Concern over new DWP foodbank rules

Disabled campaigners and union allies have raised concerns about a new Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) policy that could make it harder for claimants to access food parcels.

They spoke out after the Guardian reported that jobcentre officials had been ordered to stop referring benefit claimants to food banks because of data privacy laws.

DWP claimed this week that it never refers benefit claimants to foodbanks, and that this policy had not changed, although it confirmed that it had changed what was included on what it calls “signposting slips”.

DWP is claiming that the changes to information included on the slips – which appears to mean they will no longer include the claimant’s name and other personal details – will help it avoid breaching data privacy laws when signposting claimants to possible sources of support.

It said it was up to foodbanks whether they wished to use signposting slips as a referral.

DWP declined to say how it had changed the slips.

The Trussell Trust, which supports a nationwide network of foodbanks, confirmed that DWP had never formally referred claimants to foodbanks and had “always signposted people to food banks as well as other local sources of support as appropriate, rather than formally referring them”.

But the charity said the changes to the signposting slips were “not ideal at a time when food banks continue to experience increased pressure and more people than ever before are needing to access support”.

It said the change “may have an impact on some food banks and we are supporting our network to adapt by providing… guidance and resources to help minimise any disruption that this may cause to the food bank or the people they support”, while it was also advising its foodbanks to “discuss the situation” with their local jobcentre.

Disability Rights UK said the new policy came as DWP was seeking sweeping new powers to carry out financial surveillance on benefit claimants.

Ken Butler, DR UK’s welfare rights and policy adviser, said: “Not content with paying benefits so low that claimants have to resort to food banks, the DWP is now refusing them what is in effect claimants’ own personal information to more easily access food help.

“This at the same time as seeking blanket powers to gain claimants’ bank account information without any justification of fraud suspicion (see separate story).

“In effect, we won’t give you your data but will grab yours behind your back.”

He said the new foodbank policy should be “reversed immediately to ensure no further hardship or harm is done to clients”.

And he added: “The decision itself is yet another reason as to why the DWP should be given a statutory duty of care.”

The concerns about the signposting slips were raised at a meeting organised by Disabled People Against Cuts in parliament this week, which was held to launch resistance to the government’s latest social security reforms (see separate story).

Ann Galpin, co-chair of the TUC disabled workers’ committee, told the meeting: “A high proportion of disabled claimants, women, families, are in need of a foodbank referral, and many people will [now] struggle to access the foodbank.”

Ian Pope, acting vice-president of the PCS union, and the union’s DWP vice-president, said PCS – which represents many frontline DWP workers – had only learned of the plans in the Guardian.

He said: “We immediately wrote to the department, seeking an explanation for what is the rationale for this.

“This could create another climate in our jobcentres where our members are being attacked because people are so desperate and they come to a jobcentre just to be turned away, and that cannot happen.

“It’s not that long ago that Tory MPs were posting on Facebook, Twitter, anywhere you want to look, about how many foodbanks they had in their constituencies, as if this was a great thing to shout from the rooftops.

“What an achievement! ‘I’ve got 10 foodbanks in my constituency.’ And now they’re not willing to send people from their own government department along to that very foodbank. An absolute disgrace.

“We are taking it forward and we had a meeting this afternoon with universal credit, one of the directors, and unbelievably they didn’t want to discuss it in that meeting, but we are not letting it rest.

“It cannot happen. Or members don’t want it to happen.”

Brett Sparkes, a regional officer for Unite, told the meeting: “It’s a sign of where we have got to in this country that we have got to such a low that the Tories want to take the last opportunity for children to eat out of their mouths.

“How did we get to this point?”

A DWP spokesperson said: “We do not refer customers to food banks and our policy has not changed.

“Our new signposting slips provide advice and guidance to vulnerable customers on local services where they can access further support.”

A Trussell Trust spokesperson said: “Now the new signposting slips are live, we will be updating the DWP on any impact that this change has had on food banks and those they are supporting.

“We advise anyone seeking support to contact their local food bank to confirm the organisations who can refer them or visit our website to find out about other ways of receiving help.”

Picture by The Trussell Trust

A note from the editor:

Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations.

Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009.

Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS…