“The Department for Work and Pensions makes admission following FoI request from Welfare Weekly about leaflet featuring bogus sickness benefit claimants
The DWP made the admission in response to a freedom of information request from the news website Welfare Weekly. The leaflet was taken down from the DWP’s site and replaced with one that illustrated Zac and Sarah only in silhouette, along with a note clarifying: “The people in this factsheet aren’t real. We’ve used these stories to show how sanctions can work in practice.”
… In its response to the FoI request, the DWP said: “The photos used are stock photos and along with the names do not belong to real claimants. The stories are for illustrative purposes only.
“We want to help people understand when sanctions can be applied and how they can avoid them by taking certain actions. Using practical examples can help us achieve this.”
So, not real people and not real stories. Thank goodness for the Freedom of Information Act for revealing this!