We Name and Shame the Guilty PartiesIncompetent benefits staff penalise genuine claimants |
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Incompetent DWP staff intentionally defraud claimantsWe often criticise councillors for seeking election for all the wrong reasons. We are therefore pleased to publish a report from a Poole councillor who sought election because he genuinely wanted to right wrongs. We salute him for that and hope he will keep up the good work. Our correspondent writes ... Not all alleged overpayments are the result of fraud. In fact, official error in making overpayments is inevitable - as discovered by the Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee in 2007, Public Accounts Committee, and revealed in several internal Department of Work and Pensions reports since 2004. These same reports found a complete lack of confidence in DWP staff being able to provide accurate information to customers and colleagues. This includes staff intentionally withholding information and guidance, and/or providing inadequate information and/or providing acceptable levels of service to customers. This has resulted in at least 800 cases of official error a year, as well as oral and written misdirection - sources: Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, Audit Office report 2006, Citizens Advice Bureau. In addition, there is the problem of DWP and benefits staff providing inaccurate and incomplete information which was still not addressed after a Comptroller and Auditor General Report of 2000. A 2005 internal DWP report still found staff continuing to mislead customers and this had still not been addressed by the time the Public Accounts Committee reported last year. As a local Councillor, I deal with many overpayment cases clearly caused by administrative errors by DWP, Jobcentre Plus, and other benefits staff. My local Citizens Advice Bureau is swamped with more similar cases. The DWP is consistently failing to address this problem and instead is blindly prosecuting innocent people who been misled and incorrectly advised in order to cover up its own systematic failings. Justice demands that we do not confuse the drive to crack down on the truly fraudulent with attempts to cover up widespread failings in the benefits system. Cllr D Martin, Editorial comment:
Regrettably, this never happens in such circles. These toffs who run government organisations are selected for who they know, not what they know. They generally have no idea what happens at grass root levels and don't really care. They are more interested in protecting their enormous salaries and gold-plated pensions.
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www.name-n-shame.co.uk
Copyright © 2002 Name and Shame
Last updated:
14 November 2008 |
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It would be nice to think the Rt. Hon. James
Purnell (left) might read this
article. But if he was doing his
job properly he would already know all about the problems detailed in the numerous reports mentioned above and would haul the Permanent Secretary
for the Department for Work and Pensions, Sir Leigh Lewis KCB, (right) over the coals and warn him that if he didn't get his house in order he
would be out on his neck.
