DWP boss ‘really hopes’ fraud-busting IT scheme doesn’t echo Horizon scandal
The most senior civil servant in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has told MPs that he hopes DWP’s use of artificial intelligence in detecting fraud among benefit claimants will not lead to a repeat of the Post Office Horizon scandal.
Peter Schofield was being questioned* by the Commons work and pensions committee yesterday (Wednesday) on his department’s decision to spend £70 million on so-called machine learning** in the three years to 2024-25.
DWP’s annual report and accounts revealed last year that it was using machine learning to prioritise which universal credit claims to review for potential fraud.
But the National Audit Office reported in that document that using machine learning in this way creates “an inherent risk that the algorithms are biased towards selecting claims for review from certain vulnerable people or groups with protected characteristics”.
The disabled people’s organisation Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People is continuing to work with the tech justice campaign group Foxglove over concerns that the algorithm could be “over-picking” disabled people for its benefit fraud investigations.
Schofield told the work and pensions committee yesterday that machine learning “helps us to target our resources, helps us to target our people, to investigate more effectively those sort of cases where there’s most likely to be fraud”.
He said there was always a human being who made the final decision on whether to launch a fraud investigation, and that the system also “enables us to identify those people who might be vulnerable customers”.
But asked by Conservative MP Sir Desmond Swayne whether there were “shades of Horizon” over its use of such technology, Schofield said: “I really hope not.”
His response came in the week that an ITV drama based on the Horizon scandal, which saw more than 700 sub-postmasters wrongly charged with fraud and theft due to faulty software provided by Japanese multinational Fujitsu, pressured the government into rushing out plans to exonerate those wrongfully convicted.
The SNP’s Peter Grant, a member of the public accounts committee, pointed out that if the algorithm used by DWP to detect possible cases of fraud has any “unintended inclination towards bias” around particular groups of claimants, that would put DWP in breach of the law.
Neil Couling, the DWP director-general responsible for universal credit, told Grant: “The systems do have biases in, it’s whether they are biases that are not allowed in the law.”
He said the machine learning systems need to have “bias” so the department can “catch fraudsters”, but he said that DWP checks for “unintended bias” at three separate stages.
He said DWP would report in this year’s annual report and accounts whether there were “particular groups with different protected characteristics impacted unintentionally by this kind of activity”.
But he admitted that other countries had “got themselves into quite a bit of a pickle” when they have “tried to use this sort of technique”.
He said: “I’m determined that in the UK, we don’t do that, so as I said to the public accounts committee back in September, we are taking this very carefully.”
*Watch from 10.43am onwards
**A type of artificial intelligence that provides computers with a set of instructions to process large quantities of historical data and identify patterns in that data
11 January 2024
‘Smoking gun’ government memo exposes Network Rail on inaccessible bridges
A “smoking gun” government memo suggests that Network Rail withdrew from a high-profile public inquiry to protect its plans to build more inaccessible footbridges across Britain.
In late November, the public body withdrew plans to build an inaccessible bridge at Copmanthorpe, near York, weeks after the end of inquiry hearings that had wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money, including more than £400,000 by Network Rail itself.
The plans would have seen a dangerous level crossing replaced by a footbridge that could only be reached by steps, rather than ramps.
Network Rail said at the time that it would now take the opportunity to “evaluate solutions” and look again at “the benefits of all options”.
But access campaigner Doug Paulley, who played a key role in opposing the plans, has now obtained a Department for Transport (DfT) memo through the Freedom of Information Act, and it suggests Network Rail was in fact concerned that the inquiry’s report could create a damaging precedent that could halt its plans to build more inaccessible footbridges.
The DfT memo was prepared for rail minister Huw Merriman and transport secretary Mark Harper.
It stated that Network Rail was concerned that if its application was rejected by the inquiry, and the inquiry report linked that decision to its public sector equality duty (PSED), it could be forced to make other future footbridges accessible to disabled people.
The memo also stated that Network Rail felt “there is a risk that a high benchmark could be set for compliance with PSED of structures crossing the railway, resulting in requirement for step-free access elsewhere, even where this is not practicable.
“This carries network-wide cost implications, orders of magnitude larger than this individual case.”
The DfT civil servant who drafted the memo pointed out that withdrawing the application risked “reputational damage” for Network Rail, because of the public money it had already spent on the case, but it would at least ensure the report was not published “and the risk of precedent-setting is mitigated”.
Paulley said the memo was a “smoking gun” which showed that Network Rail had not “seen the light” and realised the importance of accessibility after all.
Instead, he said, it showed that Network Rail was only concerned that the inquiry inspector would rule against it, which would limit its ability to install new, inaccessible infrastructure across the country.
He told Disability News Service (DNS): “It was always clear to me that Network Rail’s claimed reasons for withdrawing their application were untrue.
“They wouldn’t have withdrawn their application six weeks after the end of the public inquiry hearing due to their supposed commitment to accessibility.
“In 2015, Network Rail was thwarted in their attempt to put in the same stepped footbridge because people objected to its inaccessibility, so they did nothing.
“Over the next eight years, two people died on the crossing, and there were numerous near misses. Now, they have shelved the same plan again.
“It is thus entirely clear to me that Network Rail would rather risk further deaths on the crossing, waste hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money on a pointless public inquiry, jeopardise the future of the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) project and weather adverse press reaction, than risk being prevented from continuing to build new inaccessible infrastructure, such as footbridges.”
He also said Network Rail had told him it had not shared any information with DfT that explained its decision to withdraw its application, when the DfT memo suggested otherwise.
DNS revealed last autumn that Network Rail had been forced to admit it had no idea how many inaccessible footbridges it was planning to build across Britain, although it had confirmed plans to start at least 17 between 2022 and 2024.
Network Rail refused to comment this week on the waste of hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money on the inquiry, or to say if it would now pledge to scrap all future plans to build inaccessible infrastructure.
But a Network Rail spokesperson confirmed that it had “outlined several potential scenarios relating to wider programme and industry implications” to DfT before withdrawing its application.
He said: “There were passionate and reasoned objections heard at the public inquiry and we made the choice to withdraw our application to provide a further opportunity to evaluate solutions which may be viable and re-assess the benefits of all options.
“Any alternative design proposal would be subject to consultation and Network Rail progressing with new planning consents.
“We have held a number of meetings with interested parties in the local community before Christmas and also this week and seek to continue this engagement to discuss next steps and we look forward to a constructive dialogue in the future.
“Enhancing accessibility is a fundamental improvement that the TRU will offer to passengers travelling between Manchester and York.
“As part of our major upgrades, the majority of stations along the route will benefit from accessibility improvements, including the installation of lifts, access ramps and designated drop-off points.”
DfT did not say whether it would ask Network Rail to scrap all plans to build further inaccessible infrastructure.
But a DfT spokesperson said: “The decision to withdraw this application is a matter for Network Rail, and whilst we wouldn’t comment on individual legal inquiries, we are clear in our commitment to improving accessibility across our transport network.
“We have already funded step-free access at over 230 stations through our Access for All programme and have committed a further £350 million extra funding through Network North to improve accessibility at up to 100 stations.”
11 January 2024
Why does DWP reject so many requests to hold secret benefit deaths reviews? MP asks
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been asked to explain why it is rejecting so many requests from its own civil servants to carry out secret reviews into the deaths of benefit claimants.
DWP’s top civil servant was questioned yesterday* (Wednesday) on figures that showed that 29 requests to carry out an internal process review (IPR) in 2022-23 were rejected by the department’s IPR team.
Most of those 29 requests will have followed the death of a claimant that may have been connected to DWP’s actions, while some will relate to cases where a claimant suffered serious harm.
Any DWP civil servant can refer a case to be considered for an IPR, but Labour’s Debbie Abrahams told the Commons work and pensions committee that although 60 requests for an IPR were approved in 2022-23, another 29 were rejected.
Abrahams said the figures suggested that the department might not be “really looking at the full scale and issues of the potential harms that are happening”.
DWP has been collecting such reviews** centrally for more than a decade for the purposes of “continuous improvement” and learning lessons.
But despite more than 10 years of reviews, which DWP refuses to publish in full or even pass to the families of deceased claimants, the recommendations made by the reviews – which do have to be released, following a tribunal ruling in 2016 – repeatedly show how the department’s actions continue to be linked to deaths of disabled people.
In the four years from 2019-20 to 2022-23, DWP’s own figures show that 210 IPRs were either started or accepted following a referral.
Peter Schofield, DWP’s permanent secretary and therefore its most senior civil servant, said there was still a culture of “learning” from those cases where a request for an IPR is rejected, including through the department’s 37 advanced customer support senior leaders (ACSSLs).
According to DWP’s annual report and accounts, ACSSLs are supposed to “coach and engage colleagues across DWP services to help support our most vulnerable customers” and also build and maintain relationships with external organisations that support “vulnerable citizens”.
Schofield claimed there were still “relatively few that make it anywhere near” to an IPR, compared with the “23 million customers that we work with every day, every week, every year”.
But Abrahams said she was concerned that the number of IPRs being carried out was just “the tip of the iceberg”.
She said: “We have no real understanding… of the actual number of claimants who are subject to harm.”
She asked Schofield to write to the committee with further details of the 29 referrals that did not result in an IPR “so we have an understanding of those that didn’t meet the threshold”, and with information that shows “what that threshold is”.
*Watch from 11.16am
**Until April 2015, IPRs were known as peer reviews
11 January 2024
Disabled people with blue badges ‘threatened, insulted and attacked’, survey shows
Disabled people with blue parking badges in England are frequently being threatened, insulted, followed and even attacked as part of a “never-ending ordeal”, new research has revealed.
The research found that nearly a third (97) of the 304 disabled people who took part in a survey had been threatened, while 68 of them said they had been laughed at, 52 were photographed or filmed, 43 had been followed and 19 subjected to violence while using their blue badges.
The most frequent negative encounters were staring (80 per cent of respondents) and intrusive questions (63 per cent), while the most common location was a supermarket carpark.
One disabled woman in her 60s with chronic illness, a mental health condition and a mobility impairment described how a man shouted at her after she parked in a blue badge space at a Waitrose supermarket in the south of England.
He shouted: “Why are you parking there? You’re not disabled. There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re a scrounger.”
No-one helped her so she walked to the store and asked for help, while he continued to follow her, shouting abuse and calling her a “fake” and a “scrounger” and refused to stop shouting even when a manager asked him to calm down.
She said: “I’m normally independent and resilient but this reduced me to tears and I couldn’t stop shaking.”
Nearly all those who took part in the survey said they occasionally (50 per cent) or frequently (41 per cent) worried about such encounters, and more than half said these concerns stopped them going out, with 16 per cent saying this happened frequently.
The research was carried out by Vera Kubenz, a disabled postgraduate researcher at the University of Birmingham, and is described in her report, The Politics of Parking, as part of an ongoing research project.
She highlights in the report how disabled people who behave in “incongruous” ways by failing to match stereotypes of how a disabled person should look and behave are more likely to be subjected to these negative encounters.
One young disabled woman, again with chronic illness, a mental health condition and a mobility impairment, said: “If I’m using my walking stick on a given day then I usually don’t have a problem.
“But I don’t always use my walking stick, because it causes pain in my arms, so I often don’t ‘look’ disabled.
“I’ve been stared at, tutted at, heard comments I couldn’t make out the words of but were in a hostile tone of voice, and seen people trying to take photos/video of me who weren’t being as subtle as they thought they were.
“It makes me afraid to use disabled spaces on days I don’t ‘look’ disabled, because I am scared of other people’s hostile behaviour.”
The negative encounters that have the biggest impact happen most often to those who are “further removed from the idea of a ‘normal’ disabled person”, says Kubenz in her report.
She says: “Gender and sexuality are frequently associated with negative encounters and impacts, suggesting that women and queer people are particularly affected by encounters.
“This is likely also the case for race, but less obvious due to the small sample size which makes it more difficult to achieve statistically significant results.”
Kubenz concludes in the report: “It is not just about looking the part, but about publicly enacting the inferior position disabled people have been assigned in an ableist society.
“Disabled people should not have new or expensive cars, wear nice clothes or make-up, have children, or be out at peak times.
“Disabled people should also be deferential and grateful in public spaces, even in the face of confrontation.
“The Blue Badge space, far from being an ‘accessible’ space, thus turns into a microcosm of wider negative societal prejudices about disability.”
But she also points out that more than two-thirds of those surveyed (69 per cent) reported at least one positive encounter while using their parking badges, with the most common positive experience being small talk with other blue badge-holders.
She says that this “solidarity” from other holders of blue badges, and strangers, “had a big positive impact for many participants”.
Kubenz stresses that the survey was not carried out in a random way and so those who took part cannot be considered representative of all blue badge-holders.
But she says the survey has “gone some way in documenting the cumulative impact of this never-ending ordeal” of hostility towards blue badge-holders and the “constant microaggressions of being interrogated, surveyed, and [having] unwanted help forced upon them”.
And she says it has “highlighted the importance of solidarity and support by both other Blue Badge holders and bystanders in lessening the impact of this constant negativity”.
11 January 2024
Health and safety watchdog failed to quiz DWP on jobcentre mental health concerns
The agency that regulates workplace health, safety and welfare had no written contact with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about claims that multiple work coaches had experienced “mental breakdowns” due to work-related stress, DWP has confirmed.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was told last April, and again two months later, that more than a third of the work coaches on a single floor of a jobcentre in Oxford had experienced a mental health crisis in just one year.
HSE is the national regulator for workplace health and safety, but it is “sponsored” as a government agency by DWP, the department responsible for running jobcentres.
The minister responsible for HSE is a DWP minister, Viscount Younger – although he was not in post at the time – and HSE’s chair is a former Conservative minister for disabled people, Sarah Newton.
HSE has previously denied suggestions that it refused to investigate the concerns at Oxford jobcentre because of its close links with DWP, and it insists that all its decisions are made independently.
But DWP has now confirmed in a freedom of information response that HSE never contacted it in writing to discuss the concerns.
Disability News Service (DNS) asked in November for any communication or reports shared between HSE and DWP’s “health and safety business partner” about the concerns.
DWP has now told DNS: “We have no correspondence from the Health and Safety Executive in relation to concerns about the mental health of staff working at Oxford jobcentre between 1 October 2021 and 31 October 2023.”
The concerns about the jobcentre were raised with HSE by former work coach Jake Baker*, who told the agency that 10 current and former DWP staff were willing to provide evidence.
Seven of those willing to give evidence had themselves experienced a significant collapse in their mental health after having to deal with 27 appointments a day with claimants, when they previously had between 17 and 19, an increase of more than 40 per cent.
The concerns raised by Baker appear to have met HSE’s criteria for investigating work-related stress, with its own document stating: “HSE will only consider investigating potential issues of work-related stress where it is evident that several employees are experiencing work-related stress or related ill health.”
Baker told DNS last night (Wednesday): “When the HSE opted to ignore an extensive catalogue of legitimate and very serious health and safety concerns, it essentially handed the DWP carte blanche to inflict more neglect and suffering on the workforce, resulting in widespread ill health and the destruction of many Civil Service careers.”
An HSE spokesperson said: “Concerns were made to us and after looking into the matters raised we felt they did not meet our criteria to investigate further.
“All employers need to recognise their legal duty to prevent work-related stress and to support good mental health in the workplace.”
*Not his real name, although both DWP and HSE are aware of his identity
11 January 2024
Power company dodges questions on blackout protection plan
A power company has dodged questions over its plans to fix some of the gaping holes in the safety net that – during a power-cut – should protect disabled people who need electricity to run lifesaving medical equipment in their own homes.
The new project by UK Power Networks (UKPN) appears to be a long-awaited acknowledgement that the current system to protect disabled people who rely on equipment such as ventilators, feeding pumps and oxygen saturation monitors is not good enough.
Last winter, Disability News Service asked repeated questions of the government and the energy industry over their apparent failure to prepare for the impact on many disabled people of possible power blackouts.
The concerns were raised after National Grid ESO, which controls the flow of energy around Britain, warned there could be periods when it needed to order “interruptions” to customers’ electricity supply for “short periods”.
But the government refused to reveal any plans it might have to protect disabled people who rely on life-saving medical equipment in their homes if there were blackouts during the fuel crisis.
Instead, government departments referred to priority services registers, which are maintained by individual power companies.
But the energy industry was unable to explain what protection the registers would offer those who rely on life-saving equipment, other than the usual “extra help, including advance notice of planned power cuts and priority support”.
The industry also made clear that such customers would not be exempt from any blackouts and “should seek advice from their local health service provider”.
But now UKPN, one of six distribution network operators (DNOs) responsible for maintaining the electricity network across Britain, is trialling a scheme that is set to be rolled out later this year.
Under its Power Protect trial, UKPN customers who are signed up to the priority services register and rely on life-saving medical equipment will be loaned a free portable battery pack if there is a power cut over four hours long.
It says the battery packs should be able to power a standard feeding pump for more than 17 hours.
UKPN, which owns and runs the cables and substations which deliver electricity from the national grid to homes and businesses across London and the east and south-east of England, says about 120,000 customers on its priority services register currently rely on life-saving medical equipment.
It says its new “safety net” scheme is “a huge step forward for the utility industry and is the first time that a UK electricity network operator has gone to such lengths to provide support to vulnerable customers during unplanned power cuts”.
The trial is taking place in London, Maidstone, Canterbury and Bury St Edmunds.
Boris Yazadzhiyan, UKPN’s innovation programme manager, said: “For people who depend on potentially-lifesaving medical equipment, they need the confidence they’ll be safe on those very rare occasions when power is temporarily unavailable, and this new scheme is doing just that.”
Despite issuing a press release about the trial, UKPN refused to answer questions about the scheme this week, including whether it was an acknowledgement that there were holes in the safety net for many disabled customers.
It also refused to say when it expected the scheme to roll out to all those disabled customers who needed its protection, and why it was only offering the project for power cuts lasting more than four hours.
The Energy Networks Association (ENA), whose members include UKPN, refused to say if the other five DNOs would run similar schemes for their disabled customers.
It also refused to say if the UKPN project was an acknowledgement that the current systems to protect disabled people who rely on electricity to power their life-saving equipment were not good enough.
But an ENA spokesperson said in a statement: “Network operators have been working closely with the government and the NHS to ensure we are coordinated in our approach to customers who have mains-powered, health critical medical equipment at home.
“People who rely on this equipment should contact their care provider if they are unclear what they need to do in a power cut.
“They should also join the priority services register run by their local network operator so that they can receive additional support available to them.”
11 January 2024
DWP boss dismisses union warning of mental ill-health ‘epidemic’ and staffing crisis
The head of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has dismissed evidence from scores of his own employees that his department is experiencing a “staffing crisis” and a “mental ill-health epidemic”.
The “devastating” dossier was compiled by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which said last month that its evidence showed DWP was “a failing organisation in a state of crisis”, after its members reported benefit claimants in vulnerable situations “falling through the gaps” in the system.
The union pointed to serious understaffing across the department, a failure to recruit and retain staff, poor working conditions and low pay, and it warned that DWP was currently running at 30,000 below required staffing levels.
The PCS dossier contained multiple warnings that the staffing problems within DWP, and the way the department was being run, could drastically affect disabled claimants, and in fact already had.
Many PCS members spoke of their “unsustainable” workload and the stress and depression they now experienced because of these staffing issues.
The dossier – containing a sample of more than 250 pieces of evidence collected from members who work within the department – was handed to DWP’s permanent secretary Peter Schofield.
Yesterday, Schofield was asked about the PCS dossier* by the chair of the Commons work and pensions committee, Labour’s Sir Stephen Timms, who said PCS had warned of “an epidemic of mental ill health among staff”.
Schofield said the department was “always concerned to read that and to hear that” and had “ongoing dialogue” with the unions representing DWP workers, and that he and his colleagues “often pay tribute to our trades unions because often they are a very good way of helping us know how our people are feeling” and “enabling us to put things right”.
But he said DWP was “doing a lot of recruitment” and he claimed that the “overall perception of workload seems to be more positive this year than last year”.
He said the department’s annual survey showed the proportion of its staff who said they had an acceptable workload “went up a little bit compared to the year before” and compared favourably with the government’s other “big operational departments”.
He added: “So I’m not complacent about it because I think this is a good opportunity for us to learn and see what we need to do differently.
“But the overall picture is one of things [seeming] to be better this year than they were last year.”
His colleague, Katie Farrington, DWP’s director-general for disability, health and pensions, pointed out that about 25 per cent of DWP’s staff “have health conditions and disabilities”, which is higher than the proportion in the general population.
*Listen from 11.39am onwards
11 January 2024
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
Keir Starmer has backed a change in the law on assisted suicide as he indicated MPs could vote on the issue if he becomes prime minister. The Labour leader said he was an “advocate” for reform and warned the current law was not working. Childline founder Dame Esther Rantzen, who has stage four lung cancer, sparked a fresh debate on the issue last month when she revealed she had joined the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/keir-starmer-assisted-dying-law-b2473787.html
Families of disabled children are “battling” for access to free school meals despite them being eligible. Labour MP Ian Byrne, who led a Westminster Hall debate in parliament on the issue, said “access to food is a basic human right”. He said schools “were not complying with equality law” as analysis shows more than 100,000 eligible disabled children are unable to access the free school meals they are meant to receive: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/disabled-children-battle-access-free-31853486
Calls have been made for the prime minister to suspend the whip from a disabled minister while claims he used his taxpayer-funded constituency office to campaign for the Conservative party are reviewed. Paul Maynard, the pensions minister, has been referred to an investigator by the parliamentary expenses watchdog over reports that he charged taxpayers when producing political material. The Sunday Times, which broke the story, also reported that the MP claimed rent for an office that doubles up as his local Tory association’s headquarters: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/jan/06/pm-urged-to-suspend-whip-from-pensions-minister-accused-of-misusing-taxpayer-funds
A council has agreed to make payments to four families in Essex after faults were found in care provided for children with special educational needs. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman upheld five complaints against Essex County Council. Payments ranged from £250 and £600 for the “continued injustice” families experienced. The council said it “acknowledged and accepted the findings”: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-67928588
Three care workers have been jailed after being convicted of abusing care home residents in south London. The men punched, slapped and verbally abused residents with learning difficulties at Grove House in Sutton. One care worker told Croydon Crown Court that she saw “physical assaults every day” on a resident: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67884252
11 January 2024
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
