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THE DWP HAS BEEN BLASTED AFTER NEW FIGURES SHOWED IT BLEW HALF A MILLION POUNDS DEFENDING DISABILITY BENEFIT CUTS. 07:37, 06 Feb 2025 The Department for Work and Pensions has been slammed
for spending £500,000 on a Personal Independence Payment shake-up. The DWP has been blasted after new figures showed it blew half a million pounds defending disability benefit cuts. A
freedom of information (FOI) request, brought by a campaigner who goes by the name of Ben Claimant, found the nine-month legal action cost the DWP almost half a million pounds. The FOI found
the DWP spent a total of £465,804.05 defending itself. Disability campaigner Ellen Clifford took the DWP court ove plans to change the “scoring” of the work capability assessment (WCA). In
January 2025, a damning High Court judgement found the DWP’s consultation to have been “unlawful”, “misleading”, “rushed” and “unfair”. READ MORE DOG OWNERS WARNED MYSTERY ILLNESS CAUSING
PETS TO 'DROP DEAD' AFTER WALKS “The picture this presents is of a government hell-bent on depriving disabled people of income supports we need to survive, knowingly pushing
hundreds of thousands of the poorest and most disadvantaged in society into deeper poverty and hopelessness with no escape,” Clifford told the Big Issue. Article continues below She
continued: “All those with experience of disability need now to speak up and challenge the idea that people claim disability benefits because we can’t be bothered to work and are
incentivised by the higher rates that are paid to disabled people who face substantial barriers to employment.” “Without her steadfast, principled and brave campaigning, the DWP would not
have suffered the conclusive loss it has. The FOI highlights what a failure this whole process was, with nearly £500,000 wasted by the government,” Mikey Erhardt, campaigner at Disability
Rights UK, told the Big Issue. Erhardt continued: “The ruling that cost savings were at least one, if not the ‘central basis’, that was the impetus to the proposed reforms should be a
wake-up call for the current government, which seems intent on bringing similar proposals forward in the spring.” Article continues below Claimant added: “The Labour government has said it
wants to do things differently, that it wants to treat claimants with respect and dignity. But in pursuing this case and spending such a huge amount of money, they sent out a completely
different message. “It feels like Labour is doubling down on what the previous administration was trying to do. The disabled people I know are very worried and anxious about what Labour has
planned for them. What they need is stability and security but instead we are being victimised (again) for the failure of government over the last 15-plus years.”