Bessie J

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has issued a second misleading press release in consecutive weeks as it tries to trick the mainstream media into supporting its controversial cuts to disability benefits.

This time, work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall included at least four misleading statements in her short press release, which was headed “Almost two million people on Universal Credit not supported to look for work”.

The press release was published five days before Kendall launched her reforms of the disability benefits system (see separate stories).

DWP stated that the number of disabled people on universal credit who were “too sick to look for work” had risen by 383 per cent since the start of the pandemic, from 363,000 to 1.8 million.

But it only managed to reach that striking calculation by ignoring those who had been found not fit for work and were still receiving employment and support allowance (ESA) in 2019-20 (of which there were nearly two million).

The only reference to ESA was in a “further information” note at the bottom of the press release, which admitted that an increase “was anticipated for reasons including people moving from legacy benefits [which include ESA] onto Universal Credit”.

The press release also claimed there were only two choices in the current “dysfunctional” system: “fit for work” or “not fit for work”.

This is not true. There is a third group for those said to have limited capability for work, who have to take part in work-related activity because they are expected to be capable of work in the future.

A third misleading statement in the press release was that disabled people found not fit for work on universal credit “get locked out of help and support”.

Again, this is not true, as they can ask DWP to provide support, including through the Access to Work scheme.

The department’s fourth misleading statement came as it claimed – again in a footnote – that 70 per cent of the increase in the number of disabled people receiving the health element of universal credit and ESA in the past five years “was not expected by the Department”.

But it failed to mention the impact of the pandemic, with research by the respected Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) – published the previous day – finding that “mental health has worsened since the pandemic”, which was “consistent with rising disability benefit claims for mental health”.

The IFS report found that “deaths of despair” – those attributed to alcohol, drugs and suicide – rose by 24 per cent in England and Wales in 2023, compared with the 2015-19 pre-pandemic average.

DWP refused to answer questions about the press release this week, including why Kendall believed she needed to send out misleading press releases to defend her case for the cuts, and whether she would apologise for the misleading statements and untruths.

DWP had also refused to comment last week when it was criticised for an earlier misleading release.

DWP claimed in that press release that there had been a “staggering 319 per cent increase” in the number of working-age people on the health and disability element of universal credit or receiving employment and support allowance.

The department said this showed the “alarming rate at which young and working aged people are increasingly falling out of work and claiming incapacity benefits”.

But although there had been an increase – most likely caused by the impact of growing NHS waiting-lists and the Covid pandemic, among other factors – it was likely to be about 30 to 35 per cent, if comparing 2019-20 with 2023-24.

The 319 per cent figure was quietly removed from the press release last week after DNS questioned its accuracy, but DWP failed to add a note to the website to show that the press release had been corrected, and it refused three times to respond to requests to comment on its use of the exaggerated figure.