The Department

On one side, against a grey background, are the words: 'A very interesting book... a very important contribution to this whole debate' - Sir Stephen Timms, minister for social security and disability. On the other side, on white against a red background, are the words: 'The Department. How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence. plutobooks.com.'

Photographs

On this page you will find some of the pictures I’ve taken over the last decade during my investigation into the many deaths linked to the actions of the Department for Work and Pensions. If you want to see pictures connected to some of the disabled people I write about in the book, who lost their lives because of the department’s actions and failings, hover over the ‘Photographs’ link above with your cursor and then click on their name.

Please note that all photographs on this page are copyright John Pring/Disability News Service

Protesters blocking a street, with the DWP's offices in the background, hold up placards saying 'no more benefit deaths'

Protesters, including several in wheelchairs, block traffic in front of Westminster Abbey, while holding placards. One placard says 'Cuts Kill'
Six people, some of them disabled, carry a banner saying 'No More Deaths from Benefit Cuts' with other disabled people walking behind them along the middle of a street.
A protester in a crime scene outfit crouches by a sign saying #StopAndScrap universal credit is a crime
A protester holds up a banner saying Disabled People Against Cuts, Rights Not Charity
Iain Duncan Smith looking glum on a platform with the Centre for Social Justice logo behind him
Iain Duncan Smith at a Conservative party conference fringe event in 2019
Six women hold large broken red hearts. One has 'broken hearts for the DWP' written on it. Others have names on them, including Jodey Whiting, Susan Roberts, Stephen Carre and Mark Wood
Jodey Whiting’s mum Joy Dove holding a heart-shaped board with her daughter’s name on it, as part of an action by disabled artist-activist Dolly Sen (left) in July 2019.
Poster with Iain Duncan Smith' in a prison outfit and the word 'guilty'
A women sits in her wheelchair holding a sign that says 'Benefit cuts are killing us', with protesters stood behind her, as she sits next to a silver sign on a wall that says Department for Work and Pensions
Protesters at the vigil, holding banners about PIP, including 'Benefit Cuts are Killing Us', and 'Legal challenge against PIP rules about people with mental distress', in front of the Royal Courts of Justice
Protester in wheelchair holding sign saying 'The needy, paying for the sins of the greedy'

Mel Stride talking to someone from behind a table
Mel Stride at a Conservative party conference fringe event in 2023
A series of white plaques attached to a stone wall, each of them with a date and a few words, all connected by a thick black line
Part of a timeline set up for the entrance to the Museum of Austerity installation, which features several of the disabled people whose deaths are covered in The Department
Three women on a panel being interviewed by another woman. On the bare stone wall behind them are he words Rehearsing Freedoms
Dr China Mills, who leads the Deaths by Welfare project, chairing a panel at Healing Justice Ldn’s Rehearsing Freedoms festival in 2023, with (second from left) Imogen Day, Anna Susianta and Ajibola Lewis