DWP mail chaos must be sorted

THIS cruel Conservative Government has done everything in its power to make life miserable for people who need benefits.

The heartless Tories have spent years vindictively stripping money out of the welfare system in a measure designed to punish vulnerable people.

From the bedroom tax to Universal Credit, every change since David Cameron became PM in 2010 has made it tougher for people at the bottom to get by.

Earlier this year, a report commissioned by the United Nations found the UK’s social security safety net has been “deliberately removed and replaced with a harsh and uncaring ethos”.

Special rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston, said “ideological” cuts to public services since 2010 have led to “tragic consequences”.

Officially, and in public, the UK Government rejects Alston’s findings but behind closed doors, those in charge must be laughing.

It’s no surprise these benefit reforms have had “tragic consequences” – that was their precise intention.

Added to the horrors of this Dickensian system, it has now emerged that Government incompetence is making matters even worse.

SNP MSP Bob Doris has discovered some of his constituents have been waiting almost a year for vital benefits because of the unreliable mail system used to process claims.

Doris – the convener of Holyrood’s social security committee – has written to Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd to demand an urgent review of the chaos. VULNERABLE SCOTS AT RISK – PAGE 9