John Pring's Disability News Round Up - 20/07/2012

7/26/2012 10:03:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 0 Comments

• Disabled people’s independence could be jeopardised by the government’s planned cuts to disability benefits, according to a leading Paralympian.
• Disabled people are set to play a prominent and public part in both the London 2012 Olympics and the Paralympics, after organisers revealed that they would make up five per cent of the huge volunteer workforce.
• One of the pioneers of the independent living movement has warned the government that its decision to shut the Independent Living Fund in 2015 could force thousands of disabled people out of their homes and into residential care.
• The minister for care services has admitted “mis-speaking” after he appeared unaware that a fellow minister had already published the long-awaited consultation paper on the future of the Independent Living Fund.
• The Department for Education has rejected a key recommendation of the equality watchdog’s disability hate crime inquiry, which could have undermined the government’s anti-inclusion stance on the education of disabled children.
• The government is seeking to delay major parts of a new European regulation that would have given powerful rights to disabled bus and coach passengers.
• The death of a young woman who killed herself after being found “fit for work” is the latest proof of the catastrophic consequences of the government’s cuts to disability benefits and services, say campaigners.
• Disabled activists have held a “paupers’ picnic” in the lobby of the Houses of Parliament, to draw MPs’ attention to cuts they say are leaving many disabled people without enough money to feed themselves properly.
• The success of London 2012 will be judged on whether London’s transport system allows disabled people to travel easily to watch the events, according to one of Britain’s top Paralympic powerlifters.