This image sums up the official DWP position that success or failure is a personal responsibility, and nothing to do with objective circumstances, such as a lack of suitable jobs. Along with other similar cartoons it now decorates the entrance lobby of Dundee Jobcentre.

I wonder if the people who copied and laminated it and pinned it to the board (alongside coloured inspirational stars) stopped to think that it might also sum up how those who developed the Universal Credit system regard them –the people who have to administer it. While some jobcentre advisors are better – or worse – than others, the serious problems lie in the system, rather than with the overstretched, undertrained people who are expected to make it work – and to believe in this rubbish. But the DWP stubbornly refuses to take any responsibility for creating a system so ill-conceived and poorly implemented that not only is it punitive (that bit’s deliberate) but frequent errors are inevitable.