10 November 2014

DWP admits in a Freedom of Information response that it has carried out 60 peer reviews into deaths of benefits claimants.

What: DWP admits in an FoI response that it has carried out “60 peer reviews following the death of a customer” since February 2012 [it later amended this to 49 deaths and another 11 serious incidents]. It also releases three pieces of guidance, one that is used to decide whether a review should be carried out; another on how to carry out a peer review; and the third for authors of peer reviews.

Why significant: First admission from DWP of the existence of “peer reviews”, and how many of them it has carried out, although it says it has only been collecting them nationally since February 2012.