BBC apologises for saying 100,000 will lose benefits at Xmas

After endless shroud waving over Universal Credit reforms...

THE BBC has been forced to apologise for an ‘alarmist’ report claiming 100,000 Universal Credit claimants would lose money over Christmas.

The allegations were made earlier this month by Paul Lewis from the Money Box programme, which reports on personal finance issues.

As well as being broadcast on the Radio 4 show, the claims also appeared on BBC Breakfast, the Today programme, the BBC website and on radio and TV news bulletins on November 18.

The Mail understands that the Department for Work and Pensions was not given full details of the story before it ran, meaning officials could not point out errors in the story.

Reporter Paul Lewis told listeners ‘up to’ 100,000 in-work Universal Credit claimants would get no benefits over the festive period.

He claimed the cuts would hit those who are paid weekly because they have five pay days in December. As a result, he said, their monthly income could be too high to receive the benefit, which changes according to income.

But on Saturday’s programme he retracted the story, admitting the real number of claimants receiving less was much lower.

He even admitted ignoring fellow staff members on the programme who had warned him his figures were wrong.

Mr Lewis told the programme: ‘Last week I did say that up to 100,000 people might end up receiving reduced Universal Credit or even no Universal Credit at all over Christmas.

‘Now if Money Box gets something wrong, we admit it ... Some people will undoubtedly receive less Universal Credit over Christmas and New Year but by no means all of them.’

‘Apologies to anyone on Universal Credit who was in any way unnecessarily alarmed.’ Last night critics said the apology was ‘inad- equate’ given the scale of publicity given to the story.

Former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who created Universal Credit, said: ‘This apology is a small and inadequate correction... Having given the department no proper opportunity to rebut the false item, the item then ran on all their news headlines without correction.’

Work and Pensions Secretary David Gauke answered questions on it in the House of Commons. He told MPs: ‘It was confused, it was misleading in its alarmist tone. It was inaccurate in the numbers it was using.’

Last night he said: ‘I welcome the BBC’s apology and urge media and politicians to be responsible and avoid misleading people when discussing Universal Credit.’

Universal Credit combines six benefits including tax credits and housing benefit into one payment. Last week Philip Hammond announced a £1.5billion overhaul that would reduce the time it took for families to receive money.

Tory MPs have criticised the Corporation for its coverage of the Universal Credit scheme which they say has been unfairly targeted.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘We are happy that this was a legitimate story.’

They said that the programme ‘reported that the DWP disputed our figures’, but that ‘Money Box regrets the inaccuracies and has run an appropriate clarification.’