Head of carer’s allowance inquiry blames DWP ‘resistance’ for failure to fix crisis
The head of an official inquiry into carer’s allowance has criticised “forces of resistance” inside the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that undermined ministerial attempts to fix longstanding problems with the much-criticised benefit.Liz Sayce, whose review of carer’s allowance was published in November, said rather than owning the problems, some at the DWP had tried to “minimise” the extent of the department’s failures and sought to deflect blame for the crisis.An award-winning Guardian investigation last year revealed how the DWP failures led to hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers unwittingly running up huge debts after becoming trapped by an opaque, poorly administered and punitive system.Many carers suffered serious ill-health as a result, and hundreds were convicted of benefit fraud owing to their experiences over a period of years, which the review described as like being “at the whim of a faceless machine”.Sayce’s review of carer’s allowance overpayments in November found the blame lay with “systemic” issues at the DWP and emphasised carers should not be held responsible for falling foul of what it said were complex and confusing benefit rules.
She told MPs on the work and pensions select committee on Wednesday she had been surprised by how for years the DWP had repeatedly ignored the problems, despite an internal whistleblower identifying serious shortcomings with the benefit,Asked by the committee chair, Debbie Abrahams, whether there had been a change in attitude and behaviour at the DWP, Sayce said while she had come across people in the department who wanted to learn and change, she had also come across what she called “forces of resistance”,She had been distressed by Guardian reports of an internal DWP blogpost, written by a DWP director general, Neil Couling, just days after her report was published, in which he insisted – at odds with the review’s conclusions and government policy – that carers were ultimately to blame for the debts they incurred,She said: “I was really distressed by that blog, as I am sure many people were,Because what you were hoping for from senior people at that point was to really share with colleagues across the department the seriousness of this – what has been learned, what is going to be put right.
Not attempt to minimise or again place a responsibility back on the carers, as if it was their fault,”Asked by the Liberal Democrat MP John Milne whether she thought there was a “culture problem” at the DWP, she replied: “I think there are some senior people who are serious about making the changes that are needed,[But] I felt that sometimes there was almost a kind of effort to minimise what had gone wrong,”She said senior leaders had to own the problems, explain what had gone wrong and understand why it had to “shift the culture” and ensure reforms were pushed through,“The senior team needs to be on that case.
It needs to be a bit more systematic than just good intent,” she said.She added: “This is about making sure there’s a join-up and the real values, the important values of serving people, and the purposes of carer’s allowance are front and centre and constantly reinforced from senior people right across the department.”Earlier this month, the DWP permanent secretary, Sir Peter Schofield, announced he would step down in July for personal reasons after eight years in the top job.The department said his departure was not related to carer’s allowance.The DWP hierarchy has been repeatedly criticised in recent weeks for what MPs have called “unacceptable behaviour” over its handling of the carer’s allowance scandal.
Schofield was accused by Abrahams of overseeing a “culture of complacency”,
South East Water fined £22.5m for ‘repeated supply failures’ in Kent and Sussex
South East Water has been fined £22.5m by Ofwat for repeated supply failures in Kent and Sussex between 2020 and 2023 that affected more than 280,000 people.While the root cause of the water shortages was extreme weather, the water regulator for England and Wales found that they were “in part attributable to and/or exacerbated by failures by South East Water itself to develop and maintain an efficient water supply system”.This has affected 286,645 customers since 2020, with some customers being affected repeatedly, Ofwat said in its enforcement order proposal.In January, Ofwat began a separate investigation into a series of outages before Christmas that left tens of thousands of residents in Kent and Sussex without water for up to a week, many of them in Tunbridge Wells
Australian petrol retailers accused of price gouging over rising fuel costs amid Iran war
Sydney motorists are paying up to 25 cents more for a litre of petrol now than they were before the start of the US-Israel war on Iran, as motoring groups accuse retailers of using the conflict as an excuse to gouge their customers.After Jim Chalmers instructed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to keep an eye out for profiteering behaviour, a spokesperson for the watchdog said it had “observed average retail regular unleaded petrol prices in several cities moving higher over the last few days”.Motoring groups NRMA and RACQ have already accused retailers of price gouging, amid reports of long queues at some service stations as motorists rush to fill up before the surge in global crude oil prices feeds through to the bowser.It comes as Australians face the prospect of another interest rate hike, with Reserve Bank governor Michelle bullock warning there was a “live” chance of an increase this month as the global oil price spike adds to already high inflation.The roughly 15% jump in global oil prices since the start of the US-Israeli missile strikes should take seven to 10 days to begin to be reflected in the cost of fuel at Australian service stations, according to industry estimates
Elon Musk takes witness stand in trial over Twitter takeover
Elon Musk took the stand on Wednesday in a trial brought by Twitter investors, who allege the billionaire committed securities fraud as he was buying the social media company in 2022. The class-action lawsuit alleges Musk agreed to buy Twitter but then waffled for months, attacking the company with the goal of bringing down the stock price to get a better bargain.After contentious legal wrangling, Musk did eventually buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, his original offer, totalling around $44bn. Musk testified on Wednesday that he didn’t realize his attacks on the company, mostly done via tweet on Twitter itself, would lower the company’s stock price or hurt its investors
Joy of teaching English in the age of AI | Letter
Your long read (Teacher v chatbot: my journey into the classroom in the age of AI, 3 March) provides human insight into both the craft and purpose of English teaching in the era of developing AI expertise in language. There is no doubt that if the article were fed into AI models often enough, the teacher’s words and techniques could, at some level, be replicated by AI online teachers.However, reading and writing, especially that which explores the writer’s thoughts and feelings, are surely uniquely human activities.As the writer comes to recognise, exploring human experiences through the written word is a highly valuable communal experience. Reading literature aloud in the classroom is the gateway to discussing personal responses to the author’s words
From bupkis to $100m blockbuster: has the World Baseball Classic finally arrived
The tournament is celebrating its 20th anniversary and some of the best players on the planet are competing for a title that means somethingFor years, while football fans salivated over Fifa World Cups, and basketball and hockey enthusiasts enjoyed an endless parade of NBA and NHL stars at the Olympics, baseball fans had bupkis, with no legitimate international tournament to speak of. Instead, there was something called the Baseball World Cup. Played without a Yankee, Cub or Dodger in sight, but with representatives from teams including the Montgomery Biscuits, Mexico Red Devils and Winnipeg Goldeyes, few fans in North America knew it existed, or when it was played. The only team with legit talent, Cuba, with players who could play in Major League Baseball, but did not because of politics, dominated the tournament.Then in 2006 came a breakthrough with the debut of the 16-nation World Baseball Classic, which featured legitimate professional stars
Oscar Piastri is hungry for Formula One title but won’t be rebellious
Closer than ever to a driver title, or never again as close? Oscar Piastri will soon find out his foreseeable future in Formula One. But he says there’s one thing he won’t do: rebel against McLaren team orders.The glitzy, globetrotting series is back and Melbourne offers a tantalising round of racing to start the season. Extensive changes to regulations have left each team grappling with new electric-boosted power units, and smaller, nimbler vehicles.For Piastri, the changes come at an unfortunate time, given the dominance of the McLaren in recent years
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