The government has lost the Poundland case for a second time as the UK's supreme court threw out its appeal - but appeared not to know it had happened.
The case concerned forced work experience and was brought by Cait Reilly, a graduate who claimed she had been unlawfully made to work in the budget high street chain.
Reilly believed her human rights had been breached, but the original ruling did not support this.
Instead it found against the government on the basis that jobseekers had not been given enough information on their rights and the sanctions that could be applied if they did not comply.
The supreme court found that this decision was correct and upheld it.
But the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) did not appear to understand this, and seemed to believe it had won on all counts.
DWP Secretary of State Iain Duncan Smith said:
"We are very pleased that the Supreme Court today unanimously upheld our right to require those claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance to take part in programmes which will help get them into work.
"We have always said that it was ridiculous to claim that our schemes amounted to forced labour, and yet again we have won this argument.
"Ultimately this judgment confirms that it is right that we expect people to take getting into work seriously if they want to claim benefits."
This was the entirety of the press release put out on the DWP website, with no mention made of the defeat.
The supreme court did reject a counter-appeal brought on human rights grounds, finding that unpaid work experience came "nowhere close to the type the exploitative conduct" banned under the European Convention.
The government had introduced a new law allowing it to continue with the schemes before the ruling was made, but may now be forced to repay benefits unfairly stripped from those who were sanctioned for refusing to take part.
Reilly now works part-time in a supermarket, a blow to those who said she believed she was too good to work in Poundland.
She said she hoped the judgement would "improve the current system and assist jobseekers who have been unfairly stripped of their benefits".
She added "I brought these proceedings because I knew that there was something wrong when I was stopped from doing voluntary work in a local museum and instead forced to work for Poundland for free.
"It must be time for the government to rethink its strategy and actually do something constructive to help lift people out of unemployment and poverty."