Ester McVey’s return is a harbinger of doom for sick and disabled people – just as her tenure at the Department for Work and Pensions a few years ago.
The woman once nicknamed “McVile” for her treatment of the UK’s most vulnerable people was on the panel of pundits on the BBC’s Politics Live yesterday (March 26), to discuss the measures to bring down the benefits bill that Rachel Reeves was to announce.
This Writer thought it was an inappropriate choice, considering her role in the deaths of more than 100,000 benefit claimants during her time at the DWP – especially when she rudely shouted down other panellists – and I said so, on the social media platform X.
Inevitably, another user took issue with me, so I offered to go back and research her work at the DWP – I have written many articles about it – and bring my findings back in a new piece.
This is not that article.
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I was sidetracked because my interlocutor mentioned that NHS England commissioned a disability charity to investigate the effects of benefit changes enacted by the Conservative governments of 2010 onwards on disabled people.
I had been unaware of this, so I looked it up. This is what I found:
Its key findings were that:
- Disabled households were facing increased financial hardship, with extra costs of £583 per month on average; one in five disabled people struggled to afford food, and one in three cut back on heating due to financial strain.
- Welfare reforms had a huge negative impact – the cuts due to PIP reassessments, ESA sanctions and the Bedroom Tax had pushed many people into poverty; and stress and anxiety had worsened due to the flawed work capability assessment process used by the DWP.
- Cuts to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) left many unable to pay for transport or social activities, increasing loneliness.
- And many disabled people reported declining mental and physical health due to financial stress and benefit sanctions; some were unable to afford medical equipment or therapies due to reduced income.
The report raised concerns about the reforms’ knock-on effects: more disabled people relying on NHS mental health services due to stress; increased A&E admissions of people who were unable to afford care; and long-term costs for the NHS due to worsening chronic conditions.
It also reinforced criticisms that austerity-driven welfare reforms disproportionately harmed disabled people, pushing many into poverty and worsening health outcomes. Similar findings were echoed by other studies, including UN investigations (2016, 2019) condemning the UK’s welfare policies.
But it did warn that 39 per cent of disabled people said benefit cuts worsened their mental health; one in four could not afford medication or therapies due to financial strain; and many said they had considered suicide due to benefit sanctions or reassessment stress.
And overwhelming evidence from other investigations—including government-commissioned reviews, academic studies, and media reports—directly linked welfare reforms to preventable deaths of disabled people.
Principal among these are the DWP’s own secret mortality reports, that were generated between 2015 and 2020. These documents were leaked into public knowledge and revealed that between 2011 and 2019, more than 100,000 disabled people died within six months of being found “fit for work” after Work Capability Assessments (WCA).
They also showed that suicide rates spiked among claimants who had been denied benefits. The DWP was accused of suppressing these findings until it was forced to publish them.
This was particularly annoying for me, because after I won a two-year battle to force the DWP to publish its figures on the deaths of people who were found fit for work, ministers claimed they could only provide figures on those who died within two weeks of being told they would lose their benefits – a total of 2,400 people, which was considered scandalous enough to make the front-page leads of national newspapers. The appearance of the leaked reports suggests very strongly that those minister were lying about the information they had.
The United Nations investigated the UK’s welfare reforms in 2016 and 2019 and its rapporteur on poverty stated that they led to “grave and systematic violations of disabled people’s rights”, with “people starving, freezing to death, or committing suicide” due to benefit cuts.
And a 2019 study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found 590 additional suicides in England between 2010–2013 linked to austerity policies, including benefit sanctions.
There are also coroners’ rulings connected to individual cases – but we’ll get to them below, in discussion of McVey’s own role in them.
The deaths and health crises were linked to:
- PIP replacing DLA: Stricter tests denied aid to 100,000+ disabled people.
- ESA sanctions: Sick and disabled claimants were punished for missing appointments.
- The Bedroom Tax: Disabled people were forced to move or pay more for adapted homes.
- Universal Credit delays: These left many people without any income for weeks.
The DWP has repeatedly denied systemic failures, but coroners, the UN, and activists have demanded accountability.
Now let us turn to McVey
What did Esther McVey do that may be linked to these results?
She oversaw the introduction of stricter assessments for Personal Independence Payments (PIP), which led to 220,000 disabled people losing support by 2018. She then dismissed criticism of her changes, insisting that PIP was “fairer” despite evidence of flawed assessments.
She defended the much-criticised Atos-run work capability assessments for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), which wrongly declared seriously ill people to be “fit for work”. Leaked DWP data later showed that thousands of people died after being denied ESA.
And McVey supported harsher sanctions for ESA claimants, even those with mental health conditions, even when research linked sanctions to increased food bank use, homelessness, and suicides.
She dismissed evidence of harm – ignoring warnings from MPs and charities like Scope, Mind and RNIB, all of whom warned McVey about the devastating impact of cuts. Instead, she claimed reforms were “helping people into work”. Isn’t that what Liz Kendall and Rachel Reeves are saying now?
And after coroners linked benefit cuts to deaths, McVey’s DWP refused to make systemic changes – rejecting the facts.
She promoted what might be called the Benefits Street narrative: this was based on a Channel 4 documentary series – if it can be dignified with that label – that echoed Iain Duncan Smith’s rhetoric about “scroungers”, contributing to the stigmatisation of disabled claimants.
In particular, McVey claimed welfare reforms were “ending the ‘something-for-nothing’ culture”, despite evidence that fraud was minimal – less than two per cent of cases (and lower still in 2025).
She oversaw the Bedroom Tax – a policy that cut housing benefits for disabled people in adapted homes. Even after a 2014 court ruling found that it discriminated against disabled people, she refused to scrap it.
When she returned to the DWP as Secretary of State in 2018, McVey admitted Universal Credit would leave some people worse-off, contradicting years of DWP denials.
And she faced calls to resign after she suppressed a report showing the benefit delays caused severe hardship.
Her actions can be linked with multiple claimant deaths, including the following high-profile cases:
Mark Wood, a mentally-ill Oxford man, was declared “fit for work” by Atos in 2013. His work capability assessment ignore a psychiatrist’s evidence of severe anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. His benefits were stopped and he starved to death a few months later.
McVey’s connection is that the DWP prioritised targets over welfare – leaked documents later revealed the department had quotas for removing claimants; and as a DWP minister, McVey publicly praised the Atos assessments, despite mounting evidence of harm.
Disabled Michael O’Sullivan took his own life in 2013 after being wrongly found “fit for work”. A coroner ruled that the work capability assessment “triggered” his suicide.
McVey ignored the coroner’s 2014 report that demanded DWP reforms, and her DWP refused to release mortality data on Mr O’Sullivan until activists forced it to.
Lawrence Bond was a disabled man who died in 2015, weeks after his application for Personal Independence Payments was denied. The DWP had ignored his GP’s warnings about his frailty and McVey had dismissed complaints about flawed assessments, despite the evidence of the cases listed above, amongst others.
Possibly the most high-profile of all the DWP deaths (and that’s saying something), Jodey Whiting was a chronically ill, housebound woman reliant on ESA – but the DWP stopped her benefits in 2017 after she missed a work capability assessment for medical reasons, and despite the fact that she submitted medical evidence to show that she could not attend.
By this time, the DWP had safeguarding policies that it should have followed. It didn’t. So despite her severe mental and physical health conditions, the department did not send anybody to visit Jodey at home. Left with no income, she took her own life two weeks after losing her benefit.
As a DWP minister up to 2015, McVey had defended the WCA system, despite its by-then-well-known flaws – and the same punitive sanctions regime was still in place when Jodey died. If McVey had changed the system, Jodey’s death may not have happened.
A coroner subsequently ruled that the DWP’s actions contributed to Jodey’s death. Her mother, Joy Dove, campaigned for justice – but the DWP avoided criminal charges.
Finally (in this selection – there were many more candidates), Errol Graham was a mentally ill man whose ESA was cut off in 2017 after he failed to attend a reassessment. He then starved to death in his flat, weighing just 4st 11lbs, or 30kg, when his body was discovered.
The DWP closed his case without a proper review, meaning there was no attempt to contact Errol’s family or GP.
With McVey as a minister (in 2014-15) the DWP had expanded sanctions for ESA claimants, including those with mental illnesses. She herself ignored warnings from charities about vulnerable claimants falling through gaps, and the DWP later admitted no staff were disciplined over Errol’s death.
It may be argued that McVey did not personally handle these cases or design DWP policies, but her actions enabled systemic harm which she refused to correct. She enforced and defended punitive policies aggressively; she dismissed evidence of harm – ignoring coroners’ warnings and suppressing damning data; and she dismissed claimants’ deaths as “anecdotes” until public outcry forced accountability on her.
Her tenure coincided with rising disability poverty (one in three disabled people in poverty by 2015); a surge in food bank use (partly due to sanctions);and avoidable deaths linked to benefit cuts (as described in coroners’ and UN reports).
Her resignation in 2018 (over Universal Credit) was seen by critics as overdue accountability—but she never acknowledged the full human cost of the reforms she championed.
The UN accused the UK of “grave violations” of disabled people’s rights the following year (2019).
But the DWP still refuses to release full mortality figures, and McVey has never apologised for her role in these tragedies.
And now a Labour government is preparing to inflict on sick and disabled people a series of cuts that will be the most devastating they have suffered in 10 years – terrifyingly familiar to those enforced by McVey.
It was at that moment that she reappeared on our TV screens – like a harbinger of doom and a signal for vulnerable people across the UK that the new government is just as bloodthirsty as the old one was.
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Esther McVey’s return is a harbinger of doom
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Its key findings were that:
The report raised concerns about the reforms’ knock-on effects: more disabled people relying on NHS mental health services due to stress; increased A&E admissions of people who were unable to afford care; and long-term costs for the NHS due to worsening chronic conditions.
It also reinforced criticisms that austerity-driven welfare reforms disproportionately harmed disabled people, pushing many into poverty and worsening health outcomes. Similar findings were echoed by other studies, including UN investigations (2016, 2019) condemning the UK’s welfare policies.
They also showed that suicide rates spiked among claimants who had been denied benefits. The DWP was accused of suppressing these findings until it was forced to publish them.
This was particularly annoying for me, because after I won a two-year battle to force the DWP to publish its figures on the deaths of people who were found fit for work, ministers claimed they could only provide figures on those who died within two weeks of being told they would lose their benefits – a total of 2,400 people, which was considered scandalous enough to make the front-page leads of national newspapers. The appearance of the leaked reports suggests very strongly that those minister were lying about the information they had.
The United Nations investigated the UK’s welfare reforms in 2016 and 2019 and its rapporteur on poverty stated that they led to “grave and systematic violations of disabled people’s rights”, with “people starving, freezing to death, or committing suicide” due to benefit cuts.
And a 2019 study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found 590 additional suicides in England between 2010–2013 linked to austerity policies, including benefit sanctions.
There are also coroners’ rulings connected to individual cases – but we’ll get to them below, in discussion of McVey’s own role in them.
The deaths and health crises were linked to:
The DWP has repeatedly denied systemic failures, but coroners, the UN, and activists have demanded accountability.
Now let us turn to McVey
What did Esther McVey do that may be linked to these results?
She oversaw the introduction of stricter assessments for Personal Independence Payments (PIP), which led to 220,000 disabled people losing support by 2018. She then dismissed criticism of her changes, insisting that PIP was “fairer” despite evidence of flawed assessments.
She defended the much-criticised Atos-run work capability assessments for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), which wrongly declared seriously ill people to be “fit for work”. Leaked DWP data later showed that thousands of people died after being denied ESA.
And McVey supported harsher sanctions for ESA claimants, even those with mental health conditions, even when research linked sanctions to increased food bank use, homelessness, and suicides.
She dismissed evidence of harm – ignoring warnings from MPs and charities like Scope, Mind and RNIB, all of whom warned McVey about the devastating impact of cuts. Instead, she claimed reforms were “helping people into work”. Isn’t that what Liz Kendall and Rachel Reeves are saying now?
And after coroners linked benefit cuts to deaths, McVey’s DWP refused to make systemic changes – rejecting the facts.
She promoted what might be called the Benefits Street narrative: this was based on a Channel 4 documentary series – if it can be dignified with that label – that echoed Iain Duncan Smith’s rhetoric about “scroungers”, contributing to the stigmatisation of disabled claimants.
In particular, McVey claimed welfare reforms were “ending the ‘something-for-nothing’ culture”, despite evidence that fraud was minimal – less than two per cent of cases (and lower still in 2025).
She oversaw the Bedroom Tax – a policy that cut housing benefits for disabled people in adapted homes. Even after a 2014 court ruling found that it discriminated against disabled people, she refused to scrap it.
When she returned to the DWP as Secretary of State in 2018, McVey admitted Universal Credit would leave some people worse-off, contradicting years of DWP denials.
And she faced calls to resign after she suppressed a report showing the benefit delays caused severe hardship.
Her actions can be linked with multiple claimant deaths, including the following high-profile cases:
Mark Wood, a mentally-ill Oxford man, was declared “fit for work” by Atos in 2013. His work capability assessment ignore a psychiatrist’s evidence of severe anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. His benefits were stopped and he starved to death a few months later.
McVey’s connection is that the DWP prioritised targets over welfare – leaked documents later revealed the department had quotas for removing claimants; and as a DWP minister, McVey publicly praised the Atos assessments, despite mounting evidence of harm.
Disabled Michael O’Sullivan took his own life in 2013 after being wrongly found “fit for work”. A coroner ruled that the work capability assessment “triggered” his suicide.
McVey ignored the coroner’s 2014 report that demanded DWP reforms, and her DWP refused to release mortality data on Mr O’Sullivan until activists forced it to.
Lawrence Bond was a disabled man who died in 2015, weeks after his application for Personal Independence Payments was denied. The DWP had ignored his GP’s warnings about his frailty and McVey had dismissed complaints about flawed assessments, despite the evidence of the cases listed above, amongst others.
Possibly the most high-profile of all the DWP deaths (and that’s saying something), Jodey Whiting was a chronically ill, housebound woman reliant on ESA – but the DWP stopped her benefits in 2017 after she missed a work capability assessment for medical reasons, and despite the fact that she submitted medical evidence to show that she could not attend.
By this time, the DWP had safeguarding policies that it should have followed. It didn’t. So despite her severe mental and physical health conditions, the department did not send anybody to visit Jodey at home. Left with no income, she took her own life two weeks after losing her benefit.
As a DWP minister up to 2015, McVey had defended the WCA system, despite its by-then-well-known flaws – and the same punitive sanctions regime was still in place when Jodey died. If McVey had changed the system, Jodey’s death may not have happened.
A coroner subsequently ruled that the DWP’s actions contributed to Jodey’s death. Her mother, Joy Dove, campaigned for justice – but the DWP avoided criminal charges.
Finally (in this selection – there were many more candidates), Errol Graham was a mentally ill man whose ESA was cut off in 2017 after he failed to attend a reassessment. He then starved to death in his flat, weighing just 4st 11lbs, or 30kg, when his body was discovered.
The DWP closed his case without a proper review, meaning there was no attempt to contact Errol’s family or GP.
With McVey as a minister (in 2014-15) the DWP had expanded sanctions for ESA claimants, including those with mental illnesses. She herself ignored warnings from charities about vulnerable claimants falling through gaps, and the DWP later admitted no staff were disciplined over Errol’s death.
It may be argued that McVey did not personally handle these cases or design DWP policies, but her actions enabled systemic harm which she refused to correct. She enforced and defended punitive policies aggressively; she dismissed evidence of harm – ignoring coroners’ warnings and suppressing damning data; and she dismissed claimants’ deaths as “anecdotes” until public outcry forced accountability on her.
Her tenure coincided with rising disability poverty (one in three disabled people in poverty by 2015); a surge in food bank use (partly due to sanctions);and avoidable deaths linked to benefit cuts (as described in coroners’ and UN reports).
Her resignation in 2018 (over Universal Credit) was seen by critics as overdue accountability—but she never acknowledged the full human cost of the reforms she championed.
The UN accused the UK of “grave violations” of disabled people’s rights the following year (2019).
But the DWP still refuses to release full mortality figures, and McVey has never apologised for her role in these tragedies.
And now a Labour government is preparing to inflict on sick and disabled people a series of cuts that will be the most devastating they have suffered in 10 years – terrifyingly familiar to those enforced by McVey.
It was at that moment that she reappeared on our TV screens – like a harbinger of doom and a signal for vulnerable people across the UK that the new government is just as bloodthirsty as the old one was.
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If you want to support this site
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Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
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7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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