DWP ordered to correct ‘entirely misleading’ claim about universal credit claimants looking for work

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been ordered to correct a false claim that said the number of people on universal credit with no requirement to look for work had increased by 383% since the pandemic as the government looked to justify new welfare reforms.

Rob Kent-Smith, the deputy head of the UK’s Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), said the department had presented an “entirely misleading picture to the public” as part of a DWP press release from 13 March, emphasising the number of people on universal credit without support to look for work.

The statistics regulator said the DWP had inflated the rise in the number of people considered too sick to look for work when it said there had been a 383% increase in less than five years.

OSR said the government department had counted people who had migrated from legacy benefits. The true figure is in fact a 50% increase.

Less than a week after the government made the claim, work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall unveiled the government’s green paper which included the “biggest cuts to disability benefits on record”, and reduced the health element of universal credit for new claimants.

“The statement that the number of people claiming disability elements of universal credit has increased by 383% presents an entirely misleading picture to the public,” Kent-Smith said in a letter to Peter Schofield, the DWP’s permanent secretary.

“The figure does not recognise that the majority of this increase is due to the process of migrating people from legacy benefits, such as employment and support allowance (ESA), to universal credit over the last few years. When these people are accounted for, the actual increase in the number of people claiming disability elements of universal credit is 50%.”

After initially being called out by the OSR, which is the UK’s independent monitor of official statistics, the DWP updated its press notice to reference people moving from other benefits. However, the reference to a 383% increase remained and the OSR has asked for it be removed by 4 April – almost a full month after the claim was first made.

A DWP spokesperson said: “Our press notice focused on new data released by the department at the time. We accept the views of the OSR and have made the necessary amends to reflect their feedback, honouring our commitment to transparency.”

Universal credit is among a number of things changing on 1 April. From energy bills to rent rises, here’s our guide to all the changes.

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