DWP caught out over sanctions factsheet
Wednesday, 19 August 2015
Mind
A Freedom of Information (FoI) request from Welfare Weekly revealed that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had used fake 'claimants' in a factsheet about benefits sanctions.
Responding to this, Sophie Corlett, Director of External Relations at Mind, said:
“The use of fabricated case studies by the DWP to show the supposed effectiveness of sanctions indicates just how little evidence there is to support their use. Stopping someone’s benefit in this way is based on the false assumption that it will encourage them into work."
"For people with mental health problems, the opposite is true – threatened or actual sanctions cause a great deal of anxiety as well as financial problems, and often push them further from work. We are continuing to call on the DWP to review using this punitive approach on people with mental health problems and other disabilities.”