The DWP is being forced to respond to a freedom of information request from a campaigner asking how many people have died after having their benefits cut
A campaigner has won his bid to force the Department of Work and Pensions to disclose details of benefit-related deaths.
DWP officials have been told by England’s Information Commissioner that they must reveal the number of claimants of incapacity benefit (IB) and Employment Support Allowance (ESA) who died between November 2011 and May 2014.
The ruling means the DWP must disclose within 35 calendar days of April 30 the number of IB and ESA claimants who have died between November 2011 and May 2014. It also must reveal details of what stage they were at in the benefits process, to highlight the number who may have died directly as a result of benefits decisions.
Initially the DWP refused a freedom of information request from welfare rights activist and blogger Mike Sivier (pictured), who runs the website Vox Political, asking the department to publish details into 49 deaths campaigners believe are related to welfare reforms.
But now the commissioner has ordered the DWP to furnish him with the information.
In its finding the commissioner states: “It appears … that the DWP has had reasonable time to prepare for publishing [the] information and that disclosure was not so novel or unusual given the previous requests and disclosures made.
“DWP have not supplied any detailed or convincing evidence about the time needed and what preparation would need to be undertaken during this time or what the specific impact of disclosure would be… The DWP has previously published similar information.
“It is not reasonable for the DWP, having had enough time to extract the information and prepare internally for publication, to seek further time to provide the information requested.
“The commissioner also finds that delaying publication is not reasonable in light of the requests DWP have received from the public and the fact that the previous statistics published were around two years old at the time of the request.”
Sivier said: “When I made my request in June 2013, I publicised it via my website, Vox Political, and asked for others to submit a similar request in the hope that weight of numbers might sway the DWP.
“This was a mistake as the department was able to use FOI rules to dismiss my request as being vexatious.
“I made a new request last May, and the DWP illegally delayed its response by several months. When ministers finally denied me the information, claiming they would be publishing it at an unspecified date in the future, I checked the rules and found that they were wrong.
“That is why I appealed to the Information Commissioner – and I am delighted that the commissioner has upheld my appeal.”
