DWP ‘has no record’ of whether it showed WCA death documents to reviewer | Disability News Service

Last Updated: June 3, 2018By

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) claims it has no record of whether it showed vital documents linking its “fitness for work” test with the deaths of benefit claimants to the expert it hired to review the assessment.

Even though DWP possesses the documents, it is claiming it holds no information in its records on whether they were passed to Dr Paul Litchfield.

Litchfield (pictured) published the final two independent reviews of the work capability assessment (WCA) in December 2013 and November 2014, but neither of his reviews mentioned the documents linking the WCA and the deaths of claimants.

The documents include at least seven internal “peer reviews” – reports written by civil servants following the deaths of benefit claimants – that mention the WCA, and two “prevention of future deaths reports” written by coroners.

The existence of the documents was only revealed in the years after Litchfield’s final report was published.

If they were not shown to Litchfield, the suspicion will mount that DWP and its ministers took deliberate steps to cover up evidence of the fatal impact of the assessment on sick and disabled people.

Source: DWP ‘has no record’ of whether it showed WCA death documents to reviewer


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6 Comments

  1. Justin June 3, 2018 at 11:42 pm - Reply

    This should be settled independently or through law and if there is cover up’s then those responsible should face the full force of the law and answer for there crimes

  2. Jeffrey Davies June 4, 2018 at 5:21 am - Reply

    crikey you couldnt make this up aktion t4 still rolling along without much of a ado

  3. Dez June 4, 2018 at 4:28 pm - Reply

    I think most readers on this blog, who thanks to Vox,now have a long history of the dark arts practiced by the DWP and its masters in covering up the real impact of Government interference into benefits and its dubious third party administrators. Therefore it is right that suspicion of bad timing prior to the reports issue may well have been politically orchestrated. The info is so critical I think it warrants a reissue and review to include this key input into the report.

    • Mike Sivier June 4, 2018 at 6:51 pm - Reply

      That would be too logical.

      We can hope it happens, but I can see the Tories pleading poverty because nobody on disability benefits can push them out of office.

  4. Big Bill June 4, 2018 at 4:35 pm - Reply

    So, simple, get the reports looked out,hand them over to the reviewer and have another report issued with updates. It’s not rocket science, but we all know it will never happen.

    • Mike Sivier June 4, 2018 at 6:49 pm - Reply

      Exactly. You’re thinking logically and that’s a big mistake when discussing anything to do with government.

      Well, UK government, in any case.

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