Universal credit claimants told to pay back thousands after failing to take a selfie

Benefit claimants have had their support stopped and been ordered to pay back thousands of pounds after failing to provide specific forms of ID evidence such as a selfie or a photo of themselves outside their front door.

- MAY BULMAN

The government has been accused of breaching the law by cutting people’s universal credit and demanding back payments based on a “blanket presumption” that claimants who have not responded to a request for evidence within a set timeframe are not entitled to the benefit.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has said this is part of a process to “go back and check” that claimants who did not undergo the face-to-face verification checks due to jobcentres temporarily closing because of Covid have not “abused” the system.

But Charity Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has highlighted cases where people have struggled to fulfil certain ID checks, due to legitimate reasons such as having technical problems with the government website or being unable to take a selfie because they don’t have a smartphone – but have still been told to pay back thousands.

In one case, a claimant uploaded all of the ID documents the DWP had requested by the deadline, but she had also been requested to provide a selfie, which she was unable to provide because she didn’t own a smartphone with a camera, according to CPAG.