DWP ‘finds’ draft report on Stephen Carré death that was never sent to coroner – but what did it say?
This is all very interesting – but what was in the report?
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has unearthed a “draft” report that ministers failed to send to a coroner six years ago, following concerns he raised about a suicide linked to flaws in the “fitness for work” test.
The draft report has finally emerged more than three months after Disability News Service (DNS) started questioning why DWP appeared to have failed to respond to a Rule 43 letter about the death of 41-year-old Stephen Carré in January 2010.
That letter, sent to DWP by coroner Tom Osborne on 30 March 2010, linked the suicide with serious flaws in how the work capability assessment (WCA) was used to test the eligibility of people with mental health conditions for out-of-work disability benefits.
But letters from Osborne to DWP and the family of Stephen Carré show that ministers never produced an official response to the Rule 43 letter, as they were legally obliged to do.
Now DWP has finally admitted that it did exchange letters with Osborne during the summer of 2010, and even produced a “draft final response” to his letter in September 2010.
But the department has also admitted that it cannot prove that it sent this final response to Osborne.
DNS has been asking DWP about the Rule 43 letter since being shown a letter from Osborne to the Carré family in October 2010 in which he said that DWP had failed to provide a “substantive response” to his letter, despite its legal duty to do so within 56 days of receiving it in early April 2010.
At the time the letter was received, DWP was headed by Labour’s Yvette Cooper, but a general election was called within days, and Duncan Smith replaced her as work and pensions secretary in May 2010 after the formation of the coalition government.
Source: Stephen Carré scandal: DWP ‘finds’ draft report that was never sent to coroner
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Interesting that a young man in Derbyshire has had to produce “proof of disability” despite having lost all four of his limbs as a result of a childhood illness. Step forward Ming the Merciless, a.k.a. Iain Duncan Smith for congratulations.
I remember mike that Gordon brown the then prime minister on good morning tv being asked about so many deaths of the sick and disabled
I remember that all was not good at that time and have since become a follower of the deaths of the sick and disabled
it’s a pity that the overall public to this day more then 6 years on are still not getting involved as they should in bringing about the stopping of the persecution of the sick and disabled which leads to their premature death
my message to them is shame on you as in Gordon brown’s case he was genuine in shock as to what was going on as that was the impression i had at the time
the killing of the sick and disabled irrespective of how it is carried out is completely wrong as is the shooting of certain black people in the USA
the public need to wise up and fast as to who is in power as prime minister as getting it wrong has of now will cost the lives of innocent people of which you and i mike wont be able to stop
Couldn’t agree more, Nick, but the trouble is, who is going to tell the public? Even the red tops seem to have slid into tabloidism mode, or are directly controlled by Con supporters/donors.
Complicating that is the 24/7 demand, meaning that very few stories run for more than a couple of days. My wife & I are amongst some 1 million Equitable Life victims, having lost our own savings (not “Treasury money” as HMT claim) through accepting the idea of taking our own responsibility for our old age, but based on the Thatcher promise that our loot would be “safeguarded”. Instead the Treasury acted illegally, withheld info and lied… and that was under Gord B.
The point being we have been fighting for over 15 years to get our legal compensation back, which would total around £6 bn if paid in full (some bloody hope), against the £26 bn already paid out to banking savers screwed in 2008 without a quibble. But the EL story, although popping up again now & then, has been ignored by the press & media for most of those 15 years.
But who can afford to take on the Treasury with all “their” money?
Indeed Malcolm getting any message across in the uk is tough going at best
we just don’t have any mp’s with the experiences of WHAT takes place in society and by the many institutions that run this country