Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, said she would not publish five reports or inquiries into the benefit cap, benefit claimant deaths, the impact of universal credit (UC) and benefit penalties, and did not plan to publish two further reports on unpaid carers and work capacity assessments. Her Tory predecessors as foreign secretary had promised to publish several of the reports. MP Stephen Timms, chairman of the Commons work and pensions committee, said “trust” had been lost because the reports were not published. Photo: Martin Godwin/The Guardian “Thérèse Coffey has set out to minimize what is published by the department and as a result public confidence in the department has been seriously damaged,” said Stephen Timms, the chairman of the Commons work and pensions committee. “You can understand why ministers tend to do this because it avoids them having to answer potentially embarrassing or difficult questions. But avoiding that short-term pain has a long-term impact, I think, badly undermining confidence in the department.” Ken Butler, policy adviser at Disability Rights UK, said: “We’re not just talking about one report and one issue. We are talking about a whole series of reports about important aspects of the system. The DWP operates behind a wall of secrecy.’ Coffey outlined her refusal to release the information in a letter to the select committee. The references are as follows. First, an assessment of the reduction in the benefit cap, which is at the same rate since 2016 and ranges from £13,400 for people outside London to £23,000 for families in the capital. About 1.3 million children have parents who struggle to buy basic items such as food and diapers. Second, monthly reports on how accessible the Department for Work and Pensions websites and apps are. These are used to claim and receive benefits – accessibility is an important issue for some disabled people. Third, internal reports on deaths of benefit claimants. The DWP has launched 140 internal process reviews since July 2019 into claimants whose deaths may be linked to benefits. In 2018, Errol Graham starved to death after benefits were cut. Fourth, Cabinet Office inquiry into the effectiveness of support for vulnerable Universal Credit claimants. Charities are concerned that people who move to UC from other forms of benefits, such as disability benefits, may miss out. Fifth, a DWP report assessing the impact of benefit penalties on persuading people to work. Academic research shows that sanctions only make people sick and has been described as a “war on families”. Coffey added that the DWP had not decided whether to publish its ‘Experiences of claiming and receiving Carer’s Allowance’, which looks at how and why unpaid carers face extra barriers to finding work. Coffey said she was “not committed” to releasing statistics on UC work ability assessments, which are used to determine whether sick or disabled people can work. Statistics on past benefits such as personal independence payments are published: around 327,000 people are missing out on payments due to delays of up to five months. “We’re being told it’s not a priority right now and we’re basically rejecting it,” Butler said. “When you’re moving two million disabled people onto a new benefit, all of these issues are really relevant. “Even the DWP has acknowledged that disabled people have a lack of confidence in the DWP. Although they say they want to improve trust and improve transparency, they are not actually publishing information that is open to scrutiny and that is deeply worrying.” In January, the select committee took the unusual step of writing to NatCen Social Research, Britain’s biggest independent social researcher, using parliamentary powers to give it a copy of a DWP-commissioned report on disability benefits. The report “raised some potentially uncomfortable questions for ministers to answer, although, frankly, if you read the report, they were quite mild,” Timms said. “But it was uncomfortable. So they decided they were going to avoid scrutiny and not publish it. But since then, we have become aware of a whole host of other reports, which were either previously promised to be published or clearly needed to be published.’ The DWP did not comment, although it cited a passage in Coffey’s letter where it states: “We are clear that where requests relate to research that informs ongoing policy development, the department reserves the right to refuse. It is important that ministers consider research and its publication on a case-by-case basis. “I understand the committee’s keen interest in research that informs policy, but it is not the case that we are committed to publishing all research commissioned by a secretary of state, including research commissioned by my predecessors.”
