The leaflet was hastily withdrawn from the Government’s website after it emerged stories from claimants named “Zac” and “Susan” detailing their experience of benefit sanctions were fictitious.
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“If I don’t apply for the jobs my work coach asks me to apply for I could end up losing my benefits for three years”.
Read the full story here.
The stories are for illustrative purposes only.
An information carried pictures of Sarah and Zac, two supposed welfare claimants, alongside personal accounts of the sanctions regime.
The DWP insisted the case studies were “based on conversations our staff have had with claimants” and were dreamed up “to help people understand how the benefit system works”.
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) said it had written to all of its members who work at the Department for Work and Pensions to find out whether they had played any part in putting the leaflet together.
One “benefits claimant”, Sarah, was quoted as being “really pleased” that her handout had been cut because it spurred her on to re-write her CV. “It’s going to help me when I’m ready to go back to work”, the quote said.
However, the response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request submitted by Welfare Weekly has revealed that the comments from Sarah and the other case study were not, in fact, real – and didn’t even come from real claimants.
The DWP and Works and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith have been slammed by Labour leader contender Andy Burnham as “further evidence of a shambolic Tory benefits policy”.
Mr Timms added: “Instead of fabricating quotes pretending the system is working, [Iain Duncan Smith] should scrap unfair sanctions targets for jobcentre staff and do more to protect vulnerable people from facing benefit sanctions”.
Initially the DWP did not rule out continuing to “test” the original version with the fictional characters alongside one where the pictures were silhouetted and a note was added that they were “illustrative”.
But at the time of publication, the leaflet had been removed from the DWP website entirely.
“Benefits are a lifeline to many people with a learning disability who rely on them to make ends meet”.
We want to help people understand when sanctions can be applied and how they can avoid them by taking certain actions.
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Welfare Weekly editor Steven Preece slammed the revelation as “damning” and accused the DWP of going to “any length to mislead the voting public into believing the benefit sanctions regime is working”.
