DWP contractor admits routinely asking sickness benefit claimants dangerous questions about suicide

Last Updated: March 11, 2017By

It is terrific that this issue is finally getting the attention it deserves, more than two years after Vox Political broke the story.

Perhaps it will lead to a change in the DWP’s culture of “disabled genocide” – although, after it was hammered for the policy on national TV and nobody bothered much, this seems doubtful.

Any improvement is to be welcomed, of course.

But I do wonder how many lives could have been saved if the effort going into this issue today had been applied in December 2014.

One of the outsourcing giants paid to assess disabled people for their eligibility for benefits appears to have admitted that it is standard practice – approved by the government – to ask claimants with mental health conditions why they failed to take their own lives.

A leading clinical psychologist has warned this week that such questioning “brings huge risks” and is one of the reasons behind the increase in suicides associated with the government’s work capability assessment (WCA) process.

The admission from Maximus, which carries out WCAs for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), came after a disabled campaigner produced a recording of his own assessment.

On the recording, shared with Disability News Service (DNS), a Maximus assessor – an occupational therapist – is heard asking Jonathan Hume a series of questions during his WCA, while typing on a keyboard.

She asks him [his replies have not been included]: “Back to some questions that we have to cover…

“Have you ever tried to harm yourself or take your own life or needed to go to hospital?

“Do you have any thoughts around that at the moment, any intentions or plans to hurt yourself currently?

“When you say desires, how often are you having thoughts like that?

“And what is it that stops you from acting on the thoughts that you have?

“Can you think of any reason that you’re not doing that? Is it friends or family support?”

Source: Maximus ‘admits’ using brutal and dangerous suicide questions

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4 Comments

  1. Barry Davies March 11, 2017 at 9:00 pm - Reply

    We can but hope Mike, but you’ll excuse me if I don’t hold my breath.

  2. Stu March 12, 2017 at 8:17 am - Reply

    I’ve had that question recently by Maximus but when I questioned it as well as the inaccuracies recorded in the medical report, all I received was a torrent of defensive abuse from the Mandatory Reconsideration decision maker who insisted on defending the indefensible Maximus nurse without question.
    There is no advertised formal process that exists to complain about the conduct of the assessor.
    My conclusion – “What’s the pfoint?” (not a typo, just saying there is no “f” in point)

  3. jeffrey davies March 12, 2017 at 8:31 am - Reply

    culling the stock through benefits denial hmm history repeating itself
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww800PzlJ6Y

  4. mrmarcpc March 16, 2017 at 4:10 pm - Reply

    The evil damage these fascists have caused sicken me to the core!

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