Tory govt spent over £50,000 of taxpayers’ money to stop release of review into disabled man's death
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The Tory government spent more than £50,000 of taxpayers’ money to try to prevent the release of a review ordered after a disabled man starved to death in his home. The figures have been revealed after the Democracy for Sale newsletter requested details of the last government’s spending on attempts to prevent the release of information.
Errol Graham, 57, who suffered severe social anxiety had no income after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) wrongly stopped his out-of-work disability benefits. He then died of starvation in June 2018 and was found dead weighing a mere four and a half stone when bailiffs tried to evict him after failing to pay rent for seven months with damning safeguarding review conlcuding that opportunities to help him were missed.
In a letter found at his home at a 15th-floor council flat in Nottingham which appeared to be aimed at the Jobcentre or a welfare official, he described going to bed hungry and being "overshadowed by depression" adding that he was “afraid to put heating on”.
He wrote: "I wish I could feel and function normally like anyone else but I find this very hard. I can't say I have a typical day because some are good not many, clouded by very bad days. "I get up as late as I can so that the day doesn't seem too long. On a good day I open my curtains but mostly they stay shut.".
