The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has identified dozens of shortfalls in how it handled benefits claimants who had suicidal or self-harm tendencies, The i Paper can reveal.
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.
Failures to acknowledge benefits claimants’ special needs and disabilities, as well as indications of potential self-harm or suicide, were among the errors highlighted in the report, issued in March 2025 and obtained by The i Paper through freedom of information laws.
In its introduction to the report, the DWP acknowledges the errors could “affect customer life chances and can negatively affect departmental reputation”.
The data shows that staff members overseeing universal credit (UC) claims as well as the UC review project, which investigates whether people are receiving the correct amount of the benefit, made the majority of errors, totalling at 1,926.
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.
A DWP spokesperson said “all staff are trained to help identify and provide the right support for our most vulnerable customers”.
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 department is also undertaking a “full review of our safeguarding approach” to ensure it protects the millions of people supported by the welfare system.
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.A total of 3,237 errors were identified in the DWP’s latest report, which covers the 12 months to March 2025. This surpassed the errors recorded in the three reports dating back to June 2024, which was when the quarterly assessments began.
The number of errors identified in the reports issued between June and December 2024 ranged from 2,905 to 3,114.
However, a DWP spokesperson said it was “inaccurate” to suggest there had been a rise in errors, as different population samples were used in each report. The DWP did not comment when pressed on whether the larger number of errors identified in its March 2025 report stemmed from a larger population sample.
The findings come just days after the Government curtailed its plans to reform benefits during the second reading of the welfare reform bill.
The U-turn sought to win over rebel MPs threatening to vote against Sir Keir Starmer’s bill after it was revealed that the cuts could strip up to 1.2 million claimants of thousands of pounds.
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.
Seeking to avoid his first defeat in a Commons vote, Sir Keir Starmer softened the measures for a second time in a week, after Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall initially watered down the reforms last month to placate Labour rebels.
Despite the concessions, 49 Labour MPs voted against the Government although the bill passed 335 votes to 260.
The bill originally aimed to save £5bn a year by the end of the decade by reforming personal independence payments (PIP) and the health element of UC.
However, the U-turn has left the Treasury scrambling to fill a £5bn black hole ahead of the Autumn Budget.
Asked whether taxes will rise to fill the fiscal hole, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said on Sunday: “The decision we’ve taken in the last week has come at a cost, yes.”
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”.
He told The i Paper: “What the figures show is that DWP staff are still – years after the department was alerted to these failures – making potentially fatal errors in the way they deal with disabled people in vulnerable situations.”
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.
“Here’s why: 31-year-old Faiza Ahmed died in November 2014, shortly after telling a jobcentre work coach that she had been ‘busy trying to kill myself’.
“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’.”
The March 2025 Customer Support Standards report identified four instances in which benefits claimants’ “immediate support needs such as suicide and self-harm” were not recorded as a “pinned profile note”, which allows staff to ensure they are offered the support they require.
“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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“These Customer Support Standards reports are really important,” Mr Pring added. “They show whether DWP staff are carrying out vital safeguarding tasks that could save lives.
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.
“It shows, I believe, that the department is not fit for purpose, and presents an ongoing risk to the lives of disabled people.
“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.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “We support millions of people through our welfare system every year and all staff are trained to help identify and provide the right support for our most vulnerable customers.
“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.
“We are also strengthening our service by, among other things, piloting trauma-informed practices and undertaking a full review of our safeguarding approach.”
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