After the DWP’s latest ‘inappropriate’ mistake, people are wondering if it can sink any lower

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was forced to admit it made an “inappropriate mistake” after it was caught out telling people they could find work as strippers.

As the Mirror reported, a page on the Universal Credit website suggested that people could become a “striptease artist” and said claimants could work as dancers “in [an] adult entertainment establishment”.

Although the page is no longer available, it has led people to question whether the DWP can sink any lower:

Strip or be sanctioned

If you refuse to take a job offer under Universal Credit, you can be sanctioned. In fact, refusing a job offer can lead to the highest level of sanctions. This led people to speculate what would happen if people refused to work as a stripper:

Others came up with a “catchy” new slogan for DWP boss Amber Rudd:

Does it get worse than this?

One social media account questioned whether this is actually the “worst thing yet to come out of the DWP”:

Others asked whether this is the new career choice for those aged 75 under new proposals (which Rudd has ‘ruled out‘ for now) to raise the age of retirement:

Some people, meanwhile, highlighted that a government department seriously suggested people living in poverty should go into sex work:

In June, the government claimed there was “little reliable data” that people on Universal Credit were being forced into sex work due to lack of money. But as the Mirror reported, “testimony by women who said they were” has suggested otherwise.

Not good enough

A spokesperson for the DWP said:

This is inappropriate and we will immediately review this to determine why it is mistakenly listed.

But this is not good enough. Because if an adult wants to work in the sex industry and does so with informed consent, that’s one thing. However, a government department telling people they can look for work as a “striptease artist” is very different. Especially under a system where people can lose their benefits if they refuse work.

The DWP may claim this was an “inappropriate” mistake. But the fact the listing appeared on the website and was only removed when caught out by the national media speaks volumes about the department that is supposed to provide support to people when they are at their most vulnerable.

Featured image via Pixabay/jplenio and Wikimedia/UK government

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  • Show Comments

    1. Those responsible for this travesty should be stripped of their jobs and forced to work as striptease artists for exactly the same level of pay they expect others to live on themselves.

      Perhaps they should be given only that choice of a job, and have any savings they have taken away from them so that they have no choice but to comply. I suggest a period of 5 years (or longer) should be enough to teach these heartless bastards to stop being heartless and worthless scraps of animated meat, and to either change or die as they seem so happy to tell us to do the same.

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