PIP review failures were ‘significant’ factor in disabled woman’s suicide, says ombudsman… as Labour prepares £4.5 billion cuts

A widower has said he will never forgive the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for its failings in dealing with his wife’s disability benefits, after an ombudsman ruled those failures were a “significant contributing factor” in her suicide.

His wife’s mental health had been stable, but she “spiralled into a deep depression” after DWP removed the daily living part of her personal independence payment (PIP) following a review of her eligibility in July 2019.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has now concluded that DWP – which eventually admitted that its decision on her claim had been wrong – failed to consider the relevant evidence properly.

The ombudsman is now looking at whether DWP needs to make “wider changes to its service and the way it considers benefit claims”, as part of a wider piece of work which includes an investigation into the death of another disabled claimant.

It is the second tragedy connected with DWP’s PIP review system to be reported by Disability News Service (DNS) in consecutive weeks.

Following last week’s report by DNS into the death of “David”, a disabled Salisbury man – whose body was found in distressing, squalid conditions, just weeks after DWP wrongly removed his PIP because he failed to return his review form – the ombudsman’s ruling will raise further serious questions about the safety of the disability benefits system.

It will also add to concerns about the harm, and likely deaths, set to be caused by the Labour government’s plans to cut spending on PIP by £4.5 billion a year by 2029-30, along with other controversial cuts and reforms to disabled people’s social security support.

DNS has been following the progress of the ombudsman’s investigation into the disabled woman’s death for more than three years.

Her husband, Mustapha, from south London, originally contacted DNS in late 2021 because of his anger over DWP’s role in the suicide of his much-loved wife Tracie, eight months after the department cut her PIP payments.

He has asked DNS not to use their surnames, partly to protect their son.

The ombudsman has now produced its final report into Tracie’s death, and has concluded, after a lengthy investigation, that DWP’s failure – which led to it removing the daily living part of her PIP – had a “significant impact” on her mental health and was “a significant contributing factor in her death”.

Tracie had been receiving the standard rate of both the mobility and daily living components of PIP since 2016, but following an assessment on 5 June 2019 as part of a review of her entitlement, DWP decided the following month to remove her daily living component, after she only received six points, two short of the eight she needed to qualify for the standard rate.

She asked for a mandatory reconsideration, but DWP confirmed its original decision on 12 September 2019.

She appealed to the tribunal but was unable to attend a hearing scheduled for 17 February 2020 due to ill-health, so it was postponed.

Tracie, who also had asthma and fibromyalgia, and other long-term health conditions, took her own life the following month.

Several months after her death, DWP changed its decision before a tribunal could deal with the appeal – awarding her 14 points and the enhanced daily living rate* – arguing that her mental health and chronic pain had significantly deteriorated after the initial decision.

But the ombudsman has now concluded that DWP had largely relied on the same evidence it possessed when it initially decided to remove her eligibility for the daily living component, and that it should not have been removed in July 2019.

The ombudsman found that DWP “did not appropriately score [Tracie] in three categories in its initial decision”, and that she should have scored at least eight points, which would have made her eligible for the basic PIP daily living rate, which was worth about £59 a week at the time.

The report concludes: “DWP’s decision to increase her scores, prior to the tribunal without new evidence, calls into question its initial decision-making.

“[Mustapha] told us that the evidence his wife presented when she initially applied for the daily living component and was declined was largely consistent with what DWP used to award it prior to the appeal hearing.

“Based on the evidence we have seen, this is the case.”

The ombudsman also found that Tracie had had mental ill-health, including anxiety and depression, for many years before DWP’s decision in July 2019 and had been “doing extremely well mentally”.

But in the run-up to her PIP review, she told mental health staff she was anxious about the process and the outcome, and her mental health then “began to deteriorate significantly” after the July decision.

Just three weeks after the decision to cut her PIP, she attempted to take her own life, and she told hospital staff “that she was upset that her PIP had been reduced and that she did not know how she would survive [and] felt hopeless and stressed because of money issues and that everything was going wrong”.

She attempted to take her own life again in late September 2019 and told staff she was “experiencing financial pressures and was struggling to pay her rent” and that her family may get evicted because she “messed up” her PIP.

There was another incident of self-harm in January 2020, and she told accident and emergency staff that she had “stopped taking her usual medications a few weeks previously as she could not afford her prescription charges” and was thinking about how to take her own life.

Tracie was again examined at hospital in February 2020 where she “told staff that she was awaiting the outcome of her PIP appeal but she did not think the decision would change anyway and she felt very anxious about her reduced income and her contribution to household bills”.

She was found to be at high risk of suicide but was still discharged from hospital on 9 February.

After twice speaking to her GP about increased pain levels, her body was found in a public place on 15 March.

The ombudsman’s report says: “Based on the evidence, it seems clear that [her] mental health spiralled after DWP decided not to award her the daily living component of PIP.

“[She] went from being stable with good mental health to wanting to take her own life and making repeated attempts to do so.”

The ombudsman concluded that “DWP’s incorrect decision not to award [her] the daily living component of PIP initially played a significant role in the decline of her mental health”, although her pain “was also increasing and becoming more frequent to the point she was struggling to sleep”, which probably also affected her mental health.

The ombudsman said it was unable to say that the PIP decision “was the sole factor in the decline of [her] mental health and subsequent decision to end her life”, but “had DWP made the appropriate decision in the first instance, [she] may not have deteriorated in the way she did.

“Nothing can be done now to put right the impact to [Tracie].

“However, her family will never know if things could have been different, and this in itself is a significant injustice to them.”

The ombudsman did not ask DWP to write to Mustapha to apologise as he had made it clear he would not accept such an apology from the department.

But it said that DWP had “acknowledged failings in this case” and the injustice that that caused.

It added: “We have considered the wider service issues and whether the mistakes DWP made in this case could happen again to other people.

“We have been unable to reach a view on this… based on the current evidence we have seen.

“However, we have agreed with [Mustapha] and DWP that we will consider these wider service issues as part of another ongoing case we are investigating where the underlying events and claimed impact overlap with this case.”

Mustapha told DNS yesterday (Wednesday) that he was happy with the ombudsman’s decision, but that DWP had still made no changes to its policy as a result of what had happened.

He said Tracie had talked constantly about her PIP claim and DWP after her benefits were cut, and he was convinced that its actions were the reason her mental health had deteriorated so sharply.

He said: “In notes she wrote, she kept saying, ‘what am I going to do? I have no future.’”

Mustapha added: “I will not accept apologies from DWP. I will not forget. I will not forgive them.”

A DWP spokesperson said: “Our sincere condolences are with [Tracie’s] family.

“We are currently looking into the details of the case.”

This was the same statement DWP issued late last week in response to the concerns around David’s death (see separate story).

*Under Labour’s planned cuts to PIP, which will require all claimants to be awarded at least four points on at least one “activity” to qualify for the daily living component, she would not have qualified even for the standard rate

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

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