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For any copyright, please send me a message. The Tory government has probed 69 benefit claimants' suicides - and there are almost certainly more it never looked into, a damning official report revealed today. Scores of tragic cases have finally been confirmed by the National Audit Office - which said "unclear" rules stopped other deaths being investigated properly. Ministers had previously failed to give figures. Last year one, Sarah Newton, said:"You cannot make causal links between people being on benefits and people tragically taking their own lives." Yet today's NAO briefing confirmed the Department for Work and Pensions has launched Internal Process Reviews into 69 suicides of benefit claimants since 2014/15. Although the briefing did not conclude what might have triggered people's deaths, it warned: "It is highly unlikely that the 69 cases the DWP has investigated represents the number of cases it could have investigated. "The DWP does not have a robust record of all contact from coroners." The NAO said DWP guidance "has not always been clear" about when to investigate, not all staff were aware of the guidance, and guidance did not reflect the full scope of issues that trigger a probe. It added the DWP has "only recently taken a more proactive approach" to investigating suicides - despite years of claims that Tory welfare reforms were linked to people's deaths. The report revealed just nine of the probes began thanks to contact from a coroner. That compared to 19 that were launched due to media coverage of someone's death. Labour's Shadow Minister for Disabled People Marsha De Cordova said: "The Department has once again shown that it lacks any accountability or care for tragic cases relating to social security claims. "The Government must immediately establish a broader independent inquiry into deaths related to social security." SNP welfare spokesman Neil Gray said: "The DWP must explain this immediately. We have always known that DWP policies, such as work capability assessments, have adversely impacted claimants’ mental health and in some cases led to suicide. "This confirms that the DWP are also aware but continue to sit on their hands. "The Tories must assess these findings without delay and take urgent action to prevent further tragedy caused by the DWP's handling of social security." The audit report was ordered by Frank Field, who was chair of the Commons Work and Pensions Committee but lost his seat in the December general election. He told The Guardian: "This report presents a catastrophic situation for vulnerable claimants and their families. "What we need now is a full investigation into the DWP’s processes, and for the necessary changes to be made, so that nobody is ever
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