Deaths of people on benefits prompts calls for system overhaul

There's urgent calls for improvements to be made to the benefits system - as figures reveal the number of people who've died after dealings with the Department for Work and Pensions.

Stats shows the DWP has carried out more than 150 internal reviews after claimants died or came to serious harm in the last decade.

Many of these individuals took their own lives, or were discovered after having starved to death. Others died within days of being found fit to work, according to the government’s Work Capability Assessment (WCA) process to see if they were entitled to sickness or out-of-work benefits.

Including Jodey Whiting, 42, from Stockton on Tees she took her own life after her benefits were stopped in 2017. Since then her family have been calling for change, their heading to the High Court in June to seek a second inquest to consider the DWP's role in her 2017 death.

Joy Dove, Jodey's mother, has said an Independent Inquiry found that mistakes were made by the DWP. She says the system urgently needs to change:

"There's still deaths going on even til this day because nothing is getting done properly they need to really be doing one to one assessments. It's just terrible everyone is going to suffer until they get it right people need to be seen as people not just names and numbers. My Jodey was put through so much stress in the six weeks leading up to her taking her own life, there was all sorts she could have done and they did nothing. It has to change."

We also spoke with Stewart Dexter from Citizens Advice in Durham who agrees that there needs to be more compassion in the system:

"People claim benefits at often the worst times in their lives whether they're not well enough to work or if they've lost their jobs and it's there to help them get back on their feet. There have been some improvements in recent years there's always room for more."

The DWP says they take the issue very seriously - and carry out reviews when tragedies occur.