The UK Department for Work and Pensions has removed an online tool for job seekers from its website after it mistakenly listed 'striptease artist' as a possible future career for Universal Credit claimants, the Telegraph reported.
The tool – Work You Could Do - is designed to help claimants enter the job market by suggesting possible careers, and describing what they entail. However, due to an oversight in the way the web page was constructed, the department accidentally listed "striptease artist" as a potential job to apply for, alongside roles such as hotel assistant, lobby attendant and bingo assistant.
— Ben Claimant (@imajsaclaimant) August 21, 2019
The website described the role as an individual who "dances in adult entertainment establishments", and suggested claimants searched "striptease artist" online to find vacancies.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) issued a statement describing the listing as "inappropriate" and said it would launch a review into the incident, adding adult dancing “[wasn’t] the type of employment our work coaches help people into", and defended its record on Universal Credit, which it said was "working for the vast majority of people".
The web page has since been removed and the tool is "temporarily unavailable". The error allegedly arose when the DWP copied a list of occupations compiled by the Office for National Statistics, which divides jobs into categories for the purpose of its statistical releases.
