Scores of DWP failings linked to deaths were kept from MPs voting on benefit cuts, secret reports reveal

Scores of failings that contributed to the deaths of disabled people who relied on the social security system were kept from MPs who were voting on cuts to disability benefits in the summer of 2025, new documents have revealed.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has finally been forced to publish reports that show exactly how many failings were exposed by secret reviews into deaths and cases of serious harm to claimants around 2020 and 2021.

Despite the documents revealing that 97 internal process reviews (IPRs) were completed across 2020-21 and 2021-22, DWP described this figure this week as a “small number of serious cases”.

The reports show that, in 2020-21, 20 IPRs identified the need to learn from DWP failures involving personal independence payment (PIP) claimants, and these produced a total of 34 “agreed activities” to put these failings right.

The following year, there were 25 IPRs involving PIP failures, and 50 agreed activities.

All these IPRs involved PIP claimants who died or suffered serious harm.

In 2020-21, there were also eight completed IPRs that identified the need to learn from DWP failures involving universal credit, and these produced 22 agreed activities to put these failings right.

The following year, there were 23 IPRs involving universal credit (UC) failures, and 83 agreed activities.

We already know, from documents released last year – just days after MPs voted for £2 billion-a-year-cuts to the UC health element – that in 2022-23 there were another 25 IPRs involving universal credit failures and 53 agreed activities, and five IPRs involving PIP failures.

In all, over these three years, there were 50 IPRs and 90 agreed activities involving PIP, and 56 IPRs and 158 agreed activities involving universal credit.

But DWP kept all these failures and recommendations secret while MPs were debating whether to slash spending on PIP and universal credit last summer.

Although backbench Labour MPs eventually forced the government to back down on the cuts to PIP, steep cuts to the health element of universal credit for most new claimants were eventually passed by parliament and are due to be introduced next month.

Among the cases reviewed by DWP civil servants through the IPRs was one involving a UC claimant who died, in which DWP had made multiple errors, including failing to refer them for a work capability assessment after they declared a health condition in their UC online journal; failing to refer them to support with their budgeting when they revealed financial difficulties; failing to support them after they said their mental health was declining; failing to follow the department’s “six-point plan” after they disclosed suicidal ideation (see separate story); and failing to update DWP’s records after the claimant died.

Another IPR examined the case of a claimant whose benefits had been sanctioned without DWP considering their mental health. It is not clear whether this claimant died.

Several cases in 2020-21 involved failings by private sector assessment providers, although the document does not say which outsourcing companies were involved.

One review – again, it is not clear if this led to the claimant’s death – stated that a PIP assessment had been “not of the required standard”, while another also described an assessment as being “not of the required standard”.

A third substandard PIP assessment in 2020-21 led to an audit of assessment provider reports, while a “substantial assurance” was given about future assessment quality, presumably by the provider.

Another IPR involving universal credit in 2021-22 stated that the claimant “had no internet and could not access their account and alternative methods of communication were not considered”, while telephone appointments were arranged even though their number had been disconnected; DWP failed to carry out a case conference before suspending the claimant’s universal credit payments, and then failed to lift the suspension of payments; and their arrears were not paid after their death.

Disability News Service (DNS) has been trying to secure the release of the information from the IPRs since November 2023, with the DNS complaint about DWP’s refusal to release them eventually reaching the information rights tribunal, with support from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

DWP had to promise the tribunal that it was intending to publish the information DNS was seeking.

Although it has missed its self-imposed deadline, DWP has now finally released the IPR conclusions from 2020-21 and 2021-22 (it published the IPR conclusions from 2022-23 last year but has yet to publish those from 2023-24).

In all, the documents now released by DWP show that, in 2020-21, 40 IPRs were completed, and in 38 of them there was learning identified from the investigation, with a total of 129 agreed activities for improvements.

In 2021-22, 57 IPRs were completed, and in 53 there was learning identified, with 256 agreed learning activities.

DWP declined to say this week why ministers thought it was right to keep the IPR information from MPs before they voted on last summer’s cuts.

Asked why the release of the latest IPR information was not publicised, DWP said it did not routinely publicise material released on the government website.

Despite the department only releasing the information after being taken to an information rights tribunal, it said its publication showed its commitment to transparency around what it learned and improved on from serious cases.

And despite some of the information now being nearly six years old, DWP said it had to make sure that publication was carried out in the right way and protected the sensitive and personal information that IPRs can include.

It claimed it had published the findings at the earliest opportunity.

A DWP spokesperson said in a statement: “Our thoughts are with those affected by these serious cases and their loved ones.

“We support millions of people every year, and are committed to listening and learning, acting on the recommendations from the small number of serious cases, to improve our services and ensure people receive the help they need.”

*The following organisations are among those that might be able to offer support if you have been affected by the issues raised in this article:  Mind, Papyrus, Rethink, Samaritans, and SOS Silence of Suicide

**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’s actions and failings, is published by Pluto Press