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Feb 03
2012

Atos ‘failed to comply with government policy’

Posted by sidbaility in Untagged 
sidbaility

The company paid £100 million a year to test disabled people’s “fitness for work” has refused to cooperate with an “effective” new way of improving how disability benefit decisions are reached, MPs have heard.

The first independent review of the work capability assessment (WCA) by Professor Malcolm Harrington called for government “decision-makers” to improve communication with staff from Atos Healthcare – the much-criticised company paid to carry out the tests – over “borderline cases”.

 

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Feb 03
2012

Welfare reform bill: Movement set for court showdown with government

Posted by sidbaility in Untagged 
sidbaility

The disability movement looks set for a legal showdown with the government, after the coalition prepared to force deeply unpopular measures within its welfare reform bill into law.

More than 20 disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) and other charities are now discussing a possible legal case against the government.

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Feb 03
2012

MP criticises GMC after abuse scandal doctor removes himself from register

Posted by sidbaility in policy , disability
sidbaility

A leading MP has criticised the General Medical Council (GMC) after a GP whose negligence allowed disabled people to be raped and neglected at two residential homes removed himself from the doctors’ register.

Scores of disabled people were raped, drugged, assaulted and neglected at the notorious Longcare homes in south Buckinghamshire while Dr X* was their GP in the early 1990s.

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Jan 27
2012

Disabled people ‘getting sharp end of the government’s stick’

Posted by sidbaility in policy , disability
sidbaility

It is “entirely obvious” that the government’s welfare cuts are “falling entirely” on disabled people and families with children, according to a leading academic.

Professor Paul Gregg, an economic and social policy expert at the University of Bath, told a TUC seminar on the government’s cuts and reforms that disabled people were “very much getting the sharp end of the stick”.

Professor Gregg also dismissed government claims that welfare spending had spiralled out of control, and said that – prior to the recession – it had been growing at its slowest rate since the Second World War.

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Jan 27
2012

Alarm after council scraps direct payments support service

Posted by sidbaility in policy , disability
sidbaility

Disabled activists are warning that local authorities could try to copy a council that has withdrawn funding from a direct payments support service.

Even though government guidance encourages councils to provide an independent advice and information service for users of direct payments, Hampshire County Council has stopped funding the service that had been provided by Southampton Centre for Independent Living (SCIL).

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Jan 27
2012

New concerns over London 2012’s search for disabled volunteers

Posted by sidbaility in disability , access
sidbaility

A leading user-led arts organisation has raised new concerns over the search for volunteers to take part in the opening and closing ceremonies of the London 2012 Paralympics.

Last week, disabled artists and performers warned that many disabled people would be put off by a call from London 2012 for 5,000 volunteers with “huge amounts of energy”.

The 2012 organising committee LOCOG has defended the call and says volunteers will need “an expectation of what is required of them so they do not drop out when they realise it is going to be quite demanding

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Jan 23
2012

DLA reform: DPOs could boycott government consultations

Posted by sidbaility in policy , disability
sidbaility

Leading figures in the disability movement say they could stop cooperating with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) if the government’s welfare reform bill becomes law.

Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) are becoming increasingly angry at the government’s failure to listen to their views, despite its frequent references to how it is “co-producing” its reforms with disabled people.

This week’s events in the House of Lords, with peers again approving plans to scrap disability living allowance (DLA) and replace it with a new personal independence payment (PIP) – despite some government concessions – have increased frustration among DPOs.

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Jan 16
2012

Activists launch bid for funds to fight threat of assisted suicide

Posted by sidbaility in Untagged 
sidbaility

Disabled campaigners fighting to ward off the threat of legalised assisted suicide have been forced to launch a fundraising appeal to try to counteract the huge financial resources of their opponents.

Not Dead Yet UK – the campaigning network of disabled people opposed to legalisation – is run by volunteers, and has almost no funding to continue its battle.

The network decided to launch an urgent appeal for funds following last week’s report from The Commission on Assisted Dying, which was bankrolled by euthanasia supporters and set up by the pro-assisted suicide charity Dignity in Dying.

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Jan 16
2012

Responsible Reform: Government ‘misled parliament’ over DLA

Posted by sidbaility in Untagged 
sidbaility

The government misled parliament and the public about the scale of opposition to its reform of disability living allowance (DLA), according to a ground-breaking new report researched, written and funded by disabled people.

Responsible Reform is based on the first independent analysis of the responses to a government consultation on its DLA reforms, which ended last year.

The researchers used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the 523 responses to the consultation that had been submitted by disabled people’s organisations, disability charities and other groups.

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Jan 16
2012

Government ignores disability in £1 billion youth sport strategy

Posted by sidbaility in Untagged 
sidbaility

The government has failed to explain why its new youth sport strategy contains almost no references to disabled young people.

The £1 billion, five-year Creating a Sporting Habit for Life strategy was launched this week by culture secretary Jeremy Hunt as part of efforts to ensure a “legacy” of mass participation in sport from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The document says about £450 million will be awarded to sports governing bodies for their “whole sport plans” – their four-year strategies – to ensure they are focused on ensuring a “sporting habit for life”, with about 60 per cent of this money aimed at young people from 14 to 25.
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