Officials admit to faking case studies in benefits leaf let
My benefit payment hasn’t changed and we booked another meeting I could get to Zac’ ‘
My benefit is back to normal now and I’m really pleased with how my CV looks ‘Sarah’
WELFARE officials invented quotes from fictional claimants to suggest they supported benefit sanctions, it emerged last night.
In an extraordinary admission, the Department for Work and Pensions admitted that two supposed welfare claimants who featured in a leaflet on benefit docking had been invented.
The two claimants, identified as ‘Sarah’ and ‘Zac’, featured in a DWP leaflet on sanctions – the system of cutting payments for breaching welfare conditions, such as failing to turn up to a JobCentre appointment.
In the leaflet, ‘ Sarah’ was quoted saying that having her benefits cut forced her to focus on improving her CV. ‘I got a letter to say my benefit would go down for two weeks.
‘I was told it was longer than a week because I missed a meeting with my work coach back in March,’ she said.
‘My benefit is back to normal now and I’m really pleased with how my CV looks. It’s going to help me when I’m ready to go back to work.’
‘Zac’ explained that he had kept officials informed of his circumstances to avoid being sanctioned. ‘I let my work coach know in advance that I couldn’t go to our meeting because I had a hospital appoint- ment,’ the quote in the leaflet says, adding: ‘I had a good reason for not going to the meeting and proof of the appointment. My benefit payment hasn’t changed and we booked another meeting I could get to.’
The DWP yesterday admitted that neither ‘Zac’ nor ‘Sarah’ exist. They said the quotes were made up, and stock photos were used.
Officials claimed the comments were based on genuine conversations with claimants. However the DWP has now amended the online version of the leaflet, removing the photographs and adding a note making it clear that the words were for ‘illustrative purposes’.
The DWP insisted: ‘We want to help people understand when sanctions can be applied and how they can avoid them. Using practical examples can help us achieve this.’
Labour’s acting work and pensions spokesman Stephen Timms said: ‘You couldn’t make it up – but it seems Iain Duncan Smith can.’ And disability charity Mencap accused the DWP of ‘unacceptable’ behaviour. The revelations have prompted a flurry of online spoofs.
Jade Azim wrote on Twitter: ‘I met my future husband at a food bank. We wouldn’t have met if it weren’t for IDS.’ Helene Hanson added: ‘Sanctions helped me be more adventurous about trying new food. (Now that I have to raid my neighbours bins for scraps.)’ And Paul Kavanagh said: ‘When the DWP sanctioned me, I was so relieved not to have to decide what to cook for dinner – I just ate whatever I found in bins.’