The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is requiring the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to improve its treatment of disabled benefit claimants in response to serious concerns about failures to meet the needs of its customers with mental health impairments and learning disabilities.
Disability campaigners had raised concerns with the Commission about the deaths of DWP customers in vulnerable situations, and an all-party group of MPs asked the EHRC in February 2021 to “undertake an investigation into the deaths of vulnerable claimants by suicide and other causes between 2008 and 2020”.
Throughout 2021, the EHRC questioned DWP officials about the concerns that its legal obligations to disabled customers were not being met.