The Mirror just did the DWP’s job for them in turning the public against benefit claimants

Churnalists at Reach PLC are sucking up to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) again. And they’re demonising benefit claimants in the process. The Mirror ran a story claiming that there are:

New calls for DWP benefits payment card to replace cash.

The Mirror and the DWP: where are these calls coming from?

From the headline, this sounds like the “calls” are coming from a place of authority. MPs, opposition or maybe even charities? But no, it’s an online petition which, at the time of writing, has fewer than 500 signatures.

The Mirror explained:

A new online petition is calling on the UK Government to “ensure that welfare money is being spent on essentials to help those in need”. The proposal suggests ditching cash payments for benefit claimants and introducing an alternative form of support.

It continued:

The brainchild of Dewald Meiring, the petition proposes a ‘payment card’ system that can “only be used for things like food, clothes, school supplies etc”. He added: “We are concerned that the taxpayer could be funding non-essential items for those who rely on the state for support.”

A quick Google search found that Meiring seemingly is a small business owner originally from South Africa. He has absolutely no experience in welfare, poverty, or finance. So for The Mirror to name him as if he has any authority is just fucking weird.

Mirror twerking for Labour again

The article ‘helpfully’ points out that the petition needs 10,000 signatures to get a written response from the government. And that it if it gets 100,000 it will be considered for a debate in the House of Commons.

And that’s when it becomes clear why they’re elevating this petition, to manufacture more signatures and make it appear like this is what the public wants. When let’s be honest, newspapers are no reflection of what the public want.

I’m not naive enough to wonder why a paper of this size and popularity would highlight a petition with so few signatures. After all, it’s got a long tradition of supporting Labour and played a key role in getting the party back in power.

The Mirror is also a key fixture at Labour Party Conference, hosting the closing party every year. Keir Starmer is quite often the guest of honour, with ministers and MPs known to abuse the karaoke machine. At the one I attended in 2022, Angela Rayner, Lisa Nandy, and Jonathan Ashworth did Don’t Stop Believin’.

The Mirror and all Reach outlets also have a long history of demonising benefit claimants. When they’re not doing that they’re incessantly publishing fear-mongering stories about benefits for clicks. This is just another example of them getting to profit off poor people whilst also twerking for Starmer.

The old culprits, Birmingham Live

Speaking of Reach using benefits claimants and disabled people for clicks, the origin of this story will surprise nobody. Birmingham Live is arguably the biggest culprit for churning out absolute bollocks about the DWP. As the Canary previously reported, Birmingham Live churns out roughly 25 articles a day just about the DWP.

Its star reporter, James Rodger, who I’m still not convinced is real, often pushes out over 100 articles a day by himself. It’s clear when you click on them that they’re absolute AI slop, because it’s physically impossible to write that much.

It can only be assumed that his job is feeding information into the robots all day and then copy and pasting whatever shit they spit out into WordPress. I don’t know about him, but that’s not what I got into journalism for.

Wet wipe de-ja-vu

Unfortunately, the “replace benefits with a prepaid card” isn’t that far-fetched. Labour is fond of repackaging Tory ideas and bragging about them, especially at the DWP. And this one is eerily similar to something the Tories were planning in their 2024 death throes.

Back then, DWP wet wipe Mel Stride floated all sorts of bullshit ideas. The main one being that he wanted to give PIP claimants vouchers instead of money. The premise, much like the petition, was to control what disabled people spent their benefits on. Because heaven forbid we enjoy a takeaway or get our nails done.

The obvious problem with this was that there was no information on where these vouchers would be accepted. Would local taxi companies or supermarkets take them?

There’s also the fact that you can’t pay people who do services like cleaners or carers in vouchers. Another absurd idea was that disabled people could submit receipts. Which is fucking laughable for a department this shit.

A hell of a coincidence

There’s no indication that this petition is in any way associated with the government. But it’s one hell of a coincidence that Labour-loving rags are promoting it when the Timms Review of PIP is on its way. The government is doing everything it can to look like they want to support disabled people, while the media is turning society against us.

By elevating this petition, the hacks at Reach are doing the DWP’s job for it. Stripping poor people of their financial support, whilst presenting an alternative that appeases those who think “benefit scroungers” don’t deserve nice things.

When the supposed “left-wing” shit rags are willing to publish absolute ragebait bullshit, they don’t even need to bother turning to the hate-filled right-wing ones.

Featured image via the Canary