The Disability Unit set up last year to break down the barriers faced by people with disabilities is under fire for its failure to make any policy announcements since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic despite evidence of the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 crisis on people with disabilities.
Two new studies have shown how people with disabilities had been affected by the crisis – by Greater Manchester Disabled People’s Panel and academics from Oxford University – with cuts to support, and problems accessing food, medicine and information, and significant ongoing impact on their mental health.
There were calls for an inquiry last month from leading disabled figures when Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures revealed that younger women with disabilities were as much as 11 times more likely to die from coronavirus than non-disabled women in the same age group.
The ONS figures showed that 22,500 people with disabilities of all ages had died due to COVID-19 between 2 March and 15 May, compared with about 15,500 non-disabled people.
Despite this mounting evidence of the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on people with disabilities, the Disability Unit’s web page has remained silent since 2 April, with the minister for disabled people, Justin Tomlinson, failing to use the page to speak out, progress report or announce any policy developments to deal with the crisis.
The Disability Unit is supposed to support Tomlinson, and one of its responsibilities is to help government departments “develop and monitor policies that remove barriers faced by people with disabilities.”
But since four announcements between 31 March and 2 April – the first it had issued since its formation in November 2019 – there has been no further communication through its web page.
The Disability Unit brings together the former Office for Disability Issues and other experts from across government and has offices in London, Sheffield, and Leeds. There has been anger and concern at the Disability Unit’s failure from disabled activists and disabled people’s organisations.
