The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has criticised the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), for the manner in which they ran an advertising campaign for Universal Credit. The high profile campaign drew criticism from the beginning for the misleading nature of the advertorials that claimed to “debunk myths about Universal Credit”. Now the ASA has upheld three complaints, and partially
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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has come under fire after it announced a scheme whereby jobcentre sdtaff assess claimants mental health. The £100,000 scheme being rolled out in Cornwall will see claimants on Universal Credit assessed by the work coach to as “to avoid seeing their GP”. The DWP have announced a controvertial £100,000 scheme for benefit claimants
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The National Audit Office (NAO) has released its annual audit of the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) accounts. The government spending watchdog has reported that benefit payment errors are at their highest since 2005/06 and that the DWP is losing more money through its own errors than it does by fraud. Universal Credit has also been criticised for having
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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are once again under fire after it emerged that they have paid out over £600 million to two private companies who carry out benefit health assessments. Atos and Maximus have had their contracts to carry out health assessments for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) extended despite having been
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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are facing further criticism following the release of yet another shocking statistic. In an answer to a written question it was revealed that 52% of claimants moved from Disability Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) have had the high rate element of mobility removed. That means that since 2013, over half a
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On the same day the United Nations report on Extreme Poverty was released. the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) embarked on their deceptive puff piece on Universal Credit. However, all did not go according to plan. Activists and unions send the host paper, the Metro Free Newspaper, a strong message by starting a campaign to bin the papers. I
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Today saw the long awaited report from United Nations Special Rapporteur for Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Professor Philip Alston. Alston visited the UK last November and was highly critical in his initial findings. The full report is damning about the Conservative’s use of austerity. Due to the length and content of the report, I’m breaking it down into a
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It has emerged that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) plan to start a covert campaign to tackle “misinformation” about Universal Credit. A memo first revealed by the Guardian, talks of an unbranded wraparound advert on the Metro Newspaper and a BBC Two documentary they helped make. It is a propaganda campaign North Korea would be proud of due
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A written question to The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has revealed that government contractor Maximus, have failed to meet targets two-thirds of the time since March 2015. This raises serious questions as to why earlier this year, the private firm had its contract renewed until 2021 despite failing so badly. Maximus are one of the private companies paid
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The High Court have once again dealt a damning blow to the government’s Universal Credit plans. Today that a judge has ruled the government’s Universal Credit migration arrangements for those who previously received the Severe Disability Premium (SDP) and, moved onto Universal Credit before 16 January 2019 as; “unlawful.” The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will have to rethink
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Yesterday saw MPs debate 10-years of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) that sick and disabled benefit claimants go through. Despite the mountain of evidence that WCA cause harm to claimants, excluding the minister responding, not one Tory MP thought it worthwhile attending the debate. Conservative MPs rarely, if ever, take part in debates about welfare unless they’re there to defend
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National foodbank charity The Trussell Trust have released their end of year statistics for the period April 2018 to March 2019. They show that the number of food parcels they gave out rose by 19% to nearly 1.6 million. Just under 500,000 of those were for children. The main reason for this rise? Benefits not covering living costs. Earlier this
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The Work and Pensions Committee at Westminster have criticised the government for its response to a report they compiled on the issues Universal Credit claimants requiring help with childcare costs have. They have accused the government of failing to listen and for showing contempt to those who gave evidence of the struggles they face. The Work and Pensions Committee is
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I recently wrote about the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) collaborating with Channel 4’s popular program Gogglebox. In an exclusive I can now reveal that this single two minute advert cost us the taxpayer a staggering £315,000. The DWP are being accused of wasting taxpayer cash as it has emerged they paid the production company of the popular Channel
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