The Times blocks DNS from raising concerns with its readers about DWP deaths, in response to Burnham ‘welfare inquiry’ article

The Times has blocked Disability News Service from alerting its readers to research which exposed how previous reforms to out-of-work disability benefits led to hundreds of deaths of disabled people in the early 2010s.

Last week, the newspaper launched what it calls a six-month “welfare inquiry”, and this week its coverage featured an article written by prime minister Andy Burnham.

In contrast to many other such newspaper articles and interviews with work and pensions secretaries and prime ministers over the last two decades, Burnham’s piece was largely uncontroversial and did not attack disabled claimants, focusing instead on the need to increase support for young people.

But Burnham did warn that benefits would “become the backstop, not the starting point” under reforms expected in the next few months, and the system “will no longer begin by establishing which benefits a young person is entitled to”.

In response to the article, and associated commentary from The Times, Disability News Service (DNS) attempted to post a comment on the website.

The comment read: “You all have short memories. Here’s what happened last time a government (the 2010 Tory-Lib Dem coalition, working to New Labour plans) tried to force disabled people off benefits and into work (and it was govt-funded research).”

It linked to a DNS article from November 2015, headlined: “Government, health unions and Maximus all silent over ‘590 WCA suicides’.”

The news story reported on government-funded research by public health experts from Liverpool and Oxford universities, which found that the use of the work capability assessment to reassess people on incapacity benefit was linked to an extra 590 suicides and 279,000 additional cases of self-reported mental health problems between 2010 and 2013.

But The Times did not publish the DNS comment.

Instead, the comment – which appeared to follow the newspaper’s guidelines for readers’ comments on its articles – was left “pending approval” for hours until it was eventually deleted.

The newspaper’s actions will only increase concerns that its inquiry has no intention of examining the risks posed by cuts and reforms to the social security system for disabled people who rely on benefits to survive.

That reluctance mirrors the behaviour of Alan Milburn, the former health secretary under New Labour, who swore at DNS editor John Pring at Labour’s annual conference last month when challenged about his failure to discuss the safeguarding risks involved in forcing tens of thousands of young disabled people into employment, as he is set to recommend to the government in the next few weeks.

The Times has still not replied to last week’s attempt by DNS to alert its inquiry to the years of evidence linking DWP with claimant deaths – including coroners’ reports, academic research, secret government reviews, family testimony, and safeguarding adults reviews.

The newspaper, and those running its inquiry, had not responded to a request to comment by noon today (Thursday).

*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

**The inquiry’s email address is: [email protected]  

***DNS has not included links to The Times and its “welfare inquiry” because the newspaper operates a paywall