New documentary follows Tom Spicer as he leaves his Devon care home on a quest to meet Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich Tom Spicer is wearing a huge pair of headphones and an expression of mild anxiety. Backstage at the Honda Centre, Anaheim, California, at one of the world’s biggest rock gigs, Tom is about to find out whether he will fulfill his 15-year-dream to meet his idol, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.
Mobility scooters are big business – and they can transform the lives of people with disabilities. But their rising popularity in the UK is creating hostility, not least when able-bodied people use them as a cheap alternative to a car The TGA Supersport tends to be bought by people who were fond of motorbikes in their youth, and many of its owners know it affectionately as the Harley, because its high silver handlebars supported by chrome springs are immediately reminiscent of the brand. It’s a Hell’s Angels look for people with limited mobility
Disability living allowance is being replaced with personal independence payment assessments, and private companies are queueing up to cash in The Department for Work and Pensions has just announced the 10 private companies on the shortlist to deliver the personal independence payment (PIP) assessments, which everyone receiving disability living allowance will have to undergo from next year when DLA is replaced by PIPs. With 3.2 million captive customers, not to mention a monopoly on all new claimants, it’s not hard to see the appeal of the contract for profit-hungry companies untroubled by the ethics of slashing 20% from the money provided to disabled people to help them meet some of the basic expenses that living with a disability inevitably incurs. DLA is far from excessive.
Disability living allowance is being replaced with personal independence payment assessments, and private companies are queueing up to cash in The Department for Work and Pensions has just announced the 10 private companies on the shortlist to deliver the personal independence payment (PIP) assessments, which everyone receiving disability living allowance will have to undergo from next year when DLA is replaced by PIPs.
Ten of the UK’s biggest private outsourcing companies have been shortlisted to deliver controversial Personal Independence Payment health assessments – with one notable exception Who will deliver a 20% cut to the disability living allowance benefits bill? We now know the contracts will be shared among 10 private companies, including the controversial French firm Atos Origin, which has come under fire over its handling of incapacity benefit tests , known as the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). The shortlisted companies are effectively in the frame to compete for at least four regional contracts to assess people’s eligibility for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) – a new benefit which will replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) in April 2013
When Rachel Cooke went to meet historian David Starkey, often called the rudest man in Britain, she expected it to be war. But that was before she started laughing at his tales of a first date in the Beaver’s Retreat In the afternoon of 3 June, the Queen will mark her diamond jubilee by sailing the Thames from Hammersmith to the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich aboard the royal barge, the Spirit of Chartwell
TV show adverts prompted 21 complaints that they offended disabled people and encouraged bullying and stereotyping Channel 4′s ad campaign for controversial show The Undateables has been cleared by the advertising watchdog, despite more than 20 complaints that it is offensive toward disabled people and encourages sterotyping and bullying. The ad campaign for the show, which has been a hit for Channel 4 attracting almost 3 million viewers , featured photographs of people from the programme with the advertising strapline “Love is blind, disfigured, autistic … “.
Geoff Holt was prevented from boarding a train by a guard who told him that his electric wheelchair would damage the floor The first quadriplegic sailor to cross the Atlantic solo has described his anger at being prevented from boarding a train by a guard who told him that his electric wheelchair would damage the floor. Geoff Holt, 45, told how he was left with “a sense of genuine rage” following the incident on the platform beside an Isle of Wight train, where he said that the guard suggested that he was a liar and cut his leg when he eventually threw down a ramp for him to board. The unnamed guard has now been suspended pending an investigation into the incident involving the Island Line’s three-minute Ryde Pier to Ryde Esplanade service, according to its operators Stagecoach Group .
He helped learning-disabled people to live in the community Amid rising concern over cuts to UK health and social care services, it is often forgotten that the lives of most people with learning disabilities have improved immeasurably over the past 30 years.
In an exclusive email exchange, Ashley’s father talks to Ed Pilkington about his daughter’s condition, her growth attenuation treatment – and the criticism his family has faced Towards the end of 2006 an endocrinologist in Seattle called Dr Daniel Gunther published an article in the Archives of Pediatrics in which he described a series of medical interventions he had given to a severely disabled child called Ashley. Together with Ashley’s parents, he devised a course of therapy designed to keep the child permanently small
