DWP

Prisoner benefit overpayments plummet – but DWP still missing £21m

Benefits paid to prisoners have declined by 96 per cent since 2007 – but almost £21m is still missing because only half the money has been recovered to the Department for Work and Pensions, an investigation by Help Me Investigate’s Gesbeen Mohammad has revealed. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) centralised its benefits database […]

Savage times, but food banks act to put bread on the table

Many supermarket customers dropped food donations into Tesco trolleys over the weekend for those UK people struggling with food poverty. The traditional habit of feeding the birds snippets seems to be replaced with more serious concerns. The Trussell Trust’s national food collection across 3000 Tescos stores on the busiest weekend of the year meets an […]

Useful links to August 30th: living costs crisis; intern death; DWP zero hours; modern workers

These are some welfare links we found interesting during the second two weeks of August. Food bank Britain: life below the line: Guardian. The Trussell Trust opens three new food banks a week, finding not only those facing benefit cuts … Continue reading

DWP changes “open data” tool after Help Me Investigate raises concerns

The Department for Work and Pensions has promised a series of improvements to an online tool promoted as an example of “open data” after concerns were raised by Help Me Investigate. Stat-Xplore was one of the case studies described in … Continue reading

FOI request refusals – staff names must be given, says Commissioner

Blog Now reports on an Information Commissioner ruling which stipulates that the names of staff refusing a request should be included in the response, despite one department’s attempts to withhold those. Alistair Sloan writes: “It described the DWP’s practice of not providing telephone numbers or contact details within its responses and how this makes it […]

Guide to deferring a mortgage-style student loan repayment

Types of student loans If you took out a student loan while taking a university or college course that began before September 1998, you will have been given a loan known as a ‘mortgage style’ or ‘fixed-term’ loan. (Loans taken … Continue reading

Welfare-related links for December 21st through January 25th

These are the welfare-related links we’ve been looking at between December 21st and January 25th: Management in Practice – GPs could help save £190m in sick pay – Launching in 2014, the advisory service will allow GPs to identify employees … Continue reading