Time after time after time the DWP has come up short. Ministers called to the house to explain their actions. Ministers accused of distorting the truth – and receiving calls to resign. And, remember, we are dealing with the the most vulnerable people in society.
Are Esther McVey and Sarah Newton the right people to lead this Ministry?
Esther McVey – Secretary for Work and Pensions
A “major error” by the Department for Work and Pensions has led to 70,000 disabled people missing out on benefits worth up to £20,000 each, a parliamentary report has found.
Esther McVey’s DWP expects to pay out £340 million in arrears by April next year, but claimants could still be left as much as £150 million short because the department does not plan to make up for underpayments from before October 2014, found the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee.
Ms. Sarah Newton – Minister for Disabled People
And those affected will not be reimbursed for benefits such as NHS prescriptions, dentist’s treatment and free school meals which they missed out on because of the DWP’s mistake.
Meg Hillier – Public Accounts Committee Chair
Meg Hillier described the DWP’s response to the problem with employment and support allowance (ESA) as “blinkered and wholly inept”, and said it revealed “weakness at the highest levels of management.”
She went on to add, “Thousands of people have not received money essential for living costs. The department simply didn’t listen to what claimants, experts, support organisations and its own staff were saying. Its sluggishness in correcting underpayments, years after it accepted responsibility for the error, points to weakness at the highest levels of management.
Indifference has no place in the delivery of vital public services. It must be rooted out wherever it is found.”
A DWP spokesman said, “We take the issue of underpayments very seriously and have actively taken steps to put this right as quickly as possible, to ensure people get the support that people are entitled to. We have recruited 400 extra staff and have already started making payments – over £40 million so far.”
Those affected were people whose ability to work is affected by disability or illness, who were transferred from the old incapacity benefit on to ESA from 2011 onwards.
Some 70,000 people have ended up being underpaid for years, losing an average of £5,000 – of these, more than 20,000 of those most in need are owed £11,500 each and some as much as £20,000.
Marsha De Cordova – Shadow Work and Pensions Minister
Ms. Cordova said, “These errors have led to thousands of disabled people being denied welfare benefits and have caused significant hardship.”
She went on to say, “This is another climbdown from a department in chaos. The DWP was alerted to this error as early as 2013 but, in what the Public Accounts Committee report described as a culture of indifference at the DWP, the report was neglected only to be taken up six years after it had occurred.”