DWP staff ignored rules on how to respond to claimants who report suicidal thoughts, secret reports reveal

Staff working for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) repeatedly ignored crucial rules on how to respond when benefit claimants disclose that they intend to self-harm or take their own lives.

New documents published quietly by DWP after a freedom of information complaint lodged by Disability News Service (DNS) show the department breached the guidelines on at least eight occasions over about two years.

The failings were revealed by secret internal process reviews (IPRs) carried out by DWP civil servants following deaths or other cases involving claimants suffering serious harm.

Despite the documents revealing that 97 IPRs were completed across 2020-21 and 2021-22, DWP described this figure as a “small number of serious cases”.

Over the last decade, DNS has reported how DWP staff have repeatedly had to be reminded about the so-called “six-point plan” that they should follow when a claimant discloses suicidal ideation or thoughts of self-harm, with these reminders often issued after a suicide.

Now documents revealing the conclusions reached by IPRs that were completed between 2020 and 2022 show DWP staff continued to either ignore or forget how to respond when claimants disclosed they were at risk of self-harm or suicide.

Last year, DNS reported that another two IPRs completed in 2022-23 also mentioned failures relating to the six-point plan.

DNS has been trying to secure the release of the information from the IPRs since November 2023, with the DNS complaint about DWP’s refusal to release them eventually reaching the information rights tribunal, with support from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

DWP had to promise the tribunal that it was intending to publish the information DNS was seeking.

Although it has missed its self-imposed publication deadline, DWP has now finally released the IPR conclusions from 2020-21 and 2021-22 (it published the IPR conclusions from 2022-23 last year but has yet to publish those from 2023-24).

The documents show repeated failings across DWP’s different services, but particularly universal credit, personal independence payment (PIP), and employment and support allowance (ESA).

Because the two documents only report on the “learning identified”, the “agreed activity” and the “learning outcomes” from each case, it is impossible to know how many of the six-point plan failures contributed to the death of a claimant.

But from previous information obtained four years ago by Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, we know DWP began 43 IPRs into deaths between July 2019 and June 2020, 59 from July 2020 to June 2021, and 38 from July 2021 to June 22.

Among the cases examined in the two new documents was one in which DWP failed to take steps to refer a universal credit claimant for personal budgeting support; failed to support them after they reported that their mental health was declining; and then failed to follow the six-point plan when the claimant reported suicidal ideation.

It is unclear whether this claimant eventually took their own life because of these failures.

In another case, the IPR reported that the six-point plan was “not followed when required”, with the ESA team being told to promise to “highlight to all colleagues the importance of using the Six-Point Plan in all instances of customers declaring suicidal intent”.

The review added: “Communications were issued and awareness events held on the importance of following the Six-Point Plan and the signposting of customers.”

Again, it is not clear if this claimant died.

Despite the eight failures revealed by IPRs in 2020-21 and 2021-22, documents previously obtained by DNS show that the six-point plan continued to be neglected by DWP staff.

In 2022-23, two further IPRs mentioned failures relating to the six-point plan.

Despite the repeated concerns raised in the previous two years, the ESA team in 2022-23 agreed to “highlight to all colleagues the importance of using the six-point plan in all instances of customers declaring suicidal intent”.

In all, the documents now released by DWP show that, in 2020-21, 40 IPRs were completed, and in 38 of them there was learning identified from the investigation, with a total of 129 agreed activities for improvements.

In 2021-22, 57 IPRs were completed, and in 53 there was learning identified, with 256 agreed learning activities.

DWP declined this week to say why the six-point plan failures kept happening over the last decade.

But a DWP spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with those affected by these serious cases and their loved ones.

“We support millions of people every year, and are committed to listening and learning, acting on the recommendations from the small number of serious cases, to improve our services and ensure people receive the help they need.”

*The following organisations are among those that might be able to offer support if you have been affected by the issues raised in this article:  Mind, Papyrus, Rethink, Samaritans, and SOS Silence of Suicide

**The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, DNS editor John Pring’s book on the years of deaths linked to DWP’s actions and failings, is published by Pluto Press