News

Corroborating Evidence: The Deadly Impact of Benefit Sanctions
The following three recent news articles and investigative reports corroborate the claims made regarding the deadly and harmful impact of the benefit sanctions regime on disabled people.
1. The Inquest into the Death of Jodey Whiting (Rethink Mental Illness, June 2025)
Key Corroboration: Direct link between DWP action and suicide.
A second inquest into the death of Jodey Whiting, who took her own life in 2017, concluded in June 2025 that her death was precipitated by the Department for Work and Pensions withdrawing her benefits 1. Ms. Whiting, a disabled woman, had her benefits cut after failing to attend an appointment due to being seriously unwell and in hospital. The coroner's ruling directly establishes a causal link between the DWP's punitive application of sanctions and a claimant's death. The report highlights that despite years of campaigning, "harmful benefit sanctions and a punitive approach continue to this day, leading to the severe harm and deaths of people living with severe mental illness" 1.
2. DWP Safeguarding Report by the Work and Pensions Committee (Big Issue, May 2025)
Key Corroboration: Systemic failure and preventable deaths.
A damning report, Safeguarding Vulnerable Claimants, released by the cross-party Work and Pensions Committee in May 2025, concluded that the deaths of benefit claimants “could have been prevented” by the DWP 2. The report slammed the DWP’s “deficient” safeguarding practices and called for a "deep-rooted, cultural change" within the department. It noted that the true scale of deaths and serious harm is unknown because the DWP fails to systematically record all cases. Committee chair Debbie Abrahams stated that the process of engaging with the DWP itself "too often led to mental distress," and where this led to a loss of financial support, "many had paid the ultimate price" 2. This report confirms the systemic nature of the DWP's failure to protect vulnerable claimants from harm, including that caused by sanctions.
3. Investigative Report on DWP Cover-ups (Disability News Service, December 2024)
Key Corroboration: Institutional cover-up of DWP-linked deaths.
An investigative report published in December 2024 detailed how senior civil servants and ministers have spent more than a decade "covering up evidence that links the actions of a government department with hundreds, and probably thousands, of deaths of disabled people" 3. The report focuses on the DWP's practice of conducting secret 'peer reviews' into claimant deaths, which were never shared with the families of those who died. It cites cases where coroners have sent Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) reports to the DWP, such as following the suicide of Michael O’Sullivan, whose death was triggered by being found fit for work. The report concludes that the DWP has "caused the deaths of hundreds, and probably thousands, of disabled people" and has persistently failed to make its assessment processes safe, directly linking the department's hostile culture and policies (including sanctions) to fatal outcomes 3.
References
[1] Rethink Mental Illness. We respond to second inquest into death of Jodey Whiting. June 3, 2025. [Source:
[2] Cooke, Laura. DWP needs 'deep-rooted change' to stop benefit claimants' deaths, damning report finds. Big Issue. May 15, 2025. [Source:
[3] Disability News Service. Deaths, lies and cover-ups: the case for a public inquiry into the ‘unthinkable cost’ of DWP’s systemic violence. December 20, 2024. [Source:

It's a cruel system and so many people are living off charity handouts because the DWP doesn't care. Even state pensions is now called a benefit.