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DWP publish ‘death data’ call

July 05 2015
Petition demands that the Department publishes benefit-related deaths numbers

Over 125,000 people have signed a Change.org petition demanding that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) publish the figures of benefit-related deaths in the UK.

England and Wales’ information commissioner told the government it was to release the data, in accordance with the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act.

But since then, a potentially lengthy appeals process has been initiated in a bid to delay releasing the statistics.

The petition says: “The Information Commissioner’s Office has said that there is no reason not to publish these figures but Ian Duncan Smith's department - the Department of Work and Pensions - has launched an appeal to prevent the figures being made public.”

In 2012, the DWP published figures which showed 10,600 people who had been receiving benefits died between January and November 2011.

The numbers caused an outcry, so the government decided to block publication of any updated data.

 

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