Even if the thing was working as intended, it would automatically gobble up 65% of any income tax cut handed to many claimants on modest pay.
The one bright spot for ministers was that the increase in the narrow measure of joblessness – the claimant count – was a modest 1,200 in December, much smaller than City and academic economists had feared.
There is mounting concern the relatively modest compensation could be diverted from claimants.
Unless a change is made on Tuesday, the government will have succeeded only in uniting both claimants and defendants from modest backgrounds – together with their supporters – against the government and much of the good will generated by the setting up of the Leveson inquiry and promising a libel reform bill will be lost.
It said it would have preferred not to take legal action and said its contact with the bakery made clear "the claimant will be seeking only modest damages for the upset and inconvenience caused".
Your correspondent notes that the number of lone parent claimants stands at a "fairly modest" 800,000, but also maintains that targeting reforms at them makes good policy sense.
Despite the handful of multimillion-pound cases which hit the headlines, only a tiny minority of claimants are successful and most sums awarded modest.
He is the first signee on DJ Shadow's new label, Liquid Amber, and claimant to studio sessions with Shadow in his dad's modest NorCal home.
A person, and his lawyer, who might start such a case must find all their fellow-claimants themselves a laborious and costly process, especially if they stand to gain only a modest sum of money.
The chancellor, Philip Hammond, announced a modest softening of cuts to universal credit in the autumn statement, but a £3bn cut in the "work allowance" claimants can earn before their benefits are withdrawn will go ahead.
