Disability News Roundup: welfare reform and the 'fit to work' test

The welfare reform bill suffered defeats on three issues in the House of Lords on Wednesday.

Peers rejected means testing of the employment support allowance for some cancer patients after 12 months, extending it to two years. They also voted down the proposed 12-month limit on ESA claimants judged capable of work in the future, and rejected moves to stop young people who have never worked due to illness or disability from receiving contributory ESA.

And the national newspapers have reacted to the hat trick of government defeats.

Ministers are now facing a £1.6 billion black hole in their welfare reform plans, said the Daily Mail. And the Daily Telegraph suggested the vulnerable are being asked to pay the price for bankers' failures.

In an opinion piece for The Guardian, Polly Toynbee writes:
"If not these cuts, then what, the government challenged the Lords rebels yesterday? The answer is to cut almost anything else before picking on the disabled."

Employment minister Chris Grayling told the BBC that ministers would seek to reverse the amendments in the Lords when they came back into the Commons.

Elsewhere in the news

I just want to live independently (BBC Radio 4's Today Programme)

Carers need a break, too (Comment is Free, The Guardian)

Inaccuracies dog 'fit to work' test (Guardian)

We're all desperate for welfare reform, Mr Cameron, but hiding the truth is not the way to achieve it (Opinion piece, Daily Mail)

PM gave a negative image of Tourette's, says campaigner (BBC 5live)

Stephen Hawking: defying the odds of medecine (BBC News profile)

Alastair Campbell: How I got happy and stayed grumpy (Guardian)

Freddie Flintoff talks to big names in sport about their battles with depression (The Sun)

Amputee British soldiers battle-on in gruelling 3,000 mile Atlantic rowing race (Daily Mirror)

Funeral tribute for X Factor star Kerry McGregor (BBC Scotland)

Sinead O'Connor makes plea for psychiatric help on Twitter (Daily Mirror)

Around the world

Disabled people in Bolivia on the march in quest for equality (Guardian)

Silke Schoenfleisch-Backofen: 3ft 8in lawyer sues witness who laughed at her and sang 'Hi Ho' (The Daily Mail)

Greece disability list sparks welfare benefits row (BBC News)