Frank Field comment on the NAO’s investigation into errors in Employment and Support Allowance

Commenting on the publication of the results of the NAO’s investigation into errors in Employment and Support Allowance, also being published at midnight tonight, Rt Hon Frank Field MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said:

“This is a damning report. The Department is quick to act in cases of overpayment, quick to sanction claimants for any breach of its rules – but when the shoe is on the other foot, has shown it will take years to recognise and get to grips with its own mistakes.  This must have caused even more hardship for people many of whom have struggled through an assessment process that we heard from thousands of accounts is, for some, gruelling and humiliating, and riddled with errors and wrong decisions. It is welcome that the Department is finally moving to right its mistakes, if slowly, but this is a shocking story of a group of people serially failed by DWP over a period of years.”