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DWP boss Liz Kendall probably wishes she’d never opened her mouth (again)

Work and pensions secretary and arch Blairite Liz Kendall has claimed that there are substantial people on Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefits “taking the mickey”.

Speaking to ITV, Kendall said:

I have no doubt, as there always have been, there are people who shouldn’t be on those benefits who are taking the mickey and that is not good enough – we have to end that.

She failed to mention that DWP benefit fraud must be paid back, whereas tax avoidance does not.

Billionaires: mickey taken, not DWP benefit claimants

On social media, people took aim at her targeting of the least well off:

In January, Oxfam reported that UK billionaire wealth increased by a total of £35m a day in the past year alone.

Huge corporations: mickey taken, not DWP benefit claimants

Another user highlighted the scandal of low pay in the UK:


Huge corporations in the UK like Tesco make billions but are paying workers so little that the DWP must top up the wages. These corporate subsidies have amounted to £11bn a year, which is an astonishing hand out to rich shareholders. It’s also much higher than the benefits fraud bill, which is, by contrast, paid back to the state.

Many DWP benefit claimants work for one of the large businesses in the UK that account for 39% of jobs and nearly half of non-financial turnover.

The most profitable of these firms in particular can afford to pay higher wages without raising prices. For example, Tesco employs 326,000 people in the UK and makes profit of £6,150 per every employee (including another around 100,000 abroad). That’s a total profit of £2.7bn on everyday food – an essential – meaning Tesco could pay thousands more each year in workers’ wages.

There’s also the difference in pay between CEOs and an average worker. The High Pay Centre found that FTSE 350 CEOs earned 57 times more than a median worker in 2022.

MP’s housing: mickey taken, not disabled people

Another social media user pointed out how MPs themselves have been ‘taking the mickey’ – not DWP benefit claimants:


Now Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in Keir Starmer’s cabinet, Pat McFadden claimed £40,000 in public money over five years to rent a constituency house, literally next door to a home he already owned.

In July 2012, McFadden moved out of his home in the Wolverhampton constituency after a rule change passed that meant MPs couldn’t claim benefits for mortgage interest. That very month, he moved into a house next door where he claimed £625 a month in public money for his rent. At the same time, he advertised the home he owned for £700 in rent. Keep in mind that MP pay was around £66,000 per year in 2012 and is now over £91,000.

The Labour minister also owns another house in North London that is now worth over £1.74m (up almost £1m from when he bought it in 2009). Landlords like McFadden are increasing the benefits bill through what are essentially subsidies to those who rent out property. 88% of the housing benefits bill goes into the pockets of landlords like McFadden, Starmer and Rachel Reeves through legacy housing benefit or that element of universal credit.

MP’s heating: mickey taken, not non-working people

Another way MPs claim benefits (not the DWP kind) is for their heating bills in what’s often the second home in their constituency, as people on social media noted:

Kendall reportedly lives in a £4m mansion in Notting Hill with an Old Etonian banker as her partner. No wonder she’s a Blairite, huh!

Broadly, MPs claimed over £1m from 2017 to 2022 to heat the second homes in their constituencies. At the same time, the Labour government has cut the winter fuel payment for vulnerable, low-income pensioners.

As Canary journalist Rachel Charlton-Dailey summed up during a recent debate on BBC Radio 5 Live:

This infighting is exactly what the people at the top want… they want the people that are working hard but struggling to go ‘all my money’s being spent on disabled people’… so we’re not looking at (those) at the top… £42bn a year goes… in tax avoidance by the richest.

Featured image via the Canary

By James Wright

This post was originally published on Canary.