Posted by Hari on Tuesday, March 18, 2014 with No comments | Labels: Austerity, benefits, budget cuts, inequality, MP, the government
SOURCE GUARDIAN: Councils using lie detector tests that "don't work" to catch benefit fraudstersMore than 20 councils have used or plan to use controversial lie detector tests to catch fraudulent benefits claimants, despite the government dropping the technology because it was found to be not sufficiently reliable. Leading experts in linguistics at Stockholm University said that VRA "does nothing. That is the short answer. There's no scientific basis for this method. From the output it generates this analysis is closer to astrology than science. There was very good work done by the DWP in the UK showing it did not work, so I am surprised." But a number of councils – Redcar, Middlesbrough, West Dorset and Wycombe – said they were convinced of VRA's merits and were considering using it in the future.
SOURCE GUARDIAN: Conservative claims about benefits are not just spin, they're making it upPoliticians are inevitably selective in the data they choose to publicise, picking the figures that best suit whatever story they want to tell. This can mean that stories that are technically accurate can nonetheless be potentially misleading. Within reasonable limits that is in itself neither improper nor unethical: indeed, it is virtually unavoidable. But here are some examples that are not just misleading: they assert that official government statistics say things they do not. Three examples are incapacity benefit, disability living allowance, and the claim the benefit cap is successfully pushing people into work.
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