Foxcroft statement suggests she failed to read coroners’ reports into claimant suicides

Labour’s shadow disability minister has been asked why she apparently failed to read two reports by coroners that raised serious safeguarding concerns about the impact of universal credit on disabled people.

Vicky Foxcroft had been asked about Labour’s failure to address concerns about the universal credit system after the suicides of two disabled people that were each linked by coroners to harm caused by the working-age benefits system.

But she ignored universal credit in her statement and spoke instead about the disability benefits assessment system, which was not mentioned by either coroner.

The questions were put to her by Disability News Service (DNS) after Foxcroft’s boss, shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, pledged to be tougher on benefits than the government, while ignoring concerns about the safety of universal credit and the risk of further deaths of disabled claimants through cuts and reforms.

In an interview with the right-wing Telegraph, Kendall said the government’s “talk about being tough on benefits” had failed, and she urged the paper’s Conservative voters to “take a look at Labour, we have changed”.

Her comments echoed Labour’s change in tone on social security in the mid-1990s, when it began to follow the Conservatives in describing benefit claimants as undeserving in a bid to mark out how “New” Labour had changed.

This paved the way for Labour’s own social security cuts and an approach to reform that mirrored Conservative policies when it won power in 1997.

Labour, and Foxcroft, have repeatedly ignored evidence of serious safeguarding issues within the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), particularly with universal credit, including the two prevention of future deaths (PFD) reports by coroners linking universal credit with suicides.

Foxcroft has also ignored analysis shared with her by DNS that appears to show – despite ministers repeatedly suggesting otherwise – that the proportion of disabled people on out-of-work disability benefits has remained roughly stable over the last 15 years.

The first PFD report was written by a coroner who warned work and pensions secretary Mel Stride in November that he needed to act to prevent flaws in universal credit leading to further deaths, following the suicide of Kevin Gale, from Penrith, Cumbria, who had become overwhelmed by the application process.

Last month, another coroner linked DWP and universal credit with a suicide, this time following the death of Nazerine Anderson, from Melton Mowbray, with the PFD highlighting how DWP missed six opportunities to record her “vulnerability” 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.

Foxcroft and Labour have also failed to raise concerns about a Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit (PMIU) report that ministers kept hidden for four years, which revealed significant flaws at the heart of universal credit and how DWP supports “vulnerable” claimants.

But after being asked about these safety issues with universal credit, Foxcroft’s office emailed a statement that repeatedly talked about the “assessment process” and Labour’s plans to reform it.

There is no mention of assessments in either PFD report.

Foxcroft’s statement also says Labour is committed to publishing PFD reports, when such documents are already published online.

She appears to be confusing PFD reports with DWP’s internal process reviews, which DWP refuses to publish other than in anonymised, severely-redacted versions.

Despite DNS requesting a comment about Labour’s failure to express concern about the safety of universal credit, the two recent universal credit PFD reports, and the PMIU report, Foxcroft did not mention universal credit in her statement.

Questioned by DNS, she declined to clarify her comments or explain her apparent errors.

It is likely that her statement was drafted by Labour’s press office.

But she did say that a Labour government would “ensure the NHS plays an active role in the treatment and prevention of mental illness, recruiting 8,500 more mental healthcare professionals to clear the backlog and reduce waiting lists”.

She said Labour was “committed to delivering for those disabled people who can and want to work” and that it would “provide tailored support to those who need it”, adding: “The Tory DWP is not delivering.

“The culture needs to change and we know this will take time.

“Most importantly, we will work with disabled people and disabled people’s organisations to ensure we get this right.”

Kendall’s comments earlier this week came as disabled activists protested outside DWP’s headquarters and blocked traffic near parliament to protest at government reforms that they believe will lead to more deaths of claimants (see separate story).

Their protest outside Caxton House was accompanied by life-sized photographs of three disabled people – Errol Graham, Jodey Whiting and David Clapson – whose deaths have been closely linked to DWP’s actions and failings.

Kendall’s interview came ahead of a speech in which she attacked the Conservatives for failing to “get to grips with welfare”.

She mirrored decades of DWP rhetoric by both parties by claiming that “good work is good for mental health”, and she repeated her party’s often-repeated – and much-criticised – line that “Labour is the party of work”.

Although she spoke briefly about the need to improve mental health and driving down waiting-lists for NHS treatment, she also mirrored many years of government hostility towards claimants, saying: “Under our changed Labour party, if you can work there will be no option of a life on benefits.”

Her speech and interview came just days after Labour described disabled people who rely on long-term incapacity benefits as being “on the scrapheap” and “languishing” on benefits.

Picture: Vicky Foxcroft (left) and Liz Kendall

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