DWP hides updated figures on life-threatening errors, just as Kendall prepares to announce cuts and reforms

The government is hiding figures that would show how often its civil servants are making life-threatening errors when dealing with the benefit claims of disabled people, just as media reports suggest it is planning sweeping cuts and reforms.

Last Friday, The Times reported that everyone on out-of-work disability benefits could be forced to carry out work-related activity, while hundreds of thousands of disabled people could see their support cut. 

The article stressed that no decisions had yet been made, but The Times is known to have highly-placed contacts within both the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Treasury, which is said to be pushing for significant spending cuts.

But just as reports suggest the government is planning major changes that could impose significant safeguarding risks for disabled claimants, and increase pressure on DWP work coaches and jobcentres, DWP has blocked the publication of updated figures that would show the number of potentially fatal errors being made by its staff.

Last month, Disability News Service (DNS) reported on the long-delayed release of figures from last April, which showed how DWP staff were making thousands of potentially fatal errors every month when dealing with the benefit claims of disabled people, particularly in relation to universal credit claims and the department’s fraud and “compliance” work.

The reports analysed whether DWP staff were meeting 17 customer support standards (CSS), which had been designed to “improve the experience of customers with complex needs and significantly reduce instances of serious cases by providing the right support at the right time”.

The standards include having to identify if a disabled person will need extra support with their benefit claim; providing reasonable adjustments; and following the department’s six-point plan, which tells staff what actions to take when claimants say they intend to self-harm or take their own lives.

The documents were obtained through a freedom of information (FoI) request by welfare rights expert Owen Stevens, from Child Poverty Action Group.

The reports showed that, of a sample of 1,653 universal credit cases checked across April last year, there were 328 errors made in meeting the standards (19.8 per cent, if taken as a proportion of cases checked*).

Among the repeated errors made by DWP staff were failures to record a claimant’s support needs; to follow guidance and instructions; and to fulfil the access needs of disabled claimants, such as providing them with a hearing loop or large print versions of documents.

These reports related to testing of the performance of DWP staff in April last year – in response to a request Stevens made in June 2024 – but their release was delayed for several months after a freedom of information battle.

Following their delayed release, DNS asked on 3 January for the department to produce updated figures, from reports “for the latest month you have available”.

This should have produced results from testing how staff followed CSS in October, or possibly November.

Instead, DWP sent results from May 2024, just a month after the previous reports it had released.

The reports show 311 errors in meeting the standards across 1,452 universal credit cases checked (21.4 per cent, if taken as a proportion of cases), which suggests performance may have worsened over the course of that month.

Among the errors made were failures to add permanent notes to the system to show that claimants had been identified with an “immediate risk to welfare”; a failure to record that a customer was “vulnerable”; and a failure to note that a claimant had “suicide and self-harm” support needs.

But these figures are now significantly out-of-date, just as ministers prepare to publish their disability benefits green paper next month, and as right-wing media, peers and Labour backbenchers loyal to the government, such as Damien Egan, appear to be trying to prepare the ground for cuts and a harsher DWP regime. 

DNS asked DWP this week if it had held back the latest report because it showed performance on safeguarding continuing to deteriorate, just as work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall prepares to release her green paper.

A DWP spokesperson refused to comment on why it had hidden the latest figures on CSS errors, and said it had “nothing further to add beyond the FOI response”.

But the spokesperson said: “Supporting claimants is a priority across the department, with support in place to ensure customers are treated with dignity and respect, and claimants with complex needs are given the support they need.

“Millions of people rely on our welfare system every year and it is vital that it can be accessed by all who need it. 

“That’s why we will work closely with people with experience and expertise on these issues to consider how to address these challenges and build a better system so that it provides the support people need and genuinely helps them back into work.”

Asked to comment on the Times news story, the DWP spokesperson said: “We don’t comment on speculation. 

“The proposals we will bring forward in the spring will ensure the health and disability benefit system is fit for purpose, fair on the taxpayer and delivers the right support to the right people. 

“We will work closely with disabled people and their organisations to get this right and ensure their voices shape any proposals we bring forward.”

DWP insists that the results detailed in the CSS reports cannot be “scaled up” because they are just a “snapshot in time from a small sample”.

But if they were scaled up, they would show that DWP staff are making thousands – and possibly tens of thousands – of serious errors every month, with many of them potentially putting the lives of claimants at risk.

The potentially fatal impact of these errors was demonstrated two years ago by the death of Nazerine Anderson, from Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.

Among the mistakes made in her case, DWP was repeatedly told of her mental distress and suicidal ideation, but her work coach failed to record her “vulnerability” on her profile, while also failing to record updated information about her repeated visits to hospital on the relevant part of the system.

*There may have been more than one error made in some of the sample cases checked, so it is not possible to say how many universal credit cases were error-free

Credit for this article goes to the Disability News Service