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Equality Watchdog inquiry into violations
This government need putting out to pasture.
The equality watchdog is to commission a major piece of research into whether the government’s welfare reforms have harmed the human rights of disabled people and other minority groups.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) says it wants to examine the impact of changes to the welfare system on independent living and poverty.
Its decision appears to mirror the decision of the UN’s committee on the rights of persons with disabilities to carry out an unprecedented inquiry into “systematic and grave violations” of disabled people’s human rights by the UK government, which is examining the impact of a series of welfare reforms and social care cuts carried out since 2010.
The EHRC announcement was included in the watchdog’s new business plan for 2016-17, which was published on Monday (4 April) without any publicity.
The business plan says: “Everyone has a right to an adequate standard of living, including a minimum entitlement to food, clothing and housing.”
It adds: “It is not clear whether the government’s reforms to tax, welfare and public spending have taken into account the cumulative impact of these changes on the standard of living of disabled people and other groups who may have been disproportionately affected.”
EHRC says it will focus its work in this area in 2016-17 on commissioning an assessment to “determine how changes to the welfare system have affected equality of opportunity and the human rights of people who share certain protected characteristics”.
It adds: “This will enable us to identify whether the system effectively supports all groups into work and where improvements are needed to address unintended consequences.”
Five months ago, Iain Duncan Smith, who resigned last month as work and pensions secretary, dismissed an EHRC offer to help MPs and peers understand the true impact on disabled people and other groups of his welfare reform and work bill, which has since been passed by parliament.
Letters between EHRC and Duncan Smith were published on the commission’s website, following a freedom of information request, and showed that he snubbed an offer from the watchdog to “work more closely” on the equality impact assessments the Department for Work and Pensions published alongside the bill.
In a briefing on its website published last year, EHRC said it was concerned that parts of the bill “could exacerbate, rather than reduce, existing inequalities”.
And it suggested then that measures such as reducing the benefit cap, freezing many benefit rates, and the cut of nearly £30-a-week from April 2017 for new claimants placed in the work-related activity group of employment and support allowance could breach the government’s international human rights obligations, including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Other areas EHRC plans to focus on this year for the first time include the launch of a new inquiry examining the provision and choice of housing for disabled people and its impact on independent living.
It also plans to review progress made by public bodies on implementing the recommendations of its 2011 disability hate crime inquiry, Hidden In Plain Sight, which concluded that they were guilty of a “systematic, institutional failure” to recognise disability-related harassment.
Other work will include a major new project that aims to address the discrimination faced by some groups – including disabled people – in accessing health and social care, and it will develop a strategy for tackling gender, disability and race pay gaps.
EHRC will also begin another major new piece of work, aimed at addressing the discrimination faced in schools by disadvantaged groups – including disabled pupils – who face lower educational attainment, identity-based bullying and harassment, and higher rates of exclusion.
Lord [Chris] Holmes (pictured), EHRC’s disability commissioner, said: “Our new business plan for 2016-17 puts a strengthened focus on improving disabled people’s lives so that they can participate fully in society.
“In the coming year, we will be starting a number of projects that will focus on removing barriers disabled people face in their day to day life.
“These include delivering improvements in relation to equality of access to health services; availability of appropriate services and dignity in care; and improving access to education and lower attainment among children with special educational needs and additional support needs.
“We will also be commissioning research to assess the impact of changes to the welfare system such as the changes to funding for independent living which have implications for disabled people’s standard of living.
“Our business plan and forthcoming strategic plan address many of the issues highlighted in the recently published House of Lords report on [the impact of the Equality Act 2010 on disabled people].
“In addition to this, we will be publishing an analysis of the main challenges facing disabled people across the country at the end of this year and our disability committee has set a number of key priorities to make a difference to disabled people’s lives.”
The watchdog’s core budget for 2016-17 has been frozen at £17.1 million, a real terms cut, although there is additional “discretionary” funding of £5.1 million available for other projects, if approved by the minister for women and equalities, Nicky Morgan.
Reply To: Equality Watchdog inquiry into violationsIt’s very welcome but, I won’t be holding my breath that it will have any influence over this government.
There’s a program on Channel 4 on Monday evening at 20.00 by the way regarding PIP called ‘The Great Benefits Row’.
Right, I’m off to Panama to count me money I stashed away. Got a great tip from this bloke called ‘Dave’ who said all his family stash their dosh there.
Reply To: Equality Watchdog inquiry into violationsWell, that program last night was an eye opener http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/channel-4-dispatches-benefits-row-pips_uk_570c9b0fe4b0ae22c1e0397f. This poor woman who had an existing condition that was exacerbated by then falling & hitting her head, she had to reapply for PIP, updating them on her worsening situation & instead of getting more support they took it away!
What chance do the likes of us have with chronic, progressive conditions?
That bloke sat there bragging about the money he makes & filling in reports before he even gets to meet a client was unfortunately no surprise. There will always be that sort of person. The shocking part for me was the fact it bragged in front of his manager & then she was seen to be taking down notices that stated people have a right to record the assessments as “we’ve had an influx of requests to do so”.
Very, very concerned.
Will anything happen about it? Nah, don’t be daft. At the end the DWP & Capita both issued statements blaming the other & then the DWP claiming they have robust procedures in place to prevent the sort of thing we saw in the program despite us being witness to the exact behaviour we’re supposedly shielded from!
All in it together, eh Dodgy Dave… my a***!
Reply To: Equality Watchdog inquiry into violationsWhich ever idiot, I mean leader is in charge, none of them will ever take responsibility for the actions of their department … it os the culture, never admit blame and never apologise.
Whilst there are those who are fooling the system, hamming it up, it is at the cost of the genuine. We are paying the price. I am dreading the impending assessment to PIP – I know I will feel personally violated and humiliated by the procedure.
I'm always the animal, my body's the cage
I blog about nothingness www.amgroves.com
Reply To: Equality Watchdog inquiry into violationsI’ve been thinking about that AMG, the whole philosophy behind the welfare reform mantra was supposedly to reduce the amount of people ‘languishing’ so called on disability benefits that were written off & forgotten about on lifetime awards & never revisited. The nasty party told us that some disabled are more deserving than others & they wanted to help people that wanted to work back into work & support those that genuinely need it. The tories manipulated a powerful & uncaring media & brainwashed the general public into believing their taxes are being dished out in handouts to idle scroungers & malingerers.
That was what they claimed & how they set their stall out.
Some six years later the figures of sick & disabled still claiming sickness benefits has not rescinded, in fact the numbers applying for PIP has risen compared to DLA, it is not reaping the savings anticipated & appeals are successful at a rate of 57% or 62% depending on your source.
From another source “Personal independence payment (PIP) has turned out to be yet another failure for the DWP, as promised cuts of 20% have been reduced to a forecast 5%. The failure to cut costs mirrors the transfer from incapacity benefit (IB) to employment and support allowance (ESA), which also did not produce the promised savings.”
The tories are callous & incompetent & believe themselves an elite not responsible for this countries finances despite them being worse now than when they took over.
The reality is the shirkers that they thought were languishing on sickness benefits have turned out to be mostly genuine.
And don’t get me even started on the Universal Credit debacle. It too is turning out to be an even bigger unmitigated disaster than PIP. £1.7 billion to implement so far & it will still be years before we’re all on it. Expect the cost of this to the tax payer to be on-going. The idea is to give the recipient more responsibility & hand over housing benefit to the claimant to pay their social landlord themselves. What a colossal mistake. I don’t want that responsibility & will do my utmost to persuade them to take me out of the loop.
The trouble is with dodgy Dave he’s far too entitled & narcissistic to ever take the fall & resign himself. He will have to be pushed. Even today he’s been championing British offshore tax havens stating “it would be unfair to criticise UK controlled tax havens” & justifying the amount of people he has employed in the DWP attempting to discredit claimants (3,765) outnumbering the people employed at HMRC chasing tax avoidance (300).
And quite right to. As Alan Duncan said, if the rich have to pay their taxes like the working class “We risk having a House of Commons stuffed full of low achievers who hate enterprise, hate people who look after their own families and know absolutely nothing about the outside world” cos the riff raff don’t know how to look after their families
.Do you know what the issue I have with both of these comments is, my observation is at their core they have the same problem: we have a house of commons stuffed with pompous, silver spooned, self-serving cronys whom are so far removed from the daily grind of the average Briton & yet they’re ruling on our lives & I’m assuming, for the most part, the DWP is full of able bodied people overseeing the welfare of the less abled, judging whether they’re disabled enough or not to deserve social security essential to their existence.
The disabled aren’t represented within the DWP & the working class are not represented in parliament. That’s my simplistic overview of the problems as I see it.
Maybe I should run for prime minister, I’ve threatened it before. We’ve got dodgy Dave, wobbly Woogy anyone?
PS I think I’ve blown my own advice of being prudent & keeping a low profile, not running down the establishment. Oh well
Reply To: Equality Watchdog inquiry into violations I’d vote for Wobbly Woogy, don’t trust Dodgy Dave, Creepy Corbyn, Unfathomable Farron, Barmy Bennett or Fanatical FerrageI'm always the animal, my body's the cage
I blog about nothingness www.amgroves.com
Reply To: Equality Watchdog inquiry into violationsWhy
AMG, one vote counted… 29 million to go 
.I find that is the next big problem. I had no faith in Milliband as he was just such a wet blanket & Corbyn says the right things sometimes but, I don’t feel he can be trusted with the country as a whole. That leaves us with no real opposition to the shower in charge, exactly as before the last election. As a result, I predict a low turn out for the next election as people don’t really have a choice & apathy will kick in. I’m certain of it.
I’m keen to hear what people think of the EU referendum by the way & thought about starting a thread on it on it’s own?
I don’t want to set people against each other but, keen to hear thoughts because apparently, yet again, the disabled could be one of the minority groups that will suffer disproportionately more without the protection of the EU. Some people are not aware of that.
I’ll start a thread on it’s own rather than hijack this one or someone else can please feel free to do so & I’ll comment.
Reply To: Equality Watchdog inquiry into violationsSo, no chance of it going to be a transparent or unbiased enquiry then
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