Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of benefit claimants who have died by suicide in each of the last three years.

The department does not make estimates of the number of benefit claimants who have died by suicide.

Coroners have responsibility for concluding a person’s cause or circumstance of death. They can investigate where the cause of death is unknown.

When a Coroner determines that a benefits claimant has taken their own life, there is no general requirement for them to inform the department. The exceptions are when the department is named as an Interested Person at an inquest, or if the Coroner decides to issue the department with a Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) report.

The department has received six PFD reports from Coroners since 2013; of these, two were related to suicide. All PFD reports and their responses are published on the Judiciary website.