The government has denied playing any role in deciding that a high-profile second inquest into a disabled woman’s suicide – linked closely to the actions of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – will clash with the Labour party conference.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said Disability News Service (DNS) would be “irresponsible” if it reported concerns that the Conservative government could have played a role in ensuring the inquest took place at the same time as the Labour conference.
The family of Jodey Whiting have been waiting since March 2023 for a date for a second inquest into her death.
But they have now been told that the three-day hearing will take place on 23, 24 and 25 September, the same as the last three days of Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool.
With the general election set to take place in the following weeks, it is likely that coverage of the inquest by mainstream media will be significantly reduced because of the attention focused on the conference.
A government spokesperson told DNS: “It would be totally inaccurate and irresponsible to report that government played any role in the listing of this inquest which was, as is always the case, determined by an independent coroner.”
Jodey’s mother, Joy Dove, said she believed there would still be local coverage of the inquest, but she did not know what impact the clash with the conference would have on wider media coverage.
She has been campaigning for justice for her daughter since approaching their local newspaper, the Gazette, just days after Jodey’s death in February 2017.
She told DNS: “I don’t mind waiting, as long as I get the right result. I have worked on it for that long.
“I wish she was here and I was not having to do it, but she will never be forgotten.”
She said that other disabled people were still losing their lives now, seven years after Jodey’s death.
And she thanked all those who have supported the campaigning and her family over the last seven years.
Among the new evidence that will be considered by the second inquest will be a report by the Independent Case Examiner, which concluded in February 2019 that DWP failed five times to follow its own safeguarding rules in the weeks leading up to Jodey Whiting’s suicide.
Despite this proof of the systemic flaws within DWP, Dove is not yet convinced that there will finally be justice for her daughter at the second inquest.
She still finds it impossible to forget that DWP removed her daughter’s benefits without a face-to-face assessment.
She said: “I can’t get over the fact that they had never seen Jodey’s face.
“She never got to an appointment, and they took all her benefits off her. They drove her to it. They had no right to do what they did.”
The Court of Appeal ordered a second inquest into the 42-year-old’s suicide in March 2023 so there could be a public examination of the “consequences” of DWP stopping the benefits of disabled people who rely on social security.
The delay in setting a date for the second inquest may have been partly caused by the Legal Aid Agency initially refusing to provide funding for the family to have legal representation at the inquest, before it was granted after an appeal by the family’s solicitors at law firm Leigh Day.
The first inquest into the death of the mother-of-nine and grandmother, from Stockton-on-Tees, took place in May 2017.
It failed to examine DWP’s role in her death or take evidence from any DWP witnesses, and it lasted just 37 minutes.
There was no criticism of DWP by the coroner, even though Dove had told the inquest that she blamed the department for her daughter’s death, Jodey’s sister Donna had said that having her benefits stopped had been a “triggering factor” in Jodey taking her own life, and Jodey’s daughter Emma had blamed DWP for her mum’s death.
She had taken her own life in February 2017, 15 days after her employment and support allowance (ESA) was wrongly stopped by DWP for missing a work capability assessment.
She had been a long-time claimant of incapacity benefit, and then ESA, and DWP and its assessors had previously noted the severity of her mental distress, and the risk of harm if she was found fit for work, while they were aware of her long history of suicidal thoughts.
The high court rejected Joy Dove’s request for a second inquest in September 2021, despite two key pieces of new evidence.
But the Court of Appeal ruled in March 2023 that it was “in the interests of justice” for there to be another inquest.
Teesside and Hartlepool Coroner’s Service had not responded by noon today (Thursday) to a request to comment on the date set for the second inquest.
Picture: Jodey Whiting (left) and Joy Dove
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