Content warning: this article contains references to suicide— DWP

An inquest has once again put the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) into the spotlight over its damning systemic neglect that led to a benefit claimant heartbreakingly taking his own life.

The inquest looked into the circumstances surrounding 41-year-old Northumberland resident Andrew Halliday’s death. Halliday took his life less than a week after telling DWP call-handlers he was going to kill himself.

His suicide came amid the DWP’s reduction to his Universal Credit payments, which had put him on the brink of destitution and homelessness.

Another DWP benefit death: Andrew Halliday

As Chronicle Live reported:

Mr Halliday, from Bedlington, had been telling NHS professionals and DWP workers how a reduction in his January payment – he had been told he would receive just £37.50 – had left him fearing homelessness in the days leading to his death.

During an inquest at Northumberland Coroners’ Court, assistant coroner Paul Dunn read evidence as to Mr Halliday’s death. He recorded a formal conclusion of suicide.

The Department for Work and Pensions had investigated Halliday’s death and provided a report as evidence to the inquest.

This had noted how Halliday had made repeated attempts to find out why the DWP had reduced his payment. According to the DWP, this had been due to back-pay a former employer had paid to him in October. It had meant the DWP’s taper rules kicked in, which reduces payments for every £1 over the work allowance threshold.

However, the reduction left Halliday unable to afford his rent or bills in January 2025. The DWP had applied this reduction months later, because HMRC only notified it of the payment during the December assessment period.

Exacerbating Halliday’s mental health

Halliday’s inquest drew particular attention to the DWP’s role in “deteriorating” his mental health.

Giving evidence from a medical report that Halliday’s psychiatrist produced, coroner Dunn read out how Halliday had:

presented with suicidal ideation. He had a long history of anxiety and depression and was known to the mental health team. The trigger on this occasion was a reduction in his Universal Credit and fear of homelessness.

He also read to the inquest that Halliday had:

called the Universal Credit phoneline again to query the January 2025 payment. He said he had no money remaining for rent or bills and he could not get support from the council and this was leaving him at risk of homelessness.

In his dealings with the department he had explicitly expressed suicidal ideation to DWP call handlers.

As Chronicle Live reported:

The inquest heard how call handlers follow a six-point plan in cases like Mr Halliday’s where a safeguarding risk is identified, and that this was followed.

Call handlers requested an ambulance to attend Halliday’s address.

However, the inquest showed how the Department for Work and Pensions did nothing further to follow-up with Halliday after the incident.

It was days later that Halliday overdosed — after discharge from the psychiatric liaison team (PLT) at St George’s Hospital on 2 January.

DWP staff have previously admitted they don’t have the time to carry out safeguarding procedures correctly and often don’t follow these anyway.

Benefit deaths in the tens of thousands

Of course, the DWP has refused to properly acknowledge its culpability in Halliday’s suicide. Instead, the internal DWP investigation into his death determined it had paid him correctly.

A department spokesperson also echoed hollow words to this effect. It told Chronicle Live:

Our condolences are with Mr Halliday’s loved ones, friends, and family. The Universal Credit assessment period and payment structure are designed to ensure customers are paid their correct entitlement, and we do our utmost to ensure this is the case.

But its disingenuous ‘condolences’ will be cold comfort. Yet more family and friends of a claimant the DWP has utterly failed now face the harrowing reality of a world without their loved one.

When paltry benefit rates are pushing disabled people into destitution and to the brink of homelessness this only serves to demonstrate how the department’s welfare system is entirely broken beyond repair.

Halliday isn’t the first — and won’t be the last — to tragically take his life after indefensible DWP failings.

Outside suicides like Halliday’s, tens of thousands of people have died at the hands of the DWP. As the Canary’s Steve Topple previously detailed, between 2011 and 2021, this amounted to nearly 35,000 people who:

died either waiting for the DWP to sort their claims or after it said they were well enough to work or start moving towards work.

Disability News Service’s John Pring is still locked in a protracted battle with the DWP to get the department to release “secret benefit deaths review”. These would likely expose the DWP’s systemic failings and its central role in causing claimant deaths.

Of course, Halliday’s inquest also comes amidst the department’s ongoing attack on disabled claimants. In a toxic climate of media vilification, callous benefit cuts, and plans afoot for more, it’s all too painfully clear that the DWP is on an unconscionable trajectory towards countless more claimant deaths.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

From Canary via This RSS Feed.