The government has been accused by MPs of “manipulating” its own benefit statistics in a bid to justify scrapping working-age disability living allowance (DLA).
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) claimed that the number of DLA claimants was increasing, but neglected to point out that working-age recipients have actually been falling.
On Monday – the same day that Channel 4 aired a Dispatches investigation into the reforms – DWP released a “statistical update”, which it said showed the number of successful claimants of DLA had risen by 15,000 between February and May 2012.
But analysis of DWP figures by Disability News Service (DNS) has shown that the rise in claimants is due to increases in the number of children and older people receiving DLA, while the number of claimants aged 16-64 actually fell by more than 1,600.
This is important because the reforms and cuts will only affect working-age claimants, with DLA for that group to be gradually replaced by the new personal independence payment (PIP) from April.
Stephen Lloyd, the disabled Liberal Democrat MP, who has previously criticised the coalition for “pandering to the Daily Mail” – after it published a misleading press release about the results of its “fitness for work” tests – said he was “extremely angry at this sleight of hand by the DWP”.
He is to write to Esther McVey, the Conservative minister for disabled people, to highlight his concerns about her department’s “massaging of the stats”.
Anne McGuire, Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people, said it was “yet another example of the DWP manipulating the figures on DLA to suit their agenda of abolishing DLA”.
She said: “I find it astonishing that it was not made clear that the number of working age applicants are falling, and can only conclude that this did not suit their agenda.
disabilitynewsservice.com/2013/03/govern...try-to-justify-cuts/
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) claimed that the number of DLA claimants was increasing, but neglected to point out that working-age recipients have actually been falling.
On Monday – the same day that Channel 4 aired a Dispatches investigation into the reforms – DWP released a “statistical update”, which it said showed the number of successful claimants of DLA had risen by 15,000 between February and May 2012.
But analysis of DWP figures by Disability News Service (DNS) has shown that the rise in claimants is due to increases in the number of children and older people receiving DLA, while the number of claimants aged 16-64 actually fell by more than 1,600.
This is important because the reforms and cuts will only affect working-age claimants, with DLA for that group to be gradually replaced by the new personal independence payment (PIP) from April.
Stephen Lloyd, the disabled Liberal Democrat MP, who has previously criticised the coalition for “pandering to the Daily Mail” – after it published a misleading press release about the results of its “fitness for work” tests – said he was “extremely angry at this sleight of hand by the DWP”.
He is to write to Esther McVey, the Conservative minister for disabled people, to highlight his concerns about her department’s “massaging of the stats”.
Anne McGuire, Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people, said it was “yet another example of the DWP manipulating the figures on DLA to suit their agenda of abolishing DLA”.
She said: “I find it astonishing that it was not made clear that the number of working age applicants are falling, and can only conclude that this did not suit their agenda.
disabilitynewsservice.com/2013/03/govern...try-to-justify-cuts/
