THE DISPATCH
TRENDING
The viral Big Issue story that could force the government to abandon its ‘kidnapper’ tactics
How can you make a notoriously reticent Whitehall department like the DWP change policy? Alerting tens of thousands of people to one of its more outrageous efforts, as The Big Issue did, can certainly help.
Our story revealed job centre staffers have been made to ask Universal Credit claimants to prove their identities by submitting photos of themselves holding their local paper.
The demands, common to TV crime drama kidnappings, also require people to send in a photo showing them holding their street sign in their right hand. Yes, specifically their right hand.
“Fake”, “photoshop job”, “must be bollocks” came the cries when images of the policies were first shared on Twitter by the Public Interest Law Centre, which slammed the “humiliating” approach.
But the DWP confirmed to The Big Issue that the demands were the real deal, with a spokesperson emphasising it was only happening until the return of face-to-face meetings. Our story was trending on Twitter for three days as outraged users condemned the government’s behaviour and called for ministers to put a stop to it.
The nationals, who never like to miss a good story, picked
