PAC criticises gobbledegook of DWP leaflets

26 Jan 06
Benefits claimants are being frustrated and confused because Department for Work and Pensions leaflets are written in 'gobbledegook', Public Accounts Committee chair Edward Leigh said this week.

27 January 2006

Benefits claimants are being frustrated and confused because Department for Work and Pensions leaflets are written in 'gobbledegook', Public Accounts Committee chair Edward Leigh said this week.

His comments followed the publication of a National Audit Office report on January 25, which highlighted the impenetrability of many DWP leaflets.

Leigh said: 'It is a serious failing that a department produces leaflets which require a reading age years above the national average. The report tells us you need five years of secondary education to understand them.

'Many of the leaflets examined in this report explain to the most vulnerable people in society their rights and responsibilities. This information must be clear and it must be available to all.'

The NAO tested the clarity of 11 key leaflets on a small group of customers. It asked them 16 simple questions, such as: 'How do you go about claiming Jobseekers Allowance?' and found that only a quarter could be completed satisfactorily.

Last year, the DWP spent an estimated £31m printing 24 million copies of 250 different leaflets.

The report was critical of the availability of information, with core leaflets available at only half of 100 DWP sites visited by NAO inspectors. There were also concerns about the accuracy of some leaflets.

NAO head Sir John Bourn said: 'It is vital that people can rely on the accuracy of the leaflets the government produces to make informed choices about their lives. And it is vital that they can get hold of these leaflets and easily understand them when they do.'

Poor reading standards came under further PAC scrutiny this week when the committee highlighted the costs of the government's Skills for Life strategy, which aims to transform England's literacy and numeracy rates into among the best in the world by 2010.

The January 24 report said that there are 12 million people in employment with literacy skills equivalent only to those of children up to age 11, and 16 million with numeracy skills at that level.

It also found that £3.7bn had already been spent on the programme, adding that future costs were unknown, but could be as much as £2bn. 'The [Department for Education and Skills] must harden up its estimates of future costs,' Leigh said.

PFjan2006

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