Department for Work and Pensions

Benefits and Poverty

March 17, 2016

2

Yvette Cooper slams ‘appalling’ failure of ministers to act over coroner’s letter

Labour’s former work and pensions secretary has attacked Tory ministers for failing to order an urgent review of the “fitness for work” test after a coroner warned that it had triggered a disabled man’s suicide. Yvette Cooper has told Disability News Service that the failure of work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith and

Benefits and Poverty

Stephen Carre smiling and stroking a black cat

March 17, 2016

2

DWP dismissed coroner’s concerns over WCA suicide link, document reveals

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Civil servants and ministers dismissed a coroner’s concerns about the safety of the government’s “fitness for work” test, according to a draft response that apparently lay in Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) files for six years. Coroner Tom Osborne wrote a letter – under the “prevention of future deaths” process – to DWP

Benefits and Poverty

Head and shoulders of Justin Tomlinson giving evidence to a parliamentary committee

March 17, 2016

3

Anger as ministers push ahead with billion-pound-a-year PIP cut

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Ministers are to push ahead with plans to tighten eligibility for their new disability benefit, ignoring the views of the overwhelming majority of disabled people and organisations who took part in a consultation on the changes. The changes, which will apply from next January, will see £1.2 billion a year less spent on personal

Benefits and Poverty

March 10, 2016

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Tribunal could order DWP to release key benefit deaths details

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A tribunal judge has hinted that he may order the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to release vital information from 49 secret reviews it carried out into the deaths of benefit claimants. Judge Andrew Bartlett QC was chairing a three-person tribunal panel that was hearing an appeal brought by Disability News Service (DNS)

Benefits and Poverty

Lord Freud speaking in the House of Lords

March 10, 2016

2

DWP secrecy over benefit-related suicides

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Civil servants have refused to release information that would show how many secret reviews the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has carried out into benefit-related suicides in the last 15 months. The refusal emerged in a response to a freedom of information (FoI) request that revealed there have been a further nine “peer

Benefits and Poverty

Street sign showing Parliament Street and Whitehall

March 10, 2016

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Six years on, and still no DWP progress on ‘further medical evidence’

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Work and pensions ministers have been accused of another attempt to avoid improving the safety of its “fitness for work” test for benefit claimants with mental health conditions. A year after ministers told a tribunal – following a lengthy judicial review – that it would test ways to make the work capability assessment (WCA)

Benefits and Poverty

March 4, 2016

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DWP ‘ruined me’ with ‘victimisation’, says disabled benefit claimant

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A disabled man has accused the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) of victimising him and ruining his life after it tried – and failed – to prosecute him for benefit fraud, despite letters from medical professionals confirming his serious medical conditions. The case of Gary Moyse has shone a spotlight on DWP’s use

Benefits and Poverty

A wheelchair-user sits in front of a stage, while the grass is covered by white flowers

February 25, 2016

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DNS to ask tribunal to force DWP to publish secret benefit deaths information

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Disability News Service (DNS) will this week ask a tribunal to require the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to publish information about secret reviews it carried out into the deaths of 49 benefit claimants. DNS has been trying since August 2014 to find out what actions ministers took in the wake of deaths

Benefits and Poverty

February 25, 2016

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Duncan Smith and Grayling silent over links to WCA suicide reports

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Ministers and senior civil servants are refusing to say if they approved documents drawn up following the suicides of two disabled men that were connected to flaws in the government’s “fitness for work” test. Last week, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) claimed it had unearthed a “draft” report that was written in

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