Disabled pensioners will no longer face "unnecessary" repeat assessments to continue receiving benefits, the work and pensions secretary has announced. From spring, 270,000 people in Britain will not have personal independence payments (PIPs) regularly reviewed.
It is one of the biggest domestic policy issues of our times - where should the balance be struck between the individual and the state's responsibility for paying for care in old age? A much-anticipated government policy paper for England has still not surfaced. Experts are calling it a "national scandal" with services in parts of the country near collapse and millions of vulnerable people deprived of the care and support they need.
The drastic cuts to funding for disability friendship clubs, which Wiltshire Council's beleagured administration proudly announced last month, have now been postponed at least until next year. This follows an outcry from those affected and their supporters. The responsible cabinet member, Jerry Wickham, said: "I very much regret the upset this has caused to the users and staff at the clubs and I extend my apologies."
It was a revelation that left Nicky Rowlands aghast - the moment she discovered she was being accused of fabricating the illness that had left her daughter in pain. Worse was to come. Her daughter Bethanie had to go to a hospital unit for a psychological disorder which she did not have.
About 4,500 people in Northern Ireland are receiving a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for living with fibromyalgia - but as many as one in 25 people may actually be affected. Fibromyalgia is a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body and it can be difficult to detect.
Staff at a children's special needs service are facing further uncertainty, its boss claims, after a council put on hold until 2020 its plans to pull out. Newport City Council planned to leave the Gwent Sensory and Communication Support Unit (SenCom) to go it alone.