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Category - #spartacusreport

  • 14 Jan 2013
    Disabled people challenge government on draconian benefit changes

    Disabled people have today published 'Emergency Stop', a new report analysing the economic and social impact of the Personal Independence Payment regulations.

  • 14 Jan 2013
    How disabled people will lose Motability vehicles under new government rules

    In January last year (2012) I predicted that thousands of disabled people would lose their Motability vehicles under the Government’s draft criteria for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), set to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) under the Welfare Reform Act. When the Government published the final version of the criteria recently, it turned out that the reality is far, far worse than we could have imagined. That is one of the harsh realities of the We Are Spartacus 'Emergency - Stop' report and campaign launched today.

  • 27 Dec 2012
    A serious threat to the mobility of disabled and sick people

    Many thousands of disabled people with serious musculo-skeletal conditions, serious heart conditions or respiratory difficulties, cerebral palsy, neurological conditions such as MS and ME and many more will no longer benefit from the Motability vehicle scheme under new government proposals, writes Jane Young. Their car will simply be taken away before they have a chance to appeal. In this article she explains what is happening under proposals for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and how concerned individuals and organisations can respond.

  • 3 Dec 2012
    International Day of Persons with Disabilities, 3 December

    Today (3 December) is the 20th International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The main theme of IDPD 2012 is “Removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all”.

  • 19 Nov 2012
    Social media 'shout out' for unfair disability tests campaign

    Today (19 November 2012) at 12.30pm the latest phase of a big online campaign to raise awareness about the injustices wrought by the flawed Work Capability Assessment (WCA), which is being used to block vitally needed benefits for many sick and disabled people, becomes visible.

  • 18 Nov 2012
    Workhouse, welfare and WCA: Dickens’ day and now

    After a walk through “the little world of poverty enclosed within the workhouse walls”, Charles Dickens concluded that “We have come to this absurd, this dangerous, this monstrous pass, that the dishonest felon is, in respect of cleanliness, order, diet, and accommodation, better provided for, and taken care of, than the honest pauper.”

  • 16 Nov 2012
    Celebrities join activists to back action on disability work tests

    Actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry and political activist and media personality Sally Bercow are backing a major social media disability campaign.

  • 14 Nov 2012
    Official policy on disability work tests is to deny reality

    The former UK minister for employment Chris Grayling was adamant that he was "unreservedly and implacably opposed to a real world test" when it comes to assessing people with disabilities and serious illnesses in terms of their fitness for work and eligibility for benefits. That position remains unchanged.

  • 13 Nov 2012
    How many more seriously ill people must suffer before the government acts?

    Since the Work Capability Assessment fit-for-work test (which in large part determines eligibility for Employment and Support Allowance) was introduced in October 2008, more than 400,000 people with serious illnesses and profound disabilities have appealed against the decision to strip them of state support.

  • 12 Nov 2012
    People's Review of the Work Capability Assessment (#realWCA) published

    As we report elsewhere today (12 November 2012), the WeAreSpartacus network of disabled people have today published a detailed and compelling 70-page People's Review of the Work Capability Assessment, which has taken some months of hard work under difficult circumstances to research and compile.