Tag Archives: disability
Disability tests ‘sending sick and disabled back to work’
People deemed too sick or disabled to work are being refused their benefits because the current assessment is inadequate, according to the expert appointed to review it.
By Andrew Hough
12:00AM BST 30 Jul 2012
Prof Malcolm Harrington, the government appointed adviser on testing welfare claimants, admitted the work fitness test was “patchy”.
He said that as a result of the flaws in the 13 week assessment, which tests physical fitness as well as mental skills, some claimants who were genuinely unable to work, have suffered.
He made the comments during an investigation into the system, introduced by the last Labour government, by the BBC’s Panorama programme.
“There are certainly areas where it’s still not working and I am sorry there are people going through a system which I think still needs improvement,” he said.
The programme, which airs on Monday night, features the story of one man who suffered from heart failure and died 39 days after being declared fit for work.
Disability is multi-dimensional, so a joined-up response is needed
Disabled people and their carers are looking for allies in their struggle for survival and quality of life
With many hundreds of delegates from all over the planet, the Joint World Conference on Social Work and Social Development is a wonderful forum for raising one of the most important human rights issues of our time: disability. When I first started participating in the disability movement more than 20 years ago, jokes about social workers were popular in British activist circles. Few of them could be repeated here. Social work has changed since then, but I suspect there still remains some of that underlying anger of people with disabilities against the professionals whom they perceive to be unresponsive and controlling.
The UK is one of 117 nations to have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. A further 36 have signed it. Most of the articles of this human rights and development treaty have some relevance to social work: the right to live independently and be included in the community; freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse; respect for home and family; adequate standards of living and social protection. But even more importantly, the whole convention reflects the principles of equality, diversity, non-discrimination and respect which should be at the heart of social work practice.
Convicted carer locks disabled man in back of van so he can go to the toilet
Jul 22 2012 By Norman Silvester, Sunday Mail
A SERIOUSLY disabled man was left trapped and helpless in the back of a locked van by his carer and had to be rescued by two passing policemen.
William Yates’s shocked family later learned that cruel John Hart had landed the job despite two convictions for assault.
Hart, 29, pushed terrified William into the footwell of the van, then pulled the front passenger seat over his head.
It meant 58-year-old William was unable to escape or open the vehicle from inside.
