8 May 2015

DWP admits that 10 of the 49 claimants whose deaths were examined by peer reviews had had their benefits sanctioned.

What: In a freedom of information response to DPAC activist Anita Bellows, DWP says that 10 of the 49 claimants whose deaths were examined by peer reviews had had their benefits sanctioned at some point in their claim. But the response does not reveal whether the claimants were subject to a sanction at the time they died. In March, the Commons work and pensions select committee had called on DWP, in its report on benefit sanctions, to reveal how many of the 49 reviews concerned benefit recipients who had been subject to a sanction at the time of their death.

Why significant: The figures suggest that claimants who have been sanctioned are far more likely to die as a result of their benefit claim than those who have not been sanctioned.