MPs fail to question minister on why DWP still has no legal safeguarding duty, despite decades of deaths

MPs have failed to question a minister on the continuing failure to introduce a legal duty for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to “safeguard” people who receive state benefits.

The evidence session was reviewing progress by the department since MPs on the Commons work and pensions committee published a critical report that called for a deep-rooted cultural change across the department so it could address its “deficient” approach to safeguarding.

Its headline recommendation was for DWP to introduce a new legal duty to safeguard “vulnerable” claimants of benefits, after decades of deaths and other harm linked to its policies and procedures.

But the committee did not question the minister about that legal duty yesterday (Wednesday), or the call in its report for a new independent body to be set up to investigate cases where claimants have been seriously harmed by DWP’s actions.

It said in its report that an “overarching statutory duty is necessary to bring about the fundamental change that is required” and it pointed to a current approach that “lacks coherence and direction”.

In a letter to the committee last November, work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden said the government “remains open” to such a legal duty, a policy idea the last Conservative government repeatedly dismissed.

But the committee yesterday failed to question Sir Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, on whether the government planned to introduce a safeguarding duty.

It also failed to ask the minister and DWP officials about figures secured last month by Disability News Service (DNS) – and shared with the committee – which showed that coroners across England and Wales were failing to seek evidence from DWP following deaths of benefit claimants.

The figures showed that, in just two years, DWP liaised with more than 900 multi-agency reviews into safeguarding failures that may have contributed to serious harm or death, and deaths linked to domestic abuse.

But in the same two years, DWP provided evidence to just 52 inquests.

There have been concerns dating back at least a decade over the failure of many coroners to seek information from DWP when a claimant has died and there are potential links between their death and their benefit claim.

These include failures by the coroners who led inquests into the deaths of Christian Wilcox and Roy Curtis, and the first inquest into the death of Jodey Whiting.

The new figures – based on unpublished DWP management information – were secured through a freedom of information request and shared by DNS last month with the work and pensions committee.

Although the committee did not ask about the figures yesterday, Labour MP Liz Twist did ask how the department had progressed with investigating its engagement with coroners.

Dr Gail Allsopp, who is stepping down from her post as chief medical adviser (CMA) after it became clear that DWP was not planning to reappoint her for a further three-year contract – but has played a central role in recent safeguarding improvements – told the committee that DWP had “strengthened” its responses to coroners.

Clare Talbot, the department’s deputy director for “support to engage”, said she wanted to build on DWP’s relationship with coroners and understand “how we can work more closely together with them”.

But the committee failed to ask the minister and officials why they believed so few coroners were contacting DWP for assistance, in comparison with the much larger number of multi-agency reviews that have been seeking information, and whether they could try to increase that number.

The committee’s chair, Debbie Abrahams, did ask if the department could request to be automatically notified by coroners when there was a death involving a benefit claimant.

There was no response to that question from the minister, or officials, but Abrahams said she would “leave it with you”.

The committee declined to comment to DNS on its failure to question the minister about the legal safeguarding duty or to raise concerns with him about the coroner figures.

*The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, DNS editor John Pring’s book on the years of deaths linked to DWP, is published by Pluto Press