5 July 2022
What: Figures released by DWP show that the number of internal process reviews (IPRs) it is carrying out have more than doubled in the last three years. They show DWP started 43 IPRs into deaths between July 2019 and June 2020, 59 from July 2020 to June 2021, and 38 in the last year, a total of 140 in three years. A previous freedom of information request by DNS shows this compares with 17 reviews carried out in 2016, 29 in 2017 and 18 in 2018, a total of only 64.
Why significant: IPRs are just one evidential element showing the links between DWP and the deaths of claimants, but these figures appear to show a change of policy by the department, which said it had ‘broadened the range of circumstances where a review is carried out to improve the outcomes for our customers’.