Oh dear.
The Department for Work and Pensions has given the Twitterati pure gold – by admitting that it made up stories about benefit sanctions.
In response to a FOI by a website called Welfare Weekly, the government department revealed that so-called misbehaving claimants like “Sarah” and well behaved claimants like “Zac” don’t actually exist.
Rather, their stories – Sarah failed to write her CV, while Zac correctly informed his work coach about a hospital appointment – were for “illustrative purposes”, and to demonstrate how Iain Duncan Smith’s controversial benefit sanctions worked.
Read the full story here.
Or skip straight to the tweets:
Sarah’s Story #fakeDWPstoriespic.twitter.com/4OnNMTKZCg
— Jason Spacey (@Jason_Spacey) August 18, 2015
It’s not like DWP have done anything like this before. They forgot to use a planted account for this. #fakeDWPstoriespic.twitter.com/eJ92wkPc04
— Jon Swindon (@swindon81) August 18, 2015
Since having our benefits sanctioned we’ve both started working full time for Greggs #fakeDWPstoriespic.twitter.com/eRZ95P63SS
— Jon Swindon (@swindon81) August 18, 2015
Being sanctioned by the DWP motivated me to grow back my missing leg. It’s all in the mind. #fakeDWPstories
— Steph (@Tenniswatch3r) August 18, 2015
When the DWP sanctioned me, I was so relieved not to have to decide what to cook for dinner & just ate what I found in bins #FakeDWPStories
— Paul Kavanagh (@weegingerdug) August 18, 2015
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