John Pring's Disability News Round Up - Week Ending 8th June 2012

6/16/2012 10:17:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 0 Comments

• A coalition minister ordered civil servants to prevent two disability charities from attending meetings on how to improve personal independence payment, the government’s new disability benefit.
• A disability charity boss has resisted calls to resign from a committee that advises the government on its controversial “fitness for work” assessment, even though GPs have demanded that the test be scrapped.
• European Union leaders who have removed a vital measure promoting transport accessibility from new guidelines could be breaching the UN disability convention, say campaigners.
• Campaigners are seeking disabled people who can explain how the government’s new “universal credit” benefit reforms could see other people like them losing out financially.
• The decision of London’s mayor to invest nothing in improving step-free access to the capital’s tube network for the next three years has been described as an “insult” to disabled and older people.
• The government has admitted it is discussing with GPs how to introduce a way for them to report cases in which the controversial “fitness for work” test has caused serious harm to their patients.