Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

Hardly anyone has heard of Sophia Yuferev - a disabled woman, whose body was found in her flat months after all her benefits had been removed.

She'd been hounded for years by the DWP, & repeatedly failed by other public bodies.

disabilitynewsservice.com/dwp-hounded-di… via @johnpringdns

Sophia was a talented artist who lived with significant mental distress, & had been living on a sandwich a day for the last few months of her life after both her employment & support allowance (ESA) & her personal independence payment (PIP) had been stopped.

Her body was discovered by police in her flat in Hornchurch, Essex, in November last year, weeks after she had died.

Her electricity had been cut off months earlier for non-payment of bills.

#CostOfLivingCrisis

Although her family alerted her mental health team to the financial problems caused by DWP cutting off her benefits, they say nothing was done to help her.

DWP told Disability News Service (DNS) this week that it has carried out an internal process review (IPR).

The internal process review investigated the tragic circumstances surrounding Sophia’s death and her benefit claims, although, shamefully – as with all IPRs – it will be kept secret & not shared with her family.

Can you even begin imagine how Sophia's friends & family feel?

The details surrounding Sophia’s death are being published by DNS just two days after work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey was promoted to deputy prime minister and health and social care secretary by her close friend, the new prime minister, Liz Truss.

Due to evidence of failures by local agencies, a statutory safeguarding adults review (SAR) is now likely.

The Care Act 2014 states there should be an SAR if there is concern over the way local agencies worked together to safeguard an adult who died due to abuse or neglect.

Sophia’s is just one of many deaths over the last decade linked to DWP’s actions & its failure to ensure the safety of its benefit claimants. An inquest in July concluded her death was due to ketoacidosis of “unknown” cause, but DWP was not asked to give evidence to the inquest.

The inquest heard that one of the causes of ketoacidosis is starvation. After her death, her family discovered documents that showed how DWP had hounded Sophia for several years, with the first removal of her ESA dating back to 2014, & evidence of a PIP removal in July 2017.

Although they have only been able to piece together a small part of her interactions with DWP, the documents her family have collected show both her PIP and ESA were repeatedly removed and then eventually reinstated - a distressing yet not uncommon pattern for benefit claimants.

DWP should have known of her significant mental distress, history of suicide attempts & detentions under the Mental Health Act. Sophia had been sectioned many times, once, in 2019, just days after DWP wrote to tell her her PIP was ending as she'd missed a form return deadline.

Three months later, her Housing Association threatened her with eviction because of non-payment of rent. It is believed this was because her ESA had again been stopped by DWP.

Documents suggest that her PIP was eventually reinstated in January 2020, and her ESA later that year.

However, her PIP was then removed again in February 2021 and her ESA removed again in April 2021.

Days after she is believed to have died, last October, DWP wrote to her to say that it was reinstating her PIP.

Months later, in March this year, Jobcentre Plus wrote to her mother to tell her that it would be making a back-payment for ESA from 17 April 2021 to 16 November 2021, the day Sophia’s dead body was discovered by police.

Sophia, who was 37 when she died, had a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, and during her frequent periods of psychosis she would turn on her mother, who lived nearby, accusing her of collaborating with the police.

On several occasions she had run away.

Because of her paranoia, she had no TV, rarely used her computer, & would often throw away her mobile phone & change her number because she thought it was being bugged. Her family say she was forced to keep a phone by her mental health team so they could keep in contact with her.

Sophia was simply unable to shop or cook, & shopping online was difficult because she was scared to open the door to deliveries.

Despite her enduring & significant mental distress, & inability to cope, her benefits were still repeatedly stopped & then reinstated by DWP.

After living with her mother and step-father for many years, she had moved into nearby sheltered accommodation for two years, but was moved to a housing association flat without – her family say – any assessment of her needs being carried out by the local mental health trust.

Despite attempting to take her own life several times when she was younger, and reporting how a “demon” in her head was telling her to take her own life, she was given a flat yards from a dual carriageway, which her family say was “uninhabitable” when she moved in.

The flat was “very dirty”, with no working appliances, “full of rubbish and filth and with huge holes in the floor”.

They say it was completely unsuitable for someone with her levels of mental distress and instability, with the dual carriageway in front of the windows.

Her mother, Maria Stockdale, who is also disabled and unable to work, said her daughter had visited her regularly during the summer of 2021, and told her she was surviving on a sandwich and a cup of coffee a day because all her benefits had been removed by DWP.

Her mother would always feed Sophia when she visited, but the family believe the rapid fluctuations in her blood sugar levels caused by periods of near-starvation were linked to her death.

She was being given injections of flupenthixol – a powerful anti-psychotic, which is linked to an increased risk of diabetes – every two weeks, but the trust had failed for two years to ensure she received the three-monthly blood tests she needed, the family say.

They believe that the rapid fluctuations in her blood sugar levels, caused by not having enough money for a proper diet after her benefits were cut, led to the ketoacidosis and caused her death.

Her mother says Sophia had been complaining of extreme fatigue for the last year of her life – a symptom of diabetes – and had not had an in-person appointment with the psychiatrist who prescribed the flupenthixol for two years.

In late September 2021, Sophia had another psychotic episode & again cut off contact with her mother.

After 3 October, when she told Sophia that her grandmother had died, there was no reply to further messages.

Sophia's mum says North East London Foundation NHS Trust refused to respond to her mother’s repeated calls raising concerns about her daughter. In line with the national picture after years of Govt underfunding, the inquest heard the trust had been significantly under-staffed.

Sophia's family believe that, because of staff sickness, Sophia did not have anyone acting as her care coordinator for months, with the trust relying on temporary staff who did not know the details of her case.

Sophia’s mum, Maria: “Every single one contributed to her death: DWP, the council, the housing association, the mental health trust, everyone. They all failed her. All of them contributed to killing my daughter, piece by piece. It's 10 months now, but still I can’t accept it.”

“Everyone carries on working, everyone carries on getting wages. I am just crying every day. I lost my daughter. I have only tears and the graveyard.”

Sophia's mum provided permission for DWP, and the other agencies, to discuss Sophia’s case with Disability News Service.

DWP confirmed it has carried out an IPR into the circumstances surrounding Sophia’s benefit claims & would work with other public authorities to learn from the case but stressed its decision to carry out an IPR did not mean that it had been found culpable.

DWP claimed it did not have a statutory duty of care, but this did not mean that it did not care about claimants, & it recognised that engaging with other public authorities can help the department gather & share information about claimants who may be in vulnerable situations.

But DWP refused to answer other questions about the case, including how it justified repeatedly removing Sophia’s benefits; whether she was marked on its system as “vulnerable”; how many times it had removed & then reinstated Sophia’s PIP and ESA in the last 5 years of her life;

Whether it had been aware of Sophia's history of mental distress; & whether it accepted that her ESA & PIP had been wrongly removed in the last months of her life. A DWP spokesperson said: “This is an incredibly sad & complex case, & our condolences are with Ms Yuferev’s family.”

North East London Foundation NHS Trust also refused to answer questions about Sophia’s death, & its alleged failings. A spokesperson said: “We would like to offer our sincere condolences to Sophia’s family & will continue to provide ongoing support & access to family liaison.”

“The trust provided evidence of the care provided to Sophia at an inquest in July 2022 & have accepted the coroner’s conclusion. As per our trust’s serious incident process, we have undertaken a review of the care delivered & are implementing learning as a result of this review.”

Havering council said it had been unaware of Sophia’s “vulnerability”, and that she had not been known to the council’s adult social care community team.

It suggested that a safeguarding adults review would now take place.

The council accepted it sent Sophia a summons for unpaid council tax on 16 August 2021 as a payment had not been received since June 2019, but that a payment was made on 26 August 2021. It had failed by noon yesterday to clarify who made this payment & what other action it took.

A council spokesperson said: “We send our heartfelt sympathies to Sophia’s family and friends following her tragic death.

“Had we been aware of Sophia’s vulnerability, we would have acted accordingly to stop the normal council tax recovery process.”

“Sophia was not known to the council’s adult social care community team, she was receiving support from the integrated mental health service and social care team managed by the North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT).”

“We have taken on board the coroner’s conclusions and the outcomes of the inquest and will support NELFT colleagues with their serious incident review learning and action plan.”

The Housing Association refused to answer questions about Sophia’s case, including why it sent letters threatening to evict her; whether it was aware of her history of mental distress; whether there was any contact with Sophia from its welfare officer in her last year of her life

if it carried out a proper assessment of her needs before she moved into the flat; and whether it had carried out an internal investigation into her death.

Instead, it released a statement stating what should have happened rather than what did happen.

Ian Haworth, Swan’s director of communities and home ownership, said: “We were deeply saddened to learn of Sophia’s death and our thoughts remain with her family.

“We are unable to comment specifically on individual cases.”

*The following organisations are among those that could be able to offer support if you have been affected by the issues raised in this article: @samaritans, @PAPYRUS_Charity, @MindCharity, @SOS_Initiativesand & @Rethink_.

Disability News Service (#DNS) is run by @johnpringdns, a disabled journalist who has been reporting on disability issues for nearly 25 years.

Please consider supporting his essential work. 🙏

disabilitynewsservice.com/support-dns/

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1567792264633516033?t=J882A9en77PBP8qQ5ECigg&s=19