Theresa May told to scrap ‘appalling’ fit-to-work assessments as nearly 50% of female claimants attempted suicide

May urged to ‘eradicate policies and circumstances that lead to people to believe that suicide is their only option’

Theresa May has been told to scrap “appalling” fit-to-work assessments after MPs raised a report in The Independent showing nearly one in two women trying to claim benefits had attempted suicide.

SNP’s Ian Blackford grilled the prime minister on “the impact of her government’s own social security policies” on people’s mental health after she made a public commitment to reduce the number of self-inflicted deaths.

He pointed to a report by The Independent, which said that attempted suicides among out-of-work disability benefit claimants have more than doubled since the introduction of fit-to-work assessments in 2008.

Mr Blackford used the weekly prime minister’s questions clash to challenge Ms May to agree to “eradicate policies and circumstances that lead to people to believe that suicide is their only option”.

He told MPs: “I’m glad the prime minister agrees with me because, as reported by The Independent, nearly one in every two women taking part in the UK government’s work capability assessment say they have attempted suicide after or during the process.

“A series of secret internal enquiries into these reveal that Conservative ministers were repeatedly warned of the policies shortcomings.

“Will the prime minister commit today to ensuring that her new minister of suicide looks at the impact of her government’s own social security policies and at long last scrap the appalling work capability assessment?”

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