Equality watchdog told to ‘come clean’ over DWP benefit deaths discussions

The equality watchdog has been told to “come clean” over its failure to hold the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to account on deaths linked to benefit claims.

It is now 20 months since the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) announced it was drawing up a legally-binding “section 23 agreement” with DWP to force it to act, following concerns raised with the commission about the deaths of DWP claimants in vulnerable situations.

It said then that it expected the agreement to be signed by the summer of 2022.

But, 20 months on from the announcement in April 2022, no such agreement has been signed.

Two months ago, the Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance (ROFA) sent an email to the commission’s chief executive and chair, calling on them to explain the lack of progress.

It then sent another email a week later.

But EHRC has so far failed to respond to the emails, which had called for it to act “as a matter of urgency”.

Both were sent direct to the email addresses of the chief executive, Marcial Boo, and the chair, Baroness Falkner.

Although Disability News Service (DNS) has verified the email addresses they were sent to, EHRC claimed this week that neither of the emails was received.

In its first email, ROFA said the “unnecessary deaths and misery inflicted on Disabled people by the DWP has continued unchecked” and it called on the commission to “disclose the truth and come clean”.

It highlighted a series of reports by DNS that have linked universal credit with serious harm caused to claimants.

Among them was a disabled woman left traumatised by the daily demands of universal credit, who took her own life just days after being told she would need to attend a face-to-face meeting with a work coach.

Another was a disabled man left suicidal and without any income because of the serious flaws within universal credit.

Since ROFA’s emails to the commission, evidence has continued to emerge of safeguarding flaws within the department, particularly in relation to universal credit.

Earlier this month, DNS reported how senior mental health figures had told a coroner that DWP’s actions were having a significant “debilitating” impact on service-users, particularly those trying to claim universal credit.

Meanwhile, the PCS union has handed DWP a dossier of evidence that suggests the department is a failing organisation in a “state of crisis” and faces a “near collapse” of its benefits systems.

Mark Harrison, a member of ROFA’s steering group, said the commission’s failure to sign the section 23 agreement showed it was not fit for purpose.

He also accused the commission of misleading the UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities about the section 23 agreement.

In a report for the committee, published in August, EHRC said it was “currently in negotiations with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to enter into a legally binding agreement to improve its treatment of disabled benefits claimants”, but failed to point out that those negotiations had already lasted 16 months.

Harrison said this failure to be clear about the situation was “disgraceful”.

He said: “We need a real, independent and functioning human rights body to protect us from the vicious attacks of this government.”

An EHRC spokesperson said in a statement: “We did not originally receive the letters sent by the Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance.

“Now we have received them, we will respond in due course.

“As with all correspondence we receive, we will carefully consider the issues raised and take action where appropriate.”

Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, who has led parliamentary efforts to secure justice for DWP’s victims and push for a public inquiry into the countless deaths linked to its actions, asked in the Commons this week for an update on the section 23 process, asking work and pensions secretary Mel Stride: “Why has the department still not reached an agreement?”

But Stride said: “By virtue of the legislation that underpins those interactions, the discussions are necessarily held in private.

“I am informed that they have resulted in positive engagement, and that the department and the EHRC will come forward with a response as soon as possible.”

Picture: The government office block where EHRC has its London headquarters. Picture by Google

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