Full Description
In the early 2010s, reports began to emerge of deaths that were being linked to a government department. Suicide notes, coroners' reports, and investigations by public bodies pointed to failings within the Department for Work and Pensions—the DWP—the government body responsible for the disability benefits system.
As years passed, and austerity tightened its grip, the death toll mounted, and an even more disturbing picture developed: how bureaucracy, politicians, and the private sector had combined over thirty years to reckless, deadly effect.
For the last decade, disabled journalist John Pring has meticulously pieced together how the DWP ignored pleas to correct fatal flaws in the social security system and covered up its role in the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of disabled people. Spending years researching the heartbreaking stories of ten individuals who died, we hear of how their bereaved families have fought for justice and accountability.
Through exclusive new research, including historical documents from the National Archives that can be revealed publicly for the first time, The Department describes how slow, bureaucratic violence has led over three decades to the deaths of countless disabled people who relied on the state's support.
Contents
Preface: The death of Philippa Day
Part I: 1989-1997: Peter Lilley, incapacity benefits and how ill-health became a luxury
1. The first memo
2. A promising area for cuts, and the first steps to violence
3. 'Ignorant' ministers, the insurance industry, and Lilley's little list
4. Scapegoats, the all work test, and how ill-health became a luxury
5. Periodic purges, Unum and selective use of evidence
6. The death of David Holmes, and the causal link
Part II: 1997-2010: DWP, New Labour and the 'reckless' work capability assessment
7. Labour's change of tone, Atos, and a failed rebellion
8. The Woodstock conference, 'malingering' and an outlaw company
9. A groundswell of unease
10. The death of Stephen Carré
Part III: 2010-2014: The coalition, austerity, and deaths by welfare
11. Atos, activism, and the climate of panic
12. The death of David Clapson
13. The death of Mark Wood
14. The death of David Barr
15. The death of Ms DE
16. DWP, peer reviews, and weaponising time
17. The death of Faiza Ahmed
Part IV: 2014-2022: Cover-up, investigations, and the truth about DWP
18. Michael O'Sullivan, and the prevention of future deaths
19. Iain Duncan Smith, the UN and 590 suicides
20. The death of Jodey Whiting
21. The death of James Oliver
22. Philippa Day's inquest and the 28 'problems'
23. The death of Errol Graham
24. The death of Roy Curtis
Epilogue
