Coroner criticizes benefit rules after vulnerable claimant’s death

A coroner has criticized the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after a woman died of an overdose in the wake of a six-month official investigation that left her with spiraling universal credit debts.

Fiona Butler, the assistant coroner for Rutland and North Leicestershire, wrote a Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) report to the DWP, highlighting the failure to respond to the victim’s mental health concerns.

The woman who… Observer does not name, had a 20-year history of anxiety and depression but this was controlled with medication until her mental health deteriorated in October 2022 after the DWP told her its performance review team was investigating her universal credit payments.

“She was diagnosed with adjustment disorder, an overreaction to stress that involves negative thoughts, strong emotions, and changes in one’s behavior,” Butler wrote in her PFD report. “I heard evidence from a consultant psychiatrist that the stressor for this was the DWP performance review, which suggested overpayments and possible debts.”

Universal credit overpayments occur when the DWP calculates that someone has received more benefit than they are entitled to. More than 10% of universal credit is ‘overpaid’ every year, often because of the way the benefits system is designed and the difficulties it has in responding to claimants’ fluctuating incomes. The DWP’s efforts to recover overpayments could leave claimants with large debts, which they will have to repay through cuts to their benefits.

Butler’s report details several failings by DWP during its lengthy victim benefits investigation. At least six missed opportunities were found to record information about her vulnerability on the DWP computer system, “despite (the victim) being tearful and upset on the phone more than once and informing the DWP of information about her mental health and her incapacity. handle”.

As a result, DWP staff were not informed of her vulnerability and did not change the way they communicated with her. “The trigger for mental health decline and adjustment disorders persisted,” Butler wrote.

The DWP also failed to respond to numerous requests, in light of the woman’s mental health risks, to communicate with her through her daughter. “This was a simple request and was extended by (the victim) during telephone conversations and journal entries with the DWP,” the PFD report said. “The request made in writing by (her) daughter was on another DWP computer system for a period of four months, but even when it was uploaded to DWP’s main computer system it was not acted upon.”

Instead, in the four weeks before she overdosed, the claimant received six communications from the DWP: two phone calls asking for detailed information, a universal online credit log from the claimant that she did not understand, and three separate letters that together blamed which she had enlarged. the DWP was 75% to blame.

In May 2023, six days after receiving her last correspondence from the DWP, she overdosed. The inquest found that she did not intend to commit suicide, but the drugs caused irreversible damage to her liver and she died in hospital the following month.

“The mental health professionals who had worked with (her) for seven months during which her mental health had deteriorated provided me with evidence that the recurring and main cause of (her) increased anxiety was the DWP performance rating,” wrote Butler. “Based on the evidence I have heard and read, I conclude that this was the case.”

She concluded: “I heard evidence from the DWP that there were plans to make a number of changes. What I didn’t hear was evidence about how DWP officers would be trained, retrained and refreshed in their knowledge (given the toolkit already available to them) to ensure that the issues identified… and would not be repeated with other vulnerable individuals .

The case comes just three months after another coroner warned that DWP procedures “may not be practical for people with mental illness and could worsen symptoms”.

A DWP spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with the victim’s family at this difficult time. We will review the coroner’s report and respond shortly.”