Disability News Round Up By John Pring - Week Ending 12/10/2012

10/16/2012 08:17:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 0 Comments

• A disabled activist set to fight next month’s by-election in Corby has become the first candidate to be backed by a new political movement that wants to see non-career politicians elected to parliament.
• The chancellor has sparked an angry reaction after pledging to make another £10 billion worth of benefit cuts in the first year after the next general election.
• Local authorities have admitted that government plans to close the Independent Living Fund in 2015 will probably see a cut to the support received by most of its users, with some forced to rely on relatives or charities.
• David Cameron has been heavily criticised for appearing to use his disabled son and father in his main party conference speech in a bid to justify cuts to disability benefits.
• The new minister for disabled people has laid out three ways in which she hopes to support more disabled people into employment, less than a month into her new job.
• The new health secretary has suggested there could be further delays to reform of the funding of long-term care and support.
• A disability charity has supported and sponsored a trio of disabled activists to take their campaigning work to the three main party conferences.
• A disabled woman sacked by a council from her temporary post after taking time off with depression has won an employment tribunal case – after a three-year legal battle – that should help other agency workers fight discrimination.
• A disabled Conservative parliamentary candidate has admitted that comments by George Osborne in a speech to his party conference risked causing “collateral damage” to disabled benefits claimants.