More than 3,200 errors were identified in the DWP’s latest Customer Support Standards report, which uses a population sample to assess the department’s services each quarter.
In its introduction to the report, the DWP acknowledges the errors could “affect customer life chances and can negatively affect departmental reputation”.
The errors, which included failures to appropriately record people are vulnerable or need of support for self-harm, were reported in the same period that the DWP more than doubled its spending on its UC review project, raising it from £76.6m in 2023/24 to £200m in 2024/25, according to figures obtained by The i Paper through a separate freedom of information request.
This includes “mental health training, the ability to provide reasonable adjustments and escalation procedures in the most serious cases where there may be a risk of self-harm”.
The DWP’s quarterly Customer Support Standards reports assess the department’s services in four areas:
Accessibility: Whether customer accessibility or reasonable adjustment requirements are identified and processed correctly by DWP staff. This involves the DWP taking all necessary steps to ensure claimants with disabilities or special needs are able to access its services and communicate with staff to receive support. Six Point Plan: The DWP’s Six Point Plan offers guidance for staff members seeking to support customers who indicate they may self-harm or commit suicide. This category of the report assesses how well those concerns are recorded and addressed by staff members. Appointees: Whether concerns raised by agents, appointees, attorneys, or other third parties acting on behalf of DWP customers, including benefits claimants and pensioners, are appropriately recorded and addressed. Advanced Customer Support: The DWP’s Advanced Customer Support scheme offers a framework staff should follow to cater to customers’ additional support needs. This category assesses how well those needs are identified and addressed.The number of errors identified in the reports issued between June and December 2024 ranged from 2,905 to 3,114.
The findings come just days after the Government curtailed its plans to reform benefits during the second reading of the welfare reform bill.
More than 120 Labour MPs threatened to back a “reasoned amendment” to block the Government’s Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill on Wednesday.
Despite the concessions, 49 Labour MPs voted against the Government although the bill passed 335 votes to 260.
However, the U-turn has left the Treasury scrambling to fill a £5bn black hole ahead of the Autumn Budget.
Staff are not fulfilling ‘vital safeguarding tasks’
John Pring, author of The Department, which investigates how DWP actions and failings contributed to the deaths of hundreds of disabled people, said the findings indicate staff are not fulfilling “vital safeguarding tasks that could save lives”.
Pointing to the errors in the Six Point Plan category, Mr Pring said that if “DWP staff are still regularly failing to follow that guidance, it is deeply worrying.
“The work coach and his manager decided not to contact the emergency services, despite the Six Point Plan stating that staff should summon emergency help if a claimant declares an attempt to kill themselves and is ‘distressed, at serious risk or in immediate danger’.”
“This is exactly the kind of error that led to the death of Nazerine Anderson, where DWP later admitted missing multiple opportunities to record her ‘vulnerability’ during a review of her universal credit claim.
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Mr Pring said “DWP staff are over-worked and underpaid”, while ministers are “seeking to push more disabled people off out-of-work benefits and cut spending on vital support through the new Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill.
“After decades of deaths linked to its actions and failings, nothing short of a public inquiry will do, but sadly MPs and ministers are not listening.”
“This includes mental health training, the ability to provide reasonable adjustments and escalation procedures in the most serious cases where there may be a risk of self-harm.
For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or contact jo@samaritans.org
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