John Pring's Disability News Round Up -

• The government has made “significant changes” to the criteria it will use to assess disabled people’s eligibility for the new personal independence payment (PIP), but early analysis of the alterations suggests key concerns remain.
• Hundreds of thousands of disabled people who claim disability living allowance (DLA) will not have to be reassessed for at least two years, after the coalition announced a major retreat on its reform timetable.
• The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is set to break its promise to publish thousands of public responses to its controversial disability living allowance (DLA) consultation by the end of this year.
• Leading members of the self-advocacy movement have given a guarded response to the government’s report into the Winterbourne View abuse scandal.
• The government has pledged to move hundreds of people with learning difficulties out of hospitals and into new homes in the community, in the wake of the Winterbourne View abuse scandal.
• The equality watchdog has provided new fuel for its critics after announcing plans to work with the Poundland retail chain on its disability policies, before withdrawing the announcement and refusing to comment on the story.
• A new network of disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) is to draw up a manifesto and plan a week of campaigning action across the UK in a bid to “sharpen the struggle” against the coalition’s attacks on disability rights.
• The government must back Lord Justice Leveson’s call for disabled people’s organisations to be allowed to lodge complaints with the press regulator about misleading and disablist newspaper coverage, say campaigners.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com