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DWP’s ‘misleading and unfair’ consultation on disability benefit reforms unlawful, High Court rules

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https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/dwp-disability-benefits-reforms-consultation-ruling/

A meeting of the child poverty taskforce. From left to right: Mayor of the North East Kim McGuinness, work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall and education secretary Bridget Phillippson. Image: Department for Education/ Flickr

Tory ministers presented reforms to disability benefits as a way to support disabled people into work – and they would have seen many worse off by at least £416.19 per month

The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) consultation into plans to slash billions of pounds from disability benefits has been ruled unlawful in a damning High Court judgement.

In a judgment published this morning (16 January), Mr Justice Calver said that the judicial review, brought by disability activist Ellen Clifford, had “surmounted the substantial hurdle of establishing that the consultation was so unfair as to be unlawful”.

Repeatedly describing the DWP consultation in autumn 2023 as “misleading”, “rushed” and “unfair”, he said:

• The consultation documents failed to highlight the “substantial” loss of benefits facing those affected by the proposals.

• The consultation gave the “misleading impression” that changes were required to ensure deaf and disabled people could access employment support, when they could already choose to access this voluntarily.

• Despite the consultation presenting the changes as being solely about helping disabled people into work, in reality “costs savings was at least one of the two bases, if not the central basis, on which decisions would be taken on which policies would be taken forward by the government”.

• The eight-week consultation was unlawfully short in the circumstances.

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Article continues at https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/dwp-disability-benefits-reforms-consultation-ruling/

Continue ReadingDWP’s ‘misleading and unfair’ consultation on disability benefit reforms unlawful, High Court rules

Home Office fails to rule out housing asylum-seekers in asbestos-filled former prison

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/home-office-fails-to-rule-out-housing-asylum-seekers-in-asbestos-filled-former-prison

A view of HMP Northeye in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, which the Home Office bought for £15 million

Government urged to put ‘clear distance between it and the cruel, wasteful camps policy held by the previous one’

THE HOME OFFICE failed to rule out housing asylum-seekers in an asbestos-filled former prison today after the government’s spending watchdog blasted the Tories for wasting £15 million on it.

Tory ministers Robert Jenrick and Oliver Dowden “cut corners” and made “poor decisions” when they paid for the Northeye site in East Sussex, a damning National Audit Office (NAO) report said.

The “rushed and misjudged” decision was made despite the “technical due diligence and approvals process not having been undertaken.”

Shadow justice secretary Mr Jenrick announced that Northeye would be developed to house 1,200 people a month after an environmental review had identified a contamination risk from “asbestos-containing materials in existing buildings and contaminated ground” in February 2023.

The diligence report also estimated the cost of repairs to buildings at the site to be £20m.

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Jeff Newnham, who leads the Save Northeye campaign against the development, told the Star that the asbestos-contamination risks were widely known following a fire at the former prison in the 1980s.

Labour said the report “raises serious questions about [new Tory leader] Kemi Badenoch’s judgement to appoint someone to her shadow cabinet who has no regard for public money.”

But the Home Office declined to rule-out housing asylum-seekers at the site themselves when asked by the Morning Star today.

The department has not finalised its plans for Northeye but insisted that it “will always act in the best interests of the taxpayer.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/home-office-fails-to-rule-out-housing-asylum-seekers-in-asbestos-filled-former-prison

Continue ReadingHome Office fails to rule out housing asylum-seekers in asbestos-filled former prison