Oh come on now - do play fair!

Guardian Headline: Jobseekers challenge benefits block

Guardian sub-heading: Lawyers say Iain Duncan Smith undermined jobseekers' rights with legislation allowing DWP to ignore court judgments

Iain Duncan Smith and parliament have conspired to undermine the basic rights of hundreds of thousands of jobseekers by enacting retrospective emergency legislation, according to the contents of a legal filing sent to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Lawyers acting on behalf of three jobseekers including Cait Reilly – the unemployed graduate forced to work unpaid in Poundland – are hoping to overturn a controversial law introduced by the DWP in March which allowed the department to ignore court judgments awarding more than £100m in benefits rebates to a quarter of a million jobseekers.

DWP eh?  Iain Duncan Smith eh?   Say no more!   Er, hang on a minute though...

With support from Labour, the jobseekers (back to work schemes) bill was rushed through parliament in just three days in order to strike down a ruling from three appeal court judges who found that half a dozen of the government's employment schemes, which made jobseekers work unpaid under threat of having benefits stripped, were operating outside of the law.

With support from Labour? Surely not!