Good morning. A new public accounts committee report has found that disability benefit claimants are receiving “unacceptably poor service” from the government, waiting on average 10 times longer than other claimants for their calls to be answered. Meanwhile, rising DWP underpayments are leaving many at greater risk of hardship.
For the past year, the Labour party has taken a contradictory approach to social security. It wants to move away from the harshness of austerity, yet its rhetoric remains rooted in pledges to be “ruthless” in cutting the “spiralling” benefits bill and prioritising “working people”. Campaigners and charities warn that much of this language echoes the punitive “welfare crackdowns” of previous governments.
