Politics
DWP has its arse handed to them
MP Debbie Abrahams is ripping into the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) again, this time by calling out the vile culture in the department and their slowness in supporting victims of the carers scandal.
Debbie Abrahams calls out DWP culture
The letter follows DWP permanent secretary Peter Schofield’s disastrous turn in front of the Work and Pensions Committee last month. During the discussion, Lib Dem Steve Darling accused Schofield of talking “blancmange” and Abrahams asked “how on earth” he could possibly explain the DWP’s behaviour.
In a letter to the DWP’s Peter Schofield, Abrahams said that the lack of change in culture meant claimants did not trust them. She said that although Schofield said there were changes (though failed to say what), these were “too incremental and too slow”.
By all accounts, she absolutely handed him his arse in the letter:
Fundamentally, we believe that the Department is failing to put the needs of vulnerable people first, that it is unwilling to learn from its mistakes and that it shows a lack of urgency to bring about change. Until the Department changes its culture, it will always struggle to build trust with the people it is meant to serve.
Abrahams also called out how much the DWP refuses to own it’s mistakes and learn from them. She said there was a “culture of complacency” in the department. She pointed out that the committee raised several issues with Schofield, including the handling of the carers’ scandal. Schofield’s response to intense questioning was, for the most part, complete bullshit.
She told Schofield in the letter:
When things go wrong, we expect the Department to accept its faults, swiftly provide redress and to learn from its errors. The Department has shown repeated inadequacy in its response to mistakes and a lack of urgency when it comes to righting wrongs.
DWP’s great track record? Where?
In the committee hearing, when asked about the carers’ scandal, Schofield said
We’ve got a great track record of putting things right when things go wrong. This is a department that when it knows we have to get things right we put it right.
This is something the committee audibly disagreed with at the time, and something Abrahams all directly calls out in the letter
You told the Committee that DWP has “a great track record of putting right when we get things wrong” – I disagree.
The committee hearing followed the publication of the Sayce Review into carers’ allowance overpayments. The report found that 86,900 carers still had outstanding overpayment debts. Crucially it ruled that overpayments on this scale were due to “systematic issues within the department”. And not, as another DWP Civil Servant, Neil Couling, claimed, down to individual claimants.
In her letter, Abrahams addresses Couling’s comments, saying it:
raises questions about the senior team as a whole under your leadership. It undermines the sincerity of your apology and efforts to rebuild trust. Moreover, I am concerned that these attitudes may be more widespread, and indicative of a culture within the Department that blames claimants for errors and fails to recognise the needs of vulnerable people
She also called out Schofield for refusing to respond directly to questions about Couling in the committee hearing and asked him to respond in writing to the following questions:
How do you explain the failures of Departmental culture that contributed to carers allowance overpayments?
What action will you be taking in your senior team to address the evident attitudinal issues?
DWP have had enough time to fix this
It’s not like the DWP hasn’t had more than enough time and opportunity to right the carers crisis, but they’ve failed time and time again.
This is something Abraham’s brought up too:
It is difficult to have confidence in your commitment to rectify DWP’s mistakes given you have had ample opportunity to fix carers allowance overpayments since at least 2019.
She reminded Schofield that back in 2019 the DWP said they had a strategy to fix the carers allowance crisis and processes in place to prevent overpayments in the future. However, this clearly isn’t the case.
Abrahams seethed:
Given the previous assertions by DWP that it would fix carers allowance overpayments, I’m sure you can understand my scepticism about your most recent commitments.
She has demanded Schofield sets out how the DWP will ensure the problems are “actually addressed this time”.
Still not finished, Abraham’s final blow is on how the DWP still hasn’t admitted the blame for this horrific crisis.
I was also disappointed that your admission of fault and apology only covered carers affected by flawed guidance on averaging earnings, which was only one error identified by the Sayce Review. You failed to mention at the start of the session that DWP does not accept that its guidance on allowable expenses was also flawed and does not plan to cancel debts or reimburse repayments related to this guidance
She calls Schofield’s failure to do this “disingenuous” and that it undermines the idea that he does actually want to fix things. She also points out that when she did raise the issue, Schofield made a pathetic excuse about “limiting decision makers’ discretion”. As a result, Abrahams also demanded to know the DWP’s position on allowable expenses
why it disagrees with the findings of the Sayce review; whether it will investigate how many people were affected by this issue; and what, if any, redress it is considering.
Schofield stepping down, but pressure must be kept on
It’s worth pointing out that since this letter was published, Schofield has announced he’s stepping down. It’s been insisted that this is for personal reasons, and he will remain in post until July. In a statement, Abrahams said:
The Work and Pensions Select Committee will continue to hold the Government to account on social security and pensions policy including its culture and how policy is delivered.
What’s clear from Abraham’s letter, along with every other criticism of the DWP, is just how toxic an organisation it is. When the organisation which is supposed to support our most vulnerable instead spends all it’s time demonising and blaming them, it is one that is not fit for purpose.
Featured image via the Canary