EU will suffer if it fails to negotiate a Brexit deal – EXPRESS COMMENT | Express Comment | Comment | Express.co.uk

She also had every right to expect the EU negotiators to come back with something meaningful and they have failed to do so.

Instead, they have come up with the entirely ludicrous suggestion that we hold a second referendum while at the same time muttering darkly about a hard border in Ireland. Frankly, they need a reality check.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised about the call for a second referendum.

The EU has a history of forcing second referendums on countries until they get the result they want.

 

Source: EU will suffer if it fails to negotiate a Brexit deal – EXPRESS COMMENT | Express Comment | Comment | Express.co.uk

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Train companies could face court over inaccessible rail replacement buses | DisabledGo News and Blog

Train companies are facing possible legal action over their failure to ensure that replacement bus services are accessible to wheelchair-users and other rail passengers with mobility impairments.

A leading disabled campaigner believes that access and equality laws mean most rail replacement buses – used when companies scrap train services because of engineering works or other disruption – should be accessible to disabled passengers.

But he says that a significant proportion of rail replacement services are completely inaccessible.

He also says that the rail industry is failing to publish information about the accessibility of rail replacement services.

In a year in which the rail network has repeatedly been hit by disruption to services, the need for accessible rail replacement buses has been overlooked by most campaigners, despite the substantial extra barriers faced by disabled passengers when their journeys are disrupted.

But accessible public transport campaigner and wheelchair-user Doug Paulley, from Yorkshire, is now considering launching a legal action against a rail company, after accusing the industry of repeated breaches of the Equality Act.

 

Source: Train companies could face court over inaccessible rail replacement buses | DisabledGo News and Blog

Thousands of benefit claimants with Multiple Sclerosis told they are ‘not disabled enough’

The whole process is geared to find claimants are not entitled to the benefits, as in many instances the assessors do not listen to the claimants, already have preconceived ideas about a claimants condition, the majority if not all of theses preconceived ideas being wrong and also blatant lying by some assessors.

The whole process is weighted against claimants.

Where incorrect decisions have been made, these should be investigated by an independent body to see if any illegal or dishonest actions have been undertaken by any assessors and where found these assessors should be prosecuted.

Govt Newspeak

New figures show the huge number of people with MS – a progressive, long-term condition with no cure – who have claims for PIP rejected.

Thousands of benefit claimants with multiple sclerosis have been told they are “not disabled enough”, a charity warns today. New figures show the huge number of people with MS – a progressive, long-term condition with no cure – who have claims for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) rejected.

The benefit pays up to £141 a week to help people cover the extra costs of being disabled or long-term sick. But since it launched in 2013, 31% of new claims by people with MS – 4,100 in total – have been “disallowed”, it’s claimed.

• Pensioner blasts Theresa May after her partner finally won his disability benefits – two days after he died
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• Private…

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Hundreds of thousands more PIP claimants would challenge awards… if they could | DisabledGo News and Blog

New government research shows that hundreds of thousands more claimants of personal independence payment (PIP) would have taken further steps to challenge the results of their claims if the system had been less stressful and more accessible.

The research, carried out for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) by Ipsos MORI, has cast fresh doubt on government claims that only a small proportion of disabled people are unhappy with the decisions made on their PIP claims.

DWP has repeatedly claimed that only about nine per cent of PIP decisions have been appealed since it was launched in April 2013, and that as few as four per cent of all PIP decisions have been overturned at appeal.

They have used this to suggest that this means that the overwhelming majority of claimants are happy with the PIP assessment system.

But the new research, based on more than 1,200 interviews, explains why many disabled people who applied for PIP decided not to appeal against an award, even if their claim was rejected completely or was lower than they believed they needed.

The research found that, of those PIP claimants who decided not to request a mandatory reconsideration (MR) – the internal review stage of the process, after a decision on a PIP claim has been made – 10 per cent took that decision because they thought it would be too stressful, four per cent did not know how to seek an MR, and seven per cent said they did not know enough about MR to proceed*.

Only three-fifths of those surveyed said they had not sought an MR because they were happy with the award they were given.

 

Source: Hundreds of thousands more PIP claimants would challenge awards… if they could | DisabledGo News and Blog

A decade of cuts has set back diversity in the public sector | Jane Dudman | Society | The Guardian

Ian Thomas is used to tough jobs. The former children’s services director at Rotherham council is now chief executive of Lewisham, a London borough facing huge financial pressure, including a £15.6m overspend on children’s services.

But there’s one thing, at least, that Thomas doesn’t have to worry about. The people who work for him broadly reflect the borough’s 227,000 residents, with about 42% of non-white staff – the same ratio as in the capital as a whole. That makes Lewisham one of the UK’s rarer local authorities. Most UK councils, like most UK public services, are not diverse. In the UK, 13% of people are from a black, Asian or other minority ethnic (BAME) background. Yet only 10% of local government workers, 12% of UK civil servants and 6% of prison officers in England and Wales are from a BAME background. And figures compiled by the Guardian show how a decade of cuts has laid waste to diversity in the police, with the deepest cuts at the lowest ranks of officers, precisely those with a greater number of BAME staff.

Only two areas of public service better reflect the UK population: social work and the NHS. Latest figures show that around one-fifth of social workers and NHS staff are from BAME backgrounds, although given that 42% of medics are not white, diversity in non-clinical NHS jobs is very much lower.

The lack of diversity is even more acute at senior levels. Judges, senior civil servants, chief constables and NHS chief executives are still predominantly white. In local government, according to last year’s Colour of Power report, none of the 108 chief executives of England’s largest councils was a BAME person.

 

Source: A decade of cuts has set back diversity in the public sector | Jane Dudman | Society | The Guardian

Key contribution of EU workers to UK health system highlighted | News | Nursing Times

European migrants contribute much more to the UK health sector than they consume in services, according to a government-commissioned report.

Donna Kinnair, acting chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said the findings of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) shut down the “damaging belief” that overseas workers were a burden on the care system.

 

Source: Key contribution of EU workers to UK health system highlighted | News | Nursing Times

Social care for old age pensioners needs reform says Hancock to pay for nursing homes | UK | News | Express.co.uk

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Mr Hancock suggested creating a system similar to the pensions scheme where every adult pays into a national pot to fund their future social care.

It would be possible to opt-out of the programme, but Mr Hancock doubts many would choose to do so.

Those who opt-out would have to fund their own social care.

He said: “I’m attracted to the model of auto-enrolment, which has been so successful in pensions.

 

Source: Social care for old age pensioners needs reform says Hancock to pay for nursing homes | UK | News | Express.co.uk

Brexit news: EU to secure Theresa May’s leadership with MAJOR concession over Irish border | UK | News | Express.co.uk

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is secretly planning to accept a frictionless Irish border after Brexit, and therefore allow the use of technology to minimise border checks between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Brussel’s sign of flexibility was outlined in confidential diplomatic notes detailing talks held between EU ambassadors last Wednesday.

The confidential document, seen by The Times, stated: “The biggest unsolved problem is Northern Ireland.

“There is a political mobilisation in the UK in this regard.

 

Source: Brexit news: EU to secure Theresa May’s leadership with MAJOR concession over Irish border | UK | News | Express.co.uk

BREXIT LIVE: IMF issues SCATHING report saying NOTHING can save UK economy after Brexit | Politics | News | Express.co.uk

In its latest report, the IMF expects the economy to grow by around 1.5 percent in 2018 and 2019 if a broad Brexit agreement is struck, compared to 1.75 if it had remained in the bloc.

But Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned failure to strike a deal would lead to contraction.

She said as the IMF presented its annual report on Britain’s economy: “A more disruptive departure will have a much worse outcome.

“Let me be clear, compared with today’s smooth single market, all the likely Brexit scenarios will have costs for the economy and to a lesser extent as well for the EU.

 

Source: BREXIT LIVE: IMF issues SCATHING report saying NOTHING can save UK economy after Brexit | Politics | News | Express.co.uk

Brexit news: Deal HAS been reached – and will be unveiled at special summit in NOVEMBER | Politics | News | Express.co.uk

Senior Government officials and diplomats in Brussels, the UK, and other European Unioncapitals have said the deal will be presented at a yet-to-be arranged summit in the Belgian capital before Christmas.

According to respected political website Politico differences still remain between the two sides, particularly on how to solve the Irish border issue, but the diplomats claimed that if a deal is clinched, it will be quickly approved by EU27 leaders.

It would be seen as a pivotal moment for under-fire Prime Minister Theresa May, with the step up in momentum helping her force the deal through Parliament before opponents can challenge it in any great detail.

Britain and the EU are now working closely to get the deal over the line, intent on avoiding any issues that critics could potentially pick apart and delay the process further.

 

Source: Brexit news: Deal HAS been reached – and will be unveiled at special summit in NOVEMBER | Politics | News | Express.co.uk