DAA News Network
UK: Daily Mail and misleading articles on disability benefits
Posted 20/04-11 at 12.16
In February, the Daily Mail, one of the UK's tabloid newspapers, quoting unnamed ‘government sources', claimed that Half the 3.2million people on disability benefit have never been asked for evidence to back their claims, it emerged l ...
UK: “The welfare reform bill …will punish disabled people.”
Posted 10/03-11 at 17.26
In an open letter to the Coalition Government, MPs, professors and disability activists claim that disabled people will be unfairly treated with respect to benefits unless the "anti-disability" provisions are removed from the Welfare Reform Bill. ...
UK: Disability test comes under fire from claimants
Posted 10/03-11 at 15.19
At a public meeting in Burnley, Lancashire, MPs on the Pensions Select Committee heard from people who took part in a pilot of the new Work Capability Assessment (WCA). This is used to determine whether a person can work or if their impairments or il ...
UK: Government advisors question changes to Disability Living Allowance
Posted 27/02-11 at 17.14
The Social Security Advisory Committee is asking why Disability Living Allowance (DLA), paid to almost 3 million people to help cover extra of being disabled, is being replaced. $621 million will be provided over the next five years to expand the ...
UK: Benefits test 'is a complete mess', says expert
Posted 27/02-11 at 04.50
Professor Paul Gregg, an expert on welfare reform and one of those who devised the new benefits system, has warned that it would be wrong to roll out the new work capability assessment (WCA) nationally. He said, "The test is badly malfunct ...
UK: Minister for Disabled People on benefit reform
Posted 22/02-11 at 18.20
Interviewed in the Guardian, Maria Miller, Minister for Disabled People, claims that, 'The clear objective of the government is helping disabled people to live more independent lives'. She says the current system needs to be overhauled because it ...
UK: Cuts puts pressure on parents of disabled children
Posted 23/01-11 at 16.20
Riven Vincent has asked her local authority to take Celyn, her six-year-old disabled daughter, into care because she was not receiving enough respite support. This was particularly embarrassing for David Cameron, the Prime Minister, as during the ...
UK: Ending DLA benefit for those in residential homes will be devastating
Posted 19/01-11 at 18.42
The mobility component of disability living allowance (DLA) is paid to about 80,000 care home residents. This money allows people to visit friends and family, as well as take part in leisure pursuits or education. The government is proposing to r ...
Ireland: Direct payments best choice for disabled people
Posted 17/01-11 at 12.42
Giving disabled people the money to buy their own care (direct payments) would be cheaper and more effective than giving money to charities according to a report commissioned by the Irish government. The state pays about €1.5 billion for ...
UK: Half a million wrongly denied disability benefits
Posted 07/01-11 at 16.45
Using official statistics, a survey has found that over the last 15 years up to 500,000 people were wrongly refused incapacity benefit. The government will shortly receive the results of two pilot studies of its new, and widely criticised, ...
UK: Independent Living Fund to be scrapped
Posted 16/12-10 at 01.04
The Independent Living Fund (ILF), that tops up local authority money allowing more than 21,000 disabled people with high support needs to live independently, was closed to new applicants in June, 2010. The government has just announced that the I ...
UK: Reformed DLA to be based on harsh eligibility criteria
Posted 10/12-10 at 23.32
The government has issued a consultation together with a Green Paper detailing its plans for scrapping Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and replacing it with a more restrictive benefit, Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Like the cur ...
UK: Review of benefits test finds major flaws
Posted 30/11-10 at 21.47
An independent review, chaired by Professor Malcolm Harrington, an occupational health specialist, has found the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), the test that decides whether someone will receive Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) or Employment and Support ...
International/UK: OECD calls for reform to sickness and disability benefit systems
Posted 29/11-10 at 23.28
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has issued a report calling for governments to reform their sickness and disability benefits regimes so as to help people get back to work and reduce the burden on public finances ...