DWP secretly weakened guidance on suicides after public pledge | Disability News Service

Why would a government organisation secretly weaken its own rules on when to investigate deaths on its watch?

Doesn’t that imply a guilty conscience?

Here’s Disability News Service:

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has secretly weakened its own rules on when it should investigate the deaths of benefit claimants who take their own lives.

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Four years ago, the department told the National Audit Office (NAO) that it would always carry out one of its secret reviews when it heard of a claimant’s death if they had died by suicide, even if there were no allegations that DWP’s actions had contributed to that death.

New figures obtained by DNS through a freedom of information (FoI) request show that on at least four occasions in 2022-23, the department failed to investigate when told of the suicide of a claimant.

When asked by DNS why these four suicides had not led to an investigation, a DWP spokesperson said the criteria [were] changed in April 2021, a year after it informed NAO that all suicides of claimants it heard about should lead to an internal process review (IPR) “regardless of whether there are allegations of Department activity contributing to the claimant’s suicide”.

This week’s admission suggests that DWP has taken a significant backward step in addressing the serious and continuing risk to the lives of disabled people, particularly those who pass through its disability assessment systems.

Source: DWP secretly weakened guidance on suicides, one year after public pledge – Disability News Service


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4 Comments

  1. oeggame1 February 19, 2024 at 5:37 am - Reply

    Then we are back to aktion T4 were a government allows itself to cull the stock isn’t no difference to then is it now

  2. Kim Singleton February 19, 2024 at 12:05 pm - Reply

    Since the pension injustice for 1950s women many have died. Since 2015 the total so far as of today, 261,218. Please, could you do a lorry for them to honour their injustice as every fourteen minutes another 1950’s woman dies. I feel the DWP/Government do not have public trust anymore. Thank you.

    • Mike Sivier February 19, 2024 at 3:20 pm - Reply

      A lorry?

  3. Hecuba February 19, 2024 at 1:24 pm - Reply

    DWP works for the fascist tories not us plebs! Hence the DWP does its utmost to hide its accountability concerning disabled women and men who commit suicide whilst desperately trying to access their rightful state financial support!

    Remember no one has right to expect any state financial support because the DWP only exists to punish claimants and ensure our public money is not ‘wasted’ on us but given to the greedy multinational corporate companies who support the fascist tories!

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