The Urgent Need For An Independent Advisory Panel On DWP-Related Deaths: “evidence is overwhelming”
Investigations by Disability News Service (DNS) have uncovered evidence suggesting that DWP’s policies and practices may have contributed to hundreds, possibly thousands, of deaths among Disabled benefit claimants.
The new report is by Mo Stewart, the research Lead of the Preventable Harm Project.
It has been strongly endorsed by several leading academics and organisations, including DR UK, the Black Triangle Campaign, Disabled People Against Cuts, as well as John McDonnell MP.
The report highlights that: “There has been a multitude of academic and non-academic published papers, together with books by chronically ill and disabled authors with lived experience of the brutality of the DWP and the negative impact of social policy reforms adopted by successive UK administrations.
“There are also various expert reports, all identifying the preventable harm created by the introduction of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) when influenced by the totally discredited government commissioned policy-based research and used to justify the adoption of the WCA.
“More than anything else, this government induced public health crisis is enforced by the impact of the negative and hostile disability ideology demonstrated by the DWP, which many constituency MPs are familiar with.”
The report also cites DNS editor John Pring: “The well documented negative impact of this fatally flawed non-medical functional assessment model, which disregards all clinical need, is dismissed by the DWP.
“The deaths, despair and preventable harm linked to the WCA increased following the adoption of increasingly harsh sanctions endorsed by the Coalition administration (2010-15), which successive Conservative administrations disregarded, despite some claimants being starved to death by the DWP. The recently elected Labour government (2024) appear to be following the same path by intimidating those in greatest need, with Liz Kendall appointed as the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announcing in her first speech that she is motivated to continue with the previous administration’s ambitions to reach an 80% employment rate, regardless of human consequences which can be fatal for many.”
Mo Stewart then systematically sets out how and why the DWP’s Serious Case Panel - set up in 2019 by the DWP following rising public concerns relating to the number of deaths linked to disability benefit assessments since 2010 - “has promised a lot but failed to deliver”.
For example, its membership consists of only senior civil servants and so is not independent.
In addition, it does not consider evidence from external sources.
Mo Stewart says: “Clearly, by failing to access published peer-reviewed research by a multitude of academics accessed via the Preventable Harm Project, and detailed evidence from significant professional organisations such as Rethink Mental Illness, the Panel and by extension the DWP are resisting access to detailed evidence demonstrating the government induced public health crisis.
“This is generated by successive social policy reforms and is negatively impacting on the health, wellbeing and survival of those in greatest need,12 with a refusal to admit that the WCA is demonstrably dangerous and unfit for purpose when disregarding clinical need.”
She concludes that: “Given that the Chief Coroner has been alerted to the fact that the DWP disregarded successive Prevention of Future Death reports by various coroners, it is clear that if there isn’t much greater scrutiny of the DWP the chronically ill and disabled community will continue to live in fear, and the death tolls of those in greatest need will continue to rise when, relentlessly, “killed by the State.”
“It is now up to politicians to demand the adoption of an Independent Advisory Panel on DWP Related Deaths and the removal of the DWP Serious Case Panel.”
Kamran Mallick said: "As CEO of Disability Rights UK, I strongly support Mo Stewart’s urgent call for an Independent Advisory Panel on DWP-Related Deaths. The evidence is overwhelming: Disabled people and those with long-term health conditions have been systematically harmed by a welfare system that prioritises cost-cutting over care, suspicion over support, and bureaucracy over basic human dignity.
“For years, we have seen the devastating consequences of punitive policies, most notably the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and the wider benefits system, which have forced people into impossible situations—pushing many into poverty, mental distress, and, tragically, even to their deaths.
“Reports have repeatedly exposed the failures of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in safeguarding Disabled people’s lives, yet accountability remains absent, and lessons are not being learned. Instead, we see the same hostile rhetoric and damaging policies being recycled by successive governments, ignoring the real-life consequences for those most in need of support.
“The need for an independent, transparent, and robust oversight mechanism is long overdue. A genuinely independent panel—free from government control and influence—must be established to investigate and expose the systemic failures that continue to put Disabled people’s lives at risk. The DWP cannot be left to mark its own homework, especially when the stakes are so high. Disabled people should not have to live in fear of the very system designed to support us. We need a panel that will ensure that every preventable death is acknowledged, that those responsible are held accountable, and that concrete actions are taken to prevent further harm.”
The research report An Independent Advisory Panel on DWP-Related Deaths - A proposal by Mo Stewart is available at citizen-network.org.
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