8 December 2021
What: Work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey dismisses the need for a new review into the work capability assessment, despite being told that her own department failed to pass information about its links with claimant deaths to Dr Paul Litchfield, who carried out two independent reviews of the WCA in 2013 and 2014. Litchfield had told MPs on the committee that he believed DWP had not passed him copies of its secret reviews into benefit-linked deaths, or two PFD reports sent to DWP by coroners, which called for changes to prevent further deaths and warned of links between the WCA and the suicides of claimants.
Why significant: Further evidence that ministers are not prepared to investigate past errors and failings connected to the deaths of claimants, and that past ministers and senior civil servants have acted to cover-up evidence of such links.