A Daily Telegraph story about a welfare rights group helping “an army of bludgers” to rort the disability pension was unfair, inaccurate and breached standards, the Australian Press Council has ruled.

Headlined “Rorters sharing tips to get on disability pension: Bludge School, how to fudge a bludge”, the article claimed an online forum run by the National Welfare Rights Network and other agencies was giving would-be “bludgers” tips on how to persuade doctors to put them on the pension.

Disability pensioners were described as an “army of bludgers” costing taxpayers $17bn a year.



“The website forums the Daily Telegraph has quoted from are run by Acon, the National Welfare Rights Network, notcrazy.net and boredofstudies.net,” the Daily Telegraph said.



But a press council investigation found the welfare rights network did not run any such forum and the quotes in the article did not come from its website.



The article also alleged the National Welfare Rights Network website carried a form letter which helped rorters “con” doctors, but the press council accepted that the letter was a “neutrally worded document, intended to assist claimants and their doctors in providing all relevant information needed by Centrelink to assess a claim”.



The online headline – “It’s so easy to fudge a bludge: online guides used to con doctors into giving out disability support pensions” – was even stronger in implying the network provided online guides, the council said.



The newspaper’s handling of a complaint by the network was also found wanting because rather than agreeing to run a correction the publication included comments from a letter of complaint from the National Welfare Rights Network in a follow-up article headlined “Bludging guides to stay on”.



“The complainant said that when the NWRN complained again, the publication offered to run the organisation’s full letter in its letters section,” the adjudication said. “The complainant said it rejected this offer because the letters section is in the rear of the paper, away from the front news section and not prominent enough.”



The ruling echoes one made against an earlier Daily Telegraph article, the infamous “Slackers & Slouch Hats” front page in May 2014.



That article, which stated there were more disability pensioners than Australians wounded in war, was also found to have breached standards of accuracy, fairness and balance.



Both articles are still online but now carry a link to the adjudication from the press council, which was also published in full in the print edition.