A TEESSIDE taxi driver has been fined after he refused to take a 24- year-old woman in a wheelchair home - even though his vehicle was wheelchair accessible. Rafiq Latif, of Cambridge Road, Middlesbrough, was working in his hackney carriage taxi in Corporation Road in the town on the night of Friday, February 5 ,this year.
Disabled people will be hit with more than £9bn in welfare cuts over the next five years, a think tank has warned. Demos suggests the government's plans will see 3.6m disabled people and carers lose about £9.2bn by 2015. It said moving those on incapacity benefit who were reassessed as fit to work to jobseeker's allowance would account for half of the losses.
Some people with a mental health problem are having to wait up to three years to talk to a counsellor, depending on where they live. Mental health charity Mind says three quarters of sufferers first start to get problems when they're under 25.
Elderly people who get about by walking are less likely to suffer mental decline or even dementia, a study says. Brain scans revealed that older people walking between six and nine miles a week appeared to have more brain tissue in key areas.
New research from the Dyspraxia Foundation reveals that children and young people with dyspraxia are being denied access to sport and leisure activities because of poor awareness of the condition.
A motion of no confidence in the leadership of a multiple sclerosis (MS) charity over the closure of respite care centres has failed. The residential centres in York, Surrey (Brambles in Horley), Warwickshire and East Lothian (Leuchars) face closure if they are not taken over by other organisations. The MS Society says its reviews aims to give patients and carers "more choice and control".