The government is hiding figures that would show how often its civil servants are making life-threatening errors when dealing with the benefit claims of disabled people, just as media reports suggest it is planning sweeping cuts and reforms.
Last Friday, The Times reported that everyone on out-of-work disability benefits could be forced to carry out work-related activity, while hundreds of thousands of disabled people could see their support cut.
The article stressed that no decisions had yet been made, but The Times is known to have highly-placed contacts within both the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Treasury, which is said to be pushing for significant spending cuts.
But just as reports suggest the government is planning major changes that could impose significant safeguarding risks for disabled claimants, and increase pressure on DWP work coaches and jobcentres, DWP has blocked the publication of updated figures that would show the number of potentially fatal errors being made by its staff.
Last month, Disability News Service (DNS) reported on the long-delayed release of figures from last April, which showed how DWP staff were making thousands of potentially fatal errors every month when dealing with the benefit claims of disabled people, particularly in relation to universal credit claims and the department’s fraud and “compliance” work.
Liz Kendall – continuing the Tories’ treatment of the vulnerable (image: Skwawkbox)
Could anything provide better proof that Starmer’s party is just the red-badged version of the murderous Tories?
Liz Kendall’s (DWP) is trying to block the release of data from reports compiled under the Tories on how many people’s deaths were linked to the hated and punitive Universal Credit (UC). If released, the information is expected to show what internal investigations were carried out by the DWP into the deaths of claimants since 2019.
Data the Tories did release in 2021 showed that 43% of UC claimants were in food poverty – well before the steep rises in food and energy prices caused by corporate price-gouging in the so-called ‘cost of living emergency. The previous year, the Conservative government had been heavily criticised by the United Nations’ poverty expert for its intentional cruelty and the misery it inflicts on millions.
The Disability News Service (DNS) had been trying since November to obtain the DWP data on the number of internal process reviews (IPRs) it carried out following deaths of UC claimants and what actions investigators had recommended the DWP take to prevent further deaths.
Last month, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) ordered the Labour DWP to release the information, but the ICO has announced that the Labour government is appealing the decision and trying to block the release.
DNS had also reported that Labour is also blocking the release of information about IPRs carried out into the work capability assessment (WCA) under the Tories. As commentator Kernow Damo has pointed out, Labour is withholding information that would damn the Tories – and the only feasible reason for doing that is because Keir Starmer’s DWP Secretary, right-wing horror Liz Kendall, is planning to continue the Tories processes and policies.
It’s hard to imagine a more perfect proof that Labour is the Tory party with a red rosette than the red Tories trying to hide proof of the evils of the blue Tories they’re supposed to be opposing.
