Work and Pensions Chair writes to Employment Secretary over “egregious” media coverage

In what appears to be an unprecedented move, the Chair of the Commons Work and Pensions, Dame Anne Begg MP, has today written to the Minister for Employment, Chris Grayling.

Mrs Begg expresses serious concerns at the most recent misrepresentation of DWP statistics on benefit claimants in some sections of the media yesterday and today.

She also calls into question the timing of the release of official statistics that “coincide” with the release of the Work and Pensions Committee report on the WCA.

She highlights the Daily Mail and the Daily Express, as being “particularly egregious example of the way they can be misused. The headline in today’s Daily Mail was “The shirking classes: just 1 in 14 incapacity benefit claimants is unfit to work”.”

Finally, Mrs Begg goes onto seek assurances that Mr Grayling will “be contacting newspaper editors again to urge them to ensure that the reports they carry about ESA claims are factually correct and that they avoid pejorative terms such as “shirkers” and “scroungers” which are irresponsible and inaccurate.”

I look forward to Mr Grayling’s response with interest….

Letter to Employment Minister on release of benefit claimant statistics

Have the newspaper editors ever given a monkeys about what they print, behave or the affect they have on people?
The recent phone hacking mess shows that our media has no morals at all. I would like to see Graylings response to the Dames request to stop demonising claimants but we will probably get the ” we cant control press freedom of speech” argument again.
Wednesdays mail and Express headlines were simply sickening and will only add to physical and verbal attacks on the disabled.
Sometimes I despair but as an adviser it just makes me more determined to ensure my clients get as much support as possible.