Benefits health assessment system ‘contributed to death of claimants’ – report finds

Published

3 years ago

April 14, 2023

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Issues or errors surrounding the system of health assessments for benefits has contributed to the deaths of some claimants, MPs have heard.

The Work and Pensions committee said they are “deeply concerned” people are still experiencing psychological distress because of the process – despite an inquiry five years ago highlighting “significant problems”.

In a new report published on Friday, the committee said: “In some cases, issues or errors in the system are associated with or have been found at Coroner’s Inquest to have contributed to the deaths of claimants.”

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It recommended the government review the impact of its assessment process and implement safeguarding and suicide prevention training for staff.

Commenting, the SNP’s Social Justice spokesperson, David Linden MP, said: “Five years ago, the Tories were warned by this very committee that the DWP’s health assessment system required urgent change. They didn’t act, and now some claimants have paid the ultimate price.

“This is a scandalous revelation which lies squarely with the Tories.”

In 2020, the National Audit Office found that at least 69 suicides could have been linked to problems with benefit claims over the last six years.

But it said the true number could be “far higher” as the DWP had failed to actively seek information from coroners or families, or investigate all of the cases that have been reported to it.

The committee report did not have an updated figure on deaths but heard from experts who noted a “very strong association between those places where more people had been through the (health assessment) process, and a rise in mental health problems and suicides”.

Professor Ben Barr, from the University of Liverpool, was asked about research he carried out in 2015 which looked at the impacts of the increase in Work Capability Assessment (WCA) as claimants were reassessed to move onto Employment Seekers Allowance.

He said across England the process had led to an additional 600 suicides, 300,000 additional cases of mental health problems and a large rise in the prescribing of antidepressants over a nine-year period.

“We looked at whether it could be explained by other factors or other economic trends, but there was quite a unique pattern in the increase in mental health problems, and the most likely explanation was that it was due to the reassessment process”, he told the committee.

He said it is difficult to assess improvements since this study as “there are no systems in place” to monitor the impact of the health assessments and potential adverse outcomes.

But MPs on the committee pointed to a survey from the University of Kent last year which found half of claimants who have been through the WCA process said it made their mental health worse.

Dr Ben Baumberg Geiger, who led the research, said at the time: “It is not sufficient to say that this is a historical problem and that everything is fine now. If there were more transparency, it would be easier to know a bit more about it, but the evidence suggests that there are still major problems with the WCA that could lead to an increased risk of poor mental health.”

The committee urged the government to improve its data on deaths and serious harm related to health assessments as part of a series of measures to improve the system.

WCA’s are in place to help those with disability or ill-health access benefits, but accounts of poor accessibility, factual inaccuracy, delays, and communication problems “speaks to a system that is still not adequately supporting often vulnerable people,” the report found.

MPs surveyed more than 8,000 people as part of the inquiry and discovered “a profound lack of trust in the system as a consistent theme”, according to the committee chair and Labour MP Sir Stephen Timms.

It comes ahead of a shake-up of the entire system, with the government planning to scrap WCA’s to get more disabled people into work by focusing on what they can do – and not what they can’t.

This means there will only be one assessment in the future, the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment, however the WCA will remain in place until at least 2026.

Sir Stephen said many “will welcome the changes” but added: “Waiting years for changes won’t cut it when quicker wins are available: flexibility of choice on assessment by phone or face-to-face; recording assessments by default; extending deadlines to reduce stress; and sending claimants their reports.

“All this will give much-needed transparency to a process that so few trust yet affects their lives so fundamentally.”

A DWP spokesperson said: “This government is committed to ensuring people can access financial support in a timely and supportive manner and therefore reducing processing times and further improving the claimant experience are key priorities for the DWP.

“The proposals set out in our recent Health and Disability White Paper will make it easier for people to access the right support and improve trust and transparency in our decisions and processes.”

World

Imran Khan’s sons ‘fear they may never see him again’ as former Pakistan PM ‘held in death cell’

Published

3 mins ago

December 16, 2025

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Imran Khan's sons 'fear they may never see him again' as former Pakistan PM 'held in death cell'

The sons of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan have said they fear they might never see their father again as he is being “psychologically tortured” in a “death cell”.

Speaking to Sky News’ The World with Yalda Hakim, Kasim and Sulaiman Khan said they had not spoken to their father, who has been in prison since August 2023, for months.

Kasim described the conditions the former Pakistani leader has been kept, saying: “He’s been in a solitary confinement cell for over two years where he’s had filthy water, he is around inmates who are dying of hepatitis, the conditions are disgusting and also he is completely isolated from any human contact.”

He continued: “It’s getting harder to see a route out at this point. We’re trying to have faith. But at the same time, right now, the conditions are getting worse.

“It’s very hard to see a way out… We’re now worried we might never see him again.”

Kasim said his father was being subjected to “psychological torture tactics” as even the prison guards weren’t allowed to communicate with the former Pakistani leader, who led the country between 2018 and 2022.

Sulaiman said his father’s cell, where he allegedly spends 23 hours a day, has been described as a “death cell”.

He said an army spokesperson announced on Friday that Imran Khan, who has in the past been shot three times, was now officially in full isolation.

He added that Imran Khan was being kept in “completely substandard conditions that don’t meet international law for any sort of prisoner”.

The brothers’ words echo what one of Khan’s sisters reported after being allowed to meet the former cricketer in prison at the start of the month.

Uzma Khanum said at the time that Khan was facing isolation and psychological strain in prison following weeks in which his family said access had been blocked.

The former leader was jailed after being convicted in a string of cases that he says were politically driven following his ousting in a 2022 parliamentary vote.

Before launching his political career, Imran Khan was best known as a star of international cricket and for leading Pakistan to Cricket World Cup victory in 1992.

Kasim said his father would “never take a deal and leave all of his other party members in jail to die and fester in these jails…

“Instead he stays in those conditions, happy to rot and it means that he can move towards his goal of ridding Pakistan of corruption, a goal that he has stated to us a million times.”

Mosharraf Zaidi, a Pakistani government spokesperson, will be speaking to Yalda Hakim tonight on Sky News from 9pm.

World

Paris Saint-Germain ordered to pay Kylian Mbappe €60m French court rules

Published

3 mins ago

December 16, 2025

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Paris Saint-Germain ordered to pay Kylian Mbappe €60m French court rules

French football champions Paris Saint-Germain have been ordered to pay former player Kylian Mbappe 60 million euros (£52.6m) by a Paris court.

A Paris labour court found on Tuesday that Mbappe was due three months in unpaid wages, as well as an ethics bonus and a signing bonus, under his employment contract with PSG.

It was noted that the sums were recognised by the French Professional Football League (LFP) in September and October 2024, and that there was no evidence of an agreement showing that Mbappe had waived his entitlement to them.

Judges thus rejected the club’s argument that the 26-year-old French forward should forfeit unpaid wages entirely, but did dismiss his additional claims of concealed work, moral harassment and breach of the employer’s duty of safety.

Speaking to reporters after the verdict, Mbappe’s lawyer Frederique Cassereau said: “We are satisfied with the ruling. This is what you could expect when salaries went unpaid.”

In a statement, his legal team also said: “This judgment confirms that commitments entered into must be honoured. It restores a simple truth: even in the professional football industry, labour law applies to everyone.”

PSG ‘reserving right to appeal’

PSG said in a statement that it “takes note of the ruling handed down by the Paris labour court, which it will comply with, while reserving the right to appeal”.

The statement added: “Paris Saint-Germain has always acted in good faith and with integrity, and will continue to do so.

“The club is now looking to the future, built on unity and collective success, and wishes the player all the best for the remainder of his career.”

Now playing for Real Madrid, Mbappe had taken PSG to court over earnings he said were withheld for April, May and June 2024 – before he left the club for Spain on a free transfer.

Lawyers for the striker argued he was owed more than 260m euros (£227m), and that his fixed-term contract should be reclassified as a permanent one.

Judges on Tuesday did not view Mbappe’s contract with PSG as a permanent one, which limited the scale of possible compensation.

PSG argued that Mbappe had acted disloyally by concealing for nearly a year his intention not to renew his contract, and sought 440m euros (£385m) over damages and a “loss of opportunity” after he left on a free transfer.

In the last year of his contract, he was linked with a world record transfer to Saudi Arabian football club Al Hilal, which Sky Sports News reported at the time to be worth £259m.

PSG signed Mbappe on loan with a mandatory purchase option of 180m euros (£165.7m) from AS Monaco in 2017, making him the second-most expensive player and most expensive teenage footballer in history.

While playing for the Parisians, he won six league titles and scored 256 goals in all competitions, making him the club’s all-time top goal scorer.

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FIFA announces £45 World Cup tickets in climbdown after outcry over pricing

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3 hours ago

December 16, 2025

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FIFA announces £45 World Cup tickets in climbdown after outcry over pricing

FIFA has announced “more affordable” tickets for all 104 matches at next year’s World Cup after an outcry over pricing.

The cheapest tickets will now be on offer from $60 (£45) as part of a new “Supporter Entry Tier” which will be available specifically to supporters of qualified teams.

However, only 10% of participating member association’s allocated tickets will fall under this most affordable category.

As a result, the number of $60 tickets for each game is likely to be in the hundreds, rather than thousands.

Supporter value tier prices will apply to 40% of their tickets with the remaining 50% being split evenly between supporter standard tier and supporter premier tier.

Ronan Evain, the executive director of Football Supporter’s Europe (FSE), a group that represents the interests of supporters in European football, said the group was “looking at the FIFA announcement as nothing more than an appeasement tactic due to the global negative backlash”.

He added: “This shows that FIFA’s ticketing policy is not set in stone, was decided in a rush, and without proper consultation – including with FIFA’s own member associations.”

While he welcomed FIFA’s “seeming recognition of the damage its original plans were to cause”, he insisted “the revisions do not go far enough to reconcile” the harm done.

In a statement, FIFA said: “With demand in the current sales phase achieving 20 million ticket requests, FIFA has confirmed that fans of the national teams that have qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026 will benefit from a dedicated ticket pricing tier, which has been designed to make following their teams on football’s greatest stage more affordable.

“The newly introduced Supporter Entry Tier will be available at the fixed price of USD 60 per ticket for each of the 104 matches, including the final.”

FIFA had been urged to halt World Cup ticket sales after it emerged countries’ most loyal fans faced paying “extortionate” prices for tickets, with the cheapest for the final coming in at over £3,000.

The cheaper tickets, which will be made available for every game at the tournament in North America, will be given to the national federations whose teams are playing.

It will then be up to those federations to decide how to distribute them to loyal fans who have likely attended previous games at home and on the road.

FIFA caving into criticism like rarely before

Rob Harris

Sports correspondent

@RobHarris

This is FIFA caving into criticism like rarely before under Gianni Infantino. It has still not shut down the outcry at the cost of going to the World Cup.

“We have listened to feedback,” a senior FIFA official acknowledged to Sky News.
Suddenly cutting World Cup ticket prices amid a growing fan backlash is a significant climbdown.
FIFA admitted it got it wrong by pricing tickets too high.

Groups, including England’s Football Supporter’s Association, said last week it was “scandalous” its cheapest group stage tickets in the United States would cost about £165 ($265) and the cheapest for the final £3,130.
Now, FIFA says there will be $60 (£45) tickets for every match. The US-Canada-Mexico bid book ahead of the 2018 FIFA vote said the cheapest tickets would be $21.

“This new category is the right thing to do,” the FIFA official close to talks said.
But only 10% of the allocation for each team will be made available at the new cheaper entry point.
So for England’s opener against Croatia, there could only be 750 tickets at £45. The Dallas stadium has a capacity of 94,000.

It will be for the FAs to work out who should receive these cheapest tickets from their fan base.
The men’s World Cup is FIFA’s main source of income every four years – with revenue of $13bn (£9.75bn) across the 2023-26 cycle.

It helps to fund expanding women’s and youth tournaments as well as draws, conferences and award ceremonies.
And this U-turn overshadowed one of their glitziest nights of the year – the FIFA Best awards in Qatar.
That was one FIFA event supporters couldn’t buy a ticket to – for any price.

The news shows how the organisation is continuing its weeks-long move to back away from using dynamic pricing for all 2026 World Cup tickets.

FIFA did not specify exactly why it so dramatically changed strategy, but said the lower prices are “designed to further support travelling fans following their national teams across the tournament”.

Prices for England’s fixtures at the tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico were revealed last week, with the cheapest ticket for the final – should England, one of the home nations reach that stage – costing between $4,185 (£3,120) and $8,680 (£6,471) for members of the England Supporters’ Travel Club.

Outrage over such high prices was made worse due to co-hosts having pledged eight years ago to have hundreds of thousands of $21 (£15.64) tickets.

In another climbdown, FIFA has also announced that fans applying through the participating member association’s tickets allocation whose teams do not advance to the knockout phase will have the administrative fee waived when refunds are processed for unsuccessful applications.

Fan anger had intensified when it became clear that fans who wanted to reserve a ticket for all of their team’s potential games – through the final – would not get refunded if their teams didn’t make it to the final until after the tournament.

The World Cup in North America will be the first edition that features 48 teams – up from 32 – and is expected to earn FIFA at least $10bn (£7.4bn) in revenue.