[Image: www.disabledgo.com]
This Site reported, many years ago, on the scandal when it was discovered that – despite having a policy to put people likely to die within six months on a fast track for benefits – many benefit claims were refused, leaving these people to die in appalling conditions.
So then-Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd announced in 2019 that there would be a “fresh and honest” re-evaluation of the way these benefits were awarded.
It is now two years later, and two charities – the Marie Curie Trust and the Motor Neurone Disease Association – have drawn public attention to official data showing that the DWP is rejecting benefit claims by more than 100 terminally-ill people, every month.
Worse still, the official figures also show that an average of 315 people are dying every month*, never having been able to secure the fast-track benefits that are supposed to help them pass away with dignity.
This is damning:
They say there are “serious concerns” over the government’s “six-month rule” – under which people must prove they have six months or less to live to access fast-track benefits support.
They said there were red flags in the DWP’s ability to recognise when a claimant was approaching the end of life.
I think that is very… charitable.. of them.
It is far more likely that the DWP is simply ignoring the facts in order to avoid paying out the benefit money – knowing that these people will soon be dead; they can’t complain or appeal and expect justice before their condition kills them.
This in turn suggests that nothing at all has changed and that Amber Rudd’s “fresh and honest” review was nothing of the sort.
Here’s some evidence in support of that conclusion:
The charities say that the findings of the review are “being withheld”.
So, after 11 years of Tory control (and it wasn’t much better under neoliberal New Labour) we can say with confidence:
The Department for Work and Pensions intentionally harms people claiming benefits by depriving them of their payments in order to hasten their deaths.
No wonder we all hate having anything to do with that vicious, poisonous arm of the Tory government.
No wonder millions of people suffer anxiety attacks whenever they see an envelop marked “DWP” in their letterbox.
No wonder I said, years ago, that the DWP is not fit for purpose and should be scrapped.
But I’ll tell you why it wasn’t:
In killing thousands of people every year, the DWP is doing exactly what Boris Johnson and his Tories want.
*1,860 people over six months.
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