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SubscriptionsCategory: Disability
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‘Disability, Illness and Impairment are the Norms of Human History – Living Through This Labour Government’s Benefits Cuts Is Brutal’
Cutting disability benefits will do nothing but heighten the scapegoating of disabled people once again – how can a Labour Government introduce such a punitive measure? Penny Pepper asks
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‘No-One Voted for These Cruel Cuts – We Need a Wealth Tax Instead’
Keir Starmer must change course from this performative cruelty towards the sick and disabled, argues Neal Lawson
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‘Letters To My Younger Selves – And the Quiet Women Who Made Me Who I Am’
The voyage of my life could never be described as ‘easy’, writes Penny Pepper, but it has been built around friendships that brought illumination in the toughest of times
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‘If Labour Is Serious About Overhauling Disability Benefits It Must Stop Letting Employees Work People Into Sickness’
Labour has announced plans to make the same amount of welfare cuts proposed by the Conservative Government, writes Kasmira Kincaid and Charles Aprile
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‘Government Narratives About ‘Disabled Scroungers’ Give Trolls Permission to Viciously Attack Us Online’
The notion that disabled people are scroungers and benefit cheats is almost permission to further abuse against them, Penny Pepper writes
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‘More Empty Promises on Health and Social Care Let Disabled People Down Again’
Do I really need to keep saying that this is where the personal is the political? writes Penny Pepper
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If the Government Wants to ‘Get Britain Working’, Why Is It Ignoring All the Learning Disabled People Who Want to Find Jobs?
Less than 5% of people with learning disabilities are employed, while 86% want to be. The Government must think about which Brits it values as being worthy of work
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The Government has a Way of Tackling Entrenched Health Inequalities Ready To Go – Will It Implement It?
An evidence-led, long-called for, but under-used programme of checks for people with a learning disability has the potential to help ease health inequalities more widely, Saba Salman reports
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Indifference for the Disabled: A Traumatising Night Affecting My Every Day
In her monthly column, Penny Pepper describes the aftermath of a terrifying break-in, which she fears may have been a disability hate crime
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‘Unsurprising Seasonal Anxieties for the Disabled and Elderly’
In her monthly column, Penny Pepper wonders what new threats disabled and elderly people will face as the season turns
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‘The Paralympics not Being Broadcast on the BBC Shows the Underlying Societal Bias Against People With Disabilities’
Examining the ‘lazy framing’ around disability in sport where the focus is often on ‘the accident, the drama, the blood, the pain’ and not the competition
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‘The Tories Are Out But We’re Still Fighting for Our Disabled Community’s Rights’
Disabled people may have been cheering the end of Tory rule – but their trust has not been won by Labour, writes Penny Pepper
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Disability Pride Month: Would You Dare Ask Any Other Marginalised Group What That Is?
Every change that improves the lives of disabled people has been predominantly led by disabled people themselves, whose stories are overlooked or misappropriated, writes Penny Pepper
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Barriers to the Ballot: How Voter ID Marginalises Disabled People Who Feel It’s ‘Another Way Their Voice is Suppressed’
‘They have voted at every opportunity and have actively sought out and studied the various political parties, claims and policies. Once voter ID came to this country, they found the ID process a challenge’
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‘Disabled People Must Have the Capacity and Freedom to Vote’
There are 14 million disabled people in the UK – are politicians even considering them in this election campaign?
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The Plan is Working: Rishi Sunak Races Up the Rich List as Homelessness Soars
The Prime Minister and his wife’s personal wealth rose to £651 million amid the biggest fall in living standards for British people since records began
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‘Assisted Suicide: Always Personal and Always Political’
For Penny Pepper, debates about changing the law on assisted suicide are a way in for a dangerous, niggling, idea of how we should value disabled people’s lives
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‘People with Learning Disabilities Can Be Overprotected’: A New Film Talking About Death
Saba Salman reports on a significant project that involves people with learning disabilities addressing the issues directly and shaping the narrative
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Conservatives Branded ‘Nasty Party’ as Voters Reject Plan to Target Sick and Disabled
Government plans to target welfare payments to the long-term sick and disabled are deeply unpopular, an exclusive new poll suggests
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‘With his Poll Ratings Sinking, Sunak Goes For One More Attempt at Scapegoating the Vulnerable: The “Skivers” Revisited’
The Prime Minister’s announcements on sickness and disability benefits were not just another assault on an already punitive welfare system – they were nuclear-level gaslighting, writes Mary O’Hara
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Special Report: Our Society’s ‘Non-Human’ Population – A National Scandal Ignored
Hardeep Matharu, Editor of Byline Times, explains why the May 2024 print edition focuses on the denial of human rights and basic care to people with learning disabilities
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United Nations Summons UK Government Over Breaches of UN Convention on Disabled People’s Rights
Sunak’s Government has been called to face a UN committee over the shocking conditions faced by some disabled people after years of austerity
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The Frida Effect: In Praise of Disabled Women
On International Women’s Day, Penny Pepper celebrates how other disabled women came to be her pillars of strength, wisdom and joy
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Private Equity in Public Services: The Case of Special Educational Needs Schools
Private equity companies – many with connections to the Conservative Party – have been buying up large swathes of the public sector, including care homes, schools and GP surgeries. Special schools appear to be the latest hot property
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London Council Breaches Human Rights Law After Subjecting Asylum Seeker to Degrading Treatment
The High Court ruled against Croydon Council in relation to its treatment of a disabled asylum seeker.
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‘Fighting the Five Giants: It’s Time to Renew Our Social Contract’
Every one of us will experience illness, damage, impairment, disability and, inevitably, old age, writes Penny Pepper
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The Awesome Rise of AI… You Must be Choking
In her monthly column, Penny Pepper explores her love-hate relationship with artificial intelligence
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The Politics of Disability: A Forgotten Minister for Forgotten People
The real danger is that disability is regarded as a niche issue which only affects a small group who can easily be ignored, writes Stephen Unwin
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When Lost Humanity Breaks Down Healthcare
Penny Pepper reflects on the concerning and uplifting behaviours she witnessed during her four-week stay in hospital this summer
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Avoidable Deaths of People with Learning Disabilities: The Statistics that Shame Our Civilised Society
A new report reviewed the deaths of 3,648 people with a learning disability – almost half died an avoidable death
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‘Nearly All Leading Voices in Learning Disability Advocacy Are White – This Must Change’
When the narrative is dominated by people who look different and don’t share ethnic minority experiences, the system will continue to fail, writes Ramandeep Kaur
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‘My Emergency Stay in an NHS Intensive Care Unit was a Catastrophic Awakening’
In the first part of a series detailing her journey after several sudden brain haemorrhages and seizures this summer, Penny Pepper reflects on what has changed – for good and for worse – in our NHS
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‘Left in the Lurch’: The Systemic Failure and Under-Funding of Respite Care
Government austerity and savage cuts to council funding have decimated respite and short break services
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Voter ID Made it Harder for Young, Poor and Ethnic Minorities to Vote, Official Study Finds
The study suggests that those groups less likely to vote Conservative were more likely to be turned away
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Sunak’s Government Accused of ‘Hiding’ from Damning United Nations Inquiry on Treatment of Disabled People
From the Bedroom Tax to Work Capability Assessments, the Government is accused of systematically failing disabled people
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Just Another ‘C’ Word? The Weird, Wonderful and Worrisome History of Cripple
Penny Pepper explores how she encourages disabled people to reclaim labels – to twist and refute them
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Failing Learning Disabled People: The Contradictions of 1945
We should celebrate the birth of the NHS and the welfare state – but also acknowledge it has too often let learning disabled people down in the worst way imaginable, writes Stephen Unwin
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When Will the Government Listen to the Disabled Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority People Worst Hit by COVID?
A new report by a national commission has found that ‘systemic racism embedded in the Government’s responses to the pandemic may have worsened outcomes’
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Sticks and Stones: The Problem with Rosie Jones’ New Documentary on Disabled People’s Abuse
The families of profoundly learning-disabled people are involved in a continuous struggle for their most fundamental rights and dignities, writes Stephen Unwin
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The Dreadful Truths about the ‘Disabled Freeloader’: All the Things We Get for Free!
Penny Pepper debunks the bigoted beliefs held about the Blue Badge, support workers, wheelchairs and more…
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‘The Patronisers Club and the Calculator of Hate’: A Bigoted Focus on Disability Continues
When will the disabled experience be seen and valued in a humane way?
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‘The Price of Sausages: The Telegraph’s Calculator of Hate’
Attacks on disabled people have all too often dressed themselves in the clothes of good housekeeping – as the newspaper’s tax calculator suggests
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Fighting for Disability Rights Amid Russian War
Anna Romandash meets a disabled activist who has led the way in supporting Ukraine’s disabled population during Russia’s horrific invasion of the country
