GOVERNMENT workers are being trained to avoid giving benefit claimants details of hardship payments and other emergency funds, an undercover investigation has found.
A reporter from Channel 4’s Dispatches programme who joined a training course at a call centre in Bolton, Greater Manchester, was told not to volunteer information about same-day advance payments or other funds intended to tide claimants over until their benefits are paid.
At one point a trainer said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which administers the government’s new universal credit benefits scheme, was trying to restrict same-day payments because they “cost the department more money to do”. The trainer added: “It costs us 1p to do a five-day [payment] and costs us about £6 to do the [same-day].”
The reporter was also told that flexible support funds were “not advertised” and should not be mentioned unless the claimant specifically asked. “If we did [advertise]…
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Tory Britain! 