DWP has acknowledged that one of the key statistics it has used to justify radical change to disability benefits ‘gives a distorted picture’, six months after Left Foot Forward pointed it out.
Drawing on ongoing analysis of benefit receipt due to be published this autumn, we can confront David Cameron’s ignorant narrative with some real-world evidence.
Sue Marsh reports on the welfare reform bill – in particular the changes to Employment Support Allowance, ESA.
Councillor Neil Coyle, director of policy for the Disability Alliance, reports on the government’s refusal to act on public concerns over disability allowance reforms.
The prime minister and the leader of the opposition have debated whether a cut to a vital support for some of the most vulnerable in our society was indeed, a cut. Ed Miliband asked whether the coalition would consider reversing the decision to axe the Disability Living Allowance Mobility Payments for 83,000 claimants of the benefit living in care homes – as detailed in Part 4, clause 83 of the welfare reform bill.
More than 100 politicians, professors and campaigners have written to Minister for Disabled People Maria Miller calling for Disability Living Allowance reform and other “anti-disability” provisions to be removed from the Welfare Reform Bill.
Charities have urged a rethink On DLA mobility allowance cuts which would affect 80,000 disabled people, writes Sarah Ismail.
Why was new research from the Department for Work and Pensions, which downgraded estimates for the growth in Disability Living Allowance, a major reason given for welfare reform, delayed until after the welfare bill passed the Commons?
Readers questioned the relevance of the story given the broader context of fraud in the UK.
For many right-wing politicians and their media allies, ‘welfare cheats’ is a line that bears endless repetition.
