Nottingham City Safeguarding Adults Board found that the DWP failed to share key documents with the independent consultant who carried out the review into the death of Errol Graham.
The documents would have shown that the DWP knew Errol had been experiencing significant mental distress just three years before his employment and support allowance (ESA) was suddenly withdrawn by the department when he failed to attend an assessment in the autumn of 2017.
Alison Burton, Errol’s daughter-in-law, who has fought for years for justice in the wake of his death, said last week that DWP’s behaviour was “absolutely disgraceful” and “a cover-up”.
Now the Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee has told Disability News Service (DNS) it is considering taking action.
But it also raised concerns about the DWP’s continuing failure to sign a legal agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that would force the department to improve its treatment of Disabled claimants.
It is more than a year since the Commission said it expected the DWP to sign a section 23 legal agreement – under the Equality Act 2006 – by the summer of 2022.
Such an agreement would commit the DWP to addressing the discrimination faced by Disabled benefit claimants, particularly those with mental distress and ill health, and learning difficulties.
The DWP has repeatedly misled and hid evidence from public bodies and those investigating its activities, including coroners, judges, the National Audit Office and its own independent reviewers.
The Nottingham revelations add fuel to calls for an independent Inquiry into the links between the DWP and the deaths of claimants.
Source and for more information see MPs raise concerns over DWP death evidence ‘cover-up’ available from www.disabilitynewsservice.
See also our news story Cross Party MPs call for public inquiry into benefit related deaths.