Ryan v Cambridge Jobcentre Plus

  DWP to increase support for vulnerable claimants after series of suicides This article is more than 6 years old Frontline staff will be required to liaise with NHS and police rather than cutting off people’s benefits Patrick Butler Social policy editor Wed 22 Jul 2020 17.05 BSTLast modified on Thu 23 Jul 2020 20.15 BST The Department for Work and Pensions is to overhaul its safeguarding systems following a series of high-profile failures in which mentally ill claimants took their own lives after having their benefits cut off by welfare officials. The department’s permanent secretary, Peter Schofield, told MPs on the work and pensions select committee that vulnerable people had sometimes “fallen through the cracks” in the social security system and been left without support. Recent cases include Errol Graham , 57, who was found starved to death in 2018 after his benefits were withdrawn when he failed to attend a jobcentre meeting, and Jodey Whiting , 42, who took her own l...

  The death of Errol Graham: Man starved to death after DWP wrongly stopped his benefits By John Pring on 23rd January 2020 Category: Benefits and Poverty Listen A disabled man starved to death after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) wrongly stopped his out-of-work benefits, leaving him without any income. Errol Graham weighed just four-and-a-half stone when his body was found by bailiffs who had knocked down his front door to evict him. He had just a couple of out-of-date tins of fish left in his flat. DWP civil servants had failed to seek further medical evidence from his GP, just as in many other tragic cases that have sparked repeated calls for an independent inquiry into links between the deaths of claimants and the actions and failings of DWP. Assistant coroner Dr Elizabeth Didcock, who heard the inquest, was told that DWP stopped Graham’s employment and support allowance (ESA) entitlement – and backdated that decision to the previous month – after making two unsucc...

  Philippa Day death: family launches legal challenge against DWP This article is more than 5 years old Government accused of violating right to life after mentally ill mother took overdose when benefits cut off Patrick Butler Social policy editor Mon 10 May 2021 12.34 BSTLast modified on Mon 10 May 2021 17.03 BST The family of Philippa Day, a mentally ill single mother who died from a deliberate overdose after her benefits were wrongly cut off, is to seek compensation from the government. Day died in 2019 after months of struggle with the benefit system left her in debt, highly anxious and haunted by suicidal thoughts. An inquest concluded her experience with the system was a “stressor” in her decision to take the overdose. Her family claims the handling of the case by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Capita, the private firm to carries out some benefits assessments, was negligent and breached Day’s human rights. DWP and Capita have three months to respond...

  DWP spent £50,000 trying to stop release of review into disabled man’s death This article is more than 1 year old from the  Previous government spent almost £1m trying to prevent release of documents in 56 legal cases Errol Graham starved to death in June 2018 after the DWP wrongly stopped his out-of-work disability benefits. Photograph: Handout Ben Quinn Thu 2 Jan 2025 07.00 GMT More than £50,000 of taxpayers’ money was spent on lawyers to try to prevent the release of a safeguarding review ordered after a disabled man starved to death in his own home. The costs were part of a bill of nearly £1m spent under the (conservatives circa 2023) government to prevent the release of various documents under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act. The figures were revealed after requests by the Democracy for Sale newsletter , which sought details of spending under the last government in attempts to prevent the release of information. Some of the spending that was uncovered rela...