Investigating the DWP

Earlier this year the government announced that it was beginning to role out psychometric tests for individuals who were claiming social welfare. Among the facts that the DWP denied

• they were threatening jobseekers with benefit sanction if they refused to participate
• that no qualified psychologists were involved in the decision to threaten potentially-vulnerable into becoming guinea-pigs
• that no training was given to Jobcentre Plus (JCP) advisers in how to select people for the test beyond telling them to do it
• that the experiment had been subjected to none of the usual validations or safeguards

The whole thing stank of the contemptuous, reckless attitude of the DWP and the Cabinet Office’s Nudge Unit toward unemployed people.

It turns out that the psychological abuse of jobseekers – and the abuse of psychology by the government – are by no means limited to the fake test.

Disability benefit claimants are able to ask for their Work Capability Assessments (WCA – usually conducted by Atos) interviews and assessments to be recorded.

DWP hurdles

Many disabled people have complained that obstacles are placed in the way of any wish to record Atos assessments. But if you’re not disabled and are simply unemployed, it appears that these commonsense rules do not even apply in theory. On the contrary, if you ask to record your JCP interviews, it appears you are likely to be labelled psychologically unstable – and deprived of your benefits.

DWP investigation

A jobseeker has forwarded me a copy of correspondence sent to them because they insisted that they wished to record their interviews at the JCP, a request which is more than reasonable in a context of such ridiculous decisions as sanctioning a claimant for attending a job interview.

The two documents in question are quite stunning in what they demonstrate about how claimants are regarded and treated by many within the benefits system under this government. Here’s the main letter:

Am I crazy?

The claimant was referred to a work psychologist simply for wanting to record his/her JCP interviews. The psychologist – contrary to the guidance given to disabled people states that the request to have interviews recorded is impacting on benefit entitlement, a thinly-veiled threat that the claimant will be sanctioned or have his/her claim discontinued if he/she refused to stop asking.

Fighting the impossible

A stark choice: attend the discussion and agree not to record it, or don’t agree – and don’t attend (with obvious consequences for the continuation of benefits.

Summary

Each time I think it couldn’t be plainer that this government despises the unemployed and has set up the system to torture them, it turns out I’m wrong. But it’s very, very evident that our current excuse for leadership considers psychological abuse a perfectly acceptable measure to take against jobseekers for even the most reasonable requests – or for that matter, just for existing.