Report reveals families raising disabled children are struggling to survive
A new report by the Family Fund shows that UK families raising disabled, or seriously ill, children and young people are struggling to survive, due to the scale of the cost-of-living crisis. Read the full poverty story on our website.
Disability Hate Crime rises but only 1% see prosecutions
New stats from the Home Office reveal that disability hate crime has more than doubled in the last four years, yet research by charities highlight that the majority of reports go nowhere. Read the full disability hate crime story on our website.
Clear majority agree that benefits must be uprated by inflation, finds JRF polling
Polling by YouGov for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has found that 61% of the public agreed that benefits should go up in line with inflation, including half (49%) of 2019 Conservative voters. Read the full JRF polling report story on our website.
DR UK responds to Electoral Commission Consultation
The Electoral Commission have recently carried out a consultation on the guidance they produce surrounding the accessibility of elections and the responsibilities of Returning Officers. Disability Rights UK’s full response can be found on our website, including an accessible word document version. Read the full elections story and consultation response on our website.
BBC Panorama exposes alleged abuse of patients
A new BBC Panorama undercover investigation has found evidence that a secure NHS psychiatric hospital in Greater Manchester has been failing in its duty of care for patients. Read the full BBC Panorama story, including comments from Mind, on our website.
Cross Party MPs call for public inquiry into benefit related deaths
The Liberal Democrats, SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party have backed the calls of bereaved families, Rethink Mental Illness, Mind, Child Poverty Action Group, and DR UK and other organisations for an urgent public inquiry into deaths and serious harm linked to failings of the benefits system. Read the full public inquiry story on our website.
Government must raise sick pay rate to living wage, urges disability charities and trade unions coalition
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has been asked “to create a sick pay system that is better for workers, employers and Britain’s public health.”
In a joint open letter, dozens of disability charities and trade unions urge a major overhaul of statutory sick pay with its pay rate being raised to the living wage and scrap loopholes that penalise low-paid workers. Read the full sick pay story on our website.
Campaigner fights for accessible rail stations
Nathaniel Yates from Greater Manchester has made it his mission to highlight the inaccessibility of many of the old stations in and around Manchester, Liverpool and beyond, which were built in Victorian times. Many stations are difficult to access. This is particularly true of the many unmanned stations in the Northwest. Up to 70% of stations in the ‘Northern’ franchise area are unmanned. Read the full rail story on our website.
One-in-seven workers in Britain have a disability
The Resolution Foundation has found that in the past decade there has been a 2.3 million rise in working age Disabled people. This means that the proportion of the workforce with a disability has grown by 50% since 2013, with now around one-in-seven employees having a disability. Read the full Resolution Foundation research story on our website.
