The Tory Work and Pensions Secretary told BBC Daily Politics
that he had no knowledge of the number of benefit claimant deaths shown to be
caused by suicide, despite evidence uncovered by Disability News Service (DNS)
revealing that the DWP has secretly reviewed 49 benefit-related deaths since
2012. So far, the DWP has refused to publish details into at least 49 benefit
related deaths it has admitted to have investigated.
Jonathan Bartley, Green Party Spokesperson for Work and
Pensions, said: “It’s not enough that his Department appears to have sat on
research revealing the immense damage his welfare policies are causing to families
up and down the country. To deny all knowledge of the reports is heartless and
blinkered…”
DWP officials have been told that they must disclose the
number of Incapacity Benefit and ESA claimants who have died between November
2011 and May 2014. The ruling was made by the information commissioner
following a formal complaint from the website Vox Political.
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