Call for public inquiry into deaths after coroner rules suicide was ‘triggered’ by DWP

The mother of a disabled woman who took her own life after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) wrongly stopped her benefits has called for a public inquiry into the years of deaths linked to the department’s actions.

Joy Dove was speaking to Disability News Service (DNS) after a long-awaited second inquest into the death of her daughter, Jodey Whiting, from Stockton-on-Tees, concluded that DWP’s decision to stop her out-of-work benefits after a string of safeguarding failures was the “trigger” for her to take her own life on 21 February 2017.

But both Dove and her ex-husband, Eric Whiting, told DNS that they do not trust the department to make the changes needed to prevent further deaths of disabled people like Jodey.

Dove said yesterday (Wednesday) that she “100 per cent” supported calls for a public inquiry into the hundreds, and probably thousands, of deaths linked to DWP’s actions and failings, and hoped to carry on campaigning for other disabled people.

She said it was difficult to trust DWP to make the necessary changes after everything they have done over the eight years since Jodey died.

Her message to DWP has not changed, she told DNS: “It should never have happened.”

Dove said she was growing increasingly concerned that many more disabled people would die – just as her daughter had – due to the Labour government’s planned cuts of billions of pounds to disability benefits.

She said: “It’s hard to think that everything is done and dusted in other people’s eyes after the coroner’s decision, but I will always feel the same.

“It’s never going to bring her back. I still miss her so much.”

She is now thinking of writing a second book about her campaigning.

Coroner Clare Bailey concluded on Monday that Jodey Whiting’s “deteriorating” state of mental health had been “precipitated” by the withdrawal of her benefits.

A DWP director told the inquest that there had been a “culture shift” since 2017 towards becoming “much more compassionate” rather than being “process-driven” at the time of her death, although DWP still had “more work to do”.

She said DWP was “deeply sorry” for its failings at the time, and accepted the findings of an Independent Case Examiner report that found in 2019 that DWP had failed five times to follow its own safeguarding rules in the weeks leading up to Jodey Whiting’s death.

The coroner said she had heard of “many changes” made by DWP since her death, and that actions were still being taken by the department, with new structures being put in place “to support vulnerable claimants”.

And she said a new report by the Commons work and pensions select committee on “safeguarding vulnerable claimants” would be “keeping this issue front and central for the DWP”.

She said that for these reasons she believed “sufficient steps will be taken”, and so there was no need to write a prevention of future deaths report, to which the department would have had to respond (see separate story).

The coroner’s ruling follows Dove’s eight-year campaign for justice.

She also worked with DNS for years to campaign for a public inquiry into DWP deaths, including a parliamentary petition in 2019 that secured more than 55,000 signatures.

She and her ex-husband told DNS on Monday that they did not trust DWP to make the changes it had promised to make during the inquest.

Dove said after the inquest: “I have always known that the failings of the DWP led to Jodey’s death and now this has been confirmed by this inquest.

“I feel like I’ve got justice for Jodey, but I still need to carry on.

“I have got my Justice for Jodey page and I am sure people will keep getting in touch.”

She said many others had also lost their lives due to DWP failings, and she said she believed it would “get worse” because of the Labour government’s cuts to disability benefits.

The first inquest in 2017 lasted just 37 minutes and Dove had to fight for years through the high court and the court of appeal for a second inquest, with the support of solicitors Leigh Day.

The coroner at the first inquest had failed to examine DWP’s role in her death or take evidence from any DWP witnesses, and failed to criticise the department.

Dove began her quest for justice even before the first inquest, after approaching the local paper, the Gazette.

She said on Monday that Jodey had been “a perfect daughter” and “would help anyone in need or with problems”.

She said she had always believed that DWP caused her daughter’s death and that it should not have taken an eight-year fight to secure “justice for Jodey”.

She said it had been an “uphill battle trying to get answers and accountability”.

Eric Whiting told the inquest that Jodey “always put others before herself” and was like a “pied piper” because she always had children around her.

He told DNS that the way DWP had conducted themselves had been “appalling”.

He said: “They say time heals. I am still waiting.

“I just hope that the DWP have learnt a few things and start to make a lot of changes so other people and families don’t go through what our family have and are still going through.”

He said the family felt “cheated” and that Jodey “touched the hearts of everyone she knew” and that her smile could “brighten the darkest room”.

He said later that DWP had tried to “sweep things under the carpet and hide this for the last eight years” but today “it has all come out”.

The family’s solicitor, Merry Varney, from Leigh Day, said DWP had been the cause of many deaths.

She said: “Today’s conclusion shows the importance of thorough inquests that properly investigate how a death occurred.

“Without them, the dangerous and sometimes deadly way that those unable to work due to ill-health or disability are treated by the DWP will remain covered up and unchecked.”

She said Joy Dove’s efforts had not only secured “justice for Jodey” but had “shone a light for many others that must now lead to change to prevent further deaths and further families being broken by the acts and the omissions of the DWP”.

*The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, DNS editor John Pring’s book on the years of deaths linked to DWP, including Jodey Whiting’s, is published by Pluto Press

**The following organisations are among those that might be able to offer support if you have been affected by the issues raised in this article:  Mind, Papyrus, Rethink, Samaritans, and SOS Silence of Suicide

Picture: Members of Jodey Whiting’s family, including her mum Joy (centre, holding a picture), her dad Eric (next to Joy), brother Jamie (holding a video camera) and daughter Leah (next to Jamie), talking to their legal team before the inquest

Credit for this article goes to John Pring with the Disability News Service