John Pring: I hope for an inquiry into disability claimant deaths

I hope this election brings accountability to a government department responsible for hundreds, and probably thousands, of deaths in the post-2010 austerity years. There must be an independent inquiry into the actions and failings of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The roots of this state bureaucratic violence are in the 1990s. My research in the National Archives has shown how the “slow violence” inflicted on disabled benefit claimants through successive waves of welfare reform built slowly over the years until it exploded in the austerity years. Yet no party fighting this election has been willing to discuss the need for an inquiry into this scandal, or address the ongoing safeguarding issues still causing claimant deaths, particularly of those who rely on the criminally under-examined universal credit. I hope for an inquiry, and for justice for those who died.

John Pring is editor of Disability News Service and his book, The Department, will be published by Pluto Press in August