Disability News

About DNS

Disability News Service (DNS) is run by John Pring, an experienced journalist who has been reporting on disability issues for more than 20 years. He launched DNS in April 2009 to address the absence of in-depth reporting in both the specialist and mainstream media on issues that affect the lives of disabled people. The news service focuses on issues such as discrimination equality, independent living, benefits, poverty and human rights, but also covers arts, culture and sport.

MPs hear of DWP’s ‘unacceptable’ failure to provide accessible papers to shadow minister

John Pring - 8 November 2018

Work and pensions ministers have received a humiliating dressing-down from the Commons speaker after their “unacceptable” failure to provide an accessible version of vital new universal credit papers to a disabled shadow minister.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had failed to provide the long-awaited managed migration draft regulations (see separate story) in an accessible format to Marsha de Cordova, Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people.

Instead she was told she would have to wait four days to receive them... See more

‘Chaotic’ universal credit led to disabled man’s death, sister tells UN poverty expert

John Pring - 8 November 2018

A UN expert has heard how a man with learning difficulties died a month after attempting to take his own life, following a move onto the government’s “chaotic” universal credit benefit system that left him hundreds of pounds in debt.

An account of the tragedy, written by the man’s sister, Maggie, is just one of scores of pieces of written evidence submitted to an inquiry being carried out by Professor Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

He began a 12-day factfinding visit to the UK this week as part of his investigation into the government’s record on eradicating poverty... See more

Minister says stopping benefit sanctions would do disabled people ‘a great disservice’

John Pring - 8 November 2018

A minister has suggested that the government would be doing a “great disservice” to disabled people if it stopped sanctioning their out-of-work benefits.

The comment by Alok Sharma, the employment minister, came in correspondence with the Commons work and pensions committee as part of its inquiry into the government’s “harmful and counterproductive” benefit sanctions regime.

The committee’s report, published this week, calls on the government to “urgently re-assess” the regime... See more

McVey’s universal credit refusal could see hundreds of thousands lose all income

John Pring - 8 November 2018

The failure of ministers to make a key change to the way the government will move existing benefit claimants onto universal credit could see hundreds of thousands of disabled people left without any income at all, campaigners fear.

Work and pensions secretary Esther McVey (pictured) this week published the government’s draft regulations on the migration of millions of claimants of benefits such as employment and support allowance (ESA) and jobseeker’s allowance onto the new benefit system.

According to government estimates, more than a third of those migrating will be sick and disabled people who currently receive ESA... See more

Exhibition chronicles six years of fighting back on austerity and discrimination

John Pring - 8 November 2018

A new exhibition is charting how artists have fought back against attacks on disabled people’s rights and financial support over the last six years.

Shape Arts’ retrospective, Cumulative Effect: Disability and the Welfare State, looks at how that work has reacted to both government policy on social security and the way society continues to discriminate against disabled people.

The retrospective re-examines key works from the last six years of Shape Open, an annual exhibition of work on a disability-centred theme which is run by the disability arts organisation Shape.... See more

Atos threatens to call police after claimant questions PIP assessor’s mental health training

John Pring - 1 November 2018

Staff working for a discredited benefit assessments contractor threatened to call the police after a claimant asked about the mental health qualifications of the nurse who was assessing his eligibility for personal independence payment (PIP). Atos has now launched an investigation into what happened at the assessment centre in Leeds, which saw the nurse abandon Kris Weston’s assessment after just a couple of minutes.

She did not realise that Weston, a composer and trained sound engineer, had been recording the assessment.

Weston began the assessment last month by telling the nurse that he had stayed up all night because of the extreme anxiety he experiences when he has to deal with institutions... See more

Welsh government’s independent living decision ‘threatens support of hundreds’

John Pring - 1 November 2018

The Welsh government’s decision to close its independent living grant scheme and pass the funding to local authorities could see cuts to the support packages of hundreds of disabled people, new research suggests.

Disabled campaigners say that information released by local authorities in Wales has created “extreme cause for concern” about the transition process, which is seeing funding from the interim Welsh Independent Living Grant (WILG) passed to the 22 councils.

WILG was set up by the Welsh government – with UK government funding – as a short-term measure to support former recipients of the Independent Living Fund (ILF) when ILF was closed in June 2015... See more

DWP refuses to say if it followed death review advice on ‘threatening’ universal credit

John Pring - 1 November 2018

Ministers are refusing to say if they acted on the recommendations of a secret review that linked the death of a benefit claimant with the “threatening” conditions they were forced to accept when signing up to universal credit.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has breached freedom of information laws by failing to say whether it followed the recommendation by one of its own internal process reviews to make universal credit’s so-called “claimant commitment” less threatening following the death.

DWP’s failure came as the chancellor, Philip Hammond, attempted in this week’s budget to calm concerns about the rollout of the troubled new system by announcing extra funding of £1 billion over five-and-a-half years that he said would help the migration of claimants of other benefits onto universal credit from next year.... See more

Budget 2018: Chancellor’s billions ‘will not halt universal credit humanitarian crisis’

John Pring - 1 November 2018

The chancellor’s decision to pump billions of pounds into universal credit will not halt the “humanitarian crisis” that will be caused by its systemic flaws, disabled activists have warned.

Philip Hammond announced in this week’s budget that he had found £1 billion – spread over five-and-a-half years – to ease the delayed “managed migration” process that will see about three million claimants of “legacy” benefits such as employment and support allowance (ESA) moved across to the new universal credit.

He also promised another £1.7 billion a year to pay for more generous work allowances for universal credit, which combines six income-related benefits into one.... See more

 

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