most new claimants by about £50 a week from next April.

Announcing the Child Poverty Strategy, the government said it would lift about 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030 and tackle the “root causes of poverty by cutting the cost of essentials, boosting family incomes, and improving local services”.

Measures include making it easier for new parents who receive universal credit to return to work by extending eligibility for upfront childcare costs to those returning from parental leave; ending the unlawful placement of families in bed and breakfasts beyond the six-week limit; introducing a new legal duty for councils to notify schools, health visitors, and GPs when a child is placed in temporary accommodation; and taking measures to help families buy more affordable infant formula.

The government had already announced at last month’s budget that it was removing the universal credit two-child limit that was imposed by the last government in 2017.

Asked by Disability News Service (DNS) to respond to McFadden’s comments, and to say whether he would apologise for his misleading statement about claimants “declaring themselves unfit for work” – when there is a lengthy and harsh “fitness for work” assessment process – a government spokesperson said: “We are reforming the broken system we inherited by tackling perverse incentives around sickness claims, increasing face-to-face assessments, and investing £1 billion to help sick and disabled people into good, secure jobs.

“We want a welfare state that supports those who need it while helping people into work and delivering fairness to the taxpayer.

“That’s why we’ve launched the Timms Review to make PIP fair and fit for the future, while Alan Milburn’s investigation into young people and inactivity will help us tackle the key barriers behind youth unemployment.

“Thanks to our decision to scrap the two-child limit and introduce a wider package of measures for families we will lift 550,000 children out of poverty by the end of this parliament.”

This week, McFadden also released a written statement updating MPs on his department’s plans to improve its record on safeguarding benefit claimants.

It details a series of actions taken since a report on “safeguarding vulnerable claimants” was published by the Commons work and pensions committee in May.

Much of the statement had already been included in a letter he wrote to the committee on 18 November, on which he was questioned by the committee the following day.

McFadden admitted in this week’s statement that an assessment of DWP’s safeguarding approach had found “some good practice, but also variation in awareness, skills, and accountability”.

He said the first year of a new five-year DWP strategy would focus on “raising staff awareness of safeguarding responsibilities, building capability through training, and strengthening relationships with local authorities, health services, and voluntary organisations”.

He will publish a DWP safeguarding policy framework next year, setting out the department’s “comprehensive approach”.

McFadden said DWP “remains open to adopting a statutory duty” to safeguard claimants, one of the key recommendations in the committee’s report.

But there was no mention in his statement of the committee’s call for a new independent body to investigate cases where claimants have been seriously harmed by DWP’s actions.

DNS has previously shown how senior civil servants and ministers spent more than a decade covering up evidence that linked DWP’s actions with hundreds, and probably thousands, of deaths of disabled people who relied on the social security system*.

Documents secured through freedom of information requests, inquest reports, and investigations by bereaved family members show how DWP destroyed incriminating records, failed to share crucial evidence with its own independent reviewers and grieving relatives, and even lied to a coroner.

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

11 December 2025

Minister misleads MPs as mystery deepens over new £2 billion cuts to disability benefits

The disability minister has refused to apologise after misleading MPs about concerns over nearly £2 billion in new cuts to disability benefits.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has added to these transparency concerns by itself providing misleading information about the cuts, and again refusing to clarify how many disabled claimants will be affected, and how much they will lose.

Two weeks on from the budget, it is still unclear how DWP and its ministers intend to cut £85 million next year, £310 million in 2027-28, £520 million in 2028-29, £580 million in 2029-30 and £455 million in 2030-31, from spending on disability benefits.

Treasury documents, published on the day of the budget, show the cuts are connected with increasing DWP’s “capacity” to carry out reassessments of claimants through the work capability assessment (WCA), increasing the number of face-to-face benefit assessments, and “extending Personal Independence Payment [PIP] award reviews periods”.

The budget costings document says these changes will “ensure people receive the right health or disability benefit and the system is sustainable”.

But it is unclear from budget documents exactly how these changes will cut spending on disability benefits, and how any cuts will be split between disabled claimants of PIP and universal credit.

Last week, Disability News Service (DNS) reported the government’s refusal to explain how it will cut spending through these measures, despite repeated requests for clarity.

Following the DNS story, the Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesperson, Steve Darling, asked in Commons work and pensions questions for an explanation of how disabled people would be impacted by the cuts, which he said had been “quietly sneaked into the budget the other week”.

DNS has been seeking clarification on the cuts from DWP and the Treasury since 26 November, the day of the budget.

And on 1 December, DNS copied in Sir Stephen Timms – the minister for social security and disability – to an email to DWP’s press office, highlighting concerns that he was breaching the post-election pledge he made 14 months ago to improve transparency within DWP.

The email asked for an explanation of how the £1.95 billion in cuts would be achieved.

But responding in parliament on Monday (8 December) to Darling’s question about the DNS report, Sir Stephen told him: “I do not know what the honourable gentleman is referring to.

“I will happily look into the report he has spoken of.”

When DNS then asked if Sir Stephen would apologise for misleading Darling and fellow MPs, the DWP press office itself produced a misleading statement.

It said: “The £1.9 billion in welfare savings were announced by the chancellor at the budget and set out in full in the budget document.

“This will be delivered through measures such as tightening eligibility for overseas pension accrual, reforming Motability, and reducing duplication in benefit administration.”

This is not correct.

The budget costings document makes no mention of the Motability tax changes or pensions in its brief section on the £1.95 billion cuts to “health and disability benefits”.

Instead, the document refers to “operational improvements to health assessments”, including the WCA, “changing the frequency of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) award reviews”, and plans to “increase the number of face-to-face health assessments conducted across both PIP and the WCA”.

Asked why it had provided further misleading information on top of Sir Stephen’s misleading answer to Darling, DWP had not responded by 11.30am today (Thursday).

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat MP John Milne asked Sir Stephen on Monday if he agreed that the widely-ridiculed claim by Tory shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately that “millions are getting benefits for anxiety or ADHD along with a free Motability car” was “clearly nonsense” and “one of the least accurate claims ever made by a politician”.

Sir Stephen said he agreed, although he said that “choosing the most misleading claim is a tough contest”.

Another minister was asked by Liberal Democrat MP Caroline Voaden why one of her constituents in South Devon had spent “nearly two weeks calling the DWP every day to find out why his employment and support allowance had been stopped without warning”, but “each time he called, he waited for over an hour, only for the line to be cut off with no reply”.

DWP minister Andrew Western said such service was “unacceptable” and he promised to “look into it on her behalf”.

The SNP’s Chris Law asked Sir Stephen what action he was taking after nearly 1,000 new and existing claimants had a work capability assessment cancelled by private sector contractor Maximus since 9 September 2024.

He said a whistleblower had told him cancellations were “a regular occurrence, largely because of IT services provided by the DWP”, with one of his Dundee constituents having their WCA cancelled five times.

Sir Stephen said he would be “happy to look into the details”.

11 December 2025

Duty to disabled passengers in railways bill is ‘too vague’ and must be strengthened, MPs are told

A statutory duty in the new railways bill to ensure ministers and public bodies promote the needs of disabled passengers is “too vague” and must be strengthened as the legislation passes through parliament, MPs were told yesterday (Wednesday).

The transport select committee was hearing evidence from experts a day after the government’s railways bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons.

Emma Vogelmann, co-chief executive of the disabled people’s organisation Transport for All (TfA), welcomed the inclusion in the bill of a statutory duty that will force those in charge of the railways to take account of “the needs of disabled persons”.

Labour had previously dropped plans to ensure there was a statutory duty on accessibility in the bill.

But Vogelmann told MPs on the committee that the duty’s wording was “very vague” and “too unenforceable” and “doesn’t guarantee improvements for disabled passengers”, despite the “desperate change that is needed in terms of accessibility”.

She said TfA wanted the bill strengthened so there was a duty to “actively and continuously improve accessibility across the rail network” and ensure there are “measurable outcomes” that show what progress is being made every year.

The bill currently says that ministers, Great British Railways (GBR) and the Office of Rail and Road will have a duty to carry out their roles – alongside other statutory duties – in “the manner best calculated to promote the interests of users and potential users of railway passenger services including, in particular, the needs of disabled persons”.

But Vogelmann told the MPs the legislation should be strengthened to “make sure that accessibility is enforceable and that it is an over-riding, consistent priority for Great British Railways as opposed to at the moment where we feel it is potentially not given enough enforcement power and it is subject to political will in some instances”.

She said the current wording of the duty was “almost purposefully vague”, which risked perpetuating the “tick box” culture and lack of meaningful action on accessibility across the rail system.

She added: “The lack of enforceable standards, the lack of enforceable actions, is really why disabled people feel excluded from the rail network at the moment and why many of us face so many barriers.”

The previous day, a string of MPs had highlighted the need for meaningful improvements to accessibility on the railways, during the bill’s second reading.

The bill will create GBR, a new publicly-owned company that will bring together management of passenger services and rail infrastructure.

The government also plans to use the bill to introduce a stronger passenger watchdog and to simplify fares and tickets.

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander told MPs the bill would “sweep away the fragmentation and dysfunction that have plagued the railway for too long and will bring the 17 organisations involved in running the railway together into one public body, Great British Railways, which is the directing mind that this industry has long called for”.

Many MPs in the debate called for improvements to the government’s Access for All programme, which funds access improvements at rail stations.

Conservative MP Mark Pritchard said “more needs to be done on step-free access” because there was “currently very little in the bill that suggests that more will be done, particularly for rural stations such as Cosford, Shifnal or Albrighton in Shropshire.

“If it cannot be done at every station, and there is no money for that, there at least needs to be step-free access and improved disability access somewhere along inter-county railway lines.”

Adam Dance, the Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil, said: “Too many rural railway stations are not accessible for disabled people.

“Without support staff, constituents in Yeovil have had serious accidents at railway stations.

“Although the government’s accessibility priorities, which we are debating today, are welcome, does my honourable friend agree that we need a strengthened Access for All programme?”

Keir Mather, a junior transport minister, told MPs he had “heard the calls from colleagues across the house about the importance of the Access for All scheme”, and that the government was continuing to fund the scheme.

Disability News Service reported last month that the government’s new “roadmap to an accessible railway” – covering England, Scotland and Wales – appeared to suggest a reduction in real spending on the Access for All programme, with the roadmap promising a future commitment to only spend “up to” £70 million a year.

Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs voted against the bill receiving a second reading, but it was easily passed by 329 votes in favour to 173 votes against.

11 December 2025

Peers urged to ‘err on the side of caution’ and raise minimum age limit in assisted suicide bill

Peers have been urged to “err on the side of caution” and raise the minimum age limit for an assisted death from 18 to 25, as part of a controversial bill that aims to legalise the practice.

As the House of Lords again debated some of the hundreds of amendments proposed to the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill, peers were told that a minimum age of 18 was “contrary to the mounting evidence of when the brain is fully formed”.

Labour peer Baroness [Luciana] Berger told fellow peers last Friday (5 December) that social media had become “a powerful driver of harm” and that research showed young people in vulnerable situations were “disproportionately exposed to posts that glamorise suicide or present suicidal thoughts as normal, appealing or even fashionable”.

She said she was “haunted” by the words of a young disabled woman who had said in evidence at an earlier stage of the bill: “I’m in care. I’ve got disabilities. The government will pay for me to die under this bill, but it won’t pay for me to live.”

Baroness Berger reminded peers that the children’s commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, had said she would “far rather that we erred on the side of caution, protecting those who have had terrible lives, terrible experiences, have been abused, have had their families turn them out, protecting those [with] extreme mental illness, protecting those with special educational needs and disabilities, protecting anorexic children who are heading into adulthood”.

Baroness Berger said: “I am clear that we must continue to say to children and young people: ‘Yes, your life matters. Even if it will be a short life, it matters.’”

Labour peer Lord Falconer, who is sponsoring the bill in the Lords, said he believed 18 was still the right age, but that “maybe the answer is some assurance that there is a more intense assessment for people aged between 18 and 25”.

The issue is likely to be debated again at the bill’s report stage.

Meanwhile, the disabled Conservative peer Lord [Kevin] Shinkwin warned of a further attempt to “weaken” the bill’s protections after Lord Falconer proposed an amendment that would affect the adjustments that must be made for those with language and literacy barriers, including people with learning difficulties.

The bill currently states that doctors assessing someone for an assisted suicide “must first ensure the provision of adjustments for language and literacy barriers”.

But Lord Falconer suggested in his amendment that doctors should instead “take all reasonable steps to ensure… effective communication”.

Lord Shinkwin said he failed to see how the change would “do anything other than weaken this bill” and would “fundamentally weaken one of the bill’s safeguards, such as they are”.

He said the bill “makes a mockery” of the Labour party’s “fine, noble and honourable tradition” of “advancing disability rights”.

He said: “It shreds a tradition that deserves to be preserved, not sacrificed in such a profoundly cynical and misleading way as to make out, as the amendment does, that this is somehow only a drafting change.

“There is a reason why not one organisation of or for disabled people supports the bill; they know that disabled people need the bill like a hole in the head.

“I marvel that the noble and learned lord does not seem to realise that the bill is dangerous enough already without the removal of provisions that would at least acknowledge the obligation to first ensure that communication adjustments were made; for example, for people with learning disabilities or users of British Sign Language.”

There was also criticism of Lord Falconer’s proposed amendment by Baroness [Nuala] O’Loan, the human rights expert and former police ombudsman for Northern Ireland, who said his amendment would introduce “a far less specific test, and consideration must be given to setting standards for the level of communication which is required”.

She asked Lord Falconer whether his amendment would “inadvertently disadvantage those with specific learning difficulties and similar vulnerable groups”.

Lord Falconer insisted that the amendment was “not a watering down at all” but he said he would discuss Lord Shinkwin’s concerns with him before the next stage of the bill, although “at the moment, it looks to me to offer just as good, if not better, protection”.

Peers have now dealt with only six groups of amendments, out of the – currently – 84 they will need to get through to move onto the next stage of the bill in the Lords, with further debate planned tomorrow (Friday).

The Hansard Society said this week that if the Lords continued at its current pace it would “far fall short of what is needed to complete the remaining groups in time”, with parliament’s current session due to end in the spring, probably in May.

11 December 2025

Scottish and UK governments are failing to uphold disability rights, says watchdog

The Scottish and UK governments are both failing to uphold the rights of disabled people in key areas, according to an annual report by Scotland’s human rights watchdog.

Two of the 10 areas of “urgent concern” highlighted by the Scottish Human Rights Commission in its State of the Nation 2025 report focus on continued breaches of disabled people’s rights.

The report – presented this week to the Scottish parliament – says the support for people with learning difficulties and autistic people to live in their own homes is “inadequate”, with many forced to live in accommodation that is “institutional, inappropriate, and not in the area that they would call home”.

The Scottish government has failed to put in place the necessary community-based support to deliver the right to independent living, it says.

It also points to the lack of “transparency and monitoring” to ensure action in this area meets human rights requirements.

The report also warns that disability benefits fail to provide a “decent standard of living” and are at risk of being cut, even though disabled people are more likely to live in poverty than people living in households where no-one is disabled.

Disabled people and disabled people’s organisations told the commission last year that social security payments that are meant to cover additional disability-related costs for daily living “are in fact being used to cover basic household expenses such as food”.

Disabled people are “going without enough income to meet costs” and facing rising debt, and are often unable to pay for fuel, including the cost of charging their medical equipment.

The report adds: “Despite these impossible choices, UK politicians have been actively considering further cuts and changes to disability support.”

And, it says, some of the proposed policy choices “actively undermine the rights of disabled people”.

It particularly highlights the £50-a-week cut to the health element of universal credit for most new claimants, from next April, which is happening at a time when disabled people “are struggling to make ends meet”.

The cut, it says, “is particularly inconsistent” with the UK government’s obligation to realise rights progressively under the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Despite the UK government failing to rule out future cuts to spending on personal independence payment (PIP), the Scottish government – which is now responsible for its own version of the extra costs benefit, adult disability payment (ADP) – has “indicated that it does not intend to change ADP to reduce spending”, the report says.

But it says that the Scottish government has still not demonstrated that it has taken a human rights approach to budgeting “that both aims to ensure there is no worsening of disability-related poverty” and, where there is such poverty, to reduce it.

It adds: “Devolution is no excuse for failing to respect, protect and fulfil human rights.”

Derek, a disabled person interviewed for the report, says: “It feels like a lot of the human rights are being chipped away.

“We keep working away to make sure disabled people’s voices are being heard, but sometimes it can be disheartening, and I feel like I don’t have the energy.”

He has been supported by Glasgow Disability Alliance, and he told the commission: “My confidence came, not as an individual but from being involved in and as an ally to a movement.

“The barriers affect so many areas of life. It took me 20 years of fighting my local housing authority to get information in an accessible format, never mind accessible housing.”

Among the report’s calls for action from the Scottish government, it says the necessary housing and social care support must be in place to ensure a right to independent living.

And it says ADP and “other forms of social security and financial support to cover the costs of disability” must “meet those specific needs”, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Other areas of concern highlighted by the report include healthcare provision; the housing crisis that is denying people across Scotland access to “safe, affordable and adequate housing”; high levels of food insecurity and unaffordability; and changes to the UK social security system that “disadvantage the most marginalised people and families”.

Professor Angela O’Hagan, chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, said: “People are struggling to heat their homes, feed their families, or access basic services, and this is fuelling real frustration and tension across our communities.

“At times like these, human rights matter more than ever. They provide the framework that requires public bodies to act fairly, protect people’s dignity, and direct resources to those who need them most.

“The most effective way to rebuild trust and reduce anger is to make these rights a lived reality for everyone.”

She added: “This report is a clear call to action.

“We urge the Scottish parliament and all public bodies to use its findings to make better decisions about legislation, budgeting and service delivery.

“Human rights set the minimum standards that people in Scotland should be able to depend on, especially during tough times.”

Meanwhile, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has warned the UK government it is failing to uphold “fundamental” human rights, including access to healthcare for disabled people, the right to peaceful protest, and freedom from exploitation for migrant workers.  

In a new report, published on Human Rights Day, the commission assessed progress on some of the 302 recommendations (PDF) made by other UN member states at the UK’s Universal Periodic Review in November 2022.

The EHRC report says successive government disability strategies and action plans have failed to focus on improving health services for disabled people, despite data showing disabled people in England face greater barriers to healthcare and are more often on NHS hospital waiting-lists than non-disabled people.

11 December 2025

Thousands of disabled people in one county should benefit from care charging legal case victory

Hundreds, or even thousands, of service-users in Kent should benefit from a legal case taken by a disabled woman who spent years over-paying care charges because the county council failed to tell her about crucial rules.

Kent County Council – which is now run by the right-wing Reform UK party after a landslide election victory earlier this year – has now backed down and agreed to do more to tell disabled people in the county how calculating their disability-related spending could reduce their care charges.

A disabled woman known as PXA had been forced to cancel her council-funded support because she could not afford the higher charges imposed in September 2024 when the council changed its charging policy, leading to her and thousands more disabled people in the county seeing sharp increases in their weekly care charges.

After seeking legal advice, she learned that she had been overpaying her care charges for years because her disability-related expenses had never been assessed.

PXA won permission for a judicial review of the council’s actions, but the local authority backed down and settled the case, days before a trial was due to begin last week.

The case revolved around the council’s failure to do enough to tell disabled people about the disability-related expenditure (DRE) system.

When calculating a person’s social care charges, a local authority must – if it treats their disability benefits as income – deduct what that person spends in DRE.

But Kent County Council’s policy since 2003 had been to deduct a standard amount for DRE and only to carry out an assessment of their actual spending if the disabled person asked for one.

The council set this standard amount at £21 in 2003, and reduced it to £17 in 2011, failing to increase it to allow for inflation for the next 14 years.

Legal firm Gold Jennings, which represents PXA and three other claimants, found that between them they had overpaid tens of thousands of pounds in care charges.

The firm believes there are “hundreds if not thousands” of other disabled people in Kent who were unaware that they should request an assessment of DRE to try to reduce their care charges.

The council’s own statistics show that, of about 16,000 individuals paying for their care in the county, only a few hundred had requested a DRE assessment.

Gold Jennings said PXA’s case was assisted by “compelling” evidence from the disabled people’s organisation Inclusion London, which used its virtual DRE assistant to highlight how disability-related spending for many people was likely to be significantly more than the £17 per week used by Kent County Council.

Even the council’s own figures – using individual assessments carried out in the 11 months after the September 2024 policy change – put average DRE at £55.46 per week.

Disabled people with this average level of DRE would have been overpaying care charges by nearly £2,000 per year.

PXA provided evidence that she had “never properly been told about DRE or that she could request an assessment”, said Gold Jennings.

The council has now agreed to make significant changes to its policy, including referring to DRE in its annual charging letters; providing clearer guidance in its DRE factsheet; and changing guidance to ensure council staff tell claimants about DRE and its importance in cutting charges.

It has also agreed to credit a “goodwill” amount to PXA to reduce her future care charges.

Svetlana Kotova, director of campaigns and justice at Inclusion London, said: “We are pleased with the outcome of this legal challenge and sincerely hope the changes that Kent agreed to make will enable many disabled people who use social care to keep more of their money.

“This case shows very powerfully the problems in practice with the DRE assessment process, which in theory allows disabled people to prove their extra disability costs so that they can keep more of their disability benefits, but is often unworkable.

“People don’t know about DRE and the process of claiming it is very complicated and often demeaning.

“It is wrong that people with very high support needs end up being overcharged for the essential care they need.

“This just pushes disabled people into deeper poverty.

“This is why Inclusion London have been campaigning to scrap care charging altogether.”

Clare Jennings, head of public law at Gold Jennings, said the consequences of the council’s actions were that her clients had been overpaying by thousands of pounds a year for their care, for many years.

She said: “I am deeply concerned that my clients’ situation is not unique and that there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of others like them in Kent, and thousands more in other local authority areas who operate similar policies, who have overpaid for their care, enriching local authorities by tens of millions of pounds.”

A council spokesperson said: “Faced with increasing demands for complex care, rising costs of care and a lack of adequate funding from central government, we are having to take tough decisions to make sure future essential services are sustainable.

“Unlike a number of other UK councils, Kent County Council delayed using powers given to local authorities under 2014’s Care Act to take into account higher, or enhanced, rates of disability benefits when assessing how much people should contribute to the cost of their care.

“Following public consultation in 2024, the decision to change this policy and increase the amount some people contribute to the cost of their care was not taken lightly and we included a £900,000 contingency in the budget to help with increased disability-related expenses.”

11 December 2025

DWP and Treasury silent over mystery of £2 billion cuts to disability benefits

The government has refused to explain the impact that last week’s budget will have on disabled people who receive benefits, despite repeated requests for clarity over cuts of up to £580 million a year.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Treasury have both failed to provide any details of the cuts to spending on disability benefits of nearly £2 billion over five years.

It is just DWP’s latest failure of transparency since Labour’s new minister for social security and disability, Sir Stephen Timms, promised to improve its openness to public scrutiny in September 2024.

Treasury documents published on the day of last week’s budget showed that, from next April, the government will increase DWP’s “capacity” to carry out reassessments of disabled people’s capacity for work through the work capability assessment (WCA).

DWP will also carry out more face-to-face assessments, which have been drastically cut back since the early weeks of the pandemic, both through WCAs and assessments of eligibility for personal independence payment (PIP).

The Treasury’s budget costings document also said DWP would be “changing the frequency” of reviews of PIP awards, which would allow it to “complete award reviews on time, reducing the number of people who are called to a PIP assessment when their function has not changed, and allowing providers to redirect resource to WCA re-assessments”.

The budget document described this measure as “extending Personal Independence Payment award reviews periods”.

The budget costings document said these changes will “ensure people receive the right health or disability benefit and the system is sustainable”.

But there are significant question-marks over these measures, because the changes together are set to save the government £85 million next year, £310 million in 2027-28, £520 million in 2028-29, £580 million in 2029-30 and £455 million in 2030-31, a total of £1.95 billion over five years.

Disability News Service (DNS) has been asking the Treasury and DWP to clarify how these cuts will be made for more than a week.

The Treasury initially claimed that the budget documents were not announcing new policies, but were “just costing existing plans from planned welfare reforms – so nothing new from this”.

But neither department has been able to point to where or when these “existing plans” were announced by DWP, particularly the changes in reviews of PIP awards, and how these changes will affect PIP recipients and those on out-of-work disability benefits.

Although the government has previously made it clear that it wanted to increase reassessments through the WCA, and to increase the number of face-to-face WCAs and PIP assessments, these ideas were included in March’s green paper.

Green papers are supposed to lay out policy proposals for consultation, but they are not announcements of final decisions on government policy.

DNS has been unable to find any DWP announcements on these and the other measures in last week’s budget documents since the spring budget on 26 March 2025, other than a brief reference to carrying out more PIP face-to-face assessments in a speech by the then work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall in May.

Both DWP and the Treasury have refused to provide clarity on the budget changes, with DWP instead releasing a statement that failed to explain what measures it was taking on PIP award reviews*.

It is the latest in a string of DWP failures on transparency since Labour came to power, continuing years of similar failings under successive Conservative-led governments.

At Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, in September 2024, Sir Stephen told DNS: “The department has absurdly refused to answer lots of the questions that you have asked and that is something that we want to change… because public scrutiny is a good thing, and it puts pressure on ministers and on civil servants to have the consequences of what they are doing known about publicly.”

Meanwhile, DWP’s controversial new anti-fraud bill – now to be known as the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error, and Recovery) Act – has become law after receiving royal assent on Tuesday.

Last month, cross-party MPs warned that ministers’ refusal to introduce a key protection into the bill could see a repeat of the countless deaths caused by the austerity measures of past governments.

And they warned that future “authoritarian” governments could misuse the powers the Labour government has claimed through the bill, which applies to England, Scotland and Wales.

One of those powers will allow DWP to force banks to examine the accounts of claimants of means-tested benefits and then provide details of any accounts where there have been potential breaches of benefit eligibility rules.

Disability Rights UK said it was “deeply concerned” at the “bank spying bill” becoming law.

It said on X/Twitter: “A government agency that is notorious for punitive sanctions and bureaucratic faults that have cost lives, this will have dire consequences.”

*The statement is included here as a footnote, as it failed to answer the questions put to the department by DNS: “We are increasing the number of face-to-face assessments and tackling the backlog of Work Capability Assessments we inherited, by changing the frequency of PIP assessment reviews. This will ensure claimants receive the right level of support while at the same time reducing unnecessary award reviews, as we shift our focus from welfare to work, skills and opportunities.”

4 December 2025

‘Unacceptable’ new figures show rejections of Access to Work claims have shot up this year

Ministers have been forced to admit that the proportion of Access to Work claims they are rejecting has leapt by more than a fifth this year, with disabled campaigners describing the figures as “unacceptable” and “clearly worrying”.

The figures, provided through a response to a written parliamentary question, show the proportion of applications rejected has risen by more than 22 per cent in 2025-26 so far, compared with 2024-25.

This follows a rise of more than 12 per cent in 2024-25, Labour’s first year in control of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)*.

It is the strongest evidence yet to support concerns being raised by disabled campaigners, who have been warning for months that Access to Work (AtW) support is being cut.

The figures came just days after Disability News Service (DNS) reported that DWP was claiming that “an issue” with data was preventing it releasing detailed monthly figures on AtW claims.

The new figures were released by Sir Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, in response to a question from Labour’s former shadow minister for disabled people, Vicky Foxcroft.

Rather than requesting more detailed monthly data, as DNS had done, she had asked for the number and proportion of AtW claims that had been closed in each year since 2022-23.

In 2022-23, Sir Stephen told her, 31,482 applications were not approved, which was 30 per cent of all decisions.

The proportion of applications rejected fell to 24 per cent in 2023-24, the last full year of the Conservative government, but then last year under the new Labour government – which claims it is trying to increase the number of disabled people in work – it rose to 27 per cent of all applications being rejected (a 12.5 per cent increase).

And so far this year (April to October), the proportion of claims rejected has increased even more sharply, with 27,297 applications not approved, one in three (33 per cent) of all decisions, a rise of more than 22 per cent (six percentage points) on 2024-25.

Although he provided these figures, Sir Stephen failed to provide Foxcroft with data showing the frequency of reasons for rejections (which include “no contact from the applicant”, “insufficient evidence provided”, “applicant not eligible” and “application not pursued”.

Disabled consultant, broadcaster and campaigner Shani Dhanda, co-founder of the Access to Work Collective, said the increase in claims being rejected was “unacceptable”.

But she also called again for clarity from ministers on exactly what was happening within the AtW system.

She told DNS: “We still have no idea where people are being lost in the system, and the vague reasons given tell us nothing about what actually went wrong.

“What we see on the ground is chaos: phone calls going unanswered, people cut off mid-call, evidence repeatedly misplaced, and applicants waiting so long for approvals, change of circumstances or renewals, that work opportunities disappear.

“The fact that non-approvals have jumped to 33 per cent, the highest in recent years, while transparency has been stripped back, is unacceptable.

“Access to Work is meant to support disabled workers, not shut them out.”

David Buxton, chief executive of the disabled people’s organisation Action on Disability, which in October produced evidence showing the average AtW support hours of disabled people it had been working with had plunged from 22.5 to just four in two-and-a-half years, said the new figures were “clearly worrying”.

And he criticised the department for the lack of transparency over what was driving the increased rejections.

He said: “Without clear data, we are all being left to guess, but what’s absolutely clear is that disabled people need a system that works.

“We must push for workable, sustainable and effective solutions that genuinely support people to stay in work.”

He added: “The numbers point to a system that is struggling to meet disabled people’s needs.

“When more than 100,000 applications over recent years have not been approved, and when a third of decisions this year are non-approvals, that has a very real impact on people’s ability to stay in work or take up new roles.”

Catherine Eadie, a social enterprise founder and Access to Work claimant, and a member of the Access to Work Collective, added: “For those of us dealing with Access to Work daily, these figures match what we see: procedural errors, misinterpretation of guidance, misplaced evidence, and delays so long that people’s jobs and businesses become unviable while they wait.

“When approval rates drop this sharply and explanations get vaguer, trust is impossible.”

Foxcroft told DNS: “I encourage ministerial colleagues to investigate this concerning increase in the number of cases being rejected by the DWP and ensure that it feeds into their wider work on reform of the current programme.”

She said: “It has long been clear that Access to Work is not fit for purpose.

“I am pleased that ministers have acknowledged this and begun to take action through the Pathways to Work green paper.

“These statistics show, however, that there is still a long way to go towards removing the workplace barriers disabled people face every day.”

DWP is expected to announce its proposals for AtW reform in the next few weeks.

*It took control in July 2024, so the first three months of 2024-25 were under Conservative control

4 December 2025

Watchdog’s silence after removing figures that showed social security spending is not ‘spiralling’

The government’s “independent” spending watchdog has refused to explain why it removed figures from its crucial budget forecast report that proved spending on social security is not spiralling out of control.

The move by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will help the government – and commentators – justify expected future cuts to spending, such as to personal independence payment and out-of-work disability benefits.

This week, the Sunday Times reported that the government was set to push ahead with plans, first proposed in March’s Pathways to Work green paper, to prevent disabled young people under the age of 22 from receiving the health element of universal credit.

And in a speech in London on Monday, the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, said that the social security system had “trapped people in poverty”, particularly young disabled people.

Her said young disabled people were being “simply written off” and trapped “in a cycle of worklessness and dependency for decades” which “costs the country money” and was “bad for our productivity”.

Disability News Service and academics, other journalists and disabled activists have been using the OBR figures since early this year to dismantle claims that “welfare spending” is increasing at an unmanageable rate.

But these crucial figures have been omitted from OBR’s latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook report, which was published last week alongside the budget.

The figures were first highlighted by a disabled activist in February, after they were included in the OBR’s October 2024 Economic and Fiscal Outlook.

The October 2024 figures showed that the share of GDP* taken by social security spending was stable, and was even predicted to fall from 11.1 per cent to 11.0 per cent in 2027-28 and 2028-29, before rising slightly back to 11.1 per cent in 2029-30.

Updated figures were included in an OBR report in March this year**, and they showed that social security spending was predicted to be even lower – as a proportion of GDP – than previously predicted.

The figures were included in one of the charts released alongside the Economic and Fiscal Outlook report, which is published alongside every budget.

That chart (chart 5.2) tracked “welfare spending” as a proportion of GDP for every year back to 2010-11, when it was 12 per cent of GDP.

But last week’s version of chart 5.2 was substantially different.

Instead of showing how spending has changed year by year since 2010-11 as a proportion of GDP, table 5.2 now shows how the proportion of government spending in different areas has changed relative to 2010-11 levels, making it impossible to compare social security spending levels year-by-year and prove that it has not “spiralled”.

What last week’s OBR report does show (see table 5.1 in the main report) is that the chancellor’s spending decisions – including scrapping the two-child benefit cap – have not led to an increase in the proportion of GDP being spent on social security, compared with previous predictions.

The figures show that welfare spending for 2024-25 was significantly lower than predicted last year (10.8 per cent compared with a predicted 11.1 per cent) as a proportion of GDP, while the predicted spending for this year is also lower than was forecast by the OBR last year (10.9 per cent versus 11.1 per cent), while the forecast levels for the next four years have remained unchanged.

These figures show that any attempt by media, civil servants and politicians – such as chancellor Rachel Reeves last year, DWP in January, and opposition MPs such as Tory leader Kemi Badenoch in September – to make false claims that social security spending is spiralling out of control would be misleading, if not deeply dishonest.

This week, OBR’s press office refused three times to even acknowledge emails asking why it had removed the historic figures from the report.

The Treasury had also not commented by noon today (Thursday) on whether it requested OBR to remove the historic welfare spending figures.

OBR’s refusal to comment came in a week that its chair, Richard Hughes, resigned after the watchdog mistakenly published its outlook report before Reeves had delivered her budget speech to MPs.

*Gross domestic product, the size of the country’s economy in a particular year

**Chapter five of OBR’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook – March 2025, chart 5.2, shows welfare spending as a percentage of GDP: https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-march-2025/

4 December 2025

Manifesto calls on next Welsh government to enable disabled people to ‘flourish and thrive’

The national body for disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) in Wales has issued five major demands to political parties ahead of next spring’s elections to the Welsh Senedd.

The Disabled People’s Manifesto, published by Disability Wales, includes a call for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) to be incorporated into Welsh law.

It also demands a “robust” disabled people’s rights plan – which should include the appointment of a minister for disabled people – ahead of the current Welsh government’s 10-year plan, which is likely to be published this month.

And it calls for Welsh politicians to champion disabled people’s leadership – supporting disabled leaders in public life, and ensuring they are represented in decision-making and policy development – and for government to fund the work of DPOs.

The manifesto demands a guaranteed right to independent living, with reforms to social care, health and housing that focus on dignity, choice, and accessibility, and for the new government to promote inclusion, and end the institutionalisation of disabled people.

And it calls for the social security system to be devolved from the UK to the Welsh government, as has been – partially – achieved in Scotland.

The manifesto, From Barely Surviving to Truly Thriving, has been developed with DPOs from across Wales and individual disabled people.

In all, more than 250 disabled people helped shape the manifesto, which outlines demands from politicians over the four years from the May 2026 elections.

Although the Welsh Labour government included a pledge to incorporate UNCRPD into Welsh law in its programme for government in 2021, Disability Wales says no progress has been made towards this goal, and so the convention remains “a guiding framework rather than a legally enforceable standard”.

A draft version of the Welsh government’s Disabled People’s Rights Plan, when it was published in May, saw the government accused of putting up a “smokescreen” with a document that lacked “teeth” and was full of pledges to carry out reviews and produce guidance while offering no new money.

The 61-page plan included no significant promises on key areas such as social care, accessible housing and transport, and disability poverty, and was short of concrete targets.

Disability Wales says in its manifesto that the draft plan “must be strengthened to ensure long-term impact and accountability”, while there must be “sustained investment and infrastructure” for DPOs so they can be “essential partners” in delivering the plan.

Disability Wales also says in its manifesto that disabled people “remain underrepresented in political and public life”.

It calls for all political parties to publish the percentage of their representatives who identify as disabled people and their targets for improving these figures in the run-up to the 2026 Senedd and 2027 local government elections.

The manifesto says that barriers to independent living “strip away autonomy and keep people trapped in unsuitable housing, inflexible care arrangements and discriminatory environments”, and it calls instead for accessible housing, inclusive health services, and an end to institutional care.

It also calls for a national campaign to tackle the “ableism, stigma, and discrimination” faced by disabled people.

Devolving social security systems to Wales would enable “more responsive, fair, and inclusive support systems, designed in coproduction with disabled people and DPOs”, the manifesto says.

It concludes: “Disabled people in Wales deserve more than mere survival.

“We deserve the right to truly flourish and thrive.

“We know that change is possible, but it requires commitment, collaboration and courage.

“We call on all political parties to adopt these five calls and work with us to build a Wales where disabled people are not just supported but celebrated.”

Disability Wales has also launched a “commitment form”, asking every political party and candidate to state clearly and publicly where they stand on each of the manifesto’s five calls.

Their responses will be updated during the Senedd election campaign and used afterwards to monitor delivery and implementation of the policy demands.

Rhian Davies, chief executive of Disability Wales (DW), said: “DW’s vision is for an inclusive, equitable and barrier free society.

“Disabled people in Wales deserve more than mere survival; we deserve the right to truly flourish and thrive.

“Following the recent module two Covid-19 Inquiry report, which criticised government failure to appreciate the level of risk faced by disabled people, resulting in escalating death rates and a reversal of rights, this manifesto is a call to action for all political parties to commit to real change.

“Together, we can move from surviving to thriving.”

Natalie Jarvis, DW’s policy and research officer, said: “As someone involved in the co-production of this manifesto alongside DPOs and the voices of hundreds of disabled people across Wales, I have heard stories of exhaustion, frustration and injustice but also of hope, resilience and vision.

“Disabled people know exactly what needs to change.

“What we need now is the political will to act and for parties to commit to our calls within their own manifestos ahead of the elections.”

4 December 2025

Deaf people who use BSL face ‘entrenched’ health and social care exclusion, say government advisers

Deaf people who use British Sign Language (BSL) face “entrenched” and “systemic” exclusion from health and social care services across Britain, according to a new report by government advisers.

The report* found that Deaf and Deafblind people’s lack of access to services costs the Treasury millions of pounds through “unmet needs, wasted appointments and delays in care”.

Better access to health and social care services would allow more Deaf and Deafblind people to find work and progress in their careers, and contribute more through taxation, says the report.

The report focuses on the experiences of Deaf and Deafblind BSL-users in England, Scotland and Wales, and is based on a review of their access to services carried out by the government’s BSL Advisory Board’s health and social care sub-group.

The report found a “deep-rooted lack of trust” within Deaf and Deafblind communities following repeated experiences of exclusion from services, which often left them “traumatised” by a lack of access to health and social care.

One Deaf woman spent five months sleeping in an accident and emergency cubicle because there was no bed available in mental health services that had BSL support.

Repeated access failures and exclusions often cause “accumulated trauma” over a person’s lifetime, says the report.

BSL users usually need “high levels of motivation, perseverance with inaccessible systems and patience with the inexperience of professionals trying to meet their needs” if they want to access services, the report found.

Many BSL-users avoid social care and health services completely due to their past experiences because they believe their communication needs will not be met.

There are believed to be about 87,000 Deaf BSL-users in the UK, and 25,000 people who use BSL as their main language.

The report makes a string of recommendations to the UK and devolved governments, including calls to establish national, 24/7 video relay services for England and Wales; set up national BSL complaints services within England, Scotland and Wales; provide mandatory deaf, deafblind and BSL awareness training for all NHS and social care staff; and address “language deprivation” in deaf children through “early and comprehensive” BSL provision and support for families.

The Locked Out report* follows the passing of the British Sign Language (BSL) Act in April 2022, which was introduced as a private members’ bill by Labour MP Rosie Cooper and recognised BSL as a language of England, Wales, and Scotland.

The act provided Deaf people with no new rights, but it secured significant support from the Deaf community, and it led the following year to the government setting up its BSL Advisory Board to offer advice to ministers on key issues affecting the Deaf community.

All the board’s members are deaf or deafblind, or have deaf parents or a deaf child.

Craig Crowley, the board’s co-chair, says in a foreword to the report that the document is a “powerful call to action and a roadmap towards a more inclusive and equitable future for BSL users within our health and social care systems”.

He says: “We acknowledge the distressing reality of delayed diagnoses, inadequate treatment, and the emotional impact of communication breakdowns, but we strongly believe these are challenges we can, and must, overcome.”

The British Deaf Association (BDA) welcomed the new report and its “stark” findings, describing it as the “most comprehensive examination ever undertaken into the barriers faced by Deaf and Deafblind BSL users across the NHS and social care systems”.

It said the persistent failures in communication access were causing avoidable harm, entrenched inequalities, and the denial of basic rights for tens of thousands of Deaf and Deafblind people across the UK.

Rebecca Mansell, BDA’s chief executive, said: “This is a ground-breaking report that lays bare the challenges that deaf signers face every day with the NHS and care system. 

“This report confirms what Deaf and Deafblind people have been telling government for decades: the health and social care system is not built with our communities in mind. 

“We are particularly delighted to see the strong focus in the report’s recommendations on the steps that governments must take to address language deprivation in deaf children and adults.

“We strongly endorse the recommendation that governments provide free BSL courses for the families of deaf children. 

“This recommendation backs up the recently published report, The Value of British Sign Language – An Economic Analysis, written by Rand Europe, the policy research organisation.

“This reports that the teaching of BSL to young deaf children and their families delivers an impressive economic return on investment – up to £14 for every £1 invested. 

“This report requires a strong and supportive government response, and we will be contacting BDA members to urge them to write to their MPs.” 

The Department of Health and Social Care had failed to comment on the report by noon today (Thursday).

*Locked out: Exclusion of deaf and deafblind BSL users from health and social care in the UK

4 December 2025

Years of scapegoating rhetoric has led to ‘envy and resentment’ of those with blue badges, research finds

Years of scapegoating rhetoric and politicians casting disabled people as “scroungers” have reinforced prejudices about the blue badge parking scheme and led to “envy and resentment” instead of equal access, according to a four-year research project.

Half-hearted implementation of the scheme has left disabled people who rely on it feeling worried, angry and frustrated, and like “second-class citizens”, because of the encounters they have had while trying to use their badges, the research concludes.

The research was carried out by Vera Kubenz, a disabled postgraduate researcher at the University of Birmingham, and herself a blue badge holder.

She said this week that she feared that recent rhetoric around disabled people receiving “free cars” through the Motability scheme, and the need for cuts to disability benefits, would lead to a fresh wave of such aggressive and hateful encounters.

In a summary report based on her research, Disabled People’s Encounters with Strangers in Accessible Parking Spaces, Kubenz concludes that, as long as there is wider societal prejudice, hostility and suspicion aimed at disabled people, “there can be no such thing as a truly accessible space”.

As part of her research, she surveyed more than 300 disabled people with experience of encounters – good and bad – while using their blue badges.

In the survey, 74 per cent of disabled people said they had been accused of “faking” their impairments while using their blue badges.

These types of encounters were particularly common for younger disabled people, with some told they were “too young” to be disabled.

One of those who took part in the survey, who is 49, said: “A member of the public stopped me as I was parking in a Blue Badge space.

“He knocked on my window, I wound it down and he told me I shouldn’t be parking there, and I had no right to be there.

“I explained I was disabled. He said I was too young and there was nothing wrong with me.

“I proceeded to get into my wheelchair and get out of the car, in fairness, he did look quite embarrassed when I got out of the car.”

The impact of such encounters was clear, with 91 per cent of disabled people who took part in the survey saying they worried about them, with 40 per cent always worrying and 35 per cent worrying a lot, while more than two thirds (68 per cent) said they sometimes did not use their vehicles because of the worry.

Another survey participant said: “A man in his 50s came over trying to take our car keys out of the car (luckily it was a keyless ignition Motability vehicle).

“When he realised he couldn’t get the key he came round to my side trying to grab my Blue Badge.

“We was called every name under the sun. The c word, the n word, lots of f yous.

“All because we had parked in the disabled bay… I was that upset with the whole incident I wanted to just leave and not have my operation.”

Common locations for encounters were supermarket carparks (87 per cent of those surveyed), near shops (70 per cent) and at hospitals or GP surgeries (58 per cent).

Most people (70 per cent) experienced encounters between a few times a year and a few times a month.

People with chronic illness, who were neurodivergent, or who had mental health conditions were particularly likely to be confronted over their use of accessible parking spaces.

Many of those surveyed said that being under constant suspicion meant they always felt on edge and worried that an encounter could happen at any moment.

Two thirds (67 per cent) of disabled people taking part in the survey had experienced hate and harassment in accessible parking spaces.

Negative encounters could involve staring, tutting, or hushed comments, while nearly half (46 per cent) of people had been insulted and a third (32 per cent) had been threatened, while some (six per cent) had been subjected to physical violence.

But most people (69 per cent) had also had at least one positive encounter, often a positive chat with another blue badge holder.

Kubenz says in the report that enforcement of blue badge spaces is often a postcode lottery.

Although some of those surveyed said their councils took action to enforce rules around the use of blue badges, many others said their council took no action.

One said: “I wish that Blue Badge parking was properly policed because what we have now is the worst of both worlds, people making assumptions and not looking at the badge and trying to police it for the benefit of those who do, but in doing so make lots of assumptions.”

Ultimately, says Kubenz, all disabled people who use blue badges risk confrontations because “nobody can live up to the impossible stereotype required for being truly ‘deserving’”.

The survey of 304 blue badge holders was carried out in 2023, while there were 20 follow-up interviews; it was open to holders of blue badges who had had at least one encounter, were over 18, and lived in England.

Kubenz told Disability News Service this week: “I am very concerned that the renewed government and media statements about disabled people’s ‘free cars’ and cuts to both in- and out-of-work benefits will intensify the resentment non-disabled people have against all disabled people, and that this will lead to more encounters because people feel entitled to ‘police’ blue badge bays because they are seen as a perk rather than essential for access.

“These confrontations can range from underhanded comments to intrusive questions, verbal abuse, and even physical violence.

“I fear the current government rhetoric will directly contribute to more aggression and hate towards disabled people.”

She added: “Many of the people interviewed had little faith that the government would change anything about blue badge policy or awareness, precisely because they are responsible for so many of the misconceptions that lead to encounters.

“I conclude in my research that currently the blue badge scheme only provides bare minimum access; it is not about equality, but about keeping disabled people ‘in their place’.”

On Friday 12 December, between 12pm and 1pm, Kubenz is hosting a webinar on the findings of her Politics of Parking project, with guest speakers Anjna Patel, a trustee of Disabled Motoring UK, and accessible transport campaigner Christiane Link

4 December 2025

DWP’s plans ‘in tatters’ as McFadden scraps white paper on further disability cuts

Ministers have dumped plans for a major white paper containing a swathe of further cuts and reforms to disability benefits, following months of activism by disabled people and allies that forced the government into a major U-turn this summer.

Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden, who only took on the role last month, confirmed the move in a meeting with representatives of disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) earlier this month.

One DPO said yesterday (Wednesday) that the admission was a “major success” for disabled people who fought the summer cuts bill.

But DPOs also warned that activists would need to keep up the pressure on ministers because McFadden had made it clear that, despite abandoning the white paper – which is likely to have significant political implications for the Labour government – individual measures would be taken forward.

He insisted in the meeting – first revealed this week by Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People – that further reforms would go ahead, but they would be introduced individually rather than all together in a white paper.

The white paper was set to be based on many of the measures outlined in the Pathways to Work green paper, and responses to a subsequent public consultation.

The results of that consultation should be published before the end of this year.

The decision to bin the white paper means that many of the reforms suggested in March’s green paper – including removing the health element of universal credit for those under 22; reform, and possibly cuts, to Access to Work; a time-limited replacement for contributory employment and support allowance; scrapping the work capability assessment; and changes to the safeguarding, conditionality and sanctions regimes – are likely to be announced separately over the coming months.

Some – but not all – of the reforms will still require legislation.

McFadden’s admission that he had dumped the white paper was made in a meeting on 14 October with Fazilet Hadi and Svetlana Kotova from umbrella organisation DPO Forum England.

Hadi, head of policy for Disability Rights UK, told Disability News Service (DNS): “I definitely think that the amazing campaigning from disabled people and our allies against the PIP cuts has left the government feeling very bruised.

“The change of heart in publishing a DWP white paper, and the delay in launching the SEND white paper, bear this out.

“Having said this, Pat McFadden has been moved to DWP to drive through cuts to social security, so the lack of a white paper doesn’t mean that there won’t be further threats to the benefits of disabled people.

“It just means that those threats won’t all come at once.”

Kotova, director of campaigns and justice at Inclusion London, agreed.

She said: “There is a pause, but it does not mean reforms won’t be coming.

“And we need to keep the pressure and persuade or force the government to switch its focus from cutting benefits or ‘fixing us’ to be more work ready to putting resources and its attention to making workplaces more inclusive.”

Among their arguments in the meeting, she said, was for the government to move money from employment support towards the Access to Work scheme.

Steve Darling, the Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesperson, has lodged a parliamentary question about the “deeply disturbing” situation after being alerted by DNS.

He said: “At the time of a cost-of-living crisis, it is concerning that the secretary of state could be moving away from a more thoughtful, considered approach, to one more driven by cuts than by strategy.

“This will only add to the stress and uncertainty that disabled people are facing with the threat of more cuts to disability benefits next year.

“I have therefore asked the secretary of state a named day parliamentary question to find out when (if at all!) the white paper will be published, to try to shed some light on this fraught situation.”

Rick Burgess, from Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, who first revealed publicly that the white paper had been dumped, told DNS: “They are not confident that they will get a big piece of legislation through parliament anymore.

“It shows we really scared them. It’s a huge embarrassment for them. All their plans are in tatters, and they are afraid of losing another showdown in parliament.

“A Starmer government couldn’t survive another drubbing.”

But he said he did not think ministers had changed their attitudes towards welfare reform, only that they were not confident they could push a large bill through parliament.

And he said it would be much harder for disabled people to stop a stream of smaller reforms, and that “keeping track of them is going to be really tricky”.

Linda Burnip, co-founder of Disabled People Against Cuts, said the government’s move to drop the white paper was “obviously a major success for disability rights activists and the many months of campaigning”.

But she said it appeared likely that ministers would use secondary legislation to “sneak things through in dribs and drabs and hope changes won’t be noticed”.

McFadden told Fazilet Hadi and Svetlana Kotova at the meeting that no decisions had yet been taken on barring under-22s from the health component of universal credit, and that it was a priority of his to get more young people into work.

They said he seemed to indicate that time-limiting contributory benefits would be taken forward relatively soon.

Hadi said: “We emphasised the need for government to join up its policies on disabled people and to coproduce solutions with us.

“We urged him to move funding to the Access to Work scheme from the additional money being spent on employment support.”

Reforms – and almost certainly cuts – to personal independence payment are expected to follow next autumn, following a review being headed by Sir Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability.

Sir Stephen today (Thursday) launched the review, and announced his disabled co-chairs – Dr Clenton Farquharson and Sharon Brennan – as well as a recruitment process for the 12 members of a steering group that will jointly lead the review.

He said the majority of this steering group would be disabled people or representatives of DPOs.

DWP had not commented on McFadden’s admission by noon today (Thursday).

30 October 2025

‘Shocking’ figures show parents linked to DWP service face death rates up to three times higher

Parents who pay to support a child through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its Child Maintenance Service (CMS) face death rates up to three times higher than others the same age, according to “shocking” and “deeply troubling” new figures.

Analysis by Disability News Service (DNS) has shown that, for every age group between 20 and 54, those who use the service – known as “paying parents”* – face a much higher rate of death than those of the same age who do not have to deal with the CMS.

DNS carried out the analysis using figures obtained from DWP through a freedom of information request.

The request followed concerns raised by campaigners who have called for an inquiry into the deaths of parents driven to take their own lives by DWP’s refusal to correct errors in child support demands.

The figures, which are particularly exaggerated for younger age groups, have been passed to the Commons work and pensions committee, which is at the early stages of an inquiry into concerns about CMS.

Among the inquiry’s aims will be how to “improve the way it deals with families”, and concerns over how CMS calculates payments, and enforcement of its decisions.

The DNS analysis shows that, for all those aged 20 to 24 in England and Wales, the rate of deaths in 2024 was 0.04 per cent, compared with 0.13 per cent for CMS paying parents (more than three times higher).

For those aged 25 to 29, the rate of death was more than twice as high for paying parents, and for those 30 to 34 it was twice as high (0.12 per cent versus 0.06 per cent).

The difference in death rates narrows for older age groups, but there is still a substantial difference for every group analysed by DNS, with CMS paying parents aged 50 to 54 facing a death rate of 0.46 per cent in 2024, compared with 0.34 per cent for all adults in that age group.

Results for 2022 and 2023 show similar, striking differences.

Over those three years, there is not a single age group between 20 and 54 – the only groups examined in the analysis – where the death rates are not higher for paying parents than for all adults in England and Wales.

Although the figures do not show how many of these deaths were suicides, they do add strong evidence to the claims of campaigners who believe the higher rates of death for paying parents are at least partly caused by errors by CMS and its toxic culture, including its refusal to correct its mistakes.

DWP said this week that it was carrying out reforms aimed at streamlining CMS but that it did not “recognise” the DNS figures or any suggestion of a causal link between the actions and culture of CMS and the deaths of paying parents, although it did not point out any errors in the DNS calculations.

Ian Briggs, from research and campaign group STOPS (StopSuicides UK), which focuses on the harm caused by CMS, said: “I, and many others, have long known that the CMS and the DWP have been responsible for driving many parents to suicide.

“For years we have tried to highlight this to the DWP, yet every attempt is met with the same denial – that there is no link between the CMS and suicides.

“Even when presented with clear and credible evidence gathered by the STOPS group, the official response from ministers has remained one of outright dismissal.”

His son Gavin took his own life five years ago.

The coroner at Gavin’s inquest refused to investigate his father’s claims that the actions of the CMS had contributed to his decision to take his own life, even though the agency had wrongly claimed he owed £16,000 in support payments, after claiming his income was £76,000 rather than the £26,000 it was in reality.

Ian Briggs said this week: “The mortality rates recently revealed through John’s** research and exposed by Disability News Service cannot all be explained away as coincidence.

“While not every death may be due to suicide, these figures reveal a deeply troubling pattern that demands urgent scrutiny.

“At some point, there must be a full and independent public inquiry into these disturbing facts and the systemic failures within the CMS and DWP that continue to destroy lives and families.

“I would like to personally thank John and Disability News Service for… exposing these shocking mortality rates, and for giving a voice to the countless families – like mine – who have suffered unimaginable loss.”

Craig Bulman, who was left with PTSD after the Child Support Agency mishandled his case – the agency, the predecessor of CMS, eventually paid him a £5,000 consolatory payment – said the figures uncovered by DNS were “shocking”.

He told DNS: “Even allowing for statistical margins, the death rates you’ve calculated are deeply disturbing and point to something seriously wrong within the Child Maintenance Service.”

The Child Support Agency’s failings left Bulman homeless, triggered a mental breakdown, and caused the loss of his job.

He said this week: “These figures confirm what families have been warning for years – that the Child Maintenance Service is operating without proper oversight or duty of care.

“Death rates among paying parents are up to three times higher than the national average, and yet the DWP has failed to investigate or publish these findings.

“This now warrants an independent inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005.”

In January 2023, during the final session of a previous inquiry into CMS by the Commons work and pensions committee, Labour MP Debbie Abrahams told of a paying parent whose arrears had been inaccurately assessed “and the frustration that he found ultimately led to him taking his life”.

She said his mother had previously written to DWP “expressing real concerns about mental health” but there had been no reply.

She added: “This is not the first time. We had a panel before Christmas that also provided data about the suicides of paying parents who were inaccurately assessed in terms of the arrears that they owed.

“This is tens of thousands of pounds that they said that they owe, leaving literally pounds for them to exist on.”

She asked Tory work and pensions minister Viscount Younger at the time if DWP collected data on suicides of paying parents.

He told her: “Could I just say that, being new into the department, I am already aware, having seen some of the correspondence that I have had to look at and sign off on, of some absolutely tragic cases?

“It is absolutely appalling that cases can lead to people taking their own lives.

“That is dreadful and we must look at all ways in which we can avoid that or have systems and processes that do not lead to that.”

Despite those comments, a DWP spokesperson said this week: “Over 780,000 people engage with the Child Maintenance Service, many of whom are experiencing a difficult time in their lives, and all staff are trained to support vulnerable customers.

“We do not recognise this data or suggestions of a causal link between the CMS and deaths among parents.”

*Child maintenance covers how a child’s living costs are paid when one of the parents does not live with the child

**DNS editor John Pring

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

30 October 2025

Former detective exposes culture of disability discrimination within ‘institutionally disablist’ Met

A culture of institutional disability discrimination within the Metropolitan police is exposed today by the former head of its disabled staff association.

Dave Campbell, who retired this year after serving 32 years as a police officer, has told Disability News Service (DNS) that he believes disability discrimination within the force is rampant and that the Met is institutionally disablist.

He believes this “corporate culture” impacts how the force engages with disabled members of the public.

Campbell was chair of the Met’s Disabled Staff Association (DSA) for six years, and he was also vice-president of the Disabled Police Association of England and Wales.

His disclosures come only days after DNS revealed that prosecutions of disability hate crime across the country were continuing to plummet, with police forces in England and Wales passing on just a tiny proportion of recorded cases to prosecutors.

For six years, Campbell repeatedly tried to persuade the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to act on his concerns, before his retirement earlier this year.

It was his intervention that ensured the recent Casey review of the force’s internal culture and standards of behaviour examined the treatment of disabled people, when its initial focus was on racism, sexism and homophobia.

He believes the review provided an “alarming insight into how disabled people feel about their place in the organisation”, as he told Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley in a letter last year.

He has told DNS that the upper levels of the Met have made it clear through their actions and inflexible policies – which he says marginalise disabled staff, and stem from outdated attitudes – that they do not want people who become disabled to continue serving as police officers in the force.

He says several disabled officers and staff have left the force because of their disability-related treatment and have written directly to the commissioner expressing their “despair and concerns”, without receiving any acknowledgement.

Over the four years between 2019 and 2023, he says, more than 200 disability discrimination employment tribunal claims were taken against the Met, including a significant number which included claims of race or gender discrimination.

The Casey review found an even higher number – 358 – in the five years between 2017-18 and 2021-22, but it was criticised by disabled campaigners for concluding that MPS was institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic, but not that it was institutionally disablist.

Campbell believes the number of disability discrimination tribunal cases increased after the Casey review by up to 60 per cent in 2023-24 compared to the previous year, while the DSA received hundreds of emails from distressed colleagues about the way they were being treated by their managers.

He has told Sir Mark that disability-led internal grievances are also at a high level, while many of his members had “no confidence or trust in the grievance management process” or in the ability of the Culture, Diversity and Inclusion directorate – set up after the Casey review – to produce change.

In the wake of Casey’s report, Campbell – as DSA chair – commissioned an independent review of disability inclusion and workplace adjustments in the force, by the Business Disability Forum (BDF), which reported its findings in September 2024.

Disabled colleagues in the DSA were asked if they had witnessed or personally experienced unfair treatment at work through disability-related harassment, bullying or discrimination, and 358 of the 775 who responded to the survey said yes (46 per cent), and another 123 (16 per cent) said maybe, a total of 62 per cent.

Of 504 police officers, 49 per cent said yes, and 15 per cent said maybe, a total of 64 per cent.

Of the 775 responses from disabled officers and civilian staff, less than 20 per cent (160) agreed with the statement: “MPS is an organisation that recognises and values disabled people.”

And just 65 (eight per cent) agreed that “feedback and complaints are listened to”.

One respondent said: “If you treated any of the other protected characteristics as you did disability then there would be uproar and heads would roll.”

Campbell believes the BDF report supports the view that MPS is institutionally disablist.

He told Sir Mark in last year’s letter: “In my experience Disability discrimination in the MPS is viewed less significantly and addressed differently in comparison to Race, Homophobia, Gender or any other type of Discrimination…”

In an earlier letter to Sir Mark, in 2022, Campbell told him: “There needs to be a change in attitudes [towards disabled officers] and an end to conscious labelling, as sick, lame, lazy, shirker, which are all derogatory terms yet seemingly acceptable…”

He has yet to receive any “tangible” response to the concerns he raised in last year’s letter and the survey report.

Campbell, a detective sergeant before his retirement, has himself twice taken successful action against the Met for disability discrimination, winning the first case at tribunal and then securing an MPS settlement before the start of a tribunal for the second case.

He describes himself as a person of ethnic origin, and has experienced intersectional discrimination, which he says is widespread in the Met.

He said the same complaints are being made “time and time again” at tribunal and through the force’s internal grievance process, which shows there is a “systemic” problem and failure to address these issues through an absence of “corporate memory” and a lack of “morality”.

Currently, about 3,500 police officers have adjustments made for them to allow them to continue in their roles, he said, out of about 36,000 officers in total across the force.

Campbell believes the number of MPS disabled officers and civilian staff may be as high as 10,000 – almost a quarter of the workforce – because many staff do not share their impairment with the force “due to concerns of how they will be treated”.

The Met’s DSA has more than 6,500 members and has 37 peer-to-peer support networks for disabled staff.

Campbell says he has increasingly been coming across incidents where the force’s occupational health department is making recommendations for adjustments to be made for officers who become disabled – often caused by their duties – but managers are refusing to agree to these adjustments.

Instead, officers are often told: “If you cannot do the job then you should just leave,” or: “This isn’t the right job for you.”

He told DNS: “We are just hitting a brick wall. This is about holding the police to account for systemic behaviour both internally and externally.

“If these attitudes exist towards disabled people in the workforce, what hopes do disabled people have when they become victims of crime?”

Louise Holden, Inclusion London’s senior policy officer for disabled people and crime, said: “I admire Dave Campbell and his tireless work within a disablist organisation.

“I share Mr Campbell’s concerns about how the Met treat disabled victims when their attitude to their own disabled staff is so appalling.

“Things have gotten worse since the A New Met for London plan following the Casey review.

“The work Inclusion London was involved in stopped and the new structure is a closed shop.

“Community confidence is at an all-time low.

“There has been no follow-up to the Casey review and with the Met decision to stop investigating non-hate crime incidents, without any consultation, it’s clear the Met is just not interested in disability issues.

“There has been no radical reform, only half-baked gestures and platitudes that amount to nothing.

“We are calling for renewed engagement with us, so we can support the Met with our expert knowledge on these issues.

“I hope the Met is ashamed of how they have behaved since the Casey review and want to work with us again.”

Commander Simon Messinger, the Met’s professionalism and senior lead for disability, said: “We are fully committed to driving positive change across the Met and fostering a culture of inclusion, and have taken significant steps to improve how we support disabled colleagues.

“This progress has helped us to achieve Disability Confident level three status, the highest level of recognition within that scheme, which reflects our determination to improve how we recruit, retain, and support our staff.

“We know there is much more to be done and will continue to work with the Met police Disabled Staff Association, and partners such as the Business Disability Forum, to drive further progress.”

A spokesperson for the mayor of London said: “The mayor is clear there is no place for harassment or discrimination in the workplace and is committed to working with the Met police to deliver a New Met for London where everyone can thrive.

“Since the Baroness Casey review in 2023 the Met has implemented a number of improvements for disabled employees, including the introduction of disability passports, Disability Smart assessments and the force is now a Disability Confident employer, improving how they recruit, retain and develop disabled staff.

“But there is more to do and the Met is working closely with the Disability Independent Advisory Group and the new chair of its Disabled Staff Association to listen and act on concerns to deliver a fairer and more inclusive Met.”

*If you have information about a police officer or member of staff who works for the Met and is corrupt or abusing their position and power, you can call the force’s anti-corruption and abuse hotline anonymously on 0800 085 0000

30 October 2025

Committee calls cuts bill ‘discriminatory’, even though all its Labour MPs voted for it

A Labour-led committee of MPs has called the government’s universal credit cuts act “discriminatory” and warned that it will push disabled people into poverty, despite every one of its Labour members voting for the legislation in July.

The Universal Credit Act will see the health element of universal credit halved for most new claimants from 6 April next year, from £105 to £54 a week.

All seven Labour MPs on the committee* voted for this cut in July.

But Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, who chairs the committee, said this week: “This is not only discriminatory, but without mitigations, will potentially push more people with disabilities and health conditions into poverty, exacerbating their condition and pushing them further away from the labour market.”

She was commenting on the publication of the government’s response to the committee’s report on the Pathways to Work green paper.

Her committee’s report had called on the government to delay the cut to the health element until it had carried out an “independent and comprehensive assessment of the impact the change could have on disabled people”.

But in this week’s response, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) dismissed those concerns.

Instead, it pointed to the “sustained, above inflation increase” to the standard allowance of universal credit (UC), which will also be introduced through the bill.

It said that this, together with the cut to the health element, would address “perverse incentives in the UC system and better encourages those who can work to enter or return to employment”.

Asked why she had voted for the cut to the health element when she thought it was discriminatory and would push more disabled people into poverty, Abrahams told Disability News Service (DNS) in a statement: “I worked very hard to secure major concessions on removing the cuts to PIP and people currently on UC health in the welfare bill.

“The bill isn’t perfect, and that was reflected in the work and pensions Pathways to Work report and its recommendations.

“However, voting against the bill would have meant that the increase in the standard allowance wouldn’t have gone ahead, and that was seen as a major positive aspect of the bill.

“This increase is not just for this year, but for each year until the end of this parliament.

“I am still continuing to work hard on securing mitigations around the reduction in support for newly disabled people from April next year and I remain committed to ensuring disabled people across the country have access to the support they need.”

Meanwhile, DWP has refused to explain to the committee what assessment it made of the bill’s impact on safeguarding, before the legislation was introduced to parliament earlier this year.

The bill had originally included steep cuts to personal independence payment (PIP), before a backbench Labour rebellion – following three months of activism from disabled people and allies – led to those measures being removed.

But there has been almost no discussion in parliament – and little or no information from ministers – on the bill’s potential impact on safeguarding claimants.

In its response to the committee’s report, DWP has made no mention of safeguarding, although it said that it had carried out an equality impact assessment for the bill.

But the impact assessments published on parliament’s website make no reference to safeguarding.

Asked by DNS why it failed to respond properly to the committee’s recommendation to release its assessment of the bill’s impact on safeguarding, and whether it did assess the safeguarding implications of the original bill, DWP said it was looking to improve its safeguarding approach, which included a review of the green paper consultation responses.

A DWP spokesperson said: “Our welfare reforms package was appropriately advised and numerous protections were baked into our plans.

“We are shifting our focus from welfare to work, skills, and opportunities, so more people can move out of poverty and into good, secure jobs as part of our Plan for Change – backed by £1 billion a year for employment support by the end of the decade.”

Grassroots groups of disabled people, such as Black Triangle, Disabled People Against Cuts, the Mental Health Resistance Network, and the Spartacus network, spent years highlighting deaths linked to DWP’s actions.

Concerns have also been raised by relatives who have called for action after the deaths of their family members.

Some of the evidence linking DWP with the deaths of benefit claimants has come through prevention of future deaths reports written by coroners, several of which only emerged years after they were written.

Other evidence of persistent DWP safeguarding flaws has emerged through freedom of information requests to the department, which have revealed how hundreds of recommendations for improvements have been made by DWP’s own secret reviews into the deaths of claimants.

Some of these reviews showed DWP staff continuing to make the same fatal errors, year after year.

The evidence collected by DNS and others, stretching back more than a decade, has shown how DWP repeatedly ignored recommendations to improve the safety of its disability benefits assessment system, leading to countless avoidable deaths.

It also shows how DWP hid evidence from independent reviews, and how the department failed to keep track of the actions taken in response to recommendations made by its own secret reviews.

Evidence also demonstrates that the cultural problems within DWP extend far beyond the assessment system, touching all aspects of its dealings with disabled people in the social security system.

The evidence, compiled over the last decade by DNS and other journalists, academics and activists, shows systemic negligence by DWP, a culture of cover-up and denial, and a refusal to accept that the department has a duty of care to those disabled people claiming support through the social security system.

Much of that evidence has been brought together in a detailed timeline, as part of the Deaths by Welfare project headed by Dr China Mills and supported by Healing Justice Ldn, which works with marginalised and oppressed communities.

*Debbie Abrahams; Johanna Baxter; Damien Egan; Gill German; Amanda Hack; Frank McNally; and David Pinto-Duschinsky

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

30 October 2025

Disabled people warn of ‘severe’ consequences if chancellor removes Motability VAT exemption

Disabled people have warned of “severe” consequences if the chancellor goes ahead with reported plans to remove the Motability car scheme’s VAT exemption in next month’s budget.

Disability News Service (DNS) reported last week how the company that runs the scheme, Motability Operations, had warned that removing the VAT tax break entirely could impose an upfront cost of at least £3,000 on even the cheapest cars it offers.

There is no certainty that the chancellor will go ahead with removing the tax exemption entirely – which was revealed by the Times – and she may abandon the plans completely.

But the minister for social security and disability, Sir Stephen Timms, failed to deny plans to target the VAT exemption when asked by disabled Labour MP Emma Lewell on Monday about potential cuts to the scheme.

Instead, Sir Stephen said again that there would be no changes to personal independence payment until next autumn.

Yesterday, a Reform UK press conference on the party’s plans to slash disability benefits – particularly personal independence payment (PIP) – saw the party target the Motability scheme.

The party’s work and pensions spokesperson in the Commons, Lee Anderson, said the scheme had “got completely out of hand” and was “an absolute scandal”, and he suggested that all those receiving Motability cars should only be able to secure a “blue three-wheeler”*.

He said: “What’s wrong with that? Let’s go back to that.”

Meanwhile, disabled people who rely on Motability to maintain their independence have told DNS this week of the drastic impact that increased costs could have on their ability to afford a car through the scheme, and how this would affect their ability to work, enjoy leisure opportunities, and attend medical appointments.

Julia Dalton, a Motability customer for more than 40 years, relies on an adapted vehicle, which she says has allowed her “to work for over four decades, contribute taxes, and live independently” in east Yorkshire.

As an electric wheelchair-user, she needs a large vehicle with a hoist to lift her wheelchair into the car.

She said: “Without Motability, I could never have afforded a suitable vehicle.

“It is not possible for me to use a cheap second-hand car because if it breaks down, I cannot simply use a hire car that is not adapted for my needs.

“Without a reliable vehicle I would not have been able to get to work and would likely have lost my job.

“This scheme has protected my independence, wellbeing, and ability to contribute”.

She says that advance payments – on top of contributing the enhanced rate mobility component of PIP every month – have risen significantly in recent years.

Her latest vehicle in March cost her £4,000 in an advanced payment as well as £1,500 for essential adaptations.

She said: “I am managing financially, but even I would struggle to pay thousands more on top.

“If someone like me is at risk of coming off the scheme, what happens to those with less support?

“The consequences are severe: disabled people stuck at home; people losing work because they cannot travel; missed medical appointments; isolation.

“Motability is not a luxury. It is a lifeline.”

She added: “If exemptions are removed or costs continue to rise, we risk destroying a system that enables disabled people to live, work, and participate fully in society.

“I am deeply grateful for Motability. I want to see it protected for the future, so others can have the same opportunities that I had.”

Emma, from Leicester, told DNS that her Motability wheelchair-accessible vehicle (WAV) – which needed an advance payment of £4,500 – had made “a huge positive difference” to her life, and allowed her to continue to visit her dad after he had a stroke, firstly while he was in hospital, and then at home.

She said: “WAV taxis are expensive and difficult to arrange, and using public transport would have been impossible for me health-wise.

“Without that access, he might have declined further or needed residential care.

“The scheme has literally kept our family connected and independent.”

She said the knock-on effects of removing the VAT exemption – and the insurance premium tax, which is reportedly also being considered – would “make it even harder for disabled people to stay mobile”.

She said: “The knock-on effects would be huge — more reliance on carers, increased pressure on health and social care services, and greater difficulty getting to appointments or even maintaining social contact and contributions to society.

“If the tax relief were removed, I simply wouldn’t be able to afford a vehicle and would be stuck in my house even more.”

Richard, a Motability-user for 30 years, from the West Midlands, told DNS that the scheme was vital as a wheelchair-user living in inaccessible housing, and that he and many others would be forced to leave the scheme because it would become unaffordable if its VAT exemption was removed.

He has a progressive, neurological muscle-wasting condition and uses his Motability car to drive to a pool to swim, which allows him to keep the strength in his shoulders that he needs to pull himself up and down the stairs of his home.

Without the car, he would not be able to use the stairs and would end up in expensive extra care housing or a nursing home.

He said: “Being stuck at home would be very detrimental to my mental health.

“It will have similar effects on many, especially those who would have to give up work due to unaffordable initial payments.”

April, who has been a Motability customer for 15 years and lives in Lancashire, said the scheme has allowed her to maintain her independence and job and “gets me to and from my workplace safely and stress free”.

She has a small automatic hatchback which now requires a £1,000 advanced payment, when previously there was no advance payment required.

She said: “I fear these government proposals will make Motability pass these costs on to the scheme users – to the detriment of those struggling on low incomes and those needing larger adapted vehicles.

“The scheme must be preserved for those of us that need it to maintain our independence, to work, attend appointments, and to live decently, with dignity and safety.”

Michael Newbold, from Staffordshire, a Motability customer for more than 20 years, said the scheme was “essential” for him and his disabled wife.

He said: “I need a car for appointments and shopping, also for leisure.”

They have already had to cope with the council stopping paying for a personal alarm, and for the insurance on his stairlift.

He said: “It’s like little by little they are taking all the things that make life easier.

“Most people, in my opinion, will not be able to afford the VAT rise if they are in a similar position as me.”

Another customer, Phil, told DNS that he and his wife Kath would be “totally screwed” without their Motability vehicle.

They are both disabled, but it is Kath who is the Motability customer as she uses a powerchair following a spinal stroke, so she needs a WAV.

Phil said: “We had to find a £4,000 down payment for our WAV and when it has to go back [at the end of the lease] we’ll have to find the same if not more for the next vehicle.

“Adding VAT on top would make it unaffordable for us.”

Without the car, he said, they would be “totally isolated”, and they already both struggle with their mental health.

He said: “I can only believe others in the disabled community will be affected in the same way.

“My wife and I are from Bristol and it’s a city with an awful bus service so another reason the Motability scheme is so vital for us.”

*A reference to the Invacar that was provided by the government to disabled people up until the late 1970s, when it was replaced by the Motability scheme

**Motability Foundation, the charity that oversees the car scheme, is a DNS subscriber

30 October 2025

Disabled people face ‘systemic’ barriers in accessing community equipment, parliamentary inquiry finds

A cross-party group of MPs and peers has called on the government to draw up a national strategy to address the “deeply troubling” and “systemic” barriers that prevent disabled people accessing the equipment they need to live independently.

Hundreds of disabled people and professionals across the UK fed into the inquiry by the all-party parliamentary group for access to disability equipment, which found an “inconsistent” community equipment system that was in crisis due to fragmentation, underinvestment, and a lack of leadership.

The inquiry heard of disabled children missing school because the correct hoists had not arrived; disabled adults unable to live independently and forced out of their jobs because repairs to equipment were taking months; and carers driven to “physical and emotional exhaustion”.

It found too many disabled people faced long delays, unsuitable equipment and “a lack of joined up support” within the system, which provides equipment such as grab rails, hoists, wheelchairs, ramps, specialist mattresses, and assistive technology.

The group’s report includes findings of a survey from more than 600 users of equipment, carers, professionals and equipment-providers.

More than half of equipment-users who took part (55 per cent) said they believed services were worsening.

The same proportion said they did not have access to the equipment they needed.

One equipment-user told the inquiry that the support offered “barely scrapes the barrel of what people actually need to live their everyday lives.”

More than a fifth of those surveyed (22 per cent) said they had waited more than two months to receive their equipment once it had been approved.

The report heard of the experience of Rhys Porter, who has cerebral palsy, and went without essential equipment, including a hoist and home adaptations, for two years.

His parents had to help him use a commode seat in his bedroom and drag him into the family bathroom on a towel once a week.

He was only able to go ahead with vital surgery because the charity Newlife provided him with a portable hoist.

The report calls for a “cohesive” national strategy; funding reform of the current “fragmented” model; action to address lengthy waiting-times for assessments and equipment; improved communication with equipment-users and between local authorities, health bodies, and government departments; a national advisory board with service-user representation; and action to improve reuse and recycling of equipment.

Labour MP Daniel Francis, chair of the all-party group, said: “Across hundreds of testimonies, one message came through loud and clear: the system designed to support disabled children and adults is failing them.

“It is failing to deliver equipment on time, failing to provide the right support, and failing to listen to the very people it exists to serve.

“Under the current system we’re seeing children missing school, adults being forced out of work and carers injuring themselves.

“It’s failing patients, carers, and the sector alike, and it’s high time for the government to get a grip.

“Access to community equipment is not privilege, it’s a daily necessity.

“We need a national strategy for community equipment and clear leadership and accountability in its delivery.

“Ensuring everyone is given the right support at the right time is simply a matter of political will and commitment.”

The Department of Health and Social Care was unable to comment on the report by noon today (Thursday).

30 October 2025

Regulator’s annual report shows impact of social care crisis on disabled people

An annual report by the care regulator has highlighted how the continuing social care crisis is impacting disabled and older people who need support in their own homes.

The Care Quality Commission said in its annual State of Care report that the health and social care system remained “fragmented and under severe strain”.

It said that demand for local authority-funded support had continued to rise, while the job vacancy rate in adult social care was still three times higher than in the wider employment market.

And it said that more community services were “urgently needed” to support people to stay in their own homes for longer.

The report includes evidence from members of CQC’s Experts by Experience group, which has come from their own experiences of care and support and from talking to other service-users during CQC inspections.

Living in a rural area can particularly affect alternative options if a homecare agency is providing poor care, the report says.

One of the Experts by Experience told CQC: “The only other agency down the road hasn’t got any space for me. Where do you expect me to go?

“I’m telling you what’s wrong and the things I’m not happy with, but I don’t feel like I’ve necessarily got a choice to change that.”

CQC’s Experts by Experience said disabled people had told them how they had been “left to sit or lie in soiled or wet clothing for hours while waiting for their care worker to arrive”.

The report says: “As local authorities around the country increasingly look to make savings, it seems likely more will signpost people to support in the community, ration the care they do provide, and reduce the provision of other statutory and non-statutory services.

“As well as negatively affecting the health and wellbeing of those in need of social care support, this could increase the pressure on the health and care system and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, and further increase the burden on unpaid carers.”

As CQC only began implementing its new single assessment framework in January 2024, it is not possible to directly compare the latest ratings from its inspections with previous years.

Inspections have been focused on services where CQC information suggested people might be at risk.

The ratings produced through the framework for about 3,000 adult social care services (out of a total of about 20,000 services across England) show four per cent were rated inadequate, another 26 per cent were seen as requiring improvement, 67 per cent were rated good, and two per cent were seen as outstanding.

Professor Sir Mike Richards, CQC’s chair, said: “The Casey Commission will be an important step in reforming social care – but it won’t solve the core funding problem.

“We continue to call for long-term, sustainable funding for adult social care.”

30 October 2025

Tory trio mislead party conference on disability benefits as they stir up hostility towards disabled claimants

A trio of leading Tories have used misleading and offensive statements at their annual conference in Manchester to scapegoat disabled people who rely on support from the benefits system and whip up hostility towards them.

The Conservative party made it clear this week that it would go further and faster than the Labour government in cutting disability benefits, and said it would cut £23 billion from social security spending if it won back power.

Some of these savings would be used to pay for the abolition of stamp duty on residential property sales*, which would only benefit the better-off.

The most offensive line may have come from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who told the conference yesterday (Wednesday): “I stand for a society where… the vulnerable are supported, but where freeloaders are told where to get off.”

She said a Conservative government would “restrict benefits to those with more severe mental health conditions, not anxiety or mild depression”**.

Disability News Service (DNS) reminded the party this week how government-funded research found that when a Conservative-led government tried to slash the number of people on out-of-work disability benefits and force them into work in the post-2010 austerity years, it led to 590 suicides in three years.

The party had not responded to these concerns by 11am today (Thursday).

Badenoch also told the conference that “after Covid, 2,000 people a day were being signed onto out-of-work sickness benefits”, which she said was “a national tragedy”.

There was no suggestion in the former engineer’s speech that she had connected the impact of a deadly and disabling pandemic with this increase in the number of people being unable to work due to sickness or disability.

Badenoch also appeared to suggest that she supported allowing disability hate speech to pass unpunished, telling Tory members: “I stand for a society where free speech trumps hurt feelings.”

Mel Stride, the former work and pensions secretary and now his party’s shadow chancellor, had spoken earlier in the week of the “spiralling welfare bill”.

DNS has now told the party’s press office on at least three occasions that figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility*** show clearly that social security spending as a proportion of GDP**** is predicted to remain at or close to 11.1 per cent for the next five years, and that it is lower than it was in 2015-16.

Again, the party had not responded to these concerns about Stride’s misleading comment by 11am today.

The party also announced plans to prevent anyone other than British citizens from receiving social security support, if it regains power.

It appears that this would apply to disabled people with significant support needs and those who have legally worked in the country for years through “indefinite leave to remain”.

The third shadow minister to mislead the conference on cuts to disability benefits was shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately.

She told Tory members: “Millions are getting benefits for anxiety and ADHD, along with a free Motability car.”

A disabled person can only qualify to join the Motability scheme if they receive the enhanced mobility component of personal independence payment (PIP) or similar benefits.

In fact, DWP figures show – as highlighted by the Benefits and Work website – that only about 190,000 PIP claimants have ADD, ADHD, anxiety or anxiety-related conditions as their “main disabling condition” and receive an enhanced mobility component.

And many of this group will not have exchanged their PIP mobility component for a Motability vehicle.

It is possible that Whately was referring to all those disabled people with anxiety and ADHD who have a Motability vehicle (ie including those with a different main disabling condition in addition to a mental health condition or being neurodivergent), but – if so – her statement was still highly misleading.

And even if that had been her intention, Motability Operations, the company that runs the scheme, says it has only a total of 860,000 customers, and many of those use their allowance to hire a powered wheelchair or mobility scooter.

Whately’s comments also suggest that PIP claimants receive a “free” car in addition to that benefit, when in fact a claimant usually has to exchange all their mobility allowance to lease a Motability vehicle, and must also often make a non-refundable advance payment.

Once again, the Conservative party had refused to comment by 11am today on Whately’s figures.

*It is believed this would apply to primary residences in England and Northern Ireland

**Although she said she wanted to “restrict benefits”, it is unlikely that she meant that people with anxiety or “mild” depression would be prevented from accessing mainstream benefits such as the standard universal credit allowance

***See chapter five of OBR’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook – October 2024, chart 5.2

****Gross domestic product, the size of the country’s economy in a particular year

9 October 2025

Government ‘has lost its way’ on accessible housing, after new towns report ignores disabled people

The government has been accused of losing its way on accessible housing, after refusing to explain why a report by its “taskforce” on delivering a series of new towns across England does not include a single mention of disabled people.

The independent report – commissioned by the government – recommends 12 potential locations for new towns across England, with at least 10,000 new homes in each location.

But the 135-page report contains only two brief references to the need for accessibility, either with the new homes themselves or the built environment surrounding them, and there is no mention of working-age disabled people.

One reference in the report says new towns should “include homes for older people, as well as specialist housing built to accessible and adaptable standards”.

The other says the mix of homes in new towns should include “homes for market sale, private rent, affordable housing, and specialist accommodation for students, families, and older people, all within a single coherent masterplan”.

Disabled people’s organisations that have been campaigning for action to solve the accessible housing crisis were critical of the latest failure by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

Mikey Erhardt, policy lead for Disability Rights UK, said: “It is unacceptable that, in 2025, a plan to deliver thousands of new homes, to tackle the housing crisis, will do nothing to improve the lives of disabled people.

“Relegating the needs of millions to a classification as ‘specialist’ shows just how entrenched ableist views are within the department.

“What is specialist about creating places that millions can actually call home, instead of the less than 10 per cent that disabled people can currently even visit?

“Yet again, we see a government department that has lost its way in trying to triangulate policy in favour of big developers and landlords, with disabled people as ever missing out.

“Talk about a missed opportunity; they’ve not even chosen to commit to a minimum number of accessible or wheelchair-accessible homes, let alone ensuring DDPOs* are included in the planning process.

“If our newest towns can’t be accessible, which ones will be?”

Last week, housing secretary Steve Reed announced that the government would build 12 of the new towns across England, but he and his party failed to make any pledge that accessibility would be central to their design.

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

Laura Vicinanza, senior policy and stakeholder engagement manager for Inclusion London, said: “The taskforce talks about accessible ‘specialist housing’, but accessible and adaptable standards must apply to all housing, so we’re not cut off from our communities.

“Housing with a baseline level of accessibility benefits us all – it allows us to stay in our homes longer as our needs change and we age.

“Three years ago, the Conservative government committed to raise the minimum accessibility standards for all new-build housing to the M4(2) accessible and adaptable standard, but they didn’t follow through.

“It’s time for Labour to commit to M4(2) accessibility for all new-builds, and for 10 per cent of new housing to be M4(3) wheelchair-accessible, focused in social housing.

“This is the opportunity to ensure that this wave of new housing and new towns doesn’t lock us out of safe housing for another generation.”

This week, Disability News Service (DNS) asked the government why the taskforce and its report had almost completely ignored disabled people’s housing needs, and the opportunity to build in accessibility across the new towns from the beginning; and why there was nothing in the taskforce report that sets a minimum level of accessible homes, including how many wheelchair-accessible homes should be built in the new towns.

DNS also asked for reassurance for disabled people that the government’s new towns plans would build in accessibility right from the start and from the ground-up, in co-production with disabled people and their user-led organisations.

MHCLG declined to explain why the taskforce report contained so few references to accessible housing and built environment in the new towns and failed to mention disabled people.

And it once again said it would set out its policies on accessible new-build housing shortly.

At last year’s Labour party conference, in September 2024, after DNS questioned the party on the failure of ministers to mention the accessible housing crisis, a Labour spokesperson promised the government would “set out its policies on accessible new build housing shortly”.

An MHCLG spokesperson said in a statement this week: “Everyone deserves to live in a decent home that is suitable for them and meets their needs.

“We will create New Towns that work for everyone, including disabled people, and we welcome recommendations from the taskforce that they should include specialist housing built to accessible and adaptable standards.

“We’re committed to working with disabled people and their organisations to shape these new communities together.”

*Deaf and disabled people’s organisations

9 October 2025

Alarm over government’s choices to lead ‘over-diagnosis’ review that could help ministers cut benefits

The government’s decision to commission a review of alleged “over-diagnosis” of mental health conditions and neurodivergence has caused alarm among many disabled people, with fears that it will allow ministers to justify further sweeping cuts to disability benefits.

There is also concern that health and social care secretary Wes Streeting has commissioned two high-profile mental health figures with controversial backgrounds to lead the review.

Although the government has not yet confirmed the review will take place, it will reportedly examine the prevalence of mental illness and neurodivergence, “with a particular focus on whether some conditions are being overdiagnosed”.

But disabled activists believe its authors have been chosen because they will “help to slash the social security bill”.

The review will apparently be chaired by Professor Peter Fonagy, while the vice-chair will be Professor Sir Simon Wessely.

Fonagy is a highly-decorated clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst but he has also been closely associated with the Serenity Integrated Mentoring (SIM) programme, which was described as unethical, unlawful and unsafe and “a national scandal” that had put people in severe mental distress at risk of being denied vital support.

He was lead author of an article (PDF) whose co-authors included Paul Jennings, the former police officer who founded SIM, and which examined how SIM was working in London and concluded six years ago that it was “promising”.

Jennings described Fonagy in one presentation as a “senior supporter” of the programme.

Campaigning by the StopSIM Coalition later exposed SIM as discriminatory, coercive and punitive, and eventually persuaded NHS England to admit it was wrong to endorse SIM without applying “sufficient scrutiny” and to accept that this had harmed service-users.

Wessely’s appointment is likely to prove even more divisive.

He helped recruit patients onto the notorious, and later discredited, PACE trial – part-funded by the Department for Work and Pensions – and he was hugely supportive of the PACE research (PDF) into the use of controversial treatments such as cognitive behaviour therapy and graded exercise therapy for those with ME.

In 1993 (PDF, page 17)*, Wessely had written to the then Department of Social Security to argue that the only difference between “chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME as it is sometimes known” and “the major psychiatric disorders” was “the existence of a powerful lobby group that dislikes any association with psychiatry”.

Wessely argued in his letter that any suggestion that ME was a neurological condition would “discourage any sensible efforts at rehabilitation” and lead to an “ever increasing stream of claims for permanent benefits in people who might otherwise have had a chance of recovery”.

The view – shared by Wessely – that it was the attitudes of people with ME that were preventing their recovery, and the impact of this belief among many doctors and scientists on the treatment of many thousands of people with ME, was described by the Guardian’s George Monbiot last year as “the greatest medical scandal of the 21st century”.

Wessely also led a review of the Mental Health Act, which was criticised for falling “significantly short” of recommending full human rights for people in mental distress, but was a blueprint for Labour’s much-criticised mental health bill.

Although the Fonagy review has yet to be officially confirmed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), its existence was revealed by the well-connected Health Service Journal (HSJ).

Linda Burnip, co-founder of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), said: “I think the choice of these two people shows how little regard the government, and Streeting and Timms** in particular, have for the fears of disabled people.

“It seems likely that they have deliberately been chosen to help to slash the social security bill.”

The grassroots, user-led mental health group Recovery in the Bin (RiTB) said both appointments were “safe establishment” figures with troubling backgrounds, such as Wessely’s links to the ME “forced exercise programmes” and Fonagy’s links to SIM, which suggested “a very low probability that this will be an open and fair investigation”.

RiTB said: “We expect it will return findings the government will find useful to deny people benefits.

“The issue that should be investigated is the thousands of deaths covered up by the DWP.

“Instead, they want to cause more death.”

A spokesperson for DPAC Cymru said it was “alarmed” at the decision to appoint Fonagy and Wessely, whose backgrounds were “a clear signal” of a “politically-motivated review that has had its outcome decided in advance.

“In the context of an NHS starved of funding, disability welfare cuts, and the UK government’s demonisation of disabled people, it is obvious why these two men have been selected.”

A DPAC Cymru member added: “Normalising mental health and neurodiversity normalises seeking help and clarity which makes diagnosis more accessible.

“We’ve always existed, we’ve always been different, we just didn’t have the ability to seek help or diagnosis.

“This whole ‘autism is new’ and ‘over-diagnosed’ argument is just another load of rubbish to demonise young people, make disability a taboo, exclude disabled communities, and save rich people pennies on providing help to people who really need it, and it frustrates me so incredibly much.”

Bethan Edwards, co-founder of the Stop SIM Coalition, which has now been disbanded, told Disability News Service (DNS) this week: “Professor Fonagy led an evaluation of SIM during its implementation in London in 2018 and 2019.

“SIM involved withholding care from people in extreme mental distress and involved the threat of criminalisation for attempting to use statutory services to meet significant mental health needs.

“It should not have taken a group of service-users to bring this to the public and professional bodies’ attention in 2021, leading to SIM’s demise.

“The alarm could and should have been raised sooner, including by Professor Fonagy himself.

“I, therefore, have very little confidence that the DHSC’s review will put the well-being and safety of people with mental health needs ahead of the Labour governments agenda – to cut welfare spending and to continue underfunding mental health services.”

And Kate Skinner, a neurodivergent campaigner, psychology student and academic research assistant, told DNS: “In my mind, the government’s potential reasons behind this review are straightforward: if fewer people qualify for diagnostic labels (such as ADHD), then fewer people will qualify for benefits, accommodations, and specialist services, as so many places lock the provision of support behind these labels.

“Reviews like this one feel like their real purpose is redefining who counts as being ‘deserving’ of support, as evidenced by the wider media, which has been chipping away at the ‘validity’ and ‘deservingness’ of neurodivergence for a while now.”

She said: “I understand why many disabled people, particularly those who are neurodivergent, are deeply concerned about this review.

“Psychology and psychiatry have a long history of researchers deciding what is ‘best’ for others, while ignoring the lived experiences of the people they study.

“This history of exclusion and paternalism already makes it difficult to trust that this new review, commissioned in such a negative light, will be conducted with genuine openness or ethical integrity.”

Skinner added: “One of the professionals leading this review [Wessely] has previously argued that greater awareness of mental health conditions may not be ‘beneficial’, and has warned against ‘over-professionalising’ or ‘medicalising’ certain conditions.

“Therefore, it is difficult not to feel that the government is seeking to use ‘experts’ to push through a harmful, ideologically-driven agenda.

“Until reviews like this are shaped and conducted by those they claim to represent, any talk of ‘overdiagnosis’ will continue to sound less like healthy, scientific investigation and more like deep, cynical suspicion.”

DHSC declined to comment on the HSJ article.

*This document was obtained from the National Archives through the efforts of disabled barrister Valerie Eliot Smith, who has ME

**Sir Stephen Timms, minister for social security and disability

9 October 2025

Coach firm to pay thousands to accessible transport activist after driver lied that he threatened violence

A coach operator that passed on defamatory lies about a well-known disabled activist who exposed the inaccessibility of one of its coaches will have to pay him substantial damages, and make a humiliating apology in open court.

A driver for Bolton-based Tyrers Coaches fabricated claims about Doug Paulley, alleging he had threatened a Network Rail coordinator with violence and that he hurled swearwords at him over an access failure at Rochdale train station 13 months ago.

Tyrers had passed on the allegations to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), and another transport company, Arriva.

The incident occurred after Tyrers – which was one of the companies providing a rail replacement service on behalf of government-owned Northern Trains – had been unable to accept Paulley onto its vehicle because the relevant door was not working.

Coaches from two other companies were also not able to accept Paulley on board, with one driver not trained to operate the accessibility equipment, and the other vehicle not wheelchair-accessible.

Tyrers later told DVSA and another transport company, Arriva, that Paulley had threatened violence, was physically threatening, called its driver “a d**khead” and told him he didn’t know what he was “f***ing doing”.

Paulley later discovered by accident – when his solicitor submitted a subject access request to DVSA in connection with another discrimination case – what Tyrers had said about him.

The coach company was unaware that Paulley – who has spent years exposing access failures across the transport industry – had recorded the incident on a camera attached to his wheelchair.

He was able to use the recording to show that none of the claims made by the Tyrers driver had been true.

He decided to launch a defamation claim in the high court because of the risk of serious damage to his reputation, and – he told Disability News Service – because he wanted to address the “reprehensible”, discriminatory and dishonest behaviour of transport companies and coach drivers, and their “horrific, hateful, ableist behaviour”.

Tyrers has now agreed to pay him £7,500 in damages and a further £1,000 for a breach of data protection law.

The company will also have to write to DVSA and Arriva, making it clear that the allegations it shared were false.

And it will have to apologise in open court for the false claims it made, and for the distress and damage caused to Paulley’s reputation.

Tyrers had not commented on its actions by 11am today (Thursday).

Train company Northern has also apologised to Paulley, after one of its managers claimed in an email that he “goes around Railway Stations and tries to find fault at each location”.

The email had been sent out after Paulley complained about the Rochdale incident, in which he had been “simply trying to travel and encountered genuine accessibility barriers” with the rail replacement bus service.

He told Northern in a complaint: “When I documented these experiences, it was as part of my legitimate role as a nationally recognised transport accessibility advocate, not as malicious troublemaking.

“The suggestion that I ‘go around’ railway stations looking for problems fundamentally misrepresents evidence-based documentation of accessibility failures as some form of personal vendetta.”

He said the language used showed “a concerning institutional prejudice against disabled passengers who exercise their legal rights to document accessibility failures and hold operators accountable”.

And he said it had “contributed to the toxic atmosphere” that enabled the discriminatory behaviour by Tyrers, and the subsequent “inaccurate, defamatory allegations” that were made about him.

Paulley said Northern’s actions had created “chilling effects that may deter other disabled passengers from reporting legitimate concerns”.

Northern has now apologised in an email for the distress caused by its manager’s comments and told Paulley his campaigning was “invaluable” and “helps us learn from our mistakes” and that his work over the years “has been greatly appreciated and has played an important role in helping us improve”.

Paulley’s data protection case against another transport company is ongoing.

A Northern spokesperson said the company had no further updates to the apology issued to Doug Paulley.

But he added: “As referenced [in the emailed apology], the work that campaigners including Mr Paulley do is invaluable.

“The comments in the email about which the complaint was received are not reflective of Northern’s views, and we are truly sorry for any distress caused by these comments.”

9 October 2025

Access to Work dossier of evidence shows ‘real harm’ and job losses caused by DWP cuts and failings

The Access to Work scheme is failing Deaf and disabled people, and its “decline” in the last two years has caused them “real harm”, with some support packages cut by 80 per cent, according to a detailed dossier of evidence prepared by a user-led organisation.

The 33-page report was put together by London-based Action on Disability (AoD), which said its evidence shows “systemic administrative failure, lack of transparency, and potential breaches of equality and human rights obligations” by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The evidence has been sent to the National Audit Office (NAO) as part of its ongoing investigation into how DWP is addressing “challenges” in the operation of the Access to Work (AtW) scheme.

NAO launched its investigation earlier this year following concerns that increased demand for AtW support, and other factors, had “adversely affected DWP’s administration of the scheme”, with “growing backlogs of people waiting for their applications to be processed or their claims to be paid”.

Much of the AoD report is based on its experience assisting disabled people with their AtW applications, renewals and appeals, in which their awards were “reduced, delayed, or rendered unusable due to unimplementable conditions”.

Between January 2023 and July 2025, it says, average support hours per week for more than 35 work placements it monitored have fallen from 22.5 to just four, while the average waiting time for an AtW case manager to be allocated has risen from eight weeks to 30, the job retention rate has halved from 88 per cent to 43 per cent, and the progression to paid work for those on supported internships has fallen from 72 per cent to 28 per cent.

Employers working with AoD say the deterioration of the scheme since 2023 has led to “job losses, reduced hours, and withdrawal from inclusion programmes that were previously successful”, with a significant decline in confidence in AtW among employers.

The dossier was shared with Disability News Service (DNS) this week, just days after DNS reported how disability minister Sir Stephen Timms admitted signing off on a directive that led to widespread cuts to disabled people’s AtW support packages.

Sir Stephen admitted to DNS last week that he had signed off on an order for AtW staff to apply guidance more “scrupulously”, after civil servants submitted a “proposal” to him to approve.

Among its concerns, the AoD report says changes to the way the scheme operates have made it harder for disabled people to contact their AtW case manager, while leading to inconsistency around quotations, inconsistent decision-making, and delayed or unclear pathways for appeals.

The effect of the changes has been to exclude disabled people from employment, destabilise supported internships, and undermine employers’ commitment to inclusion.

This has left AtW no longer operating “as a transparent, accountable, or lawfully administered scheme”, says the report.

The impact of changes over the last two years has been “a significant reduction in awards, increased administrative delays, and a breakdown of communication between AtW and service users, reversing years of progress in inclusive employment”.

And it says its evidence suggests that DWP has refused to publish internal policy instructions; denied claimants procedural fairness; obstructed transparency; and failed to ensure economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in public spending.

The report particularly highlights what AoD calls a “systemic policy shift”, with many applications that would previously have been awarded 100 per cent of a disabled person’s support needs in the workplace now being awarded about 20 per cent of their assessed needs.

This occurs when AtW categorises the assistance requested as a “job aide”, meaning the support worker is viewed as performing part of the job on the claimant’s behalf, rather than helping the disabled employee to overcome barriers related to the work.

AoD says AtW’s “rigid” approach fails to recognise the “legitimate” support that many disabled people need to complete their work independently, such as prompting and structured guidance.

It says AtW’s lack of recognition of such an approach to support has led to significant funding reductions of up to 80 per cent, disproportionately affecting people with learning difficulties, autistic people, those with acquired brain injury, or people with sensory processing impairments.

The report says the 20 per cent award policy “is like handing someone a plank that only stretches a fifth of the way across a river and then blaming them when they fall in”.

The NAO said its report was likely to be published early next year, and its team was still “gathering evidence through different methods”.

A government consultation on the future of Access to Work closed on 30 June, and DWP says it is now reviewing those responses and the scheme and working with disabled people and others on its proposals.

A “collaboration committee” on Access to Work – whose members have remained anonymous – concluded its work this month, and DWP says its views and concerns will now help shape the department’s policymaking.

DWP continues to insist that no changes have been made to AtW policy.

David Buxton, chief executive of AoD, said: “Access to Work should be a bridge into employment.

“Instead, thousands are being left stranded mid-way.

“The scheme’s decline is costing jobs, damaging wellbeing, and wasting public money.

“We hope the NAO’s inquiry restores transparency, fairness, and trust.”

A DWP spokesperson said: “We inherited an Access to Work scheme that is failing both employees and employers, which is why – as part of our welfare reform – we consulted on how it could be improved.

“We are reviewing all aspects of the scheme and will develop future policy with disabled people and the organisations that represent them.”

Meanwhile, disability consultant Alice Hastie, who specialises in providing AtW advice, warned this week that DWP had now shut down the AtW complaints email address, which she said “seems like a bizarre (and barely legal!) way of reducing the number of complaints they have to deal with”.

DWP said last night (Wednesday) that its policy is that email is not a valid contact method for complaints unless this has been agreed as a reasonable adjustment.

It is believed that the complaints email may have been shut down because it was for internal use only and its existence was not supposed to have been leaked to claimants.

9 October 2025

Greens show contrast with other major parties on disability cuts and refusal to stir up hostility to claimants

The Green Party is set to continue to contrast its policy approach on disability with other political parties by supporting disabled people who rely on benefits and have already experienced years of austerity cuts.

The newly-elected leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, Zach Polanski, told members at their annual conference in Bournemouth that the party would fight for the many disabled people “who have found themselves at the sharp end of brutal government cuts”.

His speech was focused on reducing the cost-of-living and addressing “rip-off Britain”, demanding more from “the very wealthiest”, tackling climate breakdown, attacking the “alarm bells of authoritarianism” within the Labour government, supporting the NHS and community cohesion, protecting “rights” and “liberties” through a “politics of hope”, and supporting migrants.

But there was almost no mention of how the party would fulfil these pledges, other than a repeated emphasis on wealth taxes, although its general election manifesto last year pledged a five per cent increase in the level of disability benefits, free personal care for adults, and more money to support disabled children in mainstream schools.

The difference in emphasis from the Liberal Democrat conference – where party leader Ed Davey spoke in an interview of targeting disability benefit fraud – and particularly the Labour, Reform and Conservative party conferences (see separate story), was clear.

There were no attacks on disabled people claiming benefits in Polanksi’s speech, and no calls for cuts to spending on supporting disabled people, or complaints about the “over-diagnosis” of mental distress or neurodivergence.

Instead, he said his party would fight for hard-pressed families, renters who live in “shoddy accommodation” and are wary of further rent increases, and “thousands and thousands of disabled people in the UK who have found themselves at the sharp end of brutal government cuts”.

In his speech, Polanski mentioned meeting a disabled man and his carer while knocking on doors with another Green politician, and how they spoke about “how hard everything is and how it just didn’t feel like a single person was representing them”.

Despite his words, there was still no clear picture of what Polanski and the Green Party would do to change that, other than “focusing day-in, day-out on the cost of living”.

One of the party’s co-deputy leaders, Rachel Millward, had told the conference of her experience of physical impairment and associated “horrendous” pain in her 20s, when she had a blue parking badge and an adapted vehicle.

But she said: “Far worse than that was the pain of separation from my community and from nature.

“Conference, please let us always make it a priority to find ways to give people with disabilities much better access to both.”

The contrast with the four main UK-wide parties continued this week, when the Green Party’s other co-deputy leader, Mothin Ali, attacked the “divisiveness and hatred” of the Conservative party and its announcements at its conference in Manchester this week (see separate story).

He said: “The package so far – turbo-charged welfare cuts, draconian anti-migration measures, and axing life-saving foreign aid – would leave few but the wealthiest unscathed.

“These measures are a cruel attack on the sick and disabled, migrants and asylum-seekers, and some of the poorest communities in the world.”

9 October 2025

New film celebrates 10 years since ‘moment in time’ victory over care charges in London borough

A new film released to celebrate 10 years since activists won a campaign to stop their local council charging for care shows how disabled people can achieve important victories by taking collective action, say campaigners who fought for that success.

The film* highlights the eight years of campaigning by Hammersmith and Fulham Coalition against Cuts (HAFCAC), which led eventually to their London borough scrapping home care charges in April 2015.

The campaign began in 2006 when the new Conservative-led council introduced a policy that imposed charges for home care.

HAFCAC was set up to fight the “discriminatory policy”, and it spent eight years lobbying councillors, holding protests and pushing the council to change its policy.

Tara Flood, one of the HAFCAC steering group members, says in the film: “There’s something particularly awful about receiving, through the post or via email, a document, an invoice, that sets out how much you have to pay to enable you to live at home with the support that you need to participate in your community, to be a friend, to be a family member, to be a parent, to get to work.

“No-one else is experiencing that.”

HAFCAC also backed a judicial review legal action against the charges brought by three disabled people from the borough who received home care.

Although they lost the case, one of the high court judges described the policy as sacrificing home care services on the altar of council tax reductions.

The film describes how the coalition raised much of its funding with pub quizzes, at which disabled activists such as Flood, Kevin Caulfield and Debbie Domb – all members of HAFCAC’s steering group – began to build relationships with politicians, including Labour’s Steve Cowan.

Cowan, who would go on to lead Hammersmith and Fulham council, says in the film: “The crucial thing was what Debbie, Tara and Kevin were able to do, was educate me and my colleagues on the need for the social model of disability to be right at the heart of our Labour administration’s approach.”

Months after Labour won back control of the council in May 2014, Cowan announced that Hammersmith and Fulham would be scrapping all home care charges in May 2015.

It remains one of only two councils in England that do not charge for home care, after Tower Hamlets council in east London scrapped adult home care charges from April this year.

Caulfield says in the film: “That moment [in 2014] was a real moment in time to show that campaigning does work, that disabled people getting together and collectively taking action can really have an impact.”

David Webb, a fourth member of the HAFCAC steering group, who ran the fund-raising pub quizzes, describes in the film how having personal assistance has completely changed his life.

He says: “It has given me a measure of choice and control that I didn’t have before.”

Victoria Brignall, who has benefited from scrapping care charges in the borough, says in the film: “People don’t choose to be disabled.

“It’s a tax on disability and we would like disabled people to be treated in the same way as other people.

“You don’t charge people to send their children to school, or to use parks, or to collect your rubbish, so why charge disabled people for their care?”

She says she hopes other councils will now be inspired to abolish home care charges.

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

Caulfield points out in the film that tens of thousands of disabled people every year are taken to court for non-payment of care charges.

“That’s just a disgrace,” he says.

He and his fellow HAFCAC veterans say the film serves as both a celebration and a rallying cry, and that they hope their success “will inspire more disabled people to take action”.

The film, launched on Tuesday, is dedicated to Debbie Domb, “a fearless freedom fighter for disabled people’s rights”, who died in 2018.

*The film, ‘£12.40 an Hour for a Shower: The Story of Disabled People’s Struggle to Abolish Home Care Charging in Hammersmith & Fulham’, was directed, edited and produced by disabled film-maker, journalist and author Richard Butchins, and can be accessed with BSL and subtitles only, or with added audio description.

**Inclusion London is campaigning to persuade the government to scrap all social care charges.

9 October 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 October 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Limited capability for work-related activity

2 October 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 October 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 October 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 October 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 October 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 October 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He said: “I will find out about it.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 October 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 October 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“It has been encouraged tacitly by the government.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 October 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“We do provide a service.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 October 2025

‘Disastrous’ cuts bill that leaves legacy of distrust and distress ‘must be dropped’

Disabled activists have called on the government to scrap its “dangerous” and “disastrous” disability benefits bill, despite forcing ministers into last-minute changes that scrapped all their planned cuts to personal independence payment (PIP).

Chaotic events in parliament on Tuesday, and three months of activism since the publication of the Pathways to Work green paper, have left disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) appalled, shocked, and struggling to trust the government.

Their activism, together with the efforts of a small group of backbench MPs, forced ministers into a series of U-turns and concessions on the universal credit and personal independence payment bill.

The lack of trust in the government, and in the minister for social security and disability, Sir Stephen Timms, now creates a significant barrier as he begins a year-long review of personal independence payment (PIP), including an examination of its eligibility criteria and assessment process.

A chaotic few hours in parliament on Tuesday led eventually to ministers withdrawing all their proposed cuts to PIP, at least until the end of the review next autumn.

The bill passed its second reading by 335 to 260 votes, and it will return to the Commons on Wednesday (9 July) for its committee stage, with significant cuts to the health element for most new claimants of universal credit from next April remaining in the legislation.

Disabled people’s organisations were united yesterday (Wednesday) in their call for the “sham of a bill” to be dropped, with many expressing distrust in the government.

And there was little celebration that their successful activism – led by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and other grassroots groups such as Taking the PIP – had forced the government into gutting its bill.

DPAC described the bill as a “complete and utter mess”.

Paula Peters, a member of DPAC’s national steering group, said the process had done nothing but “cause more anxiety and more distress for disabled people”.

She told Disability News Service (DNS) that she did not trust Sir Stephen as he had “shown time and again he doesn’t listen to charities, DPOs or disabled people”.

And she pointed to the concerns – expressed also by some MPs – that the government will merely introduce a new series of cuts to PIP at the end of the review, through a parliamentary mechanism that means they will not need to be approved by MPs.

Svetlana Kotova, director of campaigns and justice at Inclusion London, was also distrustful of the government’s motives.

She said: “The social security system needs reform, but not like this.

“It is clear that this was never about reform, it was about balancing the books at the expense of disabled people.

“Removing PIP cuts from the bill is a positive step, but there is no guarantee the government will be open to true co-production; more likely, they will want us to engage in ‘co-producing cuts’.

“The bill still includes deeply harmful cuts to universal credit.

“The government should admit they made a mistake, drop this harmful bill and go back to the drawing board.”

National Survivor User Network (NSUN) said the decision to gut the bill was “the direct result of tireless campaigning by disabled people and their organisations in recent weeks”.

But it said that the chaotic and confusing way it was passed showed “callous disdain for the lives of disabled people”, while the bill “should have been withdrawn in its entirety”.

An NSUN spokesperson said: “It is vital that co-production through the Timms review meaningfully involves disabled people, putting power in the hands of those whose lives will be most impacted.

“We have seen the violence of the government’s rubber-stamp consultations so far and demand genuine co-production rather than inadequate and tokenistic consultation on an already-decided course of action.”

And it said the refusal to remove the cuts to the health element of universal credit for most new claimants from the bill showed the government “remains willing to attack disabled people” and was “a shameful attempt to divide the disabled community and stifle solidarity”.

The NSUN spokesperson added: “We will continue to organise with DPO allies, push for the rights-based reform which our deadly social security system needs, and ensure there are electoral consequences for those who go after disabled people in this way.”

Disability Rights UK (DR UK) said disabled people would be “enormously relieved” that the PIP cuts had been dropped from the bill, although “serious concerns” remained about the cuts to the health element of universal credit for most new claimants, which would make hundreds of thousands of the poorest people in the country even poorer.

A DR UK spokesperson said: “We’ve known all along that the public, disabled people and our organisations have found this bill to be unjust and unfair.

“Yet the government has used every tool in its arsenal, every procedural trick, to push this dangerous bill through.”

DR UK said the government’s “floundering and chaos” was “a direct result of the steadfast work of disabled campaigners and our allies, who have made it clear that this bill is unworkable.

“Despite attempts to silence us, through our collective campaigning, we made them drop billions of pounds worth of cuts, and we will continue to resist this disastrous bill.”

Rick Burgess, campaigns lead at Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, said Tuesday’s events had demonstrated the “arrogance and disrespect” of the government, and he also called for the bill to be scrapped.

He said the bill still contained cuts to the health element of universal credit, and it imposed “extremely restrictive” criteria on those who will be offered some protection through the “severe conditions criteria”.

He said disabled people would seek to stop these elements of the bill through amendments.

Burgess added: “The PIP review must be to a specified standard of coproduction agreed with our organisations and be subject to statutory public consultation.

“Given our experience to date, however, we have low confidence in the government.

“However, it must also be said, while we lost the vote, we won a victory in gutting the bill and exposing the utter shambles of Starmer’s administration.”

The grassroots, user-led mental health group Recovery in the Bin (RITB) delivered a bleak assessment last night of the impact of the government’s actions.

An RITB spokesperson told DNS: “The whole sequence of events from the announcements, to constant vilification in the media, and from ministers, especially Kendall and Timms, has caused such distress that Labour have ended any hope of support.

“They are loathed and despised, and we have no trust whatsoever in them not to attack us.”

AJ Le Brun, a disabled activist with DPAC Cardiff and Valleys, said the bill had been “rushed through” with no thought for disabled people.

She said: “The changes and promises made in the final hours before the vote may have soothed the consciences of some MPs, but we see through these shaky promises.

“The changes to universal credit will push more of us into poverty, when we are already struggling with the rising costs of aids and support needed to live with dignity.

“I do not trust Stephen Timms and his department to conduct a fair PIP review.

“They have shown us they are not listening to disabled people by only providing one face-to-face consultation for Wales, and holding the vote the day after the consultation formally closed.

“What confidence can we have that this review will be any better?”

Because of the number of changes to the original bill, DNS asked DWP to confirm exactly what the bill would now do.

Here is the list provided by the department (edited for clarity by DNS):

The bill will make changes to universal credit (UC) from April 2026
It will not bring forward any changes to the PIP eligibility criteria

From April 2026:

The standard allowance of UC will rise above inflation in each of the next four years
The health element of UC for new claimants will be reduced to £50 per week
Existing claimants of the health element and those new health element claimants meeting the severe conditions criteria (SCC) or considered under the special rules for end of life (SREL) will see their UC standard allowance combined with the UC health element rise in line with inflation in the next four years
People in the SCC group will be exempt from future UC reassessments

3 July 2025

Four disabled Labour MPs stand up to government over cuts to disability benefits

Four disabled Labour MPs stood up to their government’s attempts to reduce vital disability benefits, despite ministers’ chaotic last-ditch concessions to rebels that removed a significant chunk of their cuts bill.

Marsha de Cordova, Marie Tidball and Emma Lewell all voted against the universal credit and personal independence payment bill, and each of them delivered powerful speeches in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Another disabled Labour MP, Marie Rimmer, also voted against the bill.

But a fifth disabled Labour MP, Vicky Foxcroft – who had played a key role in the rebellion that forced a series of government concessions – voted for the bill and its significant cuts to the health element for many new claimants of universal credit.

She and many other Labour MPs who had previously opposed the cuts bill voted with the government after the minister for social security and disability, Sir Stephen Timms, suddenly announced at 5.25pm on Tuesday – nearly four hours after the debate began and just 95 minutes before MPs voted – that there was to be another concession.

Ministers had already announced that existing PIP claimants would not now be subjected to new rules that meant they would have to be awarded at least four points on at least one “activity” to qualify for the PIP daily living component, which were to be introduced from November 2026.

Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall had also announced the previous day that the government would no longer freeze the health element top-up for existing claimants of universal credit, and that they and new claimants who were terminally-ill or were placed in the “severe conditions group” would instead see the combined value of their universal credit standard allowance and health top-up “rise at least in line with inflation”.

But in a dramatic intervention, Timms then also announced at 5.25pm that no cuts at all to PIP would go ahead until his own review into PIP – which Kendall said would be “co-produced with disabled people, their organisations, clinicians, other experts and MPs” – was completed in the autumn of 2026.

This final concession ensured that the bill passed by 335 to 260 votes.

The committee stage of the bill will take place in just a few days, on Wednesday (9 July), but without any measures to cut PIP.

Marsha de Cordova, a former shadow minister for disabled people, was one of the few MPs in the debate to warn how previous Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) cuts and reforms had led previously to the deaths of many disabled people.

Speaking before the final concessions were announced, she pointed to the many internal process reviews into deaths linked to DWP actions, and the long-delayed second inquest into the death of Jodey Whiting, which found last month that DWP’s decision to wrongly stop her benefits after a string of safeguarding failings was the “trigger” for her to take her own life.

De Cordova told fellow MPs: “I set that out because it is important that we understand that disabled people’s lives have not been valued or respected for the last 14 years.”

She also pointed to the findings of the UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities, which last April found successive Conservative-led governments had made “no significant progress” in the more than seven years since a finding of “grave and systematic” violations of the UN disability convention.

Marie Tidball delivered an emotional speech, in which at times she appeared close to tears, in which she told MPs she would be voting against the bill “with a heavy, broken heart”.

She said she had been in discussions with ministers since April, “making clear that I could not support the proposals on PIP”.

She added: “PIP is an in-work benefit designed to ensure that disabled people can live independently.

“Low-level support such as PIP helps to build the bridge to the deinstitutionalisation of disabled people, keeping us out of the dark corners of hospitals, prisons and social care settings.”

Tidball voted against the bill despite the late concession from Sir Stephen Timms that ruled out all PIP cuts until the end of his review.

Emma Lewell also voted against the bill, despite the late concession.

She had told MPs that past Conservative social security reforms had not led to any cost savings but instead to “an increase in poverty, an increase in suicides, strain on the NHS and other public services, and, in the long run, higher welfare spending and reduced growth”.

But two other disabled Labour MPs, Liam Conlon and Jen Craft, voted for the bill, although they did not speak during the debate.

Steve Darling, the disabled Liberal Democrat MP and his party’s work and pensions spokesperson, voted against the bill, as did the rest of his party.

He had told MPs: “We all know that rushed bills are poor bills, and the law of unintended consequences will come to haunt the government if this bill goes through.”

Rachael Maskell, who was among leaders of the rebel Labour MPs – and proposed an amendment that would have killed the bill, but was defeated by 328 to 149 votes – told MPs in another passionate speech that she was voting against the bill because it was “a matter of deep conscience, as it should be and will be for us all”.

She was another MP who highlighted the harm caused by previous cuts and reforms to disability benefits, pointing to the 600 suicides between 2010 and 2013 that were linked to the programme to reassess incapacity benefit claimants.

Maskell said: “When they are managing discomfort, despair, pain and prejudice, are isolated and lonely, or their life has spiralled out of control, disabled people want anything but this bill.

“They are already discriminated and dehumanised, so I plead that we do not leave them desperate, too.”

There was disappointment among many disabled people that among those voting for the cuts to the universal credit health element was Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, chair of the work and pensions committee, who had been outspoken about her concerns about the “dog’s breakfast of a bill”.

She had told MPs that “too many people relying on social security support to survive have died through suicide, starvation and other circumstances exacerbated by their poverty” in the last 15 years as a result of the “punitive, even dehumanising, social security system in which not being able to work has been viewed with suspicion or worse, with devastating consequences”.

But she still voted for the bill, despite its significant cuts to the rate of universal credit that will be paid to most new recipients of the health element of universal credit from next April, who will see the health element nearly halved and then frozen.

Asked last night (Wednesday) why she had voted for the bill, despite the significant cuts to disabled people’s support that it still contains, Vicky Foxcroft referred Disability News Service to a statement on her website.

She did not mention those cuts in the statement, but she said that securing the concessions was “a huge victory for Labour backbenchers” and that she voted for the bill because it was “now in a much better form than it was two weeks ago”.

She said she would only vote for the bill at its final Commons stage “if the final proposals reflect the commitments ministers have made”, and that she would be “looking for ministers to take these commitments forward and ensure we have co-production right across government”.

Because of the number of changes to the original bill, DNS asked DWP to confirm exactly what the bill would now do.

Here is the list provided by the department (edited for clarity by DNS):

The bill will make changes to universal credit (UC) from April 2026
It will not bring forward any changes to the PIP eligibility criteria

From April 2026:

The standard allowance of UC will rise above inflation in each of the next four years
The health element of UC for new claimants will be reduced to £50 per week.
Existing claimants of the health element and those new health element claimants meeting the severe conditions criteria (SCC) or considered under the special rules for end of life (SREL) will see their UC standard allowance combined with the UC health element rise in line with inflation in the next four years
People in the SCC group will be exempt from future UC reassessments

3 July 2025

Silence from MP sister of Rachel Reeves over suicide linked to PIP flaws, just as government was seeking cuts

Labour’s chair has refused to answer questions about a disabled constituent whose suicide was closely linked to flaws in the personal independence payment (PIP) system, just as her government was trying to cut PIP spending by billions of pounds a year.

Three months after an ombudsman found that failings within the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its PIP system were a factor in the death of Tracie, from south London, her MP, Ellie Reeves, is still refusing to comment on that report’s findings.

Reeves is chair of the Labour party and a Cabinet Office minister, but she is also the sister of chancellor Rachel Reeves, who many disabled people blame for the government’s decision to attempt to slash spending on PIP and other disability-related benefits.

The ombudsman’s ruling was delivered to Tracie’s husband, Mustapha, just five days after Rachel Reeves announced, at the spring statement, that she would be making cuts to PIP spending of £4.5 billion a year by 2029-30.

It was Ellie Reeves, the MP for Lewisham West and East Dulwich, who referred the case to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman in December 2021, when Labour was still in opposition, and her office has supported Mustapha for nearly five years.

But since the ombudsman finally produced its report in March, Mustapha has not yet been able to discuss its contents with his MP.

He was originally told that Reeves was happy to discuss the report but had not yet received a copy, so he visited her office last month and posted a hard copy through the letterbox after an emailed copy apparently did not reach her.

Her office claims it did not receive a copy of the report until 18 June.

The ombudsman has apologised for not sending her a copy on publication, as it usually would; it finally emailed her a copy this week, but it is not clear why her office did not attempt to secure a copy of such an important report herself.

A member of her casework team has now told Mustapha that she – although not the MP – would be happy to discuss the report with him.

Mustapha has provided permission to Ellie Reeves to discuss the case with Disability News Service (DNS).

But the MP has so far failed to respond to questions from DNS, including what conclusions she has reached about the safety of the PIP system, in the context of the billions of pounds her sister has been trying to cut from PIP spending, and whether she would be taking any action on her constituent’s behalf.

Reeves has also refused to comment on the possible harm that could be caused to other disabled people like Tracie if the billions of pounds of cuts to PIP had gone ahead.

DNS first put the questions to Reeves on 7 April, nearly three months ago.

The ombudsman had concluded that DWP’s failings in dealing with Tracie’s PIP claim were a “significant contributing factor” in her decision to take her own life in March 2020.

Tracie’s mental health had been stable, but she “spiralled into a deep depression” after DWP removed the daily living part of her PIP following a review of her eligibility in July 2019.

The ombudsman concluded that DWP – which eventually admitted that its decision on her claim had been wrong – failed to consider the relevant evidence properly.

The ombudsman is now looking at whether DWP needs to make “wider changes to its service and the way it considers benefit claims”, as part of a broader piece of work which includes an investigation into the death of another disabled claimant.

Asked for an update on this work, a spokesperson for the ombudsman said: “This work involves an ongoing investigation.

“By law we investigate in private so we cannot comment further on this.”

DWP eventually decided – after her death – that Tracie should have been entitled to the enhanced daily living rate of PIP.

DWP accepted that Tracie had needed help from another person to get in and out of the bath; couldn’t wash all her body herself; relied on incontinence pads; needed assistance to take her medication; had paranoid thoughts and felt anxious when others were around; rarely left the house; avoided mixing with other people; and experienced significant mental distress and suicidal thoughts.

But despite her significant support needs, the report shows that someone with Tracie’s level of impairment would not have qualified for even the standard rate of the daily living part of PIP if the chancellor’s cuts had been implemented from November 2026.

This is because to qualify for PIP daily living, a new claimant would have needed at least four points in at least one “activity”, and the most Tracie qualified for in any single activity was three points.

The ombudsman’s findings have therefore been posing a political headache for Ellie Reeves, although that eased this week when a chaotic parliamentary debate saw ministers withdraw all cuts to PIP from the universal credit and personal independence payment bill, with future cuts not to be considered until after a ministerial review (see separate stories).

The ombudsman finally sent Reeves a copy of the report on Monday, three days after DNS had asked when the MP had received the report.

A spokesperson for the ombudsman said: “The usual procedure after a parliamentary investigation is closed is that the report would be sent to the referring MP on the same day as the complainant and organisation involved.

“In this case, human error meant the report was not sent to the MP.

“We have apologised to the complainant and MP for this error.

“We will learn from this mistake to prevent it from happening again in the future.”

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

3 July 2025

Disabled people receiving care were ‘ignored by design’ during the pandemic, Covid inquiry hears

Four national disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) have told the Covid inquiry that people who receive care and support were “ignored by design” during the pandemic.

The inquiry heard on Monday that there were more than 43,000 deaths involving COVID-19 in care homes across the UK between March 2020 and July 2022, although there were no figures given for how many disabled people died in their own homes while receiving care services.

The inquiry also heard that, during the first two peaks of the pandemic, before vaccines became widely available, people with learning difficulties were seven to nine times more likely to experience a COVID-19-related death than people without learning difficulties.

And more than a quarter of all deaths from COVID-19 in 2020 were in people with dementia, even though they only made up two per cent of the total adult population.

Disability Rights UK (DR UK), Disability Action Northern Ireland, Disability Wales and Inclusion Scotland have together been granted “core participant status” in module six of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, which is examining the impact of the pandemic on the adult social care sector across the UK.

Their opening statement for module six was delivered on Monday by barrister Danny Friedman, from Matrix Chambers.

He told the inquiry that the pandemic saw care settings become life-threatening, while “care services to sustain everyday basic quality of life were withdrawn”.

He highlighted how the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), which provides advice to government during emergencies, stated in May 2022 that no UK country was able to “routinely identify who is resident in care homes, who is receiving social care at home, and who works in or visits a care home or a person’s home”.

These data weaknesses meant the “recipients of care, the way they live, and the way that many of them died, was ignored by design”, said Friedman.

The DPOs’ opening statement said that care staff were allowed to move from care setting to care setting, spreading the virus, because those in charge knew the system would “collapse” if staff were forced to work only in one location.

Friedman said: “Care homes would go under. People would be abandoned. It was decided that the lesser of evils was hazardous movement of staff.”

The DPOs also highlighted how the “very first thing” the UK government did in the pandemic was to “legislate to take their rights away” under the Care Act.

But Friedman said that only eight local authorities in England lodged reports to show they were operating under these emergency care laws, even though the evidence showed there were “vastly reduced services across the country”, which meant local authorities must have “embarked on mass violations of the law”.

He said: “Some local authorities reduced their services to basic life and limb protection, social contact services were drastically cut, leaving people with dementia, learning disabilities and learning difficulties and mental ill-health totally isolated for long periods.

“The singular benefit of easements was that the law required reasoned, recorded, and open decision-making about withdrawal of services and disclosure of that fact to central government, but across the system, that is the one thing that local authorities near uniformly appear not to have done.

“Government then helped to misrepresent the human cost by finding false consolation that only eight reports were made.

“Rather than taking steps to enforce the law, the result is one of the singularly worst failures of accountability, and indeed illegality, across the period.”

The DPOs also highlighted that the government had focused on care homes and not domiciliary or supported care settings when it thought about issues such as providing personal protective equipment, testing for the virus, and getting hold of food.

Friedman said: “All these things were afterthoughts, grafted on to government responses far later than for hospitals and residential settings, if at all.”

The inquiry had heard earlier that its module six investigation had gathered more than 200,000 pages of evidence.

The hearings will last five weeks, and about 55 witnesses will give oral evidence.

Nearly 47,000 people have shared their experience of the care sector during the pandemic with the inquiry’s Every Story Matters listening exercise, the inquiry heard.

After the hearing, Georgia Bondy, who is working for DR UK on the inquiry, said: “The government needs to take responsibility for the fact that its lack of planning, consultation and care is part of the reason so many disabled people receiving care died and suffered during the pandemic.”

Rhian Davies, chief executive of Disability Wales, said: “Curtailing disabled people’s rights under the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act (2014) was one of the earliest decisions taken by Welsh government at the outset of the pandemic and paved the way for Wales experiencing the highest death rate from Covid-19 amongst disabled people in the UK.”

And Nuala Toman, head of accessibility at Disability Action Northern Ireland, said: “The pandemic exposed a brutal truth: disabled people were not only forgotten, they were disregarded through planning and service design failures.

“The UK and Northern Ireland’s fragmented and underfunded care system, combined with institutional ableism, led to preventable deaths and trauma.

“Unless our governments act now, we are knowingly walking into the next crisis with the same failures.”

Heather Fisken, chief executive of Inclusion Scotland, said: “If there was ever any emergency planning around these vital services and supports, disabled people were unaware and not involved.

“As a consequence, tens of thousands of disabled people lost vital support, often overnight, and were put at increased risk of contracting COVID.

“Today, some still don’t have the support they had prior to the pandemic.

“Governments need to take this learning forward and work with our organisations to ensure social care support is invested in and systems around it are strengthened and people-led so that this never happens again”.

3 July 2025

Disabled activists warn Labour MPs who vote for cuts: ‘The gloves will be off’

Labour MPs were given their final warning by disabled activists at a sweltering rally outside parliament on Monday that, if they vote for cuts to disability benefits, the “gloves will be off”.

Ellen Clifford, one of the key organisers of the rally and award-winning author of The War on Disabled People, warned MPs of the consequences if they voted for the cuts.

She told the #WelfareNotWarfare rally, which took place a day before MPs voted on the cuts in the universal credit and personal independence payment bill (see separate stories): “I know that disabled people will fight to the end.

“We are not going to let this through without one hell of a fight. And if it does, we are not going to forgive any Labour MPs who either vote for it or abstain.”

Paula Peters, from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), said any Labour MPs who voted for the cuts would be forced from their seats.

She said: “Let’s tell these MPs: the gloves come off. We turn the anger into action and we’re not going to back off.”

John McArdle, co-founder of the Scottish grassroots group Black Triangle Campaign, warned Scottish Labour MPs – including his own MP, Ian Murray – that disabled people would “wipe the floor” with them at the next general election if they backed the cuts.

“Any of these MPs that vote for this bill… if you vote to push us into the most appalling poverty and despair, we will wipe the floor with you at the general election, we will boot you out of Scotland.”

Among the speakers was Joy Dove, who has fought for justice for eight years for her disabled daughter Jodey Whiting.

She took her own life in February 2017 after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) wrongly removed her out-of-work disability benefits following five missed chances to save her.

Dove read out part of the ruling given by the coroner at a long-awaited second inquest last month, which concluded that her daughter’s benefits had been “wrongly” withdrawn.

And she warned that other disabled people could die if the cuts went ahead.

She had a message for the department: “DWP, you killed my daughter, and I don’t want it to happen to anybody else.”

Dr Natasha Hirst, disabled activist and former president of the National Union of Journalists, also spoke of the harm the cuts would cause.

She said the bill would take money from disabled people “who are already struggling to survive.

“We know this will harm them, we know this bill will kill people.

“MPs need to listen to their disabled constituents. Take the money from those who can afford to pay, not those who can’t.

“We will not forget how you vote.”

Welfare rights adviser Emma Cotton told the rally of the damage already caused by 15 years of austerity.

She said: “I have seen the damage that austerity has done. I have been a witness to a near-total degradation of the UK social security system.”

Fazilet Hadi, from Disability Rights UK, was among those who mentioned the government’s pledge that it was now going to start co-producing policy with disabled people.

She said: “That is absolute rubbish. If they had wanted to co-produce with disabled people, they should have talked to us a year ago… they should have put these proposals in the green paper… they should have stopped rushing this bill through.”

She said earlier: “It is absolutely shameful what this government is doing to disabled people, and it will be shameful for Labour MPs if they vote with the government.

“Successive governments have made us poor, successive governments have put the NHS on its knees, successive governments have taken away social care, successive governments have made us a society where disabled people are becoming sicker and new disabled people are coming on stream because of homelessness, poverty, and lack of food.”

There were regular outbursts of anger among speakers, including from Mac, from Crips Against Cuts, who told the rally: “Tax the wealthy, instead of killing the crips.”

Several disabled speakers – including Clifford – also spoke of their pride in a disability community that continues to fight, despite 15 years of battling against austerity cuts.

The rally was led by DPAC, and supported by the Taking The PIP campaign and Crips Against Cuts, as well as mainstream campaign groups Stop the War Coalition, The People’s Assembly, The Trade Union Coordinating Group, and We Demand Change.

There were several speeches from members of the disabled people’s Taking the PIP anti-cuts campaign, including actors Cherylee Houston, Lisa Hammond and Cerrie Burnell.

Houston said: “How dare they try to reduce our futures, how dare they try to infer that we are of less value, a lesser part of society.

“We need to stand up and hold firm. They cannot strip away years of legacy within our community.

“I’m here alongside everyone else to say stop this bill, stop it now before more people die.”

Hammond said the concessions made by ministers were “nothing more than political spin.

“They are designed to buy off rebellion, not to protect our rights.”

Among others who warned of the consequences of the cuts was Angela Grant, president of the DWP group of the PCS union, who said: “Many of us, including me, depend on PIP to keep us in work.

“I would not be able to work if they came after PIP.”

She added: “They do not care, they are not listening, until we make them listen.

“We stand together because if we start letting them divide us, divide us in our communities, they will break us down one by one.”

Hamza spoke of the impact on fellow disabled asylum-seekers, and he told the rally: “We are here today to fight for our fundamental human rights.

“We fight to win, or we die fighting.”

The rally was temporarily disrupted by protesters from a rival rally who supported the right of Israel to continue its genocide in Palestine and to continue bombing Iran, and supported the son of Iran’s former Shah and want to see regime change in Iran.

They had edged closer and closer to the disabled people’s rally, and several of their supporters appeared intent on antagonising and intimidating disabled activists, with several reports of aggressive disablist abuse.

When disabled activists saw this begin to happen, they linked arms with allies to protect disabled people and their rally and continued to chant “welfare not warfare” until the pro-Israel protesters eventually melted away.

Although police officers had been seen dragging away at least two members of the pro-Israel rally, the Metropolitan police said afterwards that they were not aware of any arrests.

Several of the pro-Israel supporters refused to talk to Disability News Service, but one of them claimed they were opposed to Stop the War Coalition, which was supporting the anti-cuts rally, and he criticised the argument that cutting spending on bombs would allow increased spending on social security.

The disabled people’s rally also included songs from disabled activist and singer-songwriter Sophia Kleanthous, who minutes earlier had been part of the human barrier.

Her songs included a new anti-cuts anthem written for the rally: Cut Us Until We Bleed.

As she introduced the song, she told the rally: “We will not allow people to divide us.

“We will not support war, and we will not support these cuts.”

At the end of the song, activists displayed a huge new banner, which said: “You Cut We Bleed.”

A string of MPs spoke at the rally to express their solidarity with disabled people, including Labour’s Ian Lavery, Andy McDonald, Richard Burgon, Lorraine Beavers and Brian Leishman, former Labour leader – and now an Independent MP – Jeremy Corbyn, and fellow Independent MP Adnan Hussain.

Burgon told the rally: “You’re saying, and we support you, that enough is enough.

“Let’s be clear: this bill was brought to save money. This bill was brought to do that by making things worse for disabled people in this country.”

And he sent a message to fellow Labour MPs: “Certain votes in parliament define you, certain votes in parliament will be remembered not only for the rest of your political career, but probably for the rest of your life.

“It’s about time that my colleagues got an inch of the guts, an inch of the courage of disabled people outside here today, and did the right thing.

“Don’t talk to me about agonising over the vote – the people agonising are disabled people across the country who are worried about the future.

“Don’t talk to me about agonising on £93,000 a year, do the right thing for God’s sake.”

3 July 2025

GB News says it has nothing to apologise for, after guest suggests starving disabled benefit claimants

A British news channel has said it has nothing to apologise for after a right-wing commentator and comedian suggested the best way to cut the number of disabled people claiming benefits was to starve, or even shoot, them.

It is just the latest example of disability hate speech broadcast and published by mainstream media organisations over the last 35 years that have run in parallel with government attempts to cut spending on disability benefits.

GB News presenter Patrick Christys had told viewers that “welfare needs to be cut” – while ignoring the evidence that working-age social security spending is stable as a proportion of GDP* – before claiming that the prime minister was not “doing much” to cut disability benefits.

He then asked his guest Lewis Schaffer how he would “get them off their backside”.

Schaffer replied: “Just starve them, that’s what people have to do, that’s what you’ve got to do to people, you can’t just give people money.”

He then added: “What else can you do? Shoot them? I mean, I’d suggest that, but I think that’s maybe a bit strong.”

Christys then replied: “Yeah, it’s just not allowed these days.”

On his X/Twitter profile, Schaffer describes himself as a “virologist, cardiologist, climatologist, historian”, but elsewhere he is described as a “comedian and broadcaster”.

One of the earliest commentators to pick up Schaffer’s comments was “Maximilien Robespierre”, who described the comments on his YouTube channel as “dangerous rhetoric”.

GB News originally refused to comment, but it eventually produced the following statement for Disability News Service (DNS): “Having reviewed the comment, which is clearly comedic, GB News does not consider there is anything that requires an apology, or further explanation.”

But Dr Natasha Hirst, disabled members’ representative for the National Union of Journalists, told DNS: “It is appalling and unacceptable for an Ofcom-regulated broadcaster to encourage and allow discriminatory and harmful commentary about disabled people.

“Suggesting violence towards disabled people is no joke and has real-life consequences by emboldening hate speech and harassment.

“We expect Ofcom to do its job as a regulator and investigate the complaints raised with a recognition of the wider context of exclusion and abuse that disabled people experience in their daily lives.”

Disabled campaigner Ben Scott called for GB News to be shut down by the broadcasting regulator Ofcom because of the “astronomically shocking” and “appalling” rhetoric.

He said Schaffer’s comments reminded him of Nazi “useless eater” rhetoric from the 1930s, which eventually led to the targeted killing of hundreds of thousands of disabled people in Germany through the Aktion T4 programme.

After Scott criticised him on X, Schaffer repeated some of his comments, posting: “I’m suggesting ‘starving’ or and then ‘shooting’ the disabled, to lower costs!”

This week, Schaffer’s website appeared to have been taken off-line, but Wikipedia describes him as “an American comedian and broadcaster” who is also a GB News presenter.

The comments come just three months after the Department for Work and Pensions drew horrified comments after publishing figures that showed the total cost to the economy of disabled people who cannot work, which was described as a “chilling” echo of the propaganda of 1930s Germany.

Ofcom confirmed that there had been complaints about Lewis Schaffer’s comments, but because there were less than 50, it was unable to say how many.

An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We are assessing complaints about this programme against our broadcasting rules before deciding whether or not to investigate.”

*Gross domestic product, the size of the country’s economy in a particular year

3 July 2025

SEND inspections find services in just one in four areas usually lead to ‘positive’ outcomes for disabled children

Only one in four inspections of local services for disabled children in England last year concluded that they usually lead to “positive experiences and outcomes” for those young people, the education regulator has announced.

The findings from Ofsted showed that 28 inspections of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services in local areas were carried out in 2024, but only seven led to a positive report.

Six of the inspections – which do not involve inspections of schools – concluded that there were “widespread and/or systemic failings” in local services which led to “significant concerns”, while the other 15 concluded that there were “inconsistent experiences and outcomes” for children and young people with SEND.

The inspections are carried out jointly by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, a process which began in January 2023, with every area supposed to be inspected at least once every five years.

Only about a third of 153 local areas have been inspected so far.

Dr Edmore Masendeke, policy and research lead for The Alliance for Inclusive Education, said the figures were “not surprising” and reflected the continuing segregation and exclusion of disabled children and young people within the education system.

He said: “What ALLFIE sees is a growing investment in segregation and deliberate dismantling of any progress made towards inclusive education.”

He said this was happening in areas such as Newham, in east London, where Sir Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, is MP for part of the constituency.

In January 2024, there were 576,000 children and young people aged up to 25 with an EHC plan, and another 1.2 million pupils receiving SEN support in school.

The worst-performing area since the inspections began in January 2023 is the East Midlands, where four areas were found to have “widespread/systemic failings” and just one was found to be “typically positive”.

The North West has also performed poorly so far, with four failing areas, three inconsistent, and one positive.

The best was North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, with four positive, five inconsistent and none found to be failing; London is not far behind, with three positive, six inconsistent, and just one failing.

Masendeke said: “For years, ALLFIE has repeatedly warned that disabled children and young people are being harmed by all forms and practices of segregated education, which continue across all areas of learning but does not lead to inclusive education experiences, where all students are taught together in the same classroom and settings alongside their peers.”

He added: “ALLFIE is also deeply concerned that just a third of local areas have been inspected so far.

“How many more disabled children and young people are enduring the same poor educational experiences, or worse?”

He said the findings came at a time when there were serious threats to the legal protections provided by education, health and care plans.

And he said there appeared to be a “wider move by government to disrupt inclusive education by reducing disability provision and support, redirecting funding from mainstream settings to expand segregated provisions, including building more units within mainstream schools and increasing the number of segregated schools”.

An Ofsted spokesperson said: “These statistics highlight that the outcomes and experiences of too many children with SEND are not as positive as they should be.

“We recognise the SEND system is under significant pressure; however, it is vital that improvements are made so children get the support they need.”

The inspections evaluate arrangements for all children and young people with SEND aged up to 25, including those who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan and those who receive special educational needs (SEN) support.

They examine the education, social care and health services provided to disabled children and young people in the local area, including the structure of the local education system, school attendance figures, school transport, employment data for those who have left education, provision of short breaks, transition into adult social care, and performance data on health services.

As part of the inspections, they visit schools and other settings and services, and gather the views of parents and carers, children and young people.

CQC had not commented by noon today (Thursday).

The Department for Education had also not commented by noon today.

3 July 2025

Disabled MP who quit government over benefit cuts tells DNS: ‘The consequences will be devastating’

Disabled Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft has described how she was left with “no choice” but to resign as a whip over government plans to cut billions of pounds a year from disability benefits.

In her first interview since releasing her resignation letter last Thursday, she told Disability News Service (DNS) that the four years she spent as a shadow minister for disabled people had played a significant part in her decision.

And she also made it clear that the backbench rebellion over the cuts is “huge”, with many of the critics MPs who are “normally very loyal” to the government.

That became clear on Tuesday, when fellow Labour MPs – led by 11 select committee chairs – published a “reasoned amendment” which “declines to give a Second Reading” to the bill, although this is unlikely to be selected to be voted on by the speaker.

She has signed the amendment, which is currently supported by 162 MPs, including 126 other backbench Labour MPs.

Foxcroft says she was taken aback by the number of Labour MPs who approached her on Friday to share their concerns about the bill, as she came to the House of Commons chamber for the assisted dying bill debate (see separate stories).

“Many have come to me to share their concerns, to say they agreed with what I had said in my resignation letter,” she says.

“And some of these were colleagues that you wouldn’t maybe have expected to have expressed concerns.

“These are not the usual suspects from the left of the party, these are people who are normally very loyal and want to be loyal but know the government needs to change this.

“I mean, I’m the same myself, but I was left with no choice.

“I don’t want to speak out like this but the government needs to listen, so I will use my voice to amplify voices that are being ignored.”

It’s clear from Sunday’s interview that if she had thought she could effect change from within government, she would not have resigned, but she made her decision to quit when the bill was published last Wednesday, and she saw that ministers had made almost no changes since March’s green paper.

The next day, she resigned through a letter to the prime minister.

In fact, as DNS reported last week, the measures in the bill were in one respect even worse than those suggested by Pathways to Work, because of the misleading reference in the green paper to a premium for those in the “severe conditions group”, which the bill shows will only be a premium for new claimants.

This was confirmed by the minister for social security and disability Sir Stephen Timms, when he gave evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee yesterday (Wednesday).

Foxcroft’s criticisms of the bill are fuelled by her own lived experience as a disabled MP, but also by the evidence she gathered from meeting hundreds of disabled people, including many representatives of disabled-led organisations, during her time as shadow minister.

“We all know the benefit system desperately needs reform,” she says, “but PIP isn’t and has never been about getting people back to work.

“PIP is there to help disabled people with everyday needs. It’s an in-work and out-of-work benefit, and it’s wrong to deny support from someone who needs help to wash, dress, or use a toilet.

“The cuts will literally remove this basic dignity.

“I couldn’t vote for cuts that would make 800,000 people worse off, with 250,000 pushed into poverty, including 50,000 children. That’s a real human cost.

“And these cuts don’t make human needs disappear. They just shift the costs onto already over-stretched services such as the NHS, social workers and unpaid carers.

“It’s a false economy, with devastating consequences.”

She says she also understands disabled people’s concerns – evidenced in The Department*, by DNS editor John Pring – about the many deaths of claimants, including an estimated 600 from suicide during the incapacity benefit reforms, when there were similarly significant cuts and reforms to out-of-work disability benefits in the early 2010s under the Conservative-led coalition.

She is reading the book and is aware that safety and safeguarding must be a key priority with any reforms, because of the risk of unintended consequences.

During Sunday’s interview, she repeatedly stresses the crucial part played in her decision to resign by her four years as shadow minister for disabled people, leading up to last year’s general election.

She says her engagement with disabled people while she was shadow minister showed her just how badly many of them had struggled through 14 years of Conservative government, and she stresses her admiration for those she worked with, even those who “shouted” at her when her party did not go far enough on disability policy.

“They were desperate to see the change that a future Labour government would bring for them,” she says.

“I said as shadow minister that we would work with them to ensure that changes that affected them improved their lives, but that has not happened.

“These changes we’ll be voting on have not been consulted on with disabled people and disabled people’s organisations, and it’s so important to make sure that consultation happens and their voices are heard when such big changes are taking place.

“That is one of the reasons I resigned.”

She made the same point in Friday’s debate on the assisted dying bill – which she voted against – when she spoke of the “negligible” consultation there had been with disabled people about the legislation, and told MPs: “Disabled people’s voices matter in this debate, and yet as I have watched the bill progress, the absence of disabled people’s voices has been astonishing.”

She is hoping ministers will receive this subtle message: that government must engage with disabled people right from the start of any policy-making process that will affect them.

Despite several questions from DNS, she refuses to criticise work and pensions ministers, including Liz Kendall.

But asked for her message to the prime minister, she is blunt. “He needs to revisit it,” she says.

Despite that bluntness, and her high-profile decision to quit as a whip, her resignation letter makes clear that she is fiercely loyal to the government, but just intensely frustrated at the deeply harmful proposed cuts to the universal credit health element, and particularly to PIP.

She points to government policies that would allow people on out-of-work disability benefits to try work without fear of having to go through the assessment process again if it doesn’t work out; reform Access to Work; introduce disability pay gap reporting; and ensure all disabled claimants have access to a supportive work coach if they need one.

But she says: “We need to be doing those things first before we even start considering how we are going to be reforming disability benefits.

“And when we do eventually do that, we need to make sure that we do it with disabled people and organisations run by disabled people.”

She also lays a large part of the blame at the door of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) itself.

She knows from her time as shadow minister that many disabled people have zero trust in the department.

“This bill is most definitely not the right way to persuade disabled people to trust DWP,” she says, “and certainly not when we’ve not worked with them to ensure that we get this right.”

Speaking on Sunday morning, three days after her resignation letter was published, she says she is finally finding time to think after the “whirlwind” media storm it caused, but she insists she has no feelings of regret, although she is sad she had to take the step she did.

“I’m sad to leave my colleagues in the whips office, who I think are absolutely brilliant and do really good work,” she says.

But there is also a keen sense that she knows time is running out to persuade the government to back off, with the bill’s second reading set to take place on 1 July.

“I want to see the government change this. Desperately.

“They need to listen to what I’m saying, to what Labour MPs are saying, and what disabled people are saying.”

26 June 2025

Disabled peers plan to ‘amend, amend, amend, amend, amend’ after assisted dying bill reaches Lords

The disabled peer who has led UK opposition to the legalisation of assisted dying for decades has pledged to work to make a bill passed by MPs so “tight” that only a very few people will be able to take advantage of it.

Baroness [Jane] Campbell said she believed that if the legislation made it easy for people to take advantage of the new laws – if they are eventually approved by parliament – then “people for whom this bill was never intended will die in their droves”.

She was speaking to Disability News Service (DNS) just minutes after MPs had voted by 314 votes to 291 on Friday afternoon to approve the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill, which will legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales for some people diagnosed with a terminal illness, in certain circumstances.

The crossbench peer, who herself has a progressive condition, said she believes her task as a member of the House of Lords – which will now examine the bill in detail – will be to “amend, amend, amend, amend, amend, so it becomes so tight that anyone would find it difficult to get it”.

She also said her task will be to ensure there is no “slippery slope” that will allow the bill to be extended to an ever wider group of people.

But she said that even if she and fellow peers were successful in amending the bill to make it safer, they were “not miracle workers”.

Baroness Campbell, founder of Not Dead Yet UK (NDY UK), which sees legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia as “deadly forms of disability discrimination”, said: “There will be mistakes and people will die, whom if they’d had the right support could have lived a good life until they died, but what else can we do?”

She added: “Why choose people like us to help to die when they can so easily put in support and care to help people live dignified lives at home so that they can cope with the bad times, and get through them.

“Because people do get through them and it is possible to have a good death with a progressive or terminal illness. This is what people forget.”

Her fellow disabled crossbench peer, Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson, who has also spent years opposing legalisation, supports Baroness Campbell’s strategy.

She said: “There are very few safeguards in [the bill] currently. Very few amendments were voted on.”

And she said there was no protection in the bill for people with Down’s syndrome or others with learning difficulties.

Before the vote, Baroness Grey-Thompson told DNS that there would be many amendments proposed in the House of Lords, if the bill was passed by the Commons.

She said: “There’s so little safety in this bill, and so little understanding of the lives of disabled people, and the current government’s plans for welfare.”

Last week, NDY UK released polling showing that two-thirds (65 per cent) of disabled people believe that if benefits are being cut – as they are currently through the Labour government’s universal credit and personal independence payment bill – disabled people living in poverty may be likely to seek an assisted suicide instead of struggling financially.

26 June 2025

Minister finally admits that working-age benefits spending is stable, despite months of ‘spiralling’ claims

A minister has finally admitted that spending on working-age benefits is stable, and is not spiralling out of control, despite months of claims from his own department and fellow ministers.

Sir Stephen Timms made the admission as he told the Commons work and pensions committee that ministers had decided not to carry out a public consultation on the billions of pounds of cuts to personal independence payment (PIP) and the disability element of universal credit because of the “urgency of the changes needing to be made”.

He was giving evidence in the committee’s final session of its inquiry into the government’s Pathways to Work green paper.

Sir Stephen, minister for social security and disability, said that spending on PIP had risen in real terms from £12 billion in the year before the pandemic to £22 billion last year, which he said was “not a sustainable trajectory”.

But the committee’s chair, Labour MP Debbie Abrahams, asked if he accepted the evidence of Ben Geiger, professor of social science and health at King’s College London, who had told the inquiry that working-age social security spending had remained at about five per cent of GDP* for the last decade.

Abrahams also asked Sir Stephen if he accepted that the rise in the number of PIP recipients has been due to demographic change, the nation’s poor health, and the increase in the state pension age.

The minister replied: “Well, yeah, I mean, much of what you say, I completely accept.”

He added: “I think that working-age social security spending as a percentage of GDP isn’t much more now than it was before the 2008-2010 recession, but as you say, the share on disability and incapacity benefits is very substantially up.”

He said most of this increase was in the last six years, and that while the “incidence of disability” had risen by about 17 per cent since just before the pandemic, the incidence of “benefit claiming” had risen by 34 per cent.

Abrahams suggested an explanation for this was that more disabled people were needing to claim PIP because of financial pressures.

Sir Stephen agreed, and suggested that the government needed to cut spending on PIP, even though disabled people were only claiming it because they were struggling due to the cost-of-living crisis.

He said: “I think you’re absolutely right. I’m sure that the cost-of-living challenges are a very big factor in what’s happened.

“The people who may well have always been eligible but have not in the past claimed benefit are now doing, and that’s what’s driven this very substantial increase.

“As I say, the current trajectory is not a sustainable one and it is not in the interest of people who depend on PIP for it to be on a financially unsustainable trajectory.”

Disability News Service reported in February that claims by ministers, opposition politicians and the media that social security spending was “spiralling out of control” were false and “ideological”.

Last August, chancellor Rachel Reeves said the previous government had “let welfare costs spiral out of control”.

In January, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said in a press release on benefit fraud that it wanted to “tackle the spiralling welfare bill”.

And in February, in a press release on disability employment, DWP claimed again that benefits spending was “spiralling”.

*Gross domestic product, the size of the country’s economy in a particular year

26 June 2025

This bill opens the door to scandal, abuse and injustice, disabled activists say after assisted dying bill vote

Disabled people’s lives will be increasingly in danger because of MPs’ failure to understand the risks posed by the assisted dying bill, devastated activists warned on Friday after the legislation was approved by the House of Commons.

Disabled activists had started gathering outside parliament at 6.30am last Friday in preparation for a crucial debate on the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill before a vote that determined whether it passed to the Lords.

The bill was eventually passed by the Commons by 314 votes to 291 on Friday afternoon, although disabled MPs strongly opposed the legislation (see separate story).

Before the vote, supporters of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and Not Dead Yet UK (NDY UK) held up traffic in front of the House of Commons with a last-minute direct action, accompanied by chants of “we are not… dead yet”.

Author and activist Ellen Clifford, who has helped lead disabled people’s opposition to the bill over the last year, said she trusted the Lords to improve the bill more than MPs, some of whom she said had acted on “naked ambition” and the principle of assisted dying, rather than what was in the bill.

She said she hoped the bill’s passage through the Lords would improve the safeguards and provide opportunities “to show what a shambles the bill is”.

Among those disabled people outside the Commons was musician and activist John Kelly, who said after the vote was announced: “The truth is, our voices haven’t been listened to.

“What this does is open the door for injustice.

“To rely on a panel to decide my life of social workers, and psychiatrists, have you not read how many injustices and mistakes those people have made, how much abuse and how many rights have been denied disabled people?

“And what they have done is open the door to allow in yet more scandals, yet more abuse.”

Disabled activist Anna Landre told Disability News Service (DNS): “A lot of us are scared about the prospect of enshrining a state-funded ability to die when we don’t have properly-funded state services to live with dignity, let alone to thrive, let alone to get disabled people into work, like this government claims it wants to do.”

She said: “I most certainly don’t feel safer now.

“I think it’s going to create an atmosphere for disabled people that is increasingly unsafe, when our services are being stripped from us, when we’re going to have to fight even harder to get the basics, the scraps that we can already barely access and now in any medical, in any doctor’s office we enter, we face the prospect of being offered a death, of being offered [an assisted suicide].”

She said it was particularly unsafe for disabled people who face multiple marginalisations, including disabled women, who are more likely to be in an abusive relationship; disabled people of colour, who are more likely to be doubted by their medical practitioners; and disabled people of low socio-economic status, “who are looking at not being able to pay rent next month”.

She added: “As a disabled woman, I’ve been trying to access a cervical cancer screening for over two years.

“I wish this government would work on that rather than working on streamlining my access to suicide.”

Another leading activist, Simone Aspis, said that, as a disabled woman with learning difficulties, it was “a very sad day for our community”.

She said the bill was “really, really dangerous”.

She said she believed that, for her and other people with learning difficulties, assisted dying will become the “de facto” treatment option given to them by doctors.

She said: “The government keep saying that there is not enough money to go around, so we are going to spend money on creating an assisted dying service?

“Where is this money going to be found? It’s going to be taken away from education, from care, from housing, from anything that supports us to have good lives.”

Aspis also pointed out that people with learning difficulties had been “excluded from this debate” because the bill had not been made available in easy read.

Dermot Devlin, co-founder of DPAC Northern Ireland, said that, with the government’s cuts to disability benefits coming in, it was “a dangerous country now if you’re disabled… but we will keep fighting back.”

Chelsea Roff, a researcher and founder of the US-based charity Eat Breathe Thrive, who has fought for months to alert MPs to the risks the bill poses to people with eating disorders, said: “I’ve spent the last six months trying to raise awareness about this loophole, and hundreds of experts have warned parliament: charities, people with eating disorders, physicians, doctors, lawyers…

“I did that because I thought it was the right thing to do because I thought if MPs understood the evidence, they would act on it and amend the bill.

“I’m really disappointed and I think the evidence was minimised, it was dismissed, it was not meaningfully engaged with.”

Michael Lorimer, from DPAC Northern Ireland, said he was concerned that the bill gave ministers “massive executive powers”.

He said: “Given what they’re doing on benefit cuts, we can’t trust them to represent our best interests in terms of implementing this legislation.

“It’s getting to the stage where Labour are a clear and present danger to disabled people’s lives here because of the benefit cuts and because this bill has gone through, giving them almost unlimited powers in terms of how they shape this legislation.

“And they’ve been clear through the benefit cuts that they don’t value our lives.”

Jason de Souza said he believed the new law would be “a catalyst for a much wider agenda against disabled and vulnerable people, especially people who are in a situation where they need palliative care and support”.

Earlier, disabled activists had gathered nearby to share their final thoughts before the vote, after months of campaigning.

Devlin had told fellow protesters: “As a disabled person, this assisted dying bill breaks my heart. It terrifies me.

“It tells me that my life, already pushed to the margins, already made harder by endless cuts and cruelty is… now disposable, it [turns] the language of choice and dignity into something darker.

“I want to live, I deserve to live, but this bill makes it clear to them that lives like mine are just too expensive to bother saving.”

The disabled crossbench peer Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson fought back tears as she thanked disabled activists for attending the protest “despite the discrimination they face in their daily lives and inaccessible public transport”.

She said there was “so little safety in this bill, and so little understanding of the lives of disabled people, and the current government’s plans for welfare”.

Kevin Caulfield, former chair of Hammersmith and Fulham Coalition Against Cuts, said: “The bill, and what is happening with the universal credit and personal independence payment bill, really indicates disabled people’s position in society, because we have been sidelined all the way through this process.

“People with life-limiting illnesses are disabled people and that’s in practice and in law and yet they have successfully managed to portray this bill as having very little to do with disabled people, and that’s a f*****g disgrace and it’s disgusting and the same is happening with the benefit cuts.”

Caulfield was given a terminal diagnosis 28 years ago, and says he “might well have decided to take the option” of an assisted death if it was available then “because I was a newly disabled person, I didn’t have access to other disabled people, I had no access to mental health support, and it may well have seemed like a reasonable option”.

But he said he was “still here 28 years later”, and there were “going to be many people in a similar situation to me, tens of thousands of people that will end up being dead as a by-product of this legislation”.

Disabled actor, writer and activist Liz Carr, said the number of disabled activists who had attended the protest was “amazing” in the context of spending cuts and “the struggle to survive”.

She told fellow activists: “You make me know that we’re right and that even if this goes through today and goes through to the Lords, we just keep going there because we know where this goes, we know what it means, we know how it will impact our community and other communities.”

Paula Peters, who had been the first to start the protest, at 6.30am outside parliament, said: “Whatever the outcome, we keep going, and we keep fighting, and we keep resisting… and we are not dead yet.”

Jamie McCormack, another disabled activist who refused to accept defeat, said: “We will fight on, we will fight for assistance to live, not to die.

“We will fight to our very last dying breath.”

And George Fielding told fellow activists: “Our most precious public services, and the things on which we all rely, rely on doing no harm.

“This bill will do harm; its very premise is to kill people, it’s a pre-designed process.

“We are on the right side of history, always have been, and the resistance starts as soon as we hear the result today.”

26 June 2025

Timms says cuts must go ahead, despite being reminded of risk that disabled claimants could die

The minister for social security and disability has insisted that billions of pounds a year of cuts to disability benefits must go ahead, despite the risk that they will once again cause countless deaths of disabled claimants.

Sir Stephen Timms was giving evidence yesterday (Wednesday) to the Commons work and pensions committee about plans to cut billions of pounds a year from spending on personal independence payment (PIP) and the disability element of universal credit.

He was giving evidence to the committee’s final session of its inquiry into the government’s Pathways to Work green paper.

The first question he was asked, by committee chair Debbie Abrahams, was about the health impact of the cuts on disabled people, and whether the planned new employment support and jobs would be available by the time the government begins to implement the cuts next year.

She highlighted how research in 2015 by academics at Liverpool and Oxford universities showed the reassessment of disabled people on incapacity benefit through the work capability assessment was linked to about 600 suicides between 2010 and 2013.

Unpublished research also showed how cuts in 2017 – of nearly £30 a week to payments to new claimants of employment and support allowance who were placed in the work-related activity group (WRAG) – were associated with 130,000 “new onset mental health conditions”, she said.

Conservative ministers were ridiculed when they first announced the 2017 cuts and argued that they would “incentivise” those in the WRAG to find work.

Abrahams had already asked Sir Stephen what estimates the government had made of the impact the bill would have on health, in the light of these two pieces of research, at work and pensions questions on Monday.

He said on Monday that the Department for Work and Pensions was “working very closely with the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that the health and care needs of people who lose benefits as a result of this process are met”.

And when asked again yesterday about the risk of harm caused by the bill, Sir Stephen said the government needed to make sure that both “employment support” and “health and care support” were in place when the cuts were implemented.

He said that new investment in infrastructure and jobs would be “coming into place” in the next few years, and with “what we are proposing on all of those fronts that we will be seeing the progress that we need”.

He added: “I don’t think it would be a viable option to say, well, we’re kind of not going to do anything about the health and disability benefits for a few years and see how things go.”

The minister was also asked by Liberal Democrat MP John Milne about government plans to halve the health element for new claimants of universal credit next year from £97 per week in 2024-25 to £50 per week in 2026-27, and to freeze it at £97 for existing claimants from 2026-27.

Sir Stephen claimed there was a “very big incentive” for disabled people to “seek to be classified” as having limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA), and so eligible for the health element top-up.

He said: “If they are classified as LCWRA they get a premium which is worth more than the universal credit standard allowance, and that is unavoidably a massive magnet for people.”

He pointed to a letter he had seen in which an MP’s disabled constituent had said that being classified as LCWRA – rather than as having limited capability for work – would mean they would be paid £400 a month more, which would mean they would be “comfortable”.

But Sir Stephen Timms appeared to suggest that a disabled person being financially “comfortable” on benefits was a bad thing.

He said: “And I think this is a really serious flaw in the current system, that it presents this sort of LCWRA status as a sort of something to aim for, that ‘if only I could get to that, I would be comfortable’, when the system should not be doing that to people.

“That is a very bad feature of the current system.

“What the system should be doing is encouraging people to aspire to work and providing the support to make work possible and feasible, and so, yeah, we are wanting to substantially reduce that incentive.”

He said this would partly be done by raising the standard allowance of universal credit by £5 a week, as well as reducing the health element.

But Milne suggested that the government was concentrating on “Treasury first, needs second”, when what it should be doing was focusing on “needs first, Treasury second”.

26 June 2025

Absence of disabled people’s voices from assisted dying bill has been ‘astonishing’, says disabled MP

Disabled MPs have voted overwhelmingly against the assisted dying bill, and warned that it poses a clear danger to disabled people if it eventually becomes law.

Although the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill was passed by the Commons by 314 votes to 291 on Friday afternoon, disabled MPs strongly opposed the bill.

By Disability News Service (DNS) calculations, those MPs who have publicly self-described as disabled people voted against the bill by seven to one.

Disabled MPs who voted against the bill were Labour’s Jen Craft, Marsha de Cordova, Vicky Foxcroft, Liam Conlon, Emma Lewell and Marie Rimmer, and Liberal Democrat Steve Darling.

The only disabled MP who voted for the bill was Marie Tidball, who spoke repeatedly in favour of the legislation during its committee stage, and whose support has likely persuaded some wavering MPs of its safety.

Of the eight disabled MPs, only Craft and Foxcroft spoke in Friday’s debate.

Craft told fellow MPs that their vote would have “real-world consequences”.

She warned that the medical establishment placed a lesser value on disabled people’s lives, and revealed that when told of her daughter’s Down’s syndrome when she was pregnant, “the first thing the midwife said to me after ‘I’m so sorry’ was, ‘I can book you a termination within 48 hours.’”

She said she could not support the bill “because we cannot legislate against discrimination and we cannot legislate out inherent bias”, and the bill did not have “the adequate safeguards in place”.

She said: “We have been told that there are panels that will provide a safeguard and take into account all of someone’s circumstances, and whether they have capacity.

“However, those panels may in exceptional circumstances – the bill does not set out what those are – opt not to even meet the person whom they are discussing.

“We know that the panels do not allow for family members and carers and those who know that person – if they have limited capacity, a learning disability or are unable to make certain decisions themselves – to play a role in that process or have any right of appeal.”

Craft said it was not the job of MPs to send a flawed bill to the Lords and then “out into the world, hoping that others will do our job for us and that it will all just come out in the wash”.

She said: “That is a dereliction of our duty as members of parliament.

“If you have any concerns about this bill, now is the time to vote against it. You must do that.

“You must not think that someone else will do your job for you. It is our decision.”

Foxcroft, who was speaking a day after resigning as a government whip over her concerns about the government’s disability benefit cuts, said she had previously been in favour of legalisation.

But she said that her four years as shadow minister for disabled people, during which she spoke to hundreds of disabled people and their organisations, showed they were “extremely fearful of assisted dying”.

She pointed to the huge numbers of disabled people who died during the pandemic, and those who had “do not attempt resuscitation” notices placed on their health records without their knowledge, which “made them fear for their lives”.

She said: “It made them fear that the authorities thought that their lives were worth less. It also made them fearful of what would happen if assisted dying was brought forward.”

She said disabled people “need the health and social care system fixing first” and “want us as parliamentarians to assist them to live, not to die”.

She said: “Disabled people’s voices matter in this debate, and yet as I have watched the bill progress, the absence of disabled people’s voices has been astonishing.

“They have wanted to engage. Indeed, they have been crying out to be included, yet the engagement has been negligible.

“I believe that only one disabled people’s organisation was given the opportunity to provide [oral] evidence to the committee.”

She also pointed to the failure to provide the bill in accessible formats, including easy read and British Sign Language.

She told MPs: “I will finish by saying that I am not opposed to the principle of assisted dying, but until we have a system that supports the right to life, I cannot support it.

“Until we ensure that all safeguards are in place, I cannot support it.

“And until the vast majority of disabled people and their organisations support the legislation that is being brought forward, I cannot support it.”

She added: “We are not voting on principles today.

“This is real and we have to protect those people who are susceptible to coercion, who already feel like society does not value them, who often feel like a burden to the state, society and their family.”

26 June 2025

Timms misleads MPs on DWP transparency and cover-ups, as he gives evidence on PIP review

The social security and disability minister has misled MPs after suggesting he has ushered in a new era of openness and transparency in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Sir Stephen Timms told members of the work and pensions committee yesterday (Wednesday) that DWP was being “much more open” than under successive Conservative-led governments.

He had been asked by the committee’s chair, Labour MP Debbie Abrahams, about the review of personal independence payment (PIP) that he will shortly be leading.

He was giving evidence to the committee’s final session of its inquiry into the government’s Pathways to Work green paper, which will see billions of pounds a year cut from disability benefits.

Abrahams highlighted how the department had previously failed to share its own secret reviews into deaths linked to the benefits system with independent experts commissioned by ministers.

Disability News Service had exposed how the department failed to share both peer reviews – now known as internal process reviews (IPRs) – and coroners’ reports with the experts commissioned to review the work capability assessment between 2010 and 2014.

Abrahams asked Sir Stephen to reassure the committee that data on deaths associated with PIP assessments would be available to whoever led the review.

He told the committee: “I’ll be undertaking the review, so yes, the information will be available to me, and actually, you know, we are being – not least thanks to your work, chair – much, much more open about all of this now than was the case in the past.”

He said the department “want people to see what’s going on”.

He said: “There isn’t any benefit for the department in hiding these things.

“They were hidden too often in the past. And I think that’s one reason why the trust in the department deteriorated so badly, because people can see that things were being covered up and hidden and it shouldn’t have been happening.

“And I’m determined that it won’t happen in the future.”

But despite his comments, the department is continuing to hide crucial information about deaths linked to the disability benefits system.

This week, Disability News Service (DNS) submitted written evidence to DWP’s safeguarding review to highlight how DWP was still hiding crucial information that would expose its past actions and failings.

Last month, DNS reported how DWP had unlawfully failed to respond to a freedom of information request to see a secret “critical friend” paper from 2021 on the department’s safeguarding failures.

It is also continuing to refuse to release recommendations made by IPRs following deaths linked to universal credit, dating back as far as 2020.

DWP is also appealing a decision made by the information commissioner that the department should release to DNS “a paper detailing the impact of errors on vulnerable customers” that was discussed at the 12 October 2022 meeting of the department’s serious case panel.

And the department is continuing to refuse to release a transcript of a training session on human rights law given to DWP staff employed on working-age benefits.

These are just some of the reports being hidden by DWP; there are likely to be countless other reports and data being kept from other disabled campaigners and allies.

Sir Stephen said he hoped the terms of reference for the PIP review would be released before MPs rise for their summer recess on 22 July.

26 June 2025

Ministers are considering further extension to disability hate crime laws, after pledge on ‘aggravated’ offences

The government is considering whether to strengthen disability hate crime laws even further, after ministers agreed to make a long-awaited improvement that will mean longer sentences for offenders.

Home Office minister Diana Johnson announced last week that the government would act to extend the law so that standalone “aggravated offences” would

apply to disability hate crime and hate crime motivated by sexual orientation or transgender identity.

She said the government would add an amendment to the crime and policing bill to make this change when it reached its committee stage in the House of Lords, keeping a pledge made in Labour’s general election manifesto last year.

This would mean an offender could be charged with an offence – such as assault, harassment or criminal damage – that was aggravated by hostility towards a disabled person, and they would then face a tougher sentence if convicted.

At present, aggravated offences only apply to racial and religious hostility, and a disability hate crime can only be addressed by a court during sentencing, where the sentence can be increased if prosecutors can prove the offence was motivated by disability-related hostility.

The move was proposed in an amendment to the crime and policing bill by Labour’s Rachel Taylor, who told fellow MPs last week that the current discrepancy “cannot be right”.

She said: “We cannot say, as a society, that some forms of hatred are more evil than others.”

The amendment was supported by disabled Labour MP Marie Tidball, who said the “opportunity to legislate to strengthen the law on hate crime offences must be seized”.

Disabled campaigners have been calling for the change for more than a decade.

But one leading campaigner said the government needed to go much further.

The aggravated offences change was recommended by the Law Commission in December 2021, but it also made two other key recommendations to strengthen disability hate crime laws.

It called for existing offences of stirring up hatred, which only apply to race and religion, to be extended to disabled and LGBT+ victims.

And the Law Commission also said an offender should be found guilty of a disability hate crime offence if they had been “motivated” by “hostility or prejudice” towards disabled people, rather than – at present – only by hostility.

Dr David Wilkin, a disabled activist, researcher, author* and support worker for survivors of disability hate crime, welcomed the move to extend aggravated offences.

But he was critical of the continuing refusal – following years of resistance from Conservative governments – to implement the two other Law Commission recommendations.

He said: “Now, with the perfect opportunity to bring disabled people into the 21st century by establishing legislative equality, they are choosing once again to make sure that disabled people are treated differently, with their hopes and needs once again relegated.

“Hate crime campaigners have looked forward to disabled people being offered the same rights as other protected groups in new legislation.

“But now, having reached this timely and convenient critical moment, the Labour government are deliberately excluding those with the greatest needs from attaining simple, fair, and much needed equality.”

The Home Office has told Disability News Service that it will be considering these two further recommendations carefully.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “This government has committed to making our streets safer for everyone and nobody should ever be harmed because of who they are.

“Criminals motivated by racial or religious hate already get tougher sentences.

“Now we are making sure thugs who carry out vile attacks against someone based on their sexual orientation, transgender identity or disability will also spend longer behind bars.”

*Disability Hate Crime: Perspectives for Change, is published by Routledge

26 June 2025

Making all self-driving pilot schemes accessible would be ‘counter-productive’ and slow us down, says minister

A transport minister has told peers that it would be “counter-productive” – and take too long – to draw up rules that would ensure all pilot schemes of self-driving taxis are accessible to disabled people.

Labour’s rail minister Lord [Peter] Hendy was responding to concerns from disabled peer Baroness [Sal] Brinton, who had asked whether the government would make sure disabled people could use the self-driving vehicles when the pilots begin in England next spring.

The former president of the Liberal Democrats told Disability News Service (DNS) earlier this month that she was “very, very concerned” that the government was planning to allow companies to launch self-driving taxis and minibuses even if their vehicles were not accessible to disabled people.

She told fellow peers that the launch of driverless vehicles was a “once in an era moment”, and that contracts with providers should ensure that ramps and audio and visual announcements are “designed in right from the start”.

She said: “The government need to ensure that taxis and bus-like taxis will have accessibility designed into them.

“Otherwise, it will be like everything else for disabled people: reasonable adjustments after the event that are expensive for the manufacturer and never perfect for the user.”

Lord Hendy told her the government would be subject to equality laws in deciding how granting a permit could “improve understanding of how these services should best be designed for and provided to disabled and older passengers”.

And he said permits could enforce certain conditions, while “accessibility considerations” would be set out in guidance.

But he said: “It would be counterproductive to specify detailed requirements in regulation for innovative new services.”

He said it was likely that the first driverless vehicles would be “the same sort of vehicles” already used for taxis and private hire vehicles.

He added: “In the medium term, clearly there will be new designs, and there are already some that are suitable for wheelchairs and people with disabilities.

“We have to acknowledge that automated vehicles are part of an exciting future, but they have to be implemented safely, and she is right that they have to be implemented to benefit all parts of the community.”

He said he had “great sympathy” with Baroness Brinton “striving to make sure that disability is treated in the mainstream, but if we are going to do this quickly, we have to recognise that the early adoption under this act is likely to be using the same sorts of vehicles as are used now”.

He said: “What we are looking for in the medium-term future is new designs, which should have the facilities such as audio-visual equipment and facilities for people in wheelchairs that she would expect.”

Lord Hendy said the government needed to “design in – as far as we can – facilities for disabled people among this”, but the government “have to get going with this, because it is such an exciting future”.

But another disabled peer, the Conservative Lord [Kevin] Shinkwin, pointed out that deputy prime minister Angela Rayner had spoken of the importance of getting disabled people into work, and he questioned how “the retro, ad hoc inclusion of disabled people facilitates the realisation of that worthy goal”.

Baroness Brinton told DNS afterwards that Lord Hendy’s response was “very disappointing” and that she would now seek a private meeting with him to discuss her concerns.

Transport for All (TfA), the disabled-led accessible transport charity, said the government’s plans, which could exclude disabled people from the pilot schemes, were “unacceptable”.

Megan Barnett, TfA’s policy and public affairs officer, said: “Equal access to transport allows us to be part of society.

“If self-driving vehicles are allowed to develop without disabled people, they will only deepen existing inequalities.

“We need a strong national policy to ensure that the design and rollout of this exciting new technology includes disabled people from the start, so our whole community can benefit from driverless vehicles, now and in the future.”

The Department for Transport announced earlier this month that firms would be able to pilot small-scale “taxi- and bus-like” services without being monitored or controlled by a human for the first time next spring, before a potential wider rollout when the Conservative government’s Automated Vehicles Act is implemented in the second half of 2027.

The government believes self-driving vehicles could help reduce deaths and injuries on the roads, add new public transport options in rural areas, and have the potential to improve mobility, accessibility and independence for those who cannot drive, including many disabled and older people.

26 June 2025

Involve disabled people ‘meaningfully’ from the start when developing digital assistive tech, says report

There must be “meaningful participation” of disabled people in the initial stages of developing new digital assistive technology, if its potential for supporting their independence is to be realised, according to a new report.

The Royal Society concluded that tech companies, researchers and governments should do more to remove barriers and engage disabled people in the design of digital assistive tools and services.

Among the recommendations made by the Digital Technology report*, launched this week, is that governments should not consider smartphones as any less a form of assistive technology than hearing aids, manual wheelchairs, or white canes.

But it also warns that many disabled people globally experience lower levels of income compared with non-disabled people, so digital assistive technology needs to be affordable if it is to be useful.

It calls on governments, technology companies and research funders to explore ways to ensure affordability.

As part of the research, the Royal Society – the UK’s national academy of sciences – commissioned the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers to survey a panel of 850 disabled people.

Three-fifths (62 per cent) of them said they used digital assistive technology, with more than half of this group doing so throughout the day.

The survey found that more than half of users of digital assistive technology (53 per cent) said they could not live the way they did without it.

The report defines digital assistive technology as “any technology that processes information to help make people’s lives easier”, such as audio-to-text apps, wayfinding and navigation apps, wearable health devices, smart home devices, sight assistance apps, and screen-reading software.

The report also calls for statistics bodies to collect more data on the daily barriers many disabled people experience with their sight, mobility, and memory, rather than solely focusing on their self-reported disability identity.

Sir Bernard Silverman, emeritus professor of statistics at the University of Oxford and chair of the report’s steering committee, said: “As a statistician, I would particularly stress that the data we record, and how we categorise it, affects everything and everyone.

“Data on the functional challenges experienced by disabled people would help researchers and providers to ensure that digital products and services, especially in the AI age, are genuinely responsive to their needs.”

The report was developed by a committee of international researchers and technology experts, several of whom are themselves disabled.

Dr Hamied Haroon, a research fellow at the University of Manchester and a member of the Royal Society’s diversity and inclusion committee’s disabled scientists subgroup, said: “We shouldn’t be developing assistive technologies or policies without disabled people being front and centre of the process.

“How do you capture the day-to-day challenges faced by disabled people, or ensure you’re offering solutions that actually work, unless you talk to disabled people?”

Dr Haroon, a member of the report’s steering committee, added: “These assistive technologies are fundamental to the workplace and our daily tasks – but they can be prohibitively expensive or unusable in some settings.

“We need to look at removing these barriers, whether that’s costs, additional training, or infrastructure improvements – like addressing patchy mobile data services that can cut off disabled people in rural and deprived areas.”

*Disability Technology: How data and digital assistive technologies can support independent, fulfilled lives

26 June 2025

Print out a window poster

Stick it in your window, or on workplace or community noticeboards.

Ready-made

Find some in our Google Drive

Make your own!

Send yours in!

Contributions welcome! Please send it in to swaneadpac@gmail.com and/or dpaccardiffandvalleys@gmail.com

Write to ALL of your elected representatives.

Follow each link for instructions and template letters.

Write to your councillor(s)
Write to your MP
Write to your MSs
Contact your trade union or student union
As a trade unionist, sign and share the Trade Unionists Against the Benefit Cuts open letter.

Write to the press

Write to local Welsh newspapers

Get involved!

Here are some ideas (there are many more ways to get involved in addition to those listed here):

Keep up to date with our LinkTree
- - We will put news and upcoming protests there.

Share this resource!
- Bit.Ly/DPAC-Cymru-Defeat-The-Bill

Join DPAC online
- You can also get in touch directly with DPAC Cymru.
- To do so, email swanseadpac@gmail.com and/or dpaccardiffandvalleys@gmail.com (for North Wales and other areas, contact both)

Join a trade union

- If you are not in paid employment, you can join Unite Community for 60p/week.

- If you’re a student, join Universities Against Disability Cuts UK (UADC UK)

Research joining a political party that aligns with your views.

- Remember, disabled people should not vote Reform UK.

- Maybe you believe it’s time for trade unions to take the lead in forming a new working class party.

Welsh MP, disability, and carers groups against cuts to disability benefits

All Posts, Benefits, Disability Rights, DWP, Letters, PIP, Universal Credit, welfare cuts, Welfare reforms No Responses »

Jun 192025

Below is an extract of a letter from Steve Witherden MP, which was co-signed and enthusiastically supported by unanimous democratic votes of Swansea and Cardiff & Valleys Disabled People Against Cuts groups, calling for the disability benefit cuts to be abandoned, and for disabled people to be involved in the reform of the welfare system.

Dear Secretary of State,

Impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper on Wales

The Pathways to Work Green Paper poses a significant threat to over 275,000 Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and 110,000 Universal Credit (UC) recipients in Wales.

The proposals to tighten PIP eligibility and cut the UC health element will push thousands deeper into poverty. Wales will be hit particularly hard.

Policy in Practise’s latest report, The impact of disability benefit reforms in Wales, sees household incomes of an individual in Wales receiving both PIP and the UC Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity element cut by 68% as a result of these reforms.

The knock-on effects will place additional strain on the public sector, including local authorities, health boards, and charitable organisations. The Welsh economy is consequently set to lose an estimated £470 million annually.

We therefore urge you to:

1. Abandon current plans to withdraw disability-related benefits.

2. Meaningfully involve disabled people in the design and delivery of any future reforms.

3. Provide transparency on how these changes will affect Wales and interact with devolved responsibilities.

4. Reform the system to support, not hinder, disabled people and those with long-term health conditions.

The UK Government must safeguard the welfare state for those who need it most.

Without meaningful reform, these proposals will deepen hardship and entrench inequality in Wales.

Yours sincerely,

Steve Witherden MP
Disability Rights UK
Disability Wales
Coalition Against Benefit Cuts
Carers Wales
All Wales People First
Torfaen Access Forum
Disability Arts Cymru
Swansea DPAC
Cardiff & Valleys DPAC
Headway – the brain injury association

The letter on Facebook

The letter on X (Twitter)

Cardiff disability cuts consultation protest 23rd June

Action, All Posts, Disability Activism, DWP, local groups, PIP, Universal Credit, welfare cuts, Welfare reforms No Responses »

Jun 182025

Protest outside Cardiff disability cuts consultation

Cymraeg (Welsh) : Protest tu allan ymgynghoriad toriadau anabledd Caerdydd

Important update

The DWP have rescheduled their consultation on the disability cuts. The venue is now much more accessible and has better transport links.

This was the result of disabled voices calling out the injustices of the previous event.

The consultation is still unfair with the most controversial proposals not up for discussion.

Protest information

Outside Ty William Morgan, 6 Central Square, Cardiff, CF10 1EP

12:45 – 16:00 *

Monday the 23rd of June

* Please do not feel you have to stay for the full time.

It’s important that those wanting to attend the consultation are not prevented from doing so.

Protest! Disabled People Against Cuts Wales

The government want to take money and help away from disabled people.

Disabled people are worried and angry.

The government have a meeting with us in Wales.

Not many people are allowed to go to the meeting.

It is an unfair meeting.

We want people to protest outside the meeting.

A protest will give us hope.

The protest is on Monday 23rd June 2025 in Cardiff.

The protest starts at 12:45 and ends at 4pm. You don’t have to stay the whole time. You can join at any time.

The protest is outside Ty William Morgan, 6 Central Square, Cardiff, CF10 1EP.

Cymraeg (Welsh) version

Protest tu allan ymgynghoriad toriadau anabledd Caerdydd

Newydd – diweddariad pwysig

Mae’r DWP wedi aildrefnu eu hymgynghoriad ar y toriadau anabledd. Mae’r lleoliad newydd yn llawer haws i’w gyrraedd ac efo cysylltiadau trafnidiaeth gwell.

Mae hyn oherwydd bod pobl anabl wedi galw allan anhegwch y digwyddiad.

Mae’r ymgynghoriad dal yn anheg gan fod yr awgrymiadau mwyaf dadleuol dal ddim yn cael eu trafod

Gwybodaeth protest
Tu allan Tŷ William Morgan, 6 Sgwâr Canolog, Caerdydd, CF10 1EP

12:45 – 16:00

Dydd Llun Mehefin 23

Plȋs peidiwch a teimlo eich bod yn gorfod aros am yr amser i gyd.
Mae’n bwysig bod y rhai sydd eisiau mynychu’r ymgynghoriad ddim yn cael eu stopio rhag gwneud hynny.

Protest!

Pobl Anabl Yn Erbyn Toriadau

Mae’r llywodraeth eisiau cymryd arian a help o bobl anabl.

Mae pobl anabl yn poeni ac yn flin.

Mae’r llywodraeth yn cael cyfarfod efo ni yng Nghymru.

Does dim llawer o bobl yn cael mynd i’r cyfarfod.

Mae’r cyfarfod yn anheg.

‘Da ni eisiau pobl i brotestio tu allan i’r cyfarfod

Bydd protest yn rhoi gobaith i ni.

Mae’r brotest ar ddydd Llun 23 Mehefin 2025 yng Nghaerdydd.

Mae’r brotest yn dechrau am 12:45 ac yn gorffen am 4yp. ‘Da chi ddim yn gorfod aros am yr holl amser. Gallwch ymuno ar unrhyw adeg.

Bydd y brotest tu allan Tŷ William Morgan, 6 Sgwâr Canolog, Caerdydd, CF10 1EP

Social media:

UK:

X/Twitter: Disabled People Against Cuts

https://x.com/Dis_PPL_Protest

Facebook: DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts)

https://www.facebook.com/disabledpeopleagainstcuts

Instagram: disabledpeopleagainstcuts

https://www.instagram.com/disabledpeopleagainstcuts/

Wales:

Facebook: Disabled People Against Cuts – Cymru

https://www.facebook.com/people/Disabled-People-Against-Cuts-Cymru/61576906380354/

Instagram: dpac_cymru

https://www.instagram.com/dpac_cymru/

Bluesky: @dpac-cymru.bsky.social

https://bsky.app/profile/dpac-cymru.bsky.social

LinkTree:
https://linktr.ee/swanseaDPAC

Liverpool Protest – Stop Disability Benefits Cuts Bill [UPDATED]

Action, All Posts, Disability Rights, local groups, PIP, Universal Credit, welfare cuts, Welfare reforms 1 Response »

Jun 182025

Stop Disability Benefits Cuts Bill – Liverpool Protest

️ Tuesday 1st of July, 4pm [Previously 3rd July]

at the front of Lime Street Station L3 5QB

Join Merseyside DPAC and Merseyside Crips Against Cuts in a protest against the government’s planned cuts to disability benefits that will push more disabled people into poverty. This is part of a National Day of Action

Access info:
– There are steps at the front of the station with level access routes to the right hand side and a lift from pavement level at the front
– There are multiple accessible toilets inside Lime Street Station
– If you need quiet space at any point during the protest, Liverpool Central Library on William Brown Street (L3 8EW) is 500m from the station and will be open throughout
– This is a busy city centre location, please feel free to bring ear defenders, noise cancelling headphones or any other accessibility devices
– Masks encouraged to protect immuno-compromised members of our community
– If you have any further access queries, please contact this page by DM

Please sign this letter to EHRC

Assisted Dying Bill, News, UNCRPD, Universal Credit, welfare cuts, Welfare reforms 7 Responses »

May 142025

John Kirkpatrick

CEO

EHRC

john.kirkpatrick@equalityhumanrights.com and ceo@equalityhumanrights.com

Valentine Murombe-Chivero

Head of Corporate Communications at The Equality and Human Rights Commission

valentine.murombe-chivero@equalityhumanrights.com

10 May 2025

Dear John

Complaint against the Labour Government and request for the EHRC to investigate the urgent threat to the equality and human rights of disabled people by a raft of policy announcements and planned legislation.

We are asking the EHRC to investigate the urgent threat to the equality and human rights of disabled people by a raft of policy announcements and planned legislation by the UK Government. The disproportionate impact on disabled people if these measures go ahead need investigation for the following reasons:

the proposed cuts to welfare benefits for disabled people will push many into and further into poverty and are discriminatory relative to the rest of the population
ongoing austerity budgets for local authorities, impacting adult social care which many disabled people rely on for their independence
Ongoing cuts to NHS and mental health services disguised as efficiency savings
Safeguarding concerns and risks of harm and deaths – there is evidence from DWP that austerity cuts are associated with countless deaths, and with the level of mental distress. It is inevitable that further cuts will cause many more deaths. People continue to die as a result of DWP failings as it is. These cuts will make that even worse.
the impact of tax rises on NHS and social care service providers for disabled people and disabled people’s organisations (DPOs)
the impact of negative, misleading and false statements made by Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Liz Kendall about disabled people and benefits and the impact this has on hate crime against disabled people
the disproportionate impact of the proposed changes to PIP and Universal Credit on people with learning disability, mental health conditions, autism and neuro-diverse conditions (see Big Issue story)[1]
the disproportionate impact on families with a disabled person who are already the poorest in society
the failure of the government to consult or coproduce with DPOs in shaping policy and legislation in violation of the CRPD and domestic legislation
the failure to carry out a comprehensive impact assessment ahead of the policy announcements and the publication of the Green Paper
MPs are going to be asked to vote on legislation before the OBR analysis is published in the Autumn

We are calling for this action by the EHRC under pillar two of your current strategic plan, where you commit to: ‘act with speed and precision when responding to the most significant and urgent threats to equality and human rights’.

The Government has failed and refused to carry out any effective analysis of the impact of this proposed legislation and policy changes. Therefore, we are asking EHRC to do a human rights analysis of the Green Paper and the anticipated Bill, in line with your responsibilities to uphold the Human Rights Act and as part of UKIM for monitoring the CRPD.

We are also requesting the EHRC to urgently carry out a cumulative impact assessment to evidence the erosion of our rights and living standards by the new Labour Government. There is precedent for you to carry out such an analysis, as you commissioned a cumulative impact assessment under the previous government, as published in 2018: The cumulative impact of tax and welfare reforms | EHRC

These proposed cuts, which amount to ongoing austerity for disabled people, do not address the concerns and recommendations from the UN CRPD committee in 2024 and in fact represent further regression of rights for our disabled population in the UK:

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities published a report, after looking at the UK government’s progress since 2016. This was when the same committee found that austerity and welfare policies were leading to grave and systematic violations of Disabled People’s Human Rights. The UN Committee did not see any progress in addressing those violations, moreover, it documented evidence of retrogression.

You can read the UN’s report here (DOCX).

Key quotes from the report

“The Committee concludes that no significant progress has been made … The Committee also notes that while some measures have been taken to address its recommendations … there are also signs of regression”

“The Committee finds that the State party has failed to take all appropriate measures to address grave and systematic violations of the human rights of persons with disabilities”.

The government does not consult with Disabled people and our organisations as it is obliged to (73) and uses a “rhetoric that devalues disabled people and undermines their human dignity” (74).

3 articles were mentioned in particular:

Article 19: Right to live independently and be included in the community

Disabled people are offered “bare subsistence” instead of “full enjoyment of the right to live independently and in the community” (77).

More and more disabled people are stuck in institutions with no plans to end “disability-based detention and compulsory treatment” (78-79).

Article 27: Right to work and employment

The “Work Capability Assessment (WCA) process is complex and onerous” and the “assessors are inexperienced and/or unqualified” (82).

Article 28: Right to an adequate standard of living and social protection

PIP is insufficient and its eligibility criteria are “contrary to the human rights model of disability” (76).

In 2023 UK was in violation of international law in not providing social protection which ensured an adequate standard of living, including for disabled people (86)

Here is a summary of the proposed changes to welfare benefits that will disproportionately affect disabled people relative to the non-disabled population:

It is estimated that through the Government’s proposed Personal Independence (PIP) cuts, between 800,000 and 1.2 million Disabled people will lose between £4200 and £6300 a year by 2029 to 2030 (Resolution Foundation, 2025).

According to DWP own calculation as well as the 250,000+ households the Green Paper cuts will push into poverty, the cuts are also forecast to hit 700,000 families that are already in poverty, many of whom are households with a disabled person.

The DWP’s modelling shows about 2.4m people in poverty gaining from the reforms will almost certainly be non-disabled UC claimants benefitting from the small rise in the standard allowance whilst disabled people will experience cuts.
Because PIP is a gateway benefit disabled people and their families who lose eligibility for PIP will also lose eligibility for Carer’s Allowance, council tax reduction and other passported entitlements.
According to the proposals, from 2028-29, getting PIP will be the factor that determines whether you get the health element of UC – meaning there will be no support specifically for Disabled people unable to work. Those who would otherwise qualify for the health element of UC – but not PIP (currently 600,000 people) – will therefore not get the element and be worse off by £2,400 per year (today’s prices; assuming they are new claimants who would otherwise have got the reduced health element
If the cuts to PIP are taken together with the Government’s proposals to scrap the Work Capability Assessment and replace current out of work disability benefits with a new “health” component of Universal Credit with eligibility tied to PIP, some claimants risk losing £9600 per year.

There will be no health element in UC for under 22s. Many disabled students rely on it to go to university so the knock on impact to future employment prospects of not going will be catastrophic for this group.

The current PIP fraud figures are 0% according to the DWP’s Fraud and Error in the Benefits System Annual Report of 2024, so the government’s crackdown on benefit fraud and its impact is inconsistent with the figures and very low rates of PIP fraud.

DISABILITY AND SOCIAL SECURITY – THE REAL PICTURE

Welfare spending is not out of control

It is lower than a decade ago and not set to rise within the next five years: Government claims of ‘spiralling’ spending on benefits are false and ‘ideological’, official figures show – Disability News Service

What is true is that disability benefits as a share of overall welfare spending has risen. This is due to many factors, one being the increase in State pension age, but also NHS and mental health support waiting lists, the effects of Long Covid, and escalating mental distress among young people: see research by academic Ben Geiger These are all very real issues which we need the government to address.

Nearly £23 billion worth of social security and social tariffs currently goes unclaimed due to lack of awareness, stigma and the complexity of the UK social security system. See Missing out 2024: £23 billion of support is unclaimed each year | Policy in Practice. Unclaimed social security includes universal credit, pension credit, child benefit, carers allowance and housing benefit for pensioners. Social tariffs include council tax support (a rebate, not a payment/benefit), free school meals, free TV licence and various energy/broadband support schemes.

In the Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2024, The DWP estimates that 4% (£870 million) went underclaimed for PIP and 11% (£750 million) for DLA: Unfulfilled eligibility in the benefit system Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2024 – GOV.UK.

Actual benefit fraud requires a court of law to establish that a claimant knowingly or dishonestly claimed benefit. Only 820 people were convicted on this basis in 2023. The DWP statistical definition of fraud is much less rigorous – it is an assessment by the DWP of those who were not entitled to benefit but could ‘reasonably be expected to know.’ DWP estimate that rates for this type of overpayment were 2.8% (£7.4 bn) in 2024. Rates of overpayment for claimant error were put at 0.6% (£1.6bn) and DWP official error at 0.3% (£0.8bn). See Fraud and error in the benefit system, Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2024 – GOV.UK.

Tests for eligibility for disability benefits are not too easy

Deaf and Disabled people who need disability benefits are too often found ineligible by assessments that are arduous, harrowing, frequently inadequate and result in arbitrary decisions. These are the same assessments that Labour criticised when in opposition and which were the subject of a number of highly critical Work and Pensions Committee reports: Health assessments for benefits – Committees – UK Parliament

The rate of assessment decisions over-turned at appeal is at an all-time high. Currently around two-thirds of PIP appeals are overturned in favour of the claimant compared to around half of universal credit and ESA appeals: Tribunals statistics quarterly: October to December 2024 – GOV.UK.However, many give up either before or after Mandatory Reconsideration stage because they cannot face the battle and due to lack of welfare advice and support to challenge unfair decisions.

Recent research demonstrates that people claiming benefits for reasons of mental health are living with high levels of mental distress: Mental distress among people receiving benefits: new evidence. This is in contrast to deliberate misrepresentations contained within political rhetoric and media reporting of people supposedly found eligible for benefits who have low levels of anxiety or depression.

This picture is further supported by OBR’s calculations that of the 163,000 benefit claimants with mental distress impacted by the proposals to change the WCA, only 3% would be able to find and undertake paid work.

Recent media headlines about 200,000 claimants found unfit for work who are ready and willing to work now were deeply misleading. The survey question to which these claimants responded was whether they could work now with the “right job” and the “right support”. There was no follow up question about the likely availability of either. The 200,000 figure was extrapolated from a much smaller claimant sample. People who have learning disabilities and/or are autistic were twice as likely to respond yes to this question. 49% of respondents felt they would never be able to work or work again. 62% of these customers were over the age of 50, and 66% felt their health was likely to get worse in the future: Work aspirations and support needs of health and disability customers: Interim findings – Department for Work and Pensions

Disability benefits do not act as a disincentive to work

Disability benefits keep Deaf and Disabled people out of absolute poverty.

In 2022/23, 16 million people in the UK living in families in poverty. Of these there were 8.7 million people in poverty who are Disabled themselves, or who live with a Disabled person, up from 6.9 million in 2019/20. 33% of people living in the lowest income decile are Disabled compared to just 9% in the top.

Even if you receive both out of work disability benefits and the higher rates of both the mobility and care components of PIP – currently on 2024/25 £783.16 pm ESA support group and £1400.50 pm UC LCWRA)- this is just 33% or 60% respectively % of the Minimum Income Standard (£28k pa) for a single adult.

The rate that Universal Credit standard allowance is paid at is deliberately set to be too low to survive on for anything but a very short, temporary amount of time. For those unable to earn a living through paid work, an out of work disability benefit component is essential in addition to the standard allowance.

Personal Independence Payment is a non-means tested extra costs benefit intended to contribute to the additional unavoidable expenditure that Deaf and Disabled people face. Scope estimates that Disabled people face on average extra costs of £1067 per month compared to non-Disabled people: Disability Price Tag 2024 | Disability charity Scope UK

Claimants in receipt of out of work disability benefits have the highest levels of support need. These include people with terminal illness and neurodegenerative conditions and people with profound and complex needs. Many claimants in this category spend a considerable amount of time in too much pain or distress or fatigue to function. Time during the week is taken up with medical and therapeutic appointments, accessing drugs and treatment and with assessments and monitoring linked to the services and support we rely on.

Many PIP claimants will not be able to continue in work if they lose access to this benefit. This is because engaging in paid work places extra demands on us that can exacerbate our conditions which in turn increases our unavoidable disability related expenditure. It also gives us less time on top of managing our impairments and illnesses to be able to function in other necessary areas of our lives such as domestic tasks. The OBR states that one sixth of PIP claimants are in work: Trends in working-age disability benefit onflows – Office for Budget Responsibility

Cutting disability benefits will push more households into poverty. Reports we are hearing say the cuts to be announced will impact a million Disabled people. The charities fear that 700,000 additional households containing a Disabled person will be pushed into poverty as a result of these cuts.

Disability-related poverty had increased dramatically even before the cost of living crisis:

54% of all poverty in the country is now disability related.
The proportion of people in families with at least one Disabled child and one Disabled adult who were living in poverty rose by 7% from 2019–21 up to 46% in 2021-22. This is compared to a consistent figure of 17% for individuals in families with no Disabled members across these two years. [LINK]

Poverty moves people further from employment. In 2021–22, the poverty rate for individuals in a household in receipt of a disability benefit was 20%: Benefit levels in the UK – Work and Pensions Committee.
The research suggested the “main triggers” for applying for PIP were health deterioration, financial hardship and employment concerns.

Cuts to disability benefits will cost the economy more in the long-term

Poverty costs money. In 2016 the Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimated that poverty costs the economy £78 billion per year and that £1 in every £5 spent on public services went towards mitigating the harms caused by poverty: Counting the cost of UK poverty | Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Cuts will cause substantial additional pressures on the NHS, mental health services, and social care services and will lead to an increase in survival crime. They are entirely inconsistent with the government’s pledge to reduce shoplifting! Disabled people impacted by cuts may be forced to find paid work in unsuitable jobs such as sex work.

Disability benefit cuts will also push up child poverty rates. 870,000 children live in families who receive PIP with 290,000 of these children already in poverty: Cuts to disability benefits would undermine government plans to tackle child poverty, warns charity – Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).

Here is a summary of the impact of the local government finance settlement 2025/2026 on adult social care from Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS):

“While this additional funding is welcome, there remains a funding gap of over £1bn for adult social care to even standstill next year, which means councils won’t be able to fully meet people’s care and support needs. This means that fewer people will be able to draw on care and support to help them stay independent and well, such as transport to go shopping, a regular cooked meal or support for family carers.

“Limiting the number of people who can access adult social care creates a vicious cycle; too many people reach crisis point and end up in hospital unnecessarily because they aren’t receiving low level care at home, and they can’t leave hospital because there isn’t enough support to return home safely.

“To get people home from hospital quicker and prevent them from needing to go there in the first place, the Government must commit to a long-term, fully funded plan for social care, to make care at home and in the community the default option for everybody.”

Melanie Williams, President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services

We hope this evidence of continuing violations of disabled people’s rights by the new Labour government, since its election last July, following 14 years of ‘grave and systematic violations’ of disabled people’s rights will mean you will act on this complaint, investigate and carry out the cumulative impact assessment as requested.

Yours sincerely

(final list of signatories TBC)

DPAC

[1] DWP figures released in response to an FOI request from the Benefits and Work website show how many people with different disabilities and illnesses currently receive the PIP daily living allowance having scored under four points in all categories. They include:

214,000 claimants with arthritis – that’s 77% of all arthritis claimants receiving the daily living allowance

38,000 with cardiovascular diseases – 62%

45,000 with respiratory diseases – 55%

38,000 with multiple sclerosis and neuropathic diseases – 48%

23,000 with cancer – 33%

11,000 with cerebral palsy and neurological muscular diseases – 24%

26,000 with psychotic disorders – 23%

UN Committee slams government failure to address disability rights violations

UNCRPD, Universal Credit, WCA, welfare cuts, Welfare reforms No Responses »

Apr 252024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 25 April 2024

UK Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations’ Coalition

UN Committee slams government failure to address disability rights violations

A report published yesterday by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Disabled People concludes that the UK Government has made “no significant progress” in addressing the grave and systematic violations of Deaf and Disabled people’s rights that it highlighted more than seven years ago.

Instead, the report notes areas of further regression and numerous issues of “deep concern”.

The report states that:

“The Committee finds that the State party has failed to take all appropriate measures to address grave and systematic violations of the human rights of persons with disabilities and has failed to eliminate the root causes of inequality and discrimination.”

The report is the outcome of a follow up to the Committee’s unprecedented special inquiry which in 2016 found evidence of grave and systematic violations of Deaf and Disabled People’s rights due to welfare reform and austerity measures.

The inquiry focused on three specific areas: equal chances to live and participate in the community; right to good work; and, adequate social protections and standard of living.

On publication of the 2016 report the then government dismissed its findings.

Andy Greene from the National Steering Group of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), who triggered the special inquiry said:

“The process of evidence gathering, taking witness testimony and objective scrutiny of policy and its impact, is one that’s very difficult to ridicule or dismiss. The facts speak for themselves. As such, the inquiry vindicates the experiences of Deaf and Disabled people whose voices are too often ignored.”

John Kelly, musician and campaigner who also sits on the DPAC National Steering Group said the report is:

“…damning on the lack of this government listening to our real lived experiences as Disabled people and doing anything to support what we really need which is to live and contribute in our community as equal citizens along with our peers.”

Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs) across the UK, who took part in reporting to the Committee, along with DPAC, through the UK DDPO Coalition, have welcomed the report.

Svetlana Kotova, Director of Campaigns and Justice, Inclusion London, said:

“This report is a damning verdict on the government’s track record in upholding our human rights…

“It is shocking that our country that positions itself as a world leader is yet again found to breach our rights on a systematic level.

“It is also shocking that the government has failed to listen to the UN in the past and has actively dismissed the previous recommendations….

“Inclusion London welcomes the report and urge the government and the opposition to take it seriously and develop policies on welfare reform, employment and independent living that comply with the UK’s obligations under the UNCRDP.

“The report shows that the current system is not fit for purpose and the government cannot carry on punishing Disabled people.”

Dermot Devlin, spokesperson for DPAC Northern Ireland said:

“ DPAC NI thank the UN Committee for their work and due diligence on our behalf and call on the Westminster Government to properly implement the recommendations of the 2016 inquiry and the current report.

“The absence of Government in Northern Ireland has failed Disabled people here. With the Executive now restored, bringing forward a Disability Strategy that addresses the Committee’s recommendations must be an absolute priority.”

The report documents how the UK government requested postponement of the session at which they were due to give evidence to the Committee in August.

Their request for postponement was just six days before the deadline for written evidence submissions to the inquiry was due and after many cash-strapped DDPOs had already booked their flights and accommodation to attend and give evidence.

The result was that the Committee, which is made up of Deaf ad Disabled members from around the world, had to split the oral evidence section of the inquiry into two separate sessions.

Rhian Davies, CEO for Disability Wales, said:

“The UK Government’s approach to this review has been utterly disrespectful and matches the contempt shown to Disabled people for over a decade. We deserve better and we demand better.”

Ellen Clifford, UK Coalition Co-ordinator, said;

“The government’s attitude towards the UN special inquiry is evidence that their treatment of Deaf and Disabled people is wilful and calculated. This is reflected in the damning findings of the report.

“The limitations of the inquiry process are that there are just too many deliberate rights violations to include in one report.

“However, the report validates the experiences of Deaf and Disabled people across the UK and is a much-needed counter to government rhetoric claiming they are “protecting the most vulnerable” when they are doing the exact opposite.”

The report highlights numerous areas of government policy that are not only failing Deaf and Disabled people, but that are causing serious rights violations.

Among the many areas where the Committee is “deeply concerned” are: the social care recruitment crisis follow EU withdrawal; the inadequacies of social care support provision to cover anything more than “bare subsistence”; incarceration of Disabled people “in secure psychiatric facilities due to a lack of community-based support”; “disabled people who are housebound due to inadequate support to access the community”; “abuse, mistreatment and the increasing use of restraints, restrictive practices and… unexpected deaths in the mental health care system”.

Dorothy Gould, founder of Liberation, a grass-roots organisation led by people with personal experience of mental distress/trauma, said:

“…it is an utter disgrace that many of us are forced into institutions, continue to be locked up against our will in places such as psychiatric hospitals and continue to be forcibly treated and abused, in complete breach of human rights which other citizens hold.”

The Committee’s recognition of the increasing barriers to employment have been welcomed by Deaf and Disabled trade unionists.

Natalie Amber, Co-chair, Deaf and Disabled Members Committee, Equity Trade Union, said:

“Ill-thought through cuts, particularly as a result of welfare reform, are making it impossible to work in the creative industries unless you have independent wealth. This is directly and negatively impacting who we see on our stages and screens.”

The report acknowledges the devastating impact of previous welfare “reform” measures.

The report states that:

“The Committee is appalled by reports of “benefit deaths” referring to fatalities among disabled people in the State party, subsequent to their engagement with the process for determining eligibility for benefits…

“Testimonies have also been received regarding the minimal, unsuitable, and/or abusive responses to individuals’ mental health emergencies that are frequently precipitated by the benefits assessment procedure.”

It recommends that the UK government:

“Take comprehensive measures to ensure that persons with disabilities are adequately supported through social security payments, benefits and allowances,… ascertain the additional costs of living with disabilities and adjusting benefit amounts accordingly to reflect these costs;”

Alison Turner, daughter-in-law of Errol Graham, who starved to death after his benefits were stopped, said:

“I am pleased that the report highlighted the need for proper review and monitoring of the deaths of benefit claimants… It shows that this government has learned nothing and cares not for its direct actions to cause harm.”

The report comes less than a week after the Prime Minister announced a new round of cuts to disability social security payments and amidst political and media rhetoric that directly contravenes the 2016 findings and recommendations by demonising disabled benefit claimants.

The report states that:

“There is a pervasive framework and rhetoric that devalues disabled people and undermines their human dignity. Reforms within social welfare benefits are premised on a notion that disabled people are undeserving and wilfully avoiding employment (“skiving off”) and defrauding the system. This has resulted in hate speech and hostility towards disabled people.”

Kamran Mallick, CEO of Disability Rights UK, said:

“Under this Government, the UK has lost its status as a nation that leads in disability rights to one that is actively attacking Disabled people.

“In just the last week we have seen an onslaught of new policy proposals and legislation which will not only harm us but also lead to avoidable deaths…

“At a time when we’re all struggling to make ends meet and cannot access the healthcare and support that we need, the Government are scapegoating Disabled people for a failing economy.

“We are not at fault for simply existing. The Government are at fault for their complete disregard for international treaties and contempt for Disabled people’s rights.”

John McArdle, spokesperson for the Black Triangle campaign in Scotland, said:

“To proceed with the plans announced by Conservative Prine Minister Sunak last Friday will definitely lead to a surge in deaths by suicide and other avoidable harm which falls short of death but is nonetheless catastrophic.

“The U.K. has abrogated the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People by its treatment of Deaf and Disabled people in the UK.”

Disabled President of the National union of Journalists (NUJ), Natasha Hirst, made a call to all journalists to reflect the evidence as reflected in the report rather than unquestioningly repeating inaccurate and harmful government rhetoric:

“There has never been a more important time for journalists and the wider media industry to tackle harmful negative rhetoric against disabled people.

“I call on journalists to take time to understand the concerns raised by the UN Committee and scrutinise why the Government is so keen to dismiss their failure to uphold disabled people’s human rights.

“Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations have thoroughly evidenced the harm caused by policy changes and cuts to services and yet the UK Government is intent on pushing this even further.

“Disabled people’s voices need to be heard and not drowned out and demonised by people who have never experienced the sharp end of the social security system.

“As journalists, we should report ethically to hold power to account, and not be complicit in the scapegoating of disabled people.”

ENDS

For more information including speaking to people personally affected by issues covered in the report or to be put in touch with ‘;#anyone quoted above, contact:

Ellen Clifford, UK Coalition – 07505144371

Rensa Gaunt, Inclusion London – 07561 064227 `

Bethany Bale, Disability Rights UK – Bethany.bale@disabilityrightsuk.org

For Northern Ireland enquiries contact: Dermot Devlin – 07899 962209

For Scotland enquiries contact John McArdle – 07379 612778

For Wales enquiries contact: Megan Thomas – 07990 425823

Notes for Editors

The special inquiry was triggered under Article 6 of the Optional Protocol of the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People (CRDP). This was the first time an investigation into allegations of “grave and systematic violations” of CRDP rights had even taken place. Since then, following the precedent set by UK DDPOs, inquiries have taken place into allegations of breaches by Hungary and the EU and by the Spanish State.

The three articles of the CRDP which the special inquiry focused on are articles 19, 27 and 28.

The UK DDPO CRPD Monitoring Coalition co-ordinates written and oral evidence from UK DDPOs for examinations and inquiries by the UN Committee on the Rights of Disabled People.

The UK DDPO written submission to the inquiry can be found here: https://www.inclusionlondon.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/UK-DDPO-CRDP-Special-Inquiry-Shadow-Report-final.docx

The deadline for written submissions to the inquiry was midnight on 1 August 2023. The report states that the UK government asked for postponement on 26 July 2023.

The special inquiry oral evidence session in August which heard from UK DDPOs as well as representatives from the equality and human rights commissions of the four nations can be seen here: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1o/k1o8b7239p

The UK government’s evidence to the Committee can be seen here: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1s/k1svtljvtr

Media reporting linked to the government’s welfare reforms plans has been found to be inaccurate and to incite hostility against disabled benefit claimants. For example: the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) ruled that it has upheld a complaint against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in relation to media reports that appeared to be aimed at ‘stirring up hostility’ towards disabled people claiming benefit; the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) recently upheld complaints against The Telegraph for inaccurate and misleading articles about disability benefit entitlements that gave a false impression about eligibility and the generosity of the social security system.

For full quotes from all DDPO and trade union representatives received please see: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-XkQNo2tXgRTQGARgtcpmF7m0qkDXJx5iuaEbstVdlo/edit?usp=sharing

Join the #AudioRiot Twitter Storm – from 5.30pm Thursday 30 September

Benefits, Disability Activism, News, Universal Credit No Responses »

Sep 282021

On the event of the £20 a week cut to Universal Credit, protest online with DPAC’s #AudioRiot and make some noise in opposition.

DPAC is aware that many of us in our community are still isolated, shielding, or even just protecting themselves and their loved ones; and are cautious about taking part in public activism.

Join us online, in parallel to our protest opposite Downing Street, and demand that the government listens to us when we say Stop the Cuts to Universal Credit and give #20MoreForAll.

When: Thursday 30 September 2021 from 5.30pm

Where: On Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media.

How: Post on social media and share why you oppose the cuts to Universal Credit. Link articles (see examples below) that detail the appalling consequences of austerity and use graphics and videos to create an eye-catching statement (see below). Make sure you use the hashtags below so your shouts can be heard!

Why: This month the UK government are reversing the £20 a week uplift to Universal Credit payments, a lifeline that thousands have been depending on during the pandemic. The decision has the potential to push 840,000 people into poverty. At the same time, disabled people on legacy benefits (such as Employment and Support Allowance) never received the uplift to begin with.

Hashtags: #AudioRiot #20MoreForAll #CancelTheCut #StopAndScrap

Article links:

#20More4All: testimonies, stats & facts – DPAC

https://nowthenmagazine.com/articles/i-predict-an-audioriot-against-universal-credit-cuts?fbclid=IwAR3moYEsJksaHgQFIycTIQpTED54NHh4tPr0QYj107C1JaHwngoZ8YEBxkE

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/what-universal-credit-cut-really-24936714?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mirror_main&fbclid=IwAR3pngGRP-Pxf5DseoaikNqPY5kq9ZY93g04Ad9TfI799yC0eiGkCC8BoV4

https://dpac.uk.net/2021/09/disability-news-service-23rd-september/

https://dpac.uk.net/2021/09/disability-news-service-16th-september/

Tories refuse to accept protest letters from disabled people ahead of budget (socialistworker.co.uk)

https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2021/09/Universal%20Credit%20-%20HRW%20Letter%20to%20MPs%20-%20September%202021.pdf

https://disabilitybenefitsconsortium.com/2021/08/26/test-post/

Links to interviews with DPAC activists about the cut to Universal Credit and our week of action:

https://www.socialistthinktank.com/podcasts/socialist-night-live-30-audioriot

Video links:

Promo film for #AudioRio week of action:

#AudioRiot opening rally:

Videos with Boris “Piffle” Johnson:

#AudioRiot #20MoreForAll DPAC Protest September 2021 – YouTube

Graphics:

To post these images to your social media, right hand click the picture and select ‘save image as…’. Then, upload this saved graphic to your Twitter or Facebook posts via the add image option.

#20More4All Campaign – ways you can support

Benefits, Universal Credit, Welfare reforms No Responses »

Mar 252021

Fight for £20 more for claimants on legacy benefits

The government has extended the £20 uplift to Universal Credit for another six months but we know how callous and cruel it is not to apply it to legacy benefits, as explained in this short animation from Sheffield DPAC:

http://twitter.com/i/status/1364895702904692741

You can read DPAC’s report #20More4All – Why the £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit must be applied to legacy benefits: testimonies, stats & facts here: https://dpac.uk.net/2021/03/20more4all-testimonies-stats-facts/

Why it’s important to take action

The government increased Universal Credit by £20 per week at the start of the pandemic, when nearly two million more claimants came onto the benefit, exposing the social security system to greater scrutiny.

Many claimants never got the £20 uplift in the first place. It was only applied to Universal Credit so those still on legacy benefits and not yet moved over to Universal Credit were missed out. Many of these are disabled and their living costs have been significantly higher as a result of the pandemic and needing to shield.

Out of work benefits in the UK are well below the amount needed for a decent standard of living. All benefits need to be significantly increased, not cut.

We need people to be properly supported in these difficult times. The benefits system needs a complete overhaul. The Universal Credit system doesn’t work – it has been proven be toxic and massively harmful.

As well as fighting for a permanent uplift – we must fight for it to be scrapped and replaced with a social security system that provides a genuine safety net for all that need it.

The free school meals saga shows that when people fight back the Tories can be pushed into U-turns.

We understand that many people are still unable to leave their homes and we are NOT asking anyone to put their lives at risk or to break social distancing guidelines.

We are asking people to do just whatever you can to build support for this issue and to let claimants know there is a fightback they can get involved with.

Ideas for what you can do to support the campaign

Take and share selfies hashtags #20More4All
Put up and share posters in support of the campaign. You can:

– make your own

– download a copy here: https://dpac.uk.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20More4All.pdf

We are asking all our supporters to email your MP telling them why it is important to you that the uplift is extended to legacy benefits. You can find a template letter here: https://dpac.uk.net/2021/02/email-your-mp-to-call-for-20-uplift-to-stay-be-applied-to-legacy-benefits/ Please also email a copy to us at: 20More4All@gmail.com that we can send on the both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. We want to deliver as many letters and expressions of concern on this issue as possible to before the Spring Budget on 3 March.
Make your own banners for local banner drops that can be done without breaking social distancing guidelines.
For those that can, go out and hold socially distanced protests.
If you are a member of a union branch or a local campaign please ask them to support the campaign.
Sign and share these petitions:
- Don’t Leave Disabled People Behind | 38 Degrees
- Keep the £20pw Universal Credit lifeline and extend to those on legacy benefits – Petitions (parliament.uk)

Treasury shuts its door on disabled people

Universal Credit, DWP, Welfare reforms 2 Responses »

Mar 022021

With so many disabled people shielding – justifiably in fear for their lives – it is a challenge to make visible the very urgent situations we are facing, marginalised and ignored as disability issues are within wider society.

And there are many, many pressing issues requiring the attentions of those in power. The fact that disabled people accounted for 59.5% of Covid-related deaths lsat year for one. Another, the subject of DPAC’s day of action today (1 March) is the fact that disabled people’s unavoidable expenditure has sharply risen as a direct result of the pandemic and yet the 2.2 million claimants still on legacy benefits – three quarters of who are disabled people – have been denied the £20 peer week uplift given to Universal Credit claimants from March last year.

There is widespread support for application of the uplift to legacy benefits but still the government has continued with its strong of excuses as to why this cannot happen. At first we were told the technicalities of setting up a system to make the extra payments would take too long. That was the start of the pandemic since when those techncialities could have been resolved many times over.

Then we were told that legacy benefits would be going up by 37p per week from April – an amount intended to reflect rising costs through inflation but representing an increase of only 0.5% while the state pension will be increasing by 2.5%. It is also an amount that comes no where near enough to cover the additional costs of incurred by those who are shielding.

We have also been told that legacy claimants have the option to transfer over to Universal Credit when the DWP knows full well that will severely disadvantage those currently in receipt of the disability premium.

Now the line is that there are a whole package of protection measures that disabled people could/would/may have benefitted from such as mortgage holidays. Now there definitely are disabled people out there with mortgages who are financially struggling but the reality of disabled people’s lives and the oppression we experience means that for many of us owning our own home isn’t something we can even aspire to.

Given that clear mismatch between the reality of disabled people’s lives and the government’s version of how we live, we decided that some communication and education were urgently needed.

Given current limitations we attempted to do that by collating the various letters, testimonies and comments that were sent into us over the last few weeks from disabled people and carers, from those who have received the uplift and know what it means to them and from those who haven’t, as well as from decent members of the public who simply care about the issue. We did two things with these: 1) compiled a document combining lived experience with key findings from recent reports evidencing the need to retain and extend the uplift [available here: #20More4All: testimonies, stats & facts – DPAC ]2) Printed them all out (anonymously), placed them in individual envelopes in a postage sack and arranged for a courier (paid above London Living Wage) to deliveer them to the Treasury for us.

However, we weren’t sure that even 190 letters and testimonies would get the message through.

So we created some very basic education tools in the form of wheelchairs to which we attached items and explanatory tags representing the essentials that disabled people are having to go without due to the financial pressures of the pandemic, including a blanket (heating); an incontinence pad (bathing, laundry and medicines); a face mask (PPE); an empty packet of cuppa soup (nutritious food) and an empty purse (enough money to live on).

Our lovely courier attempted to deliver these for us to The Rt Hon Boris JOhnson, MP, The Prime Minister; to The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP, The Chancellor of the Exchequer; and to The Rt Hon Therese Coffey MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

Unfortunately neither 10 Downing St, HM Treasury or the Department for Work and Pensions would take receipt of our carefully thought out gifts. So we can only assume their ignorance continues. The Treasury refused even to accept the bag of letters from disabled people. In fairness to the DWP they did take a copy of our document compiling testimonies and statistics which they told the courier they would pass on to Coffey but we aren’t expecting a reply any time soon. The resounding impression of the afternoon is that once again the Tories are leaving disabled people out in the cold and assuming they can get away with it.

Older Entries

We are disappointed with the TUC statement on PIP today calling for reform on PIP by linking PIP with work.

Contents

McFadden brags about cutting disability benefits, just as his own strategy warns of ‘deep material poverty’

Minister misleads MPs as mystery deepens over new £2 billion cuts to disability benefits

Duty to disabled passengers in railways bill is ‘too vague’ and must be strengthened, MPs are told

Peers urged to ‘err on the side of caution’ and raise minimum age limit in assisted suicide bill

Scottish and UK governments are failing to uphold disability rights, says watchdog

Thousands of disabled people in one county should benefit from care charging legal case victory

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week

Contents

DWP and Treasury silent over mystery of £2 billion cuts to disability benefits

‘Unacceptable’ new figures show rejections of Access to Work claims have shot up this year

Watchdog’s silence after removing figures that showed social security spending is not ‘spiralling’

Manifesto calls on next Welsh government to enable disabled people to ‘flourish and thrive’

Deaf people who use BSL face ‘entrenched’ health and social care exclusion, say government advisers

Years of scapegoating rhetoric has led to ‘envy and resentment’ of those with blue badges, research finds

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week

Contents

DWP’s plans ‘in tatters’ as McFadden scraps white paper on further disability cuts

‘Shocking’ figures show parents linked to DWP service face death rates up to three times higher

Former detective exposes culture of disability discrimination within ‘institutionally disablist’ Met

Committee calls cuts bill ‘discriminatory’, even though all its Labour MPs voted for it

Disabled people warn of ‘severe’ consequences if chancellor removes Motability VAT exemption

Disabled people face ‘systemic’ barriers in accessing community equipment, parliamentary inquiry finds

Regulator’s annual report shows impact of social care crisis on disabled people

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week

Contents

Tory trio mislead party conference on disability benefits as they stir up hostility towards disabled claimants

Government ‘has lost its way’ on accessible housing, after new towns report ignores disabled people

Alarm over government’s choices to lead ‘over-diagnosis’ review that could help ministers cut benefits

Coach firm to pay thousands to accessible transport activist after driver lied that he threatened violence

Access to Work dossier of evidence shows ‘real harm’ and job losses caused by DWP cuts and failings

Greens show contrast with other major parties on disability cuts and refusal to stir up hostility to claimants

New film celebrates 10 years since ‘moment in time’ victory over care charges in London borough

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week

Contents

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week

Disabled people in Wales will be protesting in Cardiff on Monday 7th, and in Swansea on Tuesday 8th.

Why we are still protesting

Swansea and Cardiff protest graphics for social media

Contents

‘Disastrous’ cuts bill that leaves legacy of distrust and distress ‘must be dropped’

Four disabled Labour MPs stand up to government over cuts to disability benefits

Silence from MP sister of Rachel Reeves over suicide linked to PIP flaws, just as government was seeking cuts

Disabled people receiving care were ‘ignored by design’ during the pandemic, Covid inquiry hears

Disabled activists warn Labour MPs who vote for cuts: ‘The gloves will be off’

GB News says it has nothing to apologise for, after guest suggests starving disabled benefit claimants

SEND inspections find services in just one in four areas usually lead to ‘positive’ outcomes for disabled children

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week

On 9 July, MPs have a final vote on the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill.

1st July 15:00 to 17:00. Bedford Square, Exeter.

Kill the Bill Before it Kills Us!

Links

Signatures: (add yours here)

Contents

Disabled MP who quit government over benefit cuts tells DNS: ‘The consequences will be devastating’

Disabled peers plan to ‘amend, amend, amend, amend, amend’ after assisted dying bill reaches Lords

Minister finally admits that working-age benefits spending is stable, despite months of ‘spiralling’ claims

This bill opens the door to scandal, abuse and injustice, disabled activists say after assisted dying bill vote

Timms says cuts must go ahead, despite being reminded of risk that disabled claimants could die

Absence of disabled people’s voices from assisted dying bill has been ‘astonishing’, says disabled MP

Timms misleads MPs on DWP transparency and cover-ups, as he gives evidence on PIP review

Ministers are considering further extension to disability hate crime laws, after pledge on ‘aggravated’ offences

Making all self-driving pilot schemes accessible would be ‘counter-productive’ and slow us down, says minister

Involve disabled people ‘meaningfully’ from the start when developing digital assistive tech, says report

Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week

Don’t forget to email your MP. Why not email them a picture of the poster in your window!

The first vote in parliament is 1st July. Here’s a helpful guide to some things people in Wales can do NOW to help defeat the welfare cuts bill.

These actions are specifically customised for people in Wales, and includes lobbying the Welsh government. However, people not living in Wales might still find the resources useful with small adaptations.