22 and 23 June 2021

What: The high court hears arguments from lawyers for DWP and for Joy Dove, the mother of Jodey Whiting, as she seeks a second inquest into the suicide of her daughter in February 2017. DWP tells the court that her death was not part of a widespread “systemic” problem, despite years of evidence to the contrary. Dove’s barrister tells the high court that fresh evidence has emerged since 2017 which “overwhelmingly leads to the conclusion that the substantial truth” about how she died had not been revealed at the first inquest.

Why significant: Joy Dove is convinced that another inquest into her daughter’s death would reveal evidence of systemic flaws in DWP’s benefit assessment system, as happened at the inquest into the death of Philippa Day.