List of those for whom Welfare Reform and cuts were too much to bear

[Dystopiary]

This is a heavy subject and I'm adding this link for anyone who might be finding things too much cos there is help out there.

Help for suicidal thoughts

 

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A coroner has linked the death of a disabled woman with the DWP and its flawed Universal Credit System.

She is the second coroner in three months to have done so. Following an inquest into the suicide of Kevin Gale, a coroner sent a report to Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride, outlying her concerns and warning him to take action. He didn't even bother to respond and the DWP dismissed those concerns.

Fiona Butler highlighted how DWP missed six opportunities to record the “vulnerability” of Nazerine (known as Naz) Anderson on its IT system while it was reviewing her universal credit claim, including failing to act on the mental distress she showed in phone calls.

It also repeatedly failed to act on requests to direct its telephone calls and letters to her daughter.

[Within a period of six months, the] DWP missed at least six opportunities to highlight [Naz Anderson's] need for additional support on its universal credit system.

It failed to take this action “despite Naz being tearful and distressed on the telephone on more than one occasion and advising the DWP of information surrounding her mental health and her inability to cope”.

DWP also repeatedly failed to pass information between its performance review and universal credit case handling teams about the need to correspond with her daughter, a request made because “corresponding with Naz was of serous detriment to her mental health”.

In her report on Ms Anderson's death, coroner Fiona Butler has also written in the report that the DWP "has failed to learn key lessons from the death of Philippa Day." In 2021, a coroner reported that flaws in the disability benefits system were "the predominent and only acute factor" in to Ms Day's death. Regarding this new report, her sister Imogen said:

“It is clear from the PFD [Prevention of Future Deaths] report of Naz Anderson that insufficient changes have been made within the DWP for vulnerable claimants since Philippa’s death in 2019.

“Their cases are extremely similar, with missed opportunities to register both people as vulnerable.

“I am struck by how Naz’s daughter’s simple request to be an intermediary could not be acted on.

That last bit - among their catalogue of failures in their dealings with Naz Anderson, this fact really stands out to me: that they didn't/wouldn't correspond with her daughter as intermediary despite repeated requests to do so, instead harassing a clearly unwell woman over the phone again and again.

Second coroner links universal credit flaws with death of a claimant

RIP Naz Anderson. Thoughts with her loved ones.

 

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Further to the above post, the repeated failures by the DWP that led to Nazerine (Naz) Anderson's death have been described in detail for the first time.

On them being asked repeatedly NOT to contact Ms Anderson directly, and ignoring those requests, it has been revealed that the DWP sent three letters in repeat succession, stating that she owed £768, then £5,323, and finally £12,762.

Six days after the final letter was sent, she took an overdose that led to her death.

The coroner’s summary details how DWP was repeatedly told of her mental distress and suicidal ideation, and how her work coach failed to record her “vulnerability” on her profile after a phone conversation with her and her daughter

It also reports how DWP work coaches are not able to see entries made by colleagues on the performance review system, so progress reports on the review were not seen by Ms Anderson’s work coach.

After a meeting on 1 December, the work coach again failed to add information about her mental distress on the “additional support tab” of her profile.

This meant the work coach’s colleagues were not able to see this information “at a glance”.

Anderson’s daughter sent a letter with detailed information about her mother’s mental health – including her suicidal ideation and admission to the mental health unit – to the performance review team on 23 December.

As stated above, Ms Anderson's daughter requested that all correspondence be directed to her, not her mother, as further correspondence would be “of serious detriment to her health”. However, the letter wasn't made available to anyone outside of the DWP's performance review team’s system, not even to Naz Anderson's work coach, and so direct correspondence to her continued.

In March, Anderson left two messages about the review of her claim on her universal credit online journal, but neither of them was actioned.

It was only on 21 April that her daughter’s letter was finally uploaded onto the main DWP system, four months after she had sent it.

Six days later, a call handler failed to record anything on the additional support tab despite Anderson displaying mental distress during a call, and also failed to alert other staff to the need to communicate with her daughter, despite being told about the letter.

On 3 May, there was yet another DWP call in which Anderson showed mental distress, and which failed to lead to information being added to the additional support tab.

That day, the letter stating that she owed £768 was sent directly to her, followed by another the same day, telling her it was £5,323.

Eight days later, a third letter was sent, now stating that she owed £12,762.

In the previous four weeks, Anderson had now received six communications from DWP, despite the letter from her daughter.

Six days later, she took an overdose, and was admitted to hospital the following day, but despite treatment she developed multi-organ failure because of the effect of the overdose.

She died on 19 June 2023 at the age of 52, with her family by her side.

[Coroner Fiona] Butler found that she had not intended to take her own life.

She concluded: “Those mental health professionals who had worked with Naz throughout 7 months in which her mental health deteriorated gave evidence to me that the recurrent and predominant cause of Naz’s increased anxiety was the DWP performance review.

“I find [on] the basis of the evidence I have heard and read that this was the case.”

Coroner’s report describes how disabled woman died after DWP told her she owed £13K

 

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The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence

The Department

The wonderful John Pring of Disability News Service has written a book on the "violent history of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)" and how state violence has devastated the lives of disabled people, many of whom have died as a result. The book has been published by Pluto Press.

'A must-read exposé of one of Britain's biggest hidden scandals' - Frances Ryan

'Definitive proof of how government austerity hasn't just harmed disabled people, it has killed them' - John McDonnell MP

In the early 2010s, reports began to emerge of deaths linked to a government department. Suicide notes, coroners' reports, and research by disabled activists pointed to failings within the Department for Work and Pensions – the DWP – the government body responsible for the disability benefits system.

As years passed, and austerity tightened its grip, the death toll mounted, and an even more disturbing picture emerged: bureaucracy, politicians, and the private sector had combined over thirty years to reckless, deadly effect.

For the last decade, disabled journalist John Pring has meticulously pieced together how the DWP ignored pleas to correct fatal flaws in the social security system and covered up its role in the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of disabled people. Having spent years researching the heartbreaking stories of twelve individuals who died, he describes how their bereaved families have fought for justice and accountability.

The Department