Man took his own life as DWP started to pay back seven years of benefits arrears totalling £37,000

A vulnerable man took his own life after becoming 'paranoid' when the Department of Work and Pensions started to pay back seven years worth of benefits arrears. The DWP owed more than £37,000 to Richard Brookes at the time of his death after an 'error'.

Mr Brookes, who had a diagnosis of possible paranoid schizophrenia and was on anti-psychotic medication, recieved an initial repayment of £5,000 direct to his bank account on December 8 last year, but his sister told an inquest into his death he grew 'paranoid about the source of the money'.

A coroner said text messages he sent to his sister in the days leading up to his passing indicated 'he didn't know where the money was coming from'.

Mr Brookes, who was known to family and friends as Rick, was found dead near train tracks in the Stockport area just over a month after the first arrears repayment was made.

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Coroner Anna Morris KC, who recorded a conclusion of suicide after the inquest at Stockport Coroners' Court earlier this month, has now written to the DWP voicing urgent concerns over benefits payments to vulnerable recipients.

Ms Morris said it was 'clear' from the evidence 'any call from the DWP' to explain what was happening 'wasn’t understood fully' by him or 'fed into a period of delusional thinking'. She said it was 'a large payment of money to a vulnerable adult who was then required to self-manage that money' and that it was vital 'robust systems' were in place.

Mr Brookes' existing claim for benefits should have triggered additional payments - the Severe Disability Payment - starting in 2016, but that didn't happen after what the DWP called an 'error', the inquest heard. The missed payments were eventually identified, but only in November last year.

DWP policies state payments of large sums to vulnerable recipients should be handled by a specialist department. The inquest heard a DWP agent spoke to Mr Brookes, but Ms Morris said there was no substantive record of the conversation or what was said beyond a drop-down box being ticked on the department's computer system.

She said it was 'not possible to evaluate what was said, how long the call took and what steps were put in place to ensure that Rick understood the information within the call'.

"Without any notes of the call, it is also not possible to assess what Rick was asked about his state of mind, any vulnerabilities he was experiencing and his ability to safely manage the receipt of large payments of money," the coroner added. "The text messages he sent to his sister in the days prior to his death indicate that he didn’t know where the money was coming from."

Mr Brookes sadly died on January 25 after being hit by a train.

Details of the coroner's concerns are contained in a now-published Prevention of Future Deaths report sent by Ms Morris to the DWP. The Coroners and Justice Act 2009 gives coroners the opportunity to make reports to a person, organisation, local authority or Government department or agency where they believe action should be taken to prevent future deaths.

Ms Morris said Mr Brookes had been 'experiencing a crisis period in his mental health' in the days before his death. No age for him has been revealed.

In her report, she said: "In these situations, it is important that there are robust systems in place for ensuring that the requisite assessments and checks are made of an individual to ensure that large payments can be made in a way that does not increase any vulnerability."

Ms Morris said it was a matter of concern that 'payments can be initiated without there being a full note on the system of the content of the call with the individual' - and DWP systems were a 'hybrid of electronic and clerical'.

"I am therefore concerned that there is no way that an agent, quality assessor or team leader can properly evaluate whether any agreement made between the DWP and an individual regarding repayment has fully considered all the relevant factors regarding their vulnerabilities before a large payment is made," the coroner added.

"I am also concerned that the DWP currently has no ability to effectively audit its large payments caseload to ascertain whether the failure in record keeping evident in the present case has occurred in other cases."

A DWP spokesperson said: "We offer our sincere condolences to the friends and family of Mr Brookes. We will review the coroner's report and respond in due course."