Innocent people should not be punished for DWP mistakes

1.21.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 16th Oct 2009

Local Lib Dem campaigner Stuart Bodsworth has welcomed the Court of Appeals ruling this week that the Government was wrong to threaten innocent people with court action if they did not return benefits paid to them by mistake.

"The Government's decision was unfair, unjust and outrageous!" said Stuart Bodsworth. "Rather than threatening innocent people they should concentrate on simplifying the benefits system. It is clear that even staff at the Department of Work and pensions struggle to understand the system otherwise they would not have made so many mistakes."

The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) took the government to court after they wrote to more than 65,000 people between March 2006 and Feb 2007 threatening to take them to court if they failed to repay money they had been paid due to a Department of Work and Pensions (DWP)error.

Sarah Clarke, a solicitor for CPAG, said: "We brought this case because we know that letters sent to vulnerable claimants threatening court action if they do not repay have caused considerable distress. We are delighted with the ruling that the DWP cannot recover these overpayments through the courts."

Lib Dems are now demanding to know what the DWP intends to do about the people they successfully bullied into paying back the money. Lib Dem Shadow minister Steve Webb said "We need an urgent statement from the DWP on what action they plan to take to hand back cash demanded without legal authority. Many struggling families have received benefits in good faith and suffered real hardship when asked to pay the money back."

"Labour's shoddy attempt to punish other for their mistake is a sign of how out of touch this Government has become." Said Stuart Bodsworth "It just added an insult to the injury of wasting public money by failing to understand their own benefits system and getting the payments wrong in the first place."