Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department records the number of deaths that are directly or indirectly related to instances in which her Department has stopped benefit payments.

Coroners investigate unnatural deaths and where the cause of death is unknown. There is no requirement for a Coroner to inform the department of the outcome in a former claimant’s inquest, unless the department is named as an Interested Person at that inquest - or the Coroner decides to issue the department with a Prevention of Future Deaths report. The Coroner has responsibility for concluding the cause of death.