Benefit claimants face a

Pick of the week: DWP stacks the odds against benefit claimants

A chance for you to catch up on our five most-read articles of the week:

Five: The atheist parent guidebook: Campaigners give advice on combating religion in schools

In fifth place this week is our report on a new guide to atheist parents wishing to protect their children from religious indoctrination.

Four: The BBC Labour leadership hustings shows why Jeremy Corbyn is heading for victory

In fourth place is our review of this week's first televised hustings for the Labour leadership contest.

Three: Labour leadership fight reaches new low as Corbyn and Smith say they’d negotiate with Isis

In third place is our analysis of comments this week by Owen Smith and Jeremy Corbyn about the possibility of negotiating with Isis.

Two: How the scale of UK's prison crisis is kept under wraps

In second place is a piece by prisons campaigner Alex Cavendish exposing the lengths that prison authorities go to keep incidents and disturbances inside prisons from getting into the public eye.

One:  The tactics the DWP uses to stack the odds against benefit claimants

Ministers always assure critics of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that their appeal process is fair. But our most read piece this week scratched beneath the surface of the appeals system and found a mess of confusing and inconsistent legal practice, which stacks the odds in the department's favour.