A coroner has criticised the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after a woman died from an overdose amid a six-month investigation into her universal credit payments. The assistant coroner for Rutland and North Leicestershire, Fiona Butler, issued a Prevention of Future Deaths report highlighting multiple failures by the DWP to respond to the victim's mental health issues.
The woman, who had a 20-year history of anxiety and depression, experienced a decline in her mental health in October 2022 after the DWP informed her that its performance review team was investigating her universal credit payments. She was diagnosed with adjustment disorder, with a consultant psychiatrist identifying the DWP investigation as the trigger stressor.
Butler's report detailed at least six missed opportunities to record the woman's vulnerability on the DWP computer system, despite her being tearful and distressed during phone calls and informing the DWP of her mental health struggles. The DWP also failed to act on requests to communicate via her daughter, with a written request sitting in another system for four months.
In the four weeks before her overdose, the claimant received six communications from the DWP, including phone calls, an unclear online journal log, and three letters increasing her debt by 75%. She took an overdose in May 2023, six days after the last correspondence, and died in hospital the following month from liver damage.
Butler concluded that the DWP's plans for changes lacked evidence on how staff would be trained to avoid similar failures. The case follows another coroner's warning three months earlier about DWP procedures exacerbating mental health issues. A DWP spokesperson expressed condolences and said the department would review the report.
