Today the Government responded to the Work and Pensions Select Committee report on the Department for Work and Pensions’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. The DWP has by incompetence or deliberate omission, ignored several important issues in their inadequate response.
The committee found that some people during the pandemic were encouraged by the Government to move from other support on to Universal Credit and have been left worse off as a result, some qualifying for no help at all sadly.
Despite Ministers saying they were looking carefully at what could be done for these people and recommendations from the committee that previous financial support should be reinstated, DWP have responded saying people should check their eligibility before applying – with no plan to help those already affected.
This is appalling but is sadly the incompetent, tin-eared response that typifies this Government. I hope the Ministers reconsider their response and deliver another much-needed but belated u-turn.