• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / Benefits and Poverty / Errol Graham: Coroner pledges to press DWP on safeguarding review
Errol Graham in front of a shelf of trophies

Errol Graham: Coroner pledges to press DWP on safeguarding review

By John Pring on 20th February 2020 Category: Benefits and Poverty

Listen

The coroner who heard an inquest into a man who starved to death after his benefits were wrongly removed is to press the government for information about a promised review into how it protects “vulnerable” claimants.

Dr Elizabeth Didcock, Nottingham’s assistant coroner, has also welcomed the huge public interest in the “very sad and tragic death” of Errol Graham, since it was first reported by Disability News Service (DNS) last month.

Last week, the family of Errol Graham (pictured) called on Dr Didcock to reopen the inquest into his death so she could write an official report that would demand urgent action from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to prevent further such deaths.

But Dr Didcock has now written to DNS to point out that she has no legal powers to do so.

She said she had carried out a “broad and detailed” inquiry into the circumstances of Errol Graham’s death, and that her decision not to write a prevention of future deaths (PFD) report – that would have sought urgent changes by DWP – was based on the evidence she heard at the inquest.

DNS had asked her if she would consider reopening the inquest to consider evidence that DWP hid from the inquest and which demonstrated its decade-long history of failing to act on warnings that its “fitness for work” assessment process was linked to the deaths of benefit claimants.

Dr Didcock concluded at the end of last June’s inquest that the “safety net that should surround vulnerable people like Errol in our society had holes within it”.

She also said that DWP should have obtained more evidence from his GP at the time his employment and support allowance was stopped so it could “make a more informed decision about him”.

But she concluded that she did not need to write a PFD report to demand changes to DWP’s procedures because the department had promised her it was already completing a review of its safeguarding and that this would focus on “support and safety for vulnerable people”.

That review was supposed to conclude last autumn but it does not yet appear to have been completed or published.

Dr Didcock has now told DNS that she does not have the legal powers to reopen the inquest.

But she said she would ask DWP what had happened to its safeguarding review.

She wrote: “The Investigation into this case is now complete, and the case is closed.

“I have no further legal basis for considering further evidence, nor for issuing a PFD report.

“Furthermore, I have no power to review the findings and conclusions of cases heard by other Coroners and it would be quite improper for me to do so.

“I can however request an update on the DWP Safeguarding Policy Review if this has not been completed, and I shall do so.”

Alison Turner, the partner of Errol Graham’s son, who has led the fight to secure justice, said: “It’s disappointing that the coroner doesn’t have those powers when there is a question of being misled [at the inquest] but I do respect her position.”

She said she would ask the coroner to share with her any information she secured from DWP about the safeguarding review.

A DWP spokesperson failed to comment by noon today (Thursday) on the progress of the safeguarding review.

 

A note from the editor:

Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations.

Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009.

Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS…

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on Reddit

Tags: DWP Errol Graham inquests

Related

DWP failings linked to death of claimant whose body lay undiscovered for years
2nd February 2023
DWP’s link to suicide ‘should be examined by second inquest’, Court of Appeal is told
2nd February 2023
Claimant deaths still linked to systemic flaws in benefits system, DWP document shows
26th January 2023

Primary Sidebar

Access

Latest Stories

DWP failings linked to death of claimant whose body lay undiscovered for years

Inquiry on accessible transport ‘is a victory for disabled activists’

DWP’s link to suicide ‘should be examined by second inquest’, Court of Appeal is told

Network Rail installs new £700,000 footbridge that is inaccessible to wheelchair-users

Disabled people tell MPs of ‘bleak’ cost-of-living struggle

Quarter of a million petition Tesco over inaccessible tills

Claimant deaths still linked to systemic flaws in benefits system, DWP document shows

Coffey scrapped plan for independent review of sanctions, DWP admits

Second Labour-led inquiry in two months fails to demand end to care charges

Silent vigil will mark latest stage in fight for second Jodey Whiting inquest

Advice and Information

Readspeaker

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web