Disability News Round Up By John Pring - Week Ending 3/02/2012

2/07/2012 11:08:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 1 Comments

• A disabled senior government adviser has admitted failing to tell civil servants about freelance work she carried out for an insurance giant that is set to make millions from the coalition’s incapacity benefit reforms.
• The disability movement looks set for a legal showdown with the government, after the coalition prepared to force its highly controversial welfare reform bill into law.
• The government has sparked fury among disabled people’s organisations and activists after taking advantage of a rarely-used parliamentary procedure to force through some of the most unpopular parts of its welfare reform bill.
• The company paid £100 million a year to test disabled people’s “fitness for work” has refused to continue cooperating with an “effective” new way of improving how decisions are reached, MPs have heard.
• An MP has called for new laws to protect the dignity of disabled people forced to undergo intrusive security checks at airports.
• A revolutionary new table could save the lives of wheelchair-users involved in train crashes.
• The rail industry still has more to do to improve access, despite increasing numbers of disabled people using railcards, according to a leading expert.
• Disabled activists who took part in a major protest over the welfare reform bill have warned the government they are planning further high-profile direct action.
• Disabled activists have explained why they took part in a major direct action protest that brought large parts of London’s West End to a standstill at the weekend.
• A leading MP has criticised the General Medical Council after a GP whose negligence allowed disabled people to be raped and neglected at two residential homes removed himself from the doctors’ register.