DNS was not ‘vexatious’ when asking for details of DWP contacts with Telegraph, says watchdog

The information commissioner has ruled that Disability News Service (DNS) was not being “vexatious” when it tried to find out whether the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) tried to encourage a national newspaper to stir up hostility towards disabled people.

In a decision notice, the commissioner has found that DNS was entitled to ask the department what communications it had with the Telegraph in the months before the newspaper ran a “toxic” and “divisive” article about spending on out-of-work disability benefits.

DNS had asked DWP last July for details of all meetings, correspondence and calls between DWP ministers and special advisers and staff of the Telegraph in the previous three months.

But DWP refused to comply with the request because it claimed it was “vexatious”.

DNS had submitted the request following a series of articles which included statements such as: “Use our calculator to reveal how much of your salary bankrolls the welfare state.”

It claimed that millions were claiming benefits “without ever having to look for work”.

This led to Disability Rights UK describing its coverage as “incitement of hatred” towards disabled people and claiming the aim was “to vilify people who are too sick to work by angering those who are paying taxes that go towards Disability benefits”.

More than 300 mental health professionals signed a letter raising concerns about the “benefit calculator” story, calling it “a divisive narrative last seen at the height of austerity politics, which is likely to lead to an increase in hate crimes and have a profound impact on psychological well-being and societal cohesion”.

DNS had explained in lodging its complaint to information commissioner John Edwards that there were concerns that DWP was “engaged in a campaign to stir up hostility towards disabled claimants of benefits” to act as cover for its planned cuts and reforms which had recently been announced, which “could have fatal consequences”.

In response to the complaint, DWP told the Information Commissioner’s Office that there were five ministers and three special advisers in the department, and it would need to examine all their “various communication methods and devices” to produce the information DNS had requested.

It also argued that DNS’s motive was “to try and expose the information without the complainant knowing what was being searched for” and that DNS was simply attempting to “cast a net to try and find something”.

But the commissioner said in his decision notice that there was “a legitimate public interest in understanding the relationship between government ministers and the media”.

And he said he was “not persuaded that eight people checking their records for specified communications within a three month period is particularly onerous”.

DWP must now issue a fresh response to DNS within 35 days.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) received a “large volume” of complaints about the Telegraph’s “Exactly how much of your salary bankrolls the welfare state” article, but rejected claims that it discriminated against disabled people, because the article “did not relate to any specific individuals”.

It also rejected complaints of harassment and accuracy, and said the Telegraph was “entitled to give their own opinion on a topic and present a one-sided view as long as they take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading, or distorted information, and distinguish between comment, conjecture and fact”.

IPSO has told DNS there were three requests for a review of this decision, but IPSO’s review upheld the decision.

Meanwhile, IPSO has upheld a complaint against the Telegraph over another article in which it whipped up hostility against disabled claimants.

Last July, it published an article about the Motability car scheme* which it headlined “‘Disabled’ drivers claim £40k cars for free”, and then ran the sub-heading: “Fury at ‘exploitation’ of taxpayer-funded scheme to help depression sufferers with issues around mobility”.

It then claimed that “people who say they are immobilised by anxiety or depression can claim £40,000 cars on benefits”.

IPSO has ruled that the article was inaccurate and “misrepresented the basis for eligibility to the Scheme” and that the headlines it had published in print and online were “misleading or distorted”.

It concluded that the newspaper had “significantly misrepresented the conditions of and eligibility for the Motability Scheme”.

The Telegraph did not respond this week to two DNS requests to comment, although DNS did receive two automatic acknowledgements which showed the emails had been received by its press office.

*Motability, the charity which oversees the company that runs the disabled people’s car scheme, is a DNS subscriber

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