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DBC complaint against the Sunday Mail Motability Article

17 October 2011

Dear Simon Walters and Glen Owen,

We were very disappointed to read your misleading and inaccurate article on DLA and access to Motability. We believe your piece fails to meet the Editors’ Code of Practice on Accuracy as it is extremely unlikely that there are 99,000 people with ‘ADHD’ accessing Motability vehicles, or parents abusing the system to claim £10,000 a year in disability benefits. These figures are not upheld by evidence. We also suspect your article breaches the Code’s Discrimination clause through pejorative references to disability (‘naughty child syndrome’ being an example).

We have previously requested to collectively meet with Editors to discuss welfare issues in the context of the Government’s welfare reform plans which will see hundreds of thousands of disabled people lose support. This request has been ignored and another article has appeared which uses misleading and inaccurate figures, potentially discriminatory language and fails to air concerns in a legitimate or proportionate manner.

Whilst we would welcome your response and action to address our concerns, we are also copying this short note to the Press Complaints Commission who we hope will be taking action on your article.

Best wishes,

Neil Coyle, Hayley Jordan and Steve Winyard

Steering Group
Disability Benefits Consortium

Sunday Mail admits DLA/Motability article inaccuracies

The Sunday Mail has since published a correction to this story. The DBC still want the Press Complaints Commission to take action on our concerns.

More information

• tabloid’s motability story leads to fresh watchdog complaints - Link to DisabledGo News Blog (20 October 2011)
• da tackles sunday mail inaccuracy/potential discrimination - Disability Alliance press release.
• media report slams ‘vitriolic’ and ‘deeply offensive’ reporting of disability - University of Glasgow and Inclusion London report on how the media covers disability issues.
• are people on disability benefits swinging the lead? - This TUC briefing challenges the misconception that the majority of people claiming disability benefit are cheats and fraudsters, or are out to get over-generous benefits that they are not entitled to.
• the negative effect of stigmatising language on people claiming benefits - This discussion paper, produced by Community Links, suggests that stigmatising language actually undermines government’s attempts to support people into work by reducing confidence and esteem in claimants.

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