The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

Welfare reform suicides must not be overlooked

A website seeking to collate stories of suicides linked to the coalition's welfare reforms is a valuable resource.

By Caroline Crampton Published 04 July 2012 9:52

Job seekers queue outside a Jobcentre Plus branch in London Bridge. Photograph: Getty Images

Last week, it was reported that a jobseeker in Selly Oak tied himself to railings outside a jobcentre and set fire to himself. It is alleged that he was driven to such desperate actions because of the non-payment of a benefit - as Deborah Padfield has outlined here, many people struggle when they fall into the gap between being refused for Employment Support Allowance and starting to receive Jobseekers’ Allowance. For those living on the very edge, a delay of days can be enough to leave them with nothing. Waiting weeks while computers process applications can be too long.

A document was distributed to jobcentre employees last April that contained a “six-point plan” to help them deal with claimants who threaten suicide. It states:

Some customers may say they intend to self-harm or kill themselves as a threat or a tactic to 'persuade', others will mean it. It is very hard to distinguish between the two … For this reason, all declarations must be taken seriously.

The source of this leaked document - a long-term DWP employee - explained that they had not seen guidance like this before, leading them to draw the conclusion that “it has been put together ahead of the incapacity benefit and disability living allowance cuts”.

A website called “Calum’s List” is seeking to collate the stories of those who have committed suicide as a result of hardship caused by the coalition’s welfare reforms. The fully-referenced list currently comprises 21 cases where either a suicide note or the testimony of family or health professionals cites an aspect of the welfare reforms as the main cause for the suicide.

It includes cases such as that of Martin Rust from Norwich, a schizophrenic who had been found fit to work by a DWP assessment, and committed suicide two months later. The Coroner cited the “distress” caused by the DWP’s decision as a contributory factor in his decision to end his life. And that of Elaine Christian, who was found dead in Holderness Drain after self-harming and taking an overdose. The inquest heard that she had had to stop work because of poor health and was worried about a medical appointment to assess her eligibility for disability benefits she was due to attend the next day. Vicky Harrison, a 21-year-old who took an overdose after being rejected by what her family estimated to be around 200 jobs in two years. Her case is one of the few on the list to have been reported by the national press.

A secondary register, named “Peter’s List”, has also been started on the site to record deaths “where the primary cause of death or hospitalisation cannot exclusively be laid at the door of the current welfare reforms, but where there is no doubt that welfare reform has, or had, some culpability”, the site’s owner states.

Suicide is never a simple matter of a single cause, so of course all of these cases must be kept in the context of the myriad pressures each individual faced, rather than isolated to fit into a particular narrative. This list exists for a transparent campaigning purpose - the site includes resources to submit Freedom of Information requests to the DWP and for a letter-writing campaign to Iain Duncan Smith.

But it also provides a rare and more comprehensive glimpse of what is happening across the country. Many of these stories are reported by local press but few filter up to national media organisations and as such, parallels and comparisons are lacking. As the coalition’s welfare reforms cause benefits to be withdrawn or changed and claimants are reassessed, individuals are struggling and suffering. They must not be forgotten. Without a body of evidence, making the case for a different approach to welfare is that much more difficult.

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18 comments

Thu, 2012-07-19 13:36 — Goji (not verified)

Nice article..... interesting.
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Fri, 2012-07-06 23:16 — anne warren

The issue of suicides due to the current economic climate deserves attention apart from the debate about whether individuals deserve benefits .
People are committing suicide in Italy, particularly owners of small enterprises who can no longer pay their workforce.
The Irish government asked a think tank earlier this year to come up with some ideas on how to prevent suicides due to unemployment etc.
A retired Greek dentist committed suicide outside the Athens Parliament building in the spring of this year, leaving a note blaming the economic crisis.
Are all these people and who knows how many others to be considered collateral damage? Just to be ignored?
Aren't our priorities getting very skewed?

Thu, 2012-07-05 16:10 — Walters Herbert (not verified)

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Thu, 2012-07-05 08:23 — frances smith

let us not forget that it was a labour government that replaced incapacity benefit with esa, and introduced the work capability assessment.

it is both labour and coalition welfare reforms that are causing these suicides.

sorry if the truth hurts, but its still the truth.

Thu, 2012-07-05 13:43 — Broga v (not verified)

The State benefit reforms must be extended. There is a family called Windsor living in a number of palatial homes, complete with servants, all repairs paid for, occasions like their marriages paid for at great state cost and all on state benefits. This same family dines with dicators, enjoys endless freebies e.g. Wimbledon and is required to no work unless it so chooses. We need some fairness in the system

Thu, 2012-07-05 13:43 — Broga v (not verified)

Thu, 2012-07-05 13:42 — Broga v (not verified)

Wed, 2012-07-04 20:39 — Alex Baldwin

This normalisation of suicide as an ordinary response to being put in a very difficult situation has to stop. It is inaccurate and irresponsible to use an argument which is based on a premise like: "we can tell that these peoples' lives had been made too difficult because they committed suicide". Do you believe that these people made a rational decision to end their lives? Suicidal urges are pathological and the people who have them require treatment.

I would urge you to look for another yardstick to measure the cost of these changes by.

Fri, 2012-07-06 12:57 — antisylphid (not verified)

Amen.

Seems to me they made a practical decision to end their lives though. However sad it sounds.

Wed, 2012-07-04 19:01 — Gordon Pye (not verified)

This would appear to be the overall strategy for the current welfare reforms !

http://nollyprott.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/green-holocaust-2/

Wed, 2012-07-04 18:29 — Fraziel1

"So well done for being brainwashed by a person that claims the welfare bill is out of control...."

Not brainwashed at all. I would say I know a great deal about it as I have worked for DWP for many yrs. Just yesterday I handled a claim from a family of 6 who were receiving the equivalent of a 45k a year salary in benefits. This is what the left just do not get. There are LOADS of families receiving huge sums far in excess of what they could ever hope to get in work. I see cases like that on a daily basis, many of the families having never worked in the uk in their lives. It is unfair on everyone, especially those who work, and thankfully it will soon stop with the benefits cap.

The benefits bill should have gone down during the boom yrs and we would now expact it to go up in the recession but it soared even during the good yrs. There is something seriously wrong with the system when that happens. Reform is needed and i believe that the vast majority of disabled people are being treated fairly. There will always be histrionics from the left about the odd badly handled case but it is unavoidable in a large organisation dealing with thousands upon thousands of cases.I am sure in the vast majority of cases people are dealt with correctly.

It is just hysterics to blame the government for the tragic suicide of some individuals but the left are so utterly clueless and out of touch i am not surprised in the slightest to hear them say it.

There was an article on here a few days ago stating that a man had immolated himself outside a jobcentre, suggesting that he had poured petrol over himself and set his whole body alight. What really happened was he burned a portion of his legs. If reporting like that is not hysterical i don't know what is. As i said a huge majority believe we need reform and it's only the ideologues and the wealthy liberals, who think they know better than everyone else, who are against what is obvious common sense.

Sat, 2012-07-07 14:07 — bobthebuilder (not verified)

well, if you really do work for the dwp, i hope to god youre not a decision maker, i dread to think how many seriously ill people someone with your attitude would deem 'fit for work'.

Wed, 2012-07-04 20:39 — Benjamin Rae (not verified)

The welfare system is not perfect. Some may take advantage but does that justify treating genuinely sick and disabled like this? It is happening.
A different approach rather than slash and burn is required. Whatever problem that exists today is because of right wing ideology in the first place.
The unemployment problem and to an extent sickness was created by Thatcher's free market fundementalism. What is not needed is simplistic more of the same and the state shirking it's responsibilities to it's people.
Employment and real opportunity is the answer, not producing
a bigger unemployment problem and then making those at the bottom pay for it.
The right seem to forget. We've done this. Thatcher started the worship of the free market , New Labour continued with their own brand and in 2008 we the beggining of the result.
Neo liberalism produces an underclass of around 20-30% of people (possibly more) who can't fully engage in the economy. The right say it's their fault. The left say it isn't nearly as straightforward as that and that maybe Adam Smith didn't represent the peak of understanding in economics. Maybe Keynes had a few valid ideas also.
Jesus, the UK has moved so far rightwards it's left to former Conservative ministers in Robert Skidelsky to argue for a more progressive approach to economic policy.
People who work for a living, or want to should.be on the same side.
It amazes me that anybody who isn't seriously wealthy could possibly argue in the current context that the right have the way forward

Wed, 2012-07-04 15:47 — Clive Arnold (not verified)

"As usual we have histrionics and opposition from the middle class elitists on the left who completely ignore public opinion and who seem,from reading their comments, utterly out of touch with reality"

No, what you are hearing is the cries for help from disabled people. The public have been manipulated into thinking people get thousands of pounds a month Housing Benefit (it ain't true) and that disabled people are living a grand life and get free cars into the bargain (again, it ain't true as many/most disabled people struggle to heat their homes through the winter, the free car myth is just that, a myth) So well done for being brainwashed by a person that claims the welfare bill is out of control....but he did claim DLA for his disabled son AND free nappies come to that! Will we see our multi-millionaire Prime Minister offer to pay back what to him was peanuts? Will we hell!And so people know what an arse David Cameron really is, he promised carers that DLA was safe and he would not scrap it, that was when he was leader of the opposition of course.

"To then blame welfare reform for suicides is utterly ludicrous"

No, it is a FACT. And to balance things up a little, there were similar suicides of people kicked off DLA by Atos when Labour were in power. To claim it is some form of attack on the Tories for their vile vilification and attacks on disabled people is naive at best - stupid at worse. Kindly remember that disability hate crime has risen upder this coalition. People are taking their own lives thanks to the ConDems

Wed, 2012-07-04 13:46 — Fraziel1

I personally think the welfare reforms are fair and long overdue. The benefit cap has almost restored my faith in politicans to do the right thing. It is hard for me to remember a law that was so profoundly fair and so desperately needed. The large majority of the population also agree( 67% of labour voters too apparently). As usual we have histrionics and opposition from the middle class elitists on the left who completely ignore public opinion and who seem,from reading their comments, utterly out of touch with reality.

The welfare state is there to help people, and thank god for it, but when you have people getting HUGE sums on benefit, far more than they could ever get in work and more than their neighbours in work, something has to be changed. Not to mention the massive increase in claims from people claiming to be sick compared to 20 yrs ago. Are we getting sicker as a nation? No, yet these claims were going through the roof.

It is also not acceptable to have a lifestyle on benefits that is as good as you could have in work and yet the left allowed this to happen and now oppose these sensible changes. It is truly staggering that they can be so out of touch . Perhaps it is becase they are more interested in standing up for mass immigration and the lazy than they are for people in work, including the working poor ( the appalling way that labour treated thousands of civil servants on poverty wages when they were in power is a good indicator of that).

The jobcentres and benefit centres are working very very hard to ensure that the transition from people moving from ESA to JSA goes smoothly. When dealing with huge numbers things do not always go perfectly, as anyone with even the slightest bit of common sense would be aware of. To then blame welfare reform for suicides is utterly ludicrous and is the sort of extreme guff I have now come to expect from the left and is prob why i will never vote for them again, despite also disliking the tories. Perhaps reforms in some cases had a tiny part to play but there will have been many many other issues at play in these tragic peoples lives.

Thu, 2012-07-05 12:09 — bobthebuilder (not verified)

what a load of nonsense for someone who claims to work for the dwp.

Wed, 2012-07-04 12:41 — http://andytron.co.uk (not verified)

What gets me is the media blackout. Only a couple of broadsheets and local papers have run with the self-immolation, the BBC has completley ignored it. What kind of country have we become? Can we really say the Iranians or North Koreans are brainwashed and hateful when we turn the poor into objects of derision whose lives are not worth living? When we grovel and abase ourselves before the Royals while stepping on the jobless?

Wed, 2012-07-04 11:08 — mike cobley (not verified)

The welfare and benefits system was created in order to minimise avoidable suffering. The Coalition government's reforms seem to purposefully increase avoidable suffering, and its spokesmen/women appear to lack basic human empathy. I'm sick of hearing these apparatchiks dribble on about 'making sure resources are targeted at the needy' when we all know that resources are being targeted at private sector providers. IDS and his minions are hellbent on adding to the sum total of human misery - they are despicable.