Slave labour

The Mandatory Work Activity required 120,000 people to work a 30-hour week unpaid to receive their £73 benefit. Nando's, Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, WH Smith, Poundstretcher, Cash Converters, Boots, DHL and Superdrug were among the 534 employers found to have been using the free labour of benefit claimants. Councils who participated included Essex, Whitby, Leicester, Scarborough, Fenland, Thurrock, Hartlepool and Rochford. The scheme was criticised by the Work and Pensions Select Committee when it was introduced in 2011 and was later scrapped by the government in 2015.

The Court of Appeal overturned the Department for Work and Pension's attempt to keep the names a secret at an estimated cost of tens of thousands of pounds in legal fees.