John Pring's Disability News Round Up - 09/11/2012

11/13/2012 09:16:00 am BenefitScroungingScum 0 Comments

• A judge has been criticised for his “appalling” failure to treat the “degrading, cruel and inhuman” abuse of people with learning difficulties at a hospital as a disability hate crime.
• Labour will this week ask MPs – and the National Audit Office – to investigate allegations that Atos, the government’s “fitness for work” contractor, used misleading claims to win two lucrative disability assessment contracts.
• Senior figures in Nepal’s Paralympic movement have denied “detestable” claims about the death of a disabled member of their delegation to London 2012.
• A Paralympian who won three gold medals at London 2012 has called for action after a new survey revealed “shocking” access failures in city centre car parks across England, Wales and Scotland.
• The decision not to reappoint the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s only disabled commissioner has raised fresh concerns over the government’s plans for the watchdog.
• The author of a major report for the government on employment support has told a minister of her “serious concerns” about the rapid fall in the number of disabled people funded by the Access to Work scheme.
• A disabled man has this week staged a public hunger strike in protest at the failings of the government’s “fitness for work” contractor Atos Healthcare.
• Four disabled models will be taking to the catwalk this week in a bid to persuade some of the country’s top women’s magazines that they should be featuring on their front covers.
• New government figures appear to show that “improvements” to the controversial “fitness for work” test are having limited impact on how many disabled people are able to hold on to their out-of-work disability benefits.
• A leading figure in the self-advocacy movement has called for a national user-led organisation that would represent people with learning difficulties right across England for the first time.
• Organisers hope that a month-long disability arts, culture and human rights festival could become an annual fixture and help turn a London borough into a centre of excellence.