Government’s VAT attack ‘sends out mixed messages on independent living’

The government has been accused of “sending out mixed messages” on independent living, after it emerged that it wants to charge VAT on the payroll services provided to disabled people who receive direct payments for their social care.

Cheshire Centre for Independent Living (CCIL) is having to take HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to the first-tier tribunal to fight off its attempt to force it to charge disabled service-users 20 per cent VAT on top of their monthly fee for using its popular payroll service.

The tribunal case is due to be heard in Manchester in early December.

Other disabled people’s organisations are also challenging the HMRC VAT demand on their own payroll services, but CCIL’s will be the first to be heard at tribunal.

CCIL insists that its payroll service – which is used by nearly 3,000 disabled people across the north-west of England who use direct payments to employ personal assistants – should not be subject to VAT under HMRC’s “welfare” exemption.

It has been trying to persuade HMRC to withdraw its claim for more than four years, but the government refused even to take the dispute to a mediation service.

Tom Hendrie, CCIL’s head of policy and communications, said the imposition of VAT on payroll services was “absolutely not right”, but he said HMRC had refused to see it as qualifying for an exemption and had “really dug their heels in about it”.

He said: “It’s a tax on independent living. It goes completely against promoting independent living and trying to keep people at home as long as possible, so the government is sending out really mixed messages.

“It’s giving money with one hand and taking it away with the other. It does seem odd to us.

“It just further reduces the limited resources disabled people have to lead independent lives at a time when the whole care system is under pressure.

“It just seems to us that it’s wrong.”

Although the amount charged for the payroll service is not large – clients in Cheshire pay £15 a month – Hendrie said the addition of VAT would still have a significant impact on many service-users of nearly £3 a month.

He said: “It’s just another element of the fixed money people have got to manage their support having to go on something else.”

And Hendrie warned that a victory for HMRC “could undermine the whole notion of the welfare exemption for VAT”, and could affect many other charities and the services they provide to disabled people.

An HMRC spokesman confirmed the case was ongoing, with a tribunal hearing expected later this year.

He said: “While I cannot go into specifics about this individual case, I should point out that HMRC’s role is to apply rules around tax and we don’t have discretion to alter them.”

He said that VAT was exempt in a range of welfare services, including “the provision of care, to promote the physical or mental welfare of elderly, sick, distressed or disabled people” when provided by organisations devoted to social wellbeing, according to European Union law.

But he claimed that VAT had to be paid “on payroll services provided for direct payment and independent living schemes”, which “have never been included within the welfare exemption and have always been standard-rated”.

24 August 2017

DWP rejects PIP claimant’s appeal... before she receives decision notice

Fresh concerns have been raised about the integrity of the disability benefits system, after a disabled woman’s appeal against having her benefits removed was rejected before she was even told her claim had been turned down.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) sent Mandy Moseley a mandatory reconsideration notice, confirming that her appeal against the decision to reject her claim for the new personal independence payment (PIP) had been unsuccessful.

But she was astonished to receive the letter because she had not yet been told the result of her claim.

Until a claimant receives a decision notice that informs them of the result of their claim, they cannot ask for a mandatory reconsideration (MR) of that decision, and she had not done so.

Moseley, from Birmingham, who was assessed on 28 June, had been receiving disability living allowance since 2004, and has been receiving the highest rates of that benefit since 2007, but has been told by DWP that she will receive no PIP at all, a decision which has cost her £141 a week.

She said: “They are saying it was a mistake and it was an internal document. How can it be an internal document if it’s [described] as a mandatory reconsideration?”

She believes her case proves DWP is preparing the MR notices – automatically turning down the first-stage appeals – at the same time it prepares the original decision notices.

Disabled activists have been questioning for months why success rates for MRs are so low, when so many appeals that are taken to tribunal – the next stage of the appeal process after the MR – are successful.

A DWP spokesman said: “Clearly, this was a clerical error. We’ve apologised to Ms Moseley and asked her to ignore the letter.

“Any mandatory reconsideration outcome would be based on an appeal being lodged in the first place, and Ms Moseley hadn’t even received her decision notice.”

But Moseley said she was “disgusted” by DWP’s tactics, and added: “I am just astounded by what they have done.”

She has a number of long-term health conditions, currently receives 17 hours of care a week from her local authority, is constantly in pain, and is awaiting training so she can start using a white cane because of her deteriorating vision.

After her son moves out from the family home in October, she has been told by her local council that she will probably receive 40 hours of care a week.

But she was awarded a total of just two points after being assessed. She would have needed eight for the standard rate and 12 for the enhanced rate of the daily living and mobility components of PIP.

24 August 2017

Lib Dem frustration at lack of disability debate at conference

Senior disabled figures in the Liberal Democrats have spoken of their frustration that the party is not set to debate key issues of concern to disabled people at its annual conference next month.

Disability News Service (DNS) contacted key disabled party members after an analysis of the party’s conference agenda and directory showed there was currently not a single debate or fringe event devoted to disability-related issues.

There is nothing scheduled to discuss welfare reform, the social care funding crisis, the shortage of accessible housing, the highly topical problems facing accessible public transport, or the UN’s public examination in Geneva of the UK government’s alleged breaches of the UN disability convention, which took place yesterday and today (Thursday).

Although many fringe events are organised by groups unconnected to the Liberal Democrats, not one of them is set to address disability-related issues such as welfare reform, social care or access to the built environment or public transport.

One motion due to be debated at the conference in Bournemouth, on encouraging companies to be “responsible corporate citizens”, mentions (in line 31 of the motion) the need for greater representation of disabled people on company boards.

Another, on the recruitment, retention and welfare of armed services personnel, mentions – in line 56 – the need for better treatment of veterans’ mental ill-health.

And a third motion, on the impact of Brexit on public services, points out that “nearly 100,000 non-UK EU staff work in the social care system”.

These appear to be the only mentions of issues linked to disability in motions scheduled for debate.

The Liberal Democrats’ disabled president, Baroness [Sal] Brinton, told Disability News Service (DNS) that some of the motions that will be debated at conference – including the three above – came from the party’s federal policy committee, which was “very aware of the impact of those policies on disabled people”.

She said she was “hoping (no, encouraging) disabled members to speak up in those debates”, including on the motion on the impact of Brexit on public services.

Other motions are submitted by party members, and she said she was “frustrated” at their failure to submit motions on disability-related topics.

But she said she was hopeful that members would submit emergency motions on issues such as widespread claims of dishonest personal independence payment assessments – due to fresh evidence reported by DNS over the summer – and this week’s examination by the UN’s committee on the rights of persons with disabilities, in time for the deadline early next month.

Members vote for the two emergency motions they want to debate, so she said she hoped there would be a push for a disability-related motion to be submitted – possibly by the Liberal Democrat Disability Association (LDDA) – and that members would vote for it to be chosen.

She said: “I am really hoping that there will be something to reflect the extreme concerns that the party has on what’s going on at the moment for disabled people, particularly for benefits and allowances.”

She added: “I’m frustrated that there are no fringe events [on disability-related issues], but the party doesn’t control these from HQ. It is up to organisations inside or outside the party to book events.”

Stephen Lloyd, the Liberal Democrat shadow work and pensions secretary, told DNS he was “very disappointed” to see that his party had failed to allocate time to discuss social care, welfare reform, or other issues such as accessible housing or transport.

He told Disability News Service: “I was very disappointed to see the many strands around disability which are under such attack from this government not warranting serious discussion and floor time at our conference, be it as a motion deploring the cuts on a range of important issues or the shambles that is the introduction of universal credit or WRAG*.

“I appreciate it’s all been a bit last minute because of the snap general election and the result, but as the Lib Dems new shadow secretary of state for the Department for Work and Pensions, I can promise that such a paucity of comment, debate or even leadership on these issues will change dramatically in the near future.”

Robert Adamson, chair of the LDDA, said he was less concerned.

He said: “Our conference decides policy that remains in place until it is changed by replacement policy.

“So, as for example with transport, why do we need to change policy that is already strong? Basically, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’”

And he said the conference needed to debate issues “that are important to all citizens (and in the Lib Dems that word ‘all’ does include people with disabilities and all other diversity groups)”.

He added: “I use a wheelchair but the natural environment is important to me; as is climate change; as are public services and the impact of Brexit; as are safe building standards; as is defeating terrorism; as is knife crime and as is employment.

“In other words I am far more than a person with a disability, I am a British citizen and every aspect of life is important and relevant to me.”

*Cuts of nearly £30 a week to new claimants of employment and support allowance placed in the work-related activity group, a measure introduced by the government in April

24 August 2017

CPS hate crime statement wins support

Disabled campaigners say they are encouraged by a new public statement from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which describes how it will prosecute disability hate crime.

The statement was one of a series published by CPS that cover the different strands of hate crime, with others covering racist and religious hate crime; and homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime.

Its publication came only days after the Disability Hate Crime Network (DHCN) wrote to the solicitor general to warn him that that “alarm bells are ringing” over the “massive discrepancies and inconsistencies” in the way the criminal justice system deals with disability hate crime prosecutions.

That letter pointed to the network’s “deep dismay” that six recent court cases involving violent attacks on disabled people – reported last month by Disability News Service (DNS) – had not been treated as disability hate crimes.

In its new statement, CPS pledges to “identify disability hate crimes and other offences targeted at disabled people as early as possible”, “build strong cases with our partners”, “remind the court of its powers to increase a sentence” under section 146 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 if there is evidence of disability hate crime*, and “apply for an increased sentence in all other cases where disability is an aggravating factor in the case”.

The statement also includes a commitment to the social model of disability, and a recognition that the belief that disabled people “are somehow inherently vulnerable, weak and easy targets is an attitude that motivates some crimes against disabled people”.

But it also states that some crimes are committed “because the offender perceives the disabled person to be vulnerable and not because the offender dislikes or hates the person or disabled people”, and are therefore not disability hate crimes.

CPS says that any such evidence will still be put before the court – even if the offence was not a hate crime – so that “the sentence reflects the gravity of such offending”.

It also promises that it will “not make assumptions about a disabled victim’s reliability or credibility, and [will] challenge others who do so”, will ensure that disabled people are aware of the support available to them to give their best evidence in court, and that it will be “more likely to prosecute cases where disability is a factor”.

And it adds: “We will avoid the use of the term ‘vulnerable’ where possible and we will always avoid any use of the term which may suggest disabled people are inherently weak or dependent.”

The statement also includes a pledge that CPS will treat online hate crime “with the same robust and proactive approach” used to address other hate crimes.

Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, told the Guardian that an increasing proportion of hate crime was now carried out online, which she said provided “a less visible frontline which is easily accessible to those in the UK who hold extreme views on race, religion, sexuality, gender and even disability”.

CPS has also published a new online support guide for disabled victims and witnesses of crime.

Anne Novis, chair of Inclusion London, who advised CPS on the new statement on disability hate crime, welcomed its publication.

She told DNS: “The CPS do seem to be doing all they can to improve prosecution of hate crimes, but are still limited by legislation inequalities and they can only prosecute based on the evidence police gather.”

Laws on publishing material intended to stir up hatred against people on the grounds of their race, religion or sexual orientation have so far not been extended to disability and transgender identity.

Novis said she had been “encouraged” by the CPS response to disability hate crime concerns raised by local communities, and through its engagement with mechanisms such as local case panels and community forums.

She said: “So overall it is positive as not only are they saying they will act, they are actively trying to do better.”

But she was critical of the police, and said that forces across the UK need to “step up their quality of evidence gathering and recognition of hate crimes”.

Stephen Brookes, a DHCN coordinator, welcomed the new CPS emphasis on online hate, but warned that “we need to see that disability hate crime does not become a poor second to race faith and gender online hate”.

Saunders said: “Hate crime has a corrosive effect on our society and that is why it is a priority area for the CPS.

“It can affect entire communities, forcing people to change their way of life and live in fear.

“These documents take account of the current breadth and context of offending to provide prosecutors with the best possible chance of achieving justice for victims. They also let victims and witnesses know what they should expect from us.

“I hope that, along with this week’s campaign, they will give people the confidence to come forward and report hate crime, in the knowledge that they will be taken seriously and given the support they need.”

*An offence will be a disability hate crime “if at the time of committing the offence, or immediately before or after doing so, the offender demonstrated towards the victim of the offence hostility based on a disability (or presumed disability) of the victim; or the offence is motivated (wholly or partly) by hostility towards persons who have a disability or a particular disability”.

24 August 2017

Activists plan day-long musical tribute to ‘radical and brilliant’ Robert Dellar

Mental health service-users are planning a day-long musical celebration of the life of one of the survivor movement’s best-known – and best-loved – activists.

The 12-hour gig at a venue in south-east London will feature “a cornucopia of punk and rock bands”, and will celebrate the life and work of Robert Dellar, one of the founders of Mad Pride, who died last December.

Next month’s tribute has been organised by members of Mad Pride and the user-led campaigning organisation that grew out of it, the Mental Health Resistance Network.

Robertfest* will feature bands that performed in the many sell-out gigs he organised across London, in both mainstream and mental health settings, which raised the profile of the mental health survivor movement, the issues its members were trying to raise, and the idea of mad culture.

After his death last December, Denise McKenna, one of the network’s founders, described Dellar as “radical, anti-establishment, irreverent, non-conformist and funny” but also “disarmingly humble… steadfast and extremely hardworking” and with a “brilliant intellect”.

“Above all,” she said, “Robert was loved by so many people.”

Another friend, Gini Simpson, described him as a “an authentic punk, who opposed the chronic abuse of power he saw around him”, and as “a tenacious force for good in an uncaring world”.

She added: “This is the man who put punk rock gigs on in the acute ward at the then Hackney Hospital, who organised football matches at Broadmoor and who arranged for a stupendous line up of bands to play at the Mad Pride festival in Clissold Park, when the local council were expecting limp cheese sandwiches and ‘carers’.”

The one-off event will run from noon to midnight on Sunday 24 September and will also feature the first of what it is hoped will be an annual Robert Dellar Memorial Lecture, to be delivered by Professor Esther Leslie, a friend and fellow activist of Dellar’s.

Over nearly a quarter of a century, Dellar, who left a partner, Shirley Pearson, and a step-daughter, Sophia, helped organise countless gigs, compilation CDs and direct action protests, and was a key figure in protests against the last Labour government’s plans to introduce community treatment orders.

But he also worked tirelessly to support mental health service-users in a professional capacity for many years, and is remembered for his pioneering work in setting up a patients’ council and advocacy department at Hackney Hospital, a mental health institution in east London. He later set up another user council in Southwark.

And in the autumn of 2010, Dellar organised an anti-austerity protest in Hyde Park that led survivor-activists to set up the Mental Health Resistance Network.

Shirley Pearson said: “When someone dies there are traditions that are part of the wider culture that include somewhat formal funeral services and wakes.

“I found myself asking what would Robert have done when someone we loved and cared for dearly died? He would put on a punk rock concert! So that is what we are doing, as a eulogy to Robert.

“The idea of a Robert Dellar memorial lecture came from Denise McKenna. Hopefully the lecture will be something that is continued as an annual event in the ‘Mad’ calendar in some form or other.

“It is really important that we remember those that helped make life more bearable and Robert certainly did that.”

Zen Jones, one of the organisers of Robertfest, said Dellar was “all about building communities and then throwing different communities together”, and his death had left “a huge hole in the mental health survivor movement.

“He was the inspiration for countless people to realise that they have a voice, and the empowering force that drew people together to organize themselves into action.

“Robert was a natural innovator in everything he did, and driven by the highest of ideals and the purest of motives, empowerment at its core. We hope to capture this spirit at the Robertfest.”

Among those appearing at Robertfest will be Alternative TV, The Astronauts, The Ceramic Hobs, Vic Goddard and the Bitter Springs, The Long Decline, and Dave Kusworth.

*Ticket prices are £5 unwaged/low waged, £10 waged, £20 full price, with any profits to be donated to the Mental Health Resistance Network. It takes place at The Amersham Arms, 388 New Cross Road, Deptford, London SE14 6TY, which is near New Cross train station

24 August 2017

UK faces UN examination: Government cuts caused ‘human catastrophe’

An international committee of disabled human rights experts have delivered a series of withering attacks on the UK government over its failure to implement the UN disability convention.

Following a two-day public examination of the UK’s progress in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the committee said it was “deeply concerned” that the UK government still believed it was a “champion of human rights”.

The committee’s chair, Theresia Degener, from Germany, told the UK government’s delegation that its cuts to social security and other support for disabled people had caused “a human catastrophe”, which was “totally neglecting the vulnerable situation people with disabilities find themselves in”.

Stig Langvad, the committee on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD) member who is leading the UK examination, said the government had failed to demonstrate its commitment to the convention.

He said the government had failed to answer many questions put to it by the committee over the two days, and that it had “become evident that the committee has a very different perception of how human rights should be understood and implemented” than the UK government.

He called on the UK to develop a “concrete strategy which is sufficiently funded” to “fully acknowledge and implement the convention”.

Langvad said the committee was “deeply concerned” about the government’s refusal to recognise the findings and recommendations of the committee’s earlier inquiry, which concluded last November that there had been “grave and systematic violations” of three key parts of the convention.

He said: “We expect the state party to take the appropriate measures to address the recommendations of our inquiry report.”

Langvad added: “I could provide a long list of examples where the state party doesn’t live up to the convention. Unfortunately, the time is too limited.”

Coomaravel Pyaneandee, a vice-chair of the committee, had earlier told the UK delegation: “I want to see you coming back as world leader, which at the moment I am afraid you’re not, but disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) from whom I draw inspiration are in fact the world leaders in your country.”

Many representatives of DPOs – including Inclusion London, the Alliance for Inclusive Education, Disabled People Against Cuts, Equal Lives, Black Triangle, Disability Rights UK, Inclusion Scotland and Disability Wales – had travelled to Geneva for the public examination, and had provided detailed evidence to Pyaneandee and the committee members on the government’s failings.

Karen Jochelson, the head of the Office for Disability Issues, who led the UK delegation, insisted that the UK was “determined to remain a global lead in disability issues”.

She said that UK laws provided “a strong framework for ensuring and progressing the rights of disabled people” although there was “more still to be done in all aspects of society and life” to progressively realise the convention.

At the start of the two-day examination, Jochelson had delivered a statement from the minister for disabled people, Penny Mordaunt, in which she claimed that the UK had been “a global leader in driving forward disability rights and promoting inclusion” and that it could even be a “catalyst” to “help our international partners achieve more on this agenda”.

A representative of the Department for Work and Pensions told the committee that the government “takes very seriously its duty to protect the most vulnerable people”, and added: “We stand by the reforms to the UK benefit system.”

Jochelson ended by saying that it was “right that the UK is scrutinised carefully and we have welcomed this” and that this reflected Mordaunt’s pledge that the UK would “continue to progress disabled people’s rights and consult with disabled people on government policy and public services”.

Two of the key issues that were raised several times by committee members were disabled people’s right to independent living and the treatment of people in secure mental health settings (see separate stories).

Among other issues address by the committee were the discrimination faced by disabled people when accessing healthcare; the government’s plans to increase the number of disabled people in employment; and the disability pay gap.

It also examined disabled people’s engagement in democracy; the fall in the number of disabled children in mainstream education and the failure to move towards a fully inclusive education system; parents with learning difficulties who have had their children taken away

from them; and disabled people who have lost their benefits in the move from disability living allowance to personal independence payment.

24 August 2017

UK faces UN examination: DPOs ‘delighted’ with exposure of government’s failings

Disabled people’s organisations who travelled to Geneva this week to help highlight the government’s continuing human rights violations have praised a UN committee of disabled experts for publicly exposing the UK’s failings.

Civil servants from eight UK government departments, and the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, were grilled over two days about the UK’s record in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

The two days ended with the chair of the UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD), Theresia Degener, telling the UK government that its cuts to social security and other support for disabled people had caused “a human catastrophe” (see separate story).

Another CRPD member, Stig Langvad, said members were “deeply concerned” by the government’s failure to implement the convention, and delivered a withering putdown, telling the UK delegation: “I could provide a long list of examples where the state party doesn’t live up to the convention. Unfortunately, the time is too limited.”

Among the DPOs that travelled to Geneva were representatives of Inclusion London, the Alliance for Inclusive Education, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Equal Lives, Black Triangle, Disability Rights UK, Inclusion Scotland and Disability Wales.

Tracey Lazard, chief executive of Inclusion London, said “We are all exhausted but delighted with how the week has gone.

“We felt that the CRPD committee listened to the evidence presented by the unprecedented number of DDPO [Deaf and disabled people’s organisation] representatives who attended the sessions and while it is a shame that the government continues to deny the existence of serious rights regressions and the brutal impact of their policies, it was inspiring to be part of the collective effort by Deaf and disabled people across the UK to ensure our voices are heard.”

Ellen Clifford, from DPAC, added: “The UK government representatives were shameless in their obfuscation and misrepresentations of information in response to questions by the disability committee members but the weakness of their answers also showed how fragile their position is in continuing to try to deny the brutal and devastating impacts of their policies.

“What Deaf and disabled people have achieved in Geneva this week shows how formidable we can be when we come together and we now need to take that back to the UK to continue fighting for our rights.”

Sally Witcher, from Inclusion Scotland, said: “We wholeheartedly welcome the committee’s comments on the UK.

“The government has not been allowed to get away with evasive responses which disregard the lived experiences of Deaf and disabled people throughout the UK.”

Rhian Davies, from Disability Wales, said: “This has been a historical week for the disabled people’s movement and one that we are proud to have played our part in.”

Members of the UN’s committee on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD) questioned civil servants from the Office for Disability Issues, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department of Health, the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Transport, the Department for Education, the Home Office and the Foreign Office, as well as civil servants from the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Key issues raised repeatedly by the committee over the two days included the impact of cuts to disabled people’s support to live independently; the discriminatory treatment of people in secure mental health settings; and the failure of the government to engage with disabled people and their organisations.

The committee also asked about discrimination in the housing market; the “disproportionate” levels of violence and abuse experienced by disabled women, and the support available to them; the “high levels of poverty” experienced by disabled people; the availability of accessible information; and the shortage of British Sign Language interpreters.

Other issues raised included the institutionalisation of children with mental health conditions; the economic impact of Brexit on disabled people; the impact of cuts and reforms to legal aid and the introduction of employment tribunal fees on disabled people’s access to justice; and the levels of bullying experienced by disabled children.

24 August 2017

UK faces UN examination: Government agrees to think again on engagement

The government has agreed to “reflect” on its failure to engage with disabled people and their organisations, after facing public criticism from a UN committee of disabled human rights experts.

A delegation of civil servants from across the UK government listened as members of the UN committee on the rights of person with disabilities (CRPD) repeatedly criticised its failure to engage with disabled people’s organisations (DPOs).

They were taking part in a two-day public examination of the UK’s progress in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in Geneva.

CRPD member Samuel Njuguna Kabue said the evidence he had received from DPOs disputed the UK government’s claim that it consulted with disabled people and their organisations when drawing up policies and making decisions.

He said disabled people and their organisations said they had not been “adequately involved” in monitoring the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as they should be under article 33 of the convention.

Another member, Monthian Buntan, also disputed the UK government’s claim that it was committed to enabling the active participation of disabled people in decision-making, and forming and implementing and monitoring policy.

He called for more detail from the government on whether it had taken action to “ensure the support which enabled organisations of persons with disabilities to really effectively participate in this ongoing process of decision-making, implementation and monitoring”.

And he contrasted the UK government’s apparent failure with the efforts of the devolved governments.

Karen Jochelson, the head of the Office for Disability Issues, who led the UK delegation, said the government was planning to use the “concluding observations” of the committee, when they were published, “to help inform our future thinking on engagement”.

She said: “We have noted this dialogue’s emphasis on engaging with disabled people and DPOs in decision-making and policy-making.

“We will reflect on this as we plan our next steps following publication of the concluding observations.”

24 August 2017

UK faces UN examination: Government criticised over independent living

The government has been criticised over its commitment to independent living by a disabled member of the UN committee investigating the UK’s record on disability rights.

The criticism came during a public examination in Geneva of the UK’s record in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

Civil servants from eight UK government departments, and the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, were being grilled yesterday and today (Thursday) by members of the UN’s committee on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD).

Robert Martin, a CRPD member, asked the UK government to explain why it had cut funding for disabled people’s services and support.

He said: “I would like to know why you have cut access to funding in services, including benefits and advocacy services, especially for people with what you call mild or moderate disability.

“If you cut funding in services, the people will lose the ability to live independently in the community. And that is not a way forward if you want to implement the convention.”

One of the committee’s vice-chairs, Danlami Umaru Basharu, also asked the civil servants to explain the consequences of the closure of the Independent Living Fund (ILF).

None of these questions appeared to be answered by the UK government delegation.

Disabled activists conducted a high-profile campaign to keep the fund open but it finally closed in June 2015, with research later showing that many former ILF-users subsequently experienced substantial cuts to their care packages.

After it closed, non-ring-fenced funding was transferred to councils in England and to devolved governments in Wales and Scotland. Scotland has since set up its own fund.

Basharu asked the UK government representatives how the government would ensure that disabled people “are not negatively affected” by this transition.

This question was also not answered by the UK government.

The committee have asked questions on a huge range of issues affecting disabled people’s rights under the convention, including discrimination in the housing market; the “disproportionate” levels of violence and abuse experienced by disabled women, and the support available to them; the “high levels of poverty” experienced by disabled people; the availability of accessible information; and the shortage of British Sign Language interpreters.

Other questions raised included the institutionalisation of children with mental health conditions; the economic impact of Brexit on disabled people; the impact of cuts and reforms to legal aid and the introduction of employment tribunal fees on disabled people’s access to justice; and the levels of bullying experienced by disabled children.

24 August 2017

UK faces UN examination: Call for action over mental health detentions

The UK government has faced repeated, damning criticism from a UN committee of disabled human rights experts over its treatment of people in secure mental health settings.

The criticism came during a two-day public examination in Geneva of the UK’s record in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

Members of the committee raised concerns about the increase in the use of compulsory detention, the use of Tasers, and the “discriminatory and disproportionate” use of detention on people from Britain’s African Caribbean communities.

Martin Babu Mwesigwa, a member of the committee on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD), said he had been told that members of the UK’s African Caribbean community were subject to “highly cohesive and illicit violence” when detained in mental health and other “custodial” institutions.

Mwesigwa, himself from Uganda, pointed to a report by the UN’s committee on the elimination of racial discrimination, which found last year that people in the UK of African Caribbean descent were over-represented in psychiatric institutions and were more likely to be subjected to restraint, seclusion and over-medication.

He asked when the UK government “plans to address the discriminatory and disproportionate use of the Mental Health Act against its people of African descent living in the UK”.

He added: “Or, put the other way, same question, does the state party plan to address the oppressive way that the Mental Health Act is used as a tool of state oppression against people from the UK’s African Caribbean communities?”

Jonas Ruskus, another CRPD member, said the committee had been told that the use of compulsory detention was “rising quickly” while the number of unexpected deaths in institution was also rising.

And he said there was also information about the “inappropriate use of psychiatric medication” in mental health institutions, and about the “illicit” use of Taser stun guns on patients by police officers in secure mental health settings.

Coomaravel Pyaneandee, a vice-chair of the committee, asked the UK government yesterday (Wednesday) to commit to “a complete ban on the use of taser guns in persons who are detained in psychiatric settings”.

He also raised the death of Sarah Reed, a black woman who killed herself while in Holloway prison last year.

Reed took her own life while awaiting medical reports about whether she was fit to plead to a charge of assaulting a nurse in a secure psychiatric unit. The reports had found she was unfit to plead by the time she died.

Pyaneandee said: “One doesn’t know why she was in jail in the first place, a woman with psychosocial disability, pending the determination as to whether she could take a plea or not, which constitutes also deprivation of liberty.

“This raises the whole question about multiple discrimination in the UK and whether existing legislation should not be brought in line with the convention, so that that kind of situation never repeats again.”

A civil servant from the Ministry of Justice told the committee that it would “not be suitable” to discuss the case of Sarah Reed.

The civil servant said that the prison and probation service “makes considerable efforts” to learn from every death in custody, while a prison’s fatal accident report will include an action plan to respond to any recommendations.

If a coroner writes a report raising concerns about the risk of future deaths, following a death in custody, the prison and probation system has a legal duty to respond.

A Department of Health civil servant told the committee that using restraint without legal authorisation could be a criminal offence.

He said that data was collected on restraint of people in contact with mental health, autism and learning disability inpatient services.

Since Jan 2016, he said, that data includes more information, including the type of restraint, whether “physical, chemical, mechanical, seclusion or segregation”.

He said guidance published in 2014 says that staff should develop a culture “where restrictive interventions are only ever used as a last resort for adults with behaviour challenges”.

He later said that the government was committed to reforming the Mental Health Act, and one of the motivations for this was to “examine the disproportionate number of people of certain ethnicities, in particular black people, who are detained under the act”.

A Home Office civil servant told the committee that the Independent Police Complaints Commission had “maintained a close interest” in the use of Tasers and that police forces were working on a new system of recording their use, while police and crime commissioners had been asked to provide a way to scrutinise Taser incidents in mental health settings.

24 August 2017

UK faces UN examination: Equality and rights bodies attack government failings

The UK’s equality and human rights bodies have attacked the government’s failure to protect disabled people’s rights.

The assault came during a public examination in Geneva of the UK’s record in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

Colin Caughey, from the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, speaking on behalf of the four UK equality and human rights bodies tasked with monitoring the UK’s performance – known as the UK Independent Mechanism (UKIM) – suggested that the government had failed to realise the rights of disabled people, eight years after the convention was ratified by a Labour government.

He told the UN’s committee on the rights of person with disabilities, which was conducting the public examination this week: “Almost a decade on we find ourselves in Geneva reporting on a UK in which social security reforms have led to a finding by this committee of

evidence of grave and systemic violations of the right to an adequate standard of living, right to social protection, right to independent living and right to work.”

But he said the committee’s “clear and measured” recommendations – based on “overwhelming evidence” – had not yet received “meaningful consideration” from the government, which had instead introduced “further regressive measures”.

He also pointed out that there were continued “gaps” in the legal protection provided by the Equality Act 2010.

And he said autistic people and those with learning difficulties “continue to be excluded from their communities by being placed in psychiatric hospitals, inappropriately, for lengthy periods of time”.

He also said that disabled people in prisons, hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions “continue to be subject to physical, chemical and mechanical restraint”.

Andrea Murray, from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, told the committee yesterday (Wednesday) that changes to legal aid in England and Wales were obstructing disabled people’s access to justice in areas such as housing and social security.

She called for “swift action to safeguard disabled people’s access to justice”.

And she warned that Brexit posed a “significant risk” of regression in disability rights protections.

Before the public examination, the four UK equality and human rights bodies – the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Human Rights and the Scottish Human Rights Commission – warned that “years of cuts” had led to disabled people’s right to independent living being “continually eroded”.

They said that disabled people who need support to live independently in the community were “not getting help, or are only getting the bare minimum”.

The concerns are detailed in an updated report by the four bodies , which has been submitted to the committee.

David Isaac, EHRC’s chair, speaking on behalf of UKIM, said: “There is a real concern that disabled people are being increasingly marginalised and shut out of society as they bear the brunt of the accumulated impact of cuts in public spending.

“Disabled people have won hard fought battles in recent decades to ensure that they can live independently to exercise choice and control over their support.

“Evidence of regression must be confronted and urgently addressed.”

24 August 2017

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com