Mail admits mistake on disability scheme
Earlier this week, Tim Fenton pointed out how the TaxPayers’ Alliance had repeated rubbish from the Daily Mail on the disabled ‘motability’ scheme.
The Mail and the TPA mis-understood how the scheme worked and how many people it affected
Here’s the surprise: the Mail on Sunday today unveils its first corrections and clarifications column, and it admits its mistake!
Last Sunday we said some 3,200 families of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder were believed to have been given cars under the Motability scheme. In fact that total is the combined figure for two categories of recipients of the Higher Mobility component of the Disability Living Allowance and includes other behavioural disorders. Recipients choose whether or not to spend their allowance on a Motability car; generally about 30 per cent do so.
Also, we described the qualification for the Lower Mobility component, rather than the Higher Mobility component required to claim a car, for which individuals must be declared virtually unable to walk.
It doesn’t go far enough of course, because the Mail pretended that disabled people were being given BMWs paid for by taxpayers, but it’s a small start. The TPA wrote an ‘update’ to the post that tried to pretend that they hadn’t actually done anything wrong.
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Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments
I’ve a car which will go back soon, I have had my tyres slashed, I have had paint poured over the vehicle it has hand controls and it takes a wheelchair.
The council then put a CCTV Camera on my home and we found out who was doing this, it was my neigbour who had failed to get DLA because he was a drug dealer/user and had claimed the drug made it impossible for him to walk.
Nothing new though I have been watching people talk about how he gets a car free of course it’s not free I pay for it, I worked for 30 years until my accident at work.
What a country we now live in
Why does it always take so little time to spread lies and untruths about situations and so long for these untruths and lies to be erased? Is this a flaw in the human psyche that wants us to believe the worst in others?
The real problem is that they didn’t make a mistake; they deliberately lied to their readership. They did not misunderstand; they had no interest in the truth to begin with. Why is it different from their other lies about disabled people? Because for once there was actually some media coverage on it, just a little bit.
But that leaves dozens of other intentional factual shortcomings that no one cares about, so the Mail on Sunday and Daily Mail can repeatedly get away with it.
Actually Treborc i’m not surprised. I cared for my disabled Mother for over eight years. It was only the last year i looked after her i got a carers allowance, paid for i believe out of my Mothers attendance allowance. Unfortunately i developed a chronic illness and had to give caring for her. My siblings didn’t mind when i was doing it for nothing, but as soon as i was paid for it they resented it and caused me and my family no end of trouble. They didn’t want to do a thing for our Mother, they thought i was getting something for nothing.
Can someone investigate DWP’s role in the story? They issued a supportive quote and featured very heavily in a story that they should/must have known was factually incorrect. Is there any way of holding them to account?
@3
The real problem is that they didn’t make a mistake; they deliberately lied to their readership.
Which is pretty much what the Mail’s been doing for years. Generally the only thing that stops the lie machine is if the potential target for their ire happens to have rather deep pockets, and ain’t too shy about ringing up Shillings, et al.
John ”Why does it always take so little time to spread lies and untruths about situations and so long for these untruths and lies to be erased? Is this a flaw in the human psyche that wants us to believe the worst in others”
Its not flawed John, its a deliberate tactic by the Franco et al loving Daily Mail. Indeed their mentor, the General himself, used disinformation to undermine the moderate social Democractic government in Spain in the early thirties. The Right did it in the Weimar Republic.
The far right ais well funded and highly effective. This is a small example but the attacks on Brown and Obama demonstrate how effective it is.
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- Liberal Conspiracy
Mail admits mistake on disability scheme http://t.co/RaOcy2g3
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Mail admits mistake on disability scheme http://t.co/RaOcy2g3
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Mail admits mistake on disability scheme http://t.co/RaOcy2g3
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Mail admits mistake on disability scheme http://t.co/RaOcy2g3
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Mail admits mistake on disability scheme http://t.co/RaOcy2g3
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- False Economy
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"@OtherTPA: RT @libcon: Mail admits mistake on disability scheme http://t.co/IP5GrDl9" FINALLY they admit they are wrong
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"@OtherTPA: RT @libcon: Mail admits mistake on disability scheme http://t.co/IP5GrDl9" FINALLY they admit they are wrong
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“@FalseEcon: RT @OtherTPA: RT @libcon:Mail admits mistake on disability scheme http://t.co/L4sewlYd” more shameless propoganda from the mail
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RT @suey2y: Mail admits mistake on disability scheme | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/7Q3Qkf4W <<WooHoo! Tin… (cont) http://t.co/T6RONLPp
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Mail admits 'mistake' over motability: http://t.co/7Q3Qkf4W Once is a mistake, twice is incompetence, 3 time… (cont) http://t.co/plHBLiyl
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RT @suey2y: Mail admits mistake on disability scheme | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/7Q3Qkf4W <<WooHoo! Tin… (cont) http://t.co/T6RONLPp
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RT @suey2y: Mail admits mistake on disability scheme | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/7Q3Qkf4W <<WooHoo! Tin… (cont) http://t.co/T6RONLPp
- Catherine Brunton
Mail admits 'mistake' over motability: http://t.co/7Q3Qkf4W Once is a mistake, twice is incompetence, 3 time… (cont) http://t.co/plHBLiyl
- Duncan Edwards
Mail admits 'mistake' over motability: http://t.co/7Q3Qkf4W Once is a mistake, twice is incompetence, 3 time… (cont) http://t.co/plHBLiyl
- csignals
Mail admits 'mistake' over motability: http://t.co/7Q3Qkf4W Once is a mistake, twice is incompetence, 3 time… (cont) http://t.co/plHBLiyl
- Andy Bean
Mail admits mistake on disability scheme | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/5oWosTlO via @libcon
- TheCreativeCrip
Mail admits 'mistake' over motability: http://t.co/7Q3Qkf4W Once is a mistake, twice is incompetence, 3 time… (cont) http://t.co/plHBLiyl
- Rebecca Devitt
Mail admits 'mistake' over motability: http://t.co/7Q3Qkf4W Once is a mistake, twice is incompetence, 3 time… (cont) http://t.co/plHBLiyl
- Sir Aaron Marshall
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