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16.12.14

Should DWP publish inquiries on benefit claimant suicides?

Mental health and disability charities have called on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to publish its internal reviews into suicides, which may have been linked to benefit changes. 

A peer review is triggered when suicide or alleged suicide is “associated with a DWP activity”. The latest calls come after a Freedom of Information request by the Disability News Service revealed that the DWP has carried out “60 peer reviews following the death of a customer” since February 2012. 

Tom Pollard, the policy and campaigns manager at Mind, told the Guardian that it would be “helpful” to see what things could be going wrong in the benefit system that could lead to these tragic solutions. 

The Department added it takes these matters seriously, which is “why we carry out peer reviews in certain cases to establish whether anything should have been done differently”.  However, as yet, DWP has no plans to make its reviews public. 

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