I logged in to my UC journal today to see where DWP-UC is up to with paying me the right amount of money. They’ve made one correction – they’re no longer taking ESA repayments off me, which I had already repaid. They then also went and changed ALL of my past UC payment notices. They now don’t show what I was actually paid, and ironically still aren’t correct – because the housing element has now been removed completely. Sadly I didn’t download and save my previous UC payment

Another quarter-year, another labour market release. Cue the DWP praising itself for record numbers of people in work, and record rates of people in work, and eight other employment records. The UK must be nearing full employment, with rages rising and working conditions improving. To the many people looking for any work, more work and better work, the DWP’s narrative doesn’t make sense.  How come, if the economy and job market is doing so well, their work and pay is still so

On Monday the government started the roll-out of its new disability benefit, Personal Independence Payments. According to the government, PIP “better reflects today’s understanding of disability.” As a disabled person and researcher, my first response was to think that ‘DWP’ would have been a better fit than the word ‘today’ in that sentence. PIP is widely viewed as based heavily on the ‘medical’ model of disability, whilst people with understanding of disability today would