Disability Rights UK accuses the Government of “dismissing” the findings and recommendations of the UN disability committee’s report, describing it as a “dismissal of the lived experiences, views and interests of Disabled people in the UK”.
Sue Bott, deputy CEO for Disability Rights UK and co-author of the report, told The Independent she and other researchers met disabled people across the UK as part of their evidence gathering and found that the UK was “going backwards” on disability rights.
She told of one wheelchair user who was denied available housing after being on a waiting list for six years because of the bedroom tax policy, and is now having to “crawl up the front steps into his house and haul himself up on his backside to get upstairs".
In another case, a young woman was unable to meet with researchers from Disability Rights UK because her care package had been cut and she wasn’t able to pay a carer to bring her, she said.
“The Government will claim we’re world leaders in disability rights, but actually, things have gone rapidly backwards in the last 10 years. We are a developed, rich country and here we are regressing on disability rights,” said Ms Bott.
“We’re hoping that we can engage with Government and get things back on track again, so that we really can be a leader in disability rights. There are things that we feel Government could do which could really improve lives.”