Ministers appear close to defeat in their six-year battle to prevent the release of secret reports into the suicides and other deaths of benefit claimants, after the release of findings from a second DWP investigation, the Disability News Service (DNS) reports.
The family of Errol Graham, who starved to death in June 2018 after his employment and ESA and other benefits were wrongly removed, have been shown a summary of the DWP internal process review (IPR) that examined the circumstances surrounding his death.
The document was released to Leigh Day, the solicitors representing his family, as part of their high court judicial review claim that the decision to halt Errol’s ESA in 2017, and DWP’s ESA safeguarding policy on terminating benefits, were both unlawful.
It follows the release of an IPR into the death of Philippa Day, which was obtained by solicitors for her family – also Leigh Day – and later released to DNS by the coroner holding her inquest.
The two IPRs appear to be the first to be released to families since DWP admitted in autumn 2014 that such documents existed.
Alison Turner, the fiancée of Errol Graham’s son, said she hoped the release of the two documents would now mean that all families with a relative whose death has been investigated by DWP would be able to obtain a copy of that IPR.
But she said she was also frustrated that DWP had only released a summary of the IPR, rather than the full document.
She added that the document showed that the review had downplayed the conclusions of the coroner who heard the inquest into his death.
The IPR also failed to mention the coroner’s conclusion that Errol had “needed the DWP to obtain more evidence at the time his ESA was stopped” and her conclusion that the “safety net that should surround vulnerable people like Errol in our society had holes within it”.
While the IPR raises some concerns about safeguarding under the heading “minor findings”, under the heading “major findings” it states simply: “None.”
Ken Butler DR UK’s Welfare Rights and Policy Adviser said:
“It is a scandal that legal action has been needed before the DWP release these two IPRs.
The DWP should release all IPR reports as a matter of course to bereaved families.
And they should be released in full.
It's ironic that one aim of the DWP Health and Transformation Programme is to improve trust in the DWP.
Unless all IPR's are automatically produced in full how can the DWP ever gain or deserve trust?“
For further information see Second secret DWP benefit death report could open door for bereaved families available from disabilitynewsservice.com.