Debbie Abrahams of the work and pensions committee this month called the DWP’s behaviour ‘unacceptable’ as it drags out agreeing life-saving measures with the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
Last April we reported that the EHRC had gone back on its promise to investigate the role of the DWP in the deaths of vulnerable claimants.
Instead, it decided to enter into a Section 23 agreement under the Equality Act 2006 which obliged the DWP to commit “to an action plan to meet the needs of customers with mental health impairments and learning disabilities.”
The EHRC claimed that “This legally-binding action plan is focused on resolving issues for DWP customers, and offers a fast, effective means of redress, and helps to avoid lengthy investigations.”
According to the EHRC, the agreement should have been completed by the end of last summer.
Instead, far from being fast and effective, the plan has simply allowed the DWP to do nothing for month after month.
According to the DWP representative giving evidence to the work and pensions committee on 11 January everything is going very satisfactorily:
“The conversation is going well. We are now talking about the specifics around what an agreement would look like and the activities around it. The discussions are well advanced, and there are further discussions this month.”
Veteran Labour MP Debbie Abrahams could not hide her anger as she responded:
“I cannot tell you how disappointed I am and how disappointed the Committee will be with that response. It is exactly the response that we had at the end of November . . . This is a notice under the 2006 Equality Act. To come here and say the same thing is just totally unacceptable—it really is.”
However, the reality is that the committee is powerless to force the DWP to move faster and the EHRC is clearly completely out of its league when dealing with a government department with such vast resources and legal support.
The agreement, when it is finally reached, is likely to be nothing more than a series of unverifiable and unenforceable undertakings to have regard to the needs of vulnerable claimants.
It will change nothing and the EHRC’s failure to mount a proper investigaton into the deaths of claimants will long be remembered by those who have lost loved ones.
