DWP
Investigation ordered into DWP’s use of statistics
The chair of the UK Statistics Authority Sir Michael Scholar has ordered an investigation into the way the Department of Work and Pensions uses statistics, following a string of concerns over the nature and presentation of stats by the department - often in secret lobby briefings, with press releases and tables not made publically available on the DWP's website for scrutiny - despite the coalition’s commitment to 'throw open the doors' of public bodies.
Housing benefit cuts: Just how desperate is the secretive DWP?
When government ministers resort to briefing what purports to be new statistical evidence on important policy issues to selected lobby journalists rather than making it available to the public, it is clear indication that they are unsure of their ground. The Department for Work and Pensions has been a hotbed of this sort of quasi-official briefing for several months, as has been pointed out here and by FullFact.
The myth of the intergenerational workless household
References to the pattern of intergenerational worklessness in households are rarely accompanied by any relevant statistics on the no. of households involved.
The great DWP conjuring act on worklessness figures
The Department for Work and Pensions is under pressure to improve levels of transparency and accountability following a FullFact.org investigation yesterday.