London’s door-to-door transport service for disabled people continues to be “plagued” by “significant problems”, according to a new report. The London Assembly’s transport committee investigated the performance of Dial-a-Ride – London’s largest door-to-door service, provided free to its 50,000 members – last year after “many complaints” from users. Now a follow-up report by the committee [...]

A woman who lost a legal battle for the right to use direct payments to manage her long-term condition has welcomed a new pilot project that should allow her to continue controlling how her healthcare is provided. Valerie Garnham was one of two disabled people who were forced to drop a court case against the [...]

Activists have warned that repeated government references to the need to slash the disability benefits bill could lead to a rise in disability hate crime. The government is making it increasingly clear that the more money it can save from its benefits bill, the less it will have to cut from other areas of spending. [...]

The government has admitted there are “unacceptable” variations in the quality of wheelchair services across the country. Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat care services minister, said many disabled people experienced a “poor” service, with long waiting-times and “far too much off-the-shelf or ‘like it or lump it’ provision”. His comments came in a Commons debate [...]

Disability sports organisations have welcomed government plans for a national school sports competition modelled on the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The competition was launched this week by Jeremy Hunt, secretary of state for culture, media and sport, who said he wanted to “harness Olympic and Paralympic values to revive the culture of competitive sports in [...]