This petition requests that:

1. Full details are released from the DWP to allow death rates of those that have undergone assessment to be calculated - we need age-standardised mortality rates.

2. The resignation of Iain Duncan Smith for the failing of his department to support the most vulnerable in society and for continually and consciously misleading the public on these failures. 

Between December 2011 and February 2014 the equivalent of about 90 people a month died within 14 days of their Employment and Support Allowance claim was ended.

This demonstrates a clear failure from the department to do what it sets out to do, and a clear failure of welfare 'reforms' that have caused suffering to people across the UK. The DWP is set out to provide support to those that are most vulnerable - and it is failing to do so.

More stats taken from the figures that came out:

+ Over 40,000 people that were forced to undergo a trial on their suitability to receive support because of their disability died within a year.

+ Over 80,000 died since November 2011 whilst undergoing assessment on their ability to receive disability welfare support.

+ Almost 2,500 people that were found 'fit to work' have died since November 2011. This number is seperate to those that were placed in support groups and provided with support to help them get back into work. These people were considered healthy.

+7,200 people died after being found to be able to work since November 2011. (These were individuals in the 'world related activity group', where they undergo training and some work and receive less money than those with more 'severe cases' in the 'support group').

These headline figures look bad, but we're still missing more information on the demographics of these claiments in order to paint a real picture of what is happening - withheld by the DWP in another conscious attempt to mislead the public (like last week's fiasco with fake case studies on benefit sanctions).

Rob Holland, Mencan and co-chairs of the Disability Benefits Consortium, a consortium of charities and other bodies, said: "These tragic figures are concerning and warrant further investigation. "We know the fit for work test is failing disabled people, with devastating consequences."

These figures are taken from DWP documentation available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/456359/mortality-statistics-esa-ib-sda.pdf