Disabled activist in court to challenge benefit assessment reforms
DISABLED activist Ellen Clifford began her legal challenge against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) today over the government’s “disingenuous” consultation on tightening the Work Capability Assessment.
Ms Clifford, represented by lawyers from Public Law Project, appeared at the High Court in London for the first of a two-day hearing to argue that the consultation was unlawful as it did not properly explain the conditions of the proposed changes.
The challenge also argues that the primary motive behind the consultation, which ran for eight weeks in 2023, was to reduce spending on disability benefits rather than to get more people into work.
Disability rights campaigners affected by the proposed changes also held a vigil outside the Royal Courts of Justice today.
Ahead of the hearing, Ms Clifford said: “More than 400,000 people will be worse off by £416 a month if the changes proposed in this consultation go ahead.
“And then there is the risk that people will lose even more money if they are sanctioned for not being able to comply with conditions they will now need to fulfil in order to receive their benefits.
“To be blunt, this would be cataclysmic for deaf and disabled people in the UK and would push many into destitution.”
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Reeves orders 5% cuts across all government departments in ‘efficiency drive’
CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves has ordered 5 per cent cuts across government departments in an “efficiency drive” that resembles austerity.
Announcing the spending review, Ms Reeves said: “I have no doubt that we can find efficiency savings within government spending of 5 per cent and I’m determined to do so.”
She said the cuts would be secured by cracking down on waste and focusing on the five “milestone” policies Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer outlined in his government relaunch last week.
Those were boosting living standards, building more homes, cutting NHS waiting lists, ensuring children are ready for school and raising military spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product.
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The 5 per cent reductions are to be achieved over three years, the Treasury said, adding that the Chancellor will “work with departments to prioritise spending that supports the milestones to deliver the plan,” indicating that areas not a “milestone,” such as welfare, will be squeezed.
Ms Reeves denied that her move replicated a similar announcement by her predecessor George Osborne at the height of Tory austerity.
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said: “Labour call their 5 per cent cuts across government departments ‘efficiency savings.’ We call it what it is: cuts to services.
“This amounts to the continuation of the same damaging, unpopular and unnecessary policy that has so devastated our country over many years.”
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Read the complete, original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/reeves-orders-5-cuts-across-all-government-departments-in-efficiency-drive
Doctors tell Starmer to end Britain’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes
MORE than 800 child health professionals have demanded Sir Keir Starmer put an end to Britain’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes.
In an open letter, paediatricians, doctors and academics called on the Prime Minister to end all arms export licences to Israel and impose immediate sanctions until it complies with international law.
“We continue to hear first-hand accounts, from British healthcare professionals, of the war crimes being committed by the Israeli Defence Forces, and the catastrophic health crisis affecting both the physical and mental health of children and their families,” the letter reads.
“As British citizens, how can we live to tell the tale to our children and grandchildren that we just watched innocent lives being lost?”
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According to Oxfam, more women and children have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military over the past year than in any other conflict over the past two decades.
Israel’s bombing has targeted schools, hospitals and so-called “safe zones.”
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