Family of Michael O’Sullivan, who killed himself after losing his incapacity benefit, say Work Capability Assessment process is broken and unsafe

Michael O’ Sullivan was a family man who wanted to do the right thing. A builder, from Highgate in north London, he worked hard for his family until severe mental health problems made it impossible. But despite being signed off work by his GP after he was diagnosed with depression, O’Sullivan was ruled fit for work at the age of 60 by Department for Work and Pensions assessors. He killed himself on 24 September 2013.

O’Sullivan’s case caused outrage in September after it emerged a coroner had ruled his suicide was triggered by intense anxiety caused by his experience with the controversial work capability assessment (WCA) process.

On Wednesday, O’Sullivan’s case was highlighted once again, in parliament at prime minister’s questions by the SNP MP Angus Robertson, as one of 60 suicides that may have been linked to benefit changes. But the O’Sullivan family are still waiting for answers.

His daughter, Anne-Marie O’ Sullivan, has spoken to the Guardian about the events that led up to his death and called for WCAs to be halted.

“Even two years on, the pain we feel is still immeasurable,” she said. “That void will remain with us always.” The significance of the coroner’s finding was, she said, “traumatic and heart-wrenching” for her and her family.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A protest against work capability assessments in 2013. Photograph: Peter Marshall/Demotix/Corbis

Her father had suffered from low self-esteem, anxiety and depression all his life, she said, but he managed to work. “He was very practical,” said Anne-Marie. “On building sites, they’d say Micky O’ Sullivan would always find a solution.

“Depression had always been a part of him. We grew up with it as children. He was always very nervous and shy, socially awkward. But he was tall, dark and handsome and he was very kind. He would do lots of decorating and gardening jobs for my older brother, Declan, and I.”

But in 2000 his mental health problems grew worse and he had to stop work and moved on to sickness benefit. He remained very much a part of the family.

Anne-Marie, who was very close to her father, noticed a big downturn in his mood from August 2012, around the time he was first ruled fit for work after a work capability assessment. O’Sullivan’s incapacity benefit was stopped, he was put on jobseeker’s allowance, told to attend Kentish Town job centre, to write his CV and send it out to employers. After the assessment, O’Sullivan became anxious about the future.



“If you look at builders now, they are strong, young lads. You don’t see many builders at the age of 60,” Anne-Marie said.

“He was afraid his house would be taken away. He would say: ‘I won’t survive on the streets.’ My brother and I would never let it get to that. We loved him very much, we would do anything we needed to do to care for him. But he was very independent.”

In November 2012, he agreed to go on a training programme to get his CSCS, a certificate that is now necessary to work on a building site.

“Dad was sent to a college in Tottenham. There were 60 or 70 kids in his group, all young. He said they mocked him and called him names. That’s just how young kids are, but for someone like dad, who had really low self-esteem, he was in a terrible state about it. Being around young ones, he was out of his depth. He had real fears he wouldn’t find work at the end of the placement.”

After a week of the course, O’ Sullivan tried to kill himself, Anne-Marie said.



After the failed attempt, O’Sullivan’s GP signed him off work for six months, and he was given a place on a mental health treatment programme, which included cognitive behavioural therapy. Tragically, delays meant the first appointment came in October 2012, two days after his funeral.

O’Sullivan appealed against the WCA decision that found him fit for work, but he was called to a second WCA assessment a few months later, in March 2013.

Anne-Marie said her father became increasingly low after his second assessment. O’Sullivan mentioned his thoughts of suicide on his Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) form, and that should have prompted a call for further medical evidence, but his assessor did not ask him about it. A psychiatrist had diagnosed him with recurrent depression and a panic disorder associated with agoraphobia, and a clinical psychologist had assessed him as anxious and depressed. Though O’ Sullivan had a GP note signing him off work for six months following his suicide attempt, he was not asked for it.

Nevertheless, his incapacity benefit was taken away, at which point he was put on jobseeker’s allowance and once again told to find work.

“Imagine sending your CV off, countless times and getting no response. It added to that worthless feeling,” said Anne-Marie. “He was mindful that he had received the support of the benefits for 12 years. He was grateful. But he’d say, ‘It can’t go on forever.’”

Anne-Marie and her father used to go out together, to take walks on Hampstead heath, which reminded him of home in southern Ireland, she said. But he stopped going outside and grew increasingly more anxious. He struggled with wanting to work, with a feeling of worthlessness, she said.

“He seemed determined to get back to work,” she said, “but he had been locked away on his own for 10 years. He felt this pressure to leave his safe space.”

Two or three weeks before his death, O’Sullivan lost interest in everything he loved to do, according to his daughter. He never listened to the news and would sit in the cold, afraid to heat his flat.

The night her father died, Anne-Marie found five immaculately pressed shirts, a hard hat and brand new steel-capped work boots behind his bedroom door. He had been preparing to attend a four-week work placement that had been found for him.



She believes the WCA process is unsafe and should be halted, until a “fairer and more transparent” system is found.

At the inquest into her father’s death, the doctor who assessed him admitted he did not ask him whether he had thoughts of suicide, despite the fact that O’ Sullivan had written it on his DWP assessment form.

Anne-Marie said: “Under oath at the inquest, the doctor said he did not ask him if he had any ideas of self-harm.

“This is a doctor who has failed to ask the question, yet he has noted ‘no ideas of self-harm’ on his form in three different places. Not just once. That feels criminal. And yet they made him feel like he was a criminal, like he was a bad person.”

Giving her narrative verdict in January 2014, Mary Hassell, the senior coroner at O’Sullivan’s inquest in north London said: “[His] anxiety and depression were long-term problems but the intense anxiety that triggered his suicide was caused by his recent assessment by the [DWP] as being fit for work, and his view of the likely consequences of that.”

In a separate prevention of future deaths report, Hassell added: “I found that the trigger for Mr O’Sullivan’s suicide was his recent assessment by a DWP doctor as being fit for work.

“In my opinion, there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken.”

In its response to Hassell’s concerns, the DWP claimed that its policy on seeking further evidence when those being assessed mentioned suicide “regrettably was not followed in this case”.

Anne-Marie’s interview comes as it emerged that a UN inquiry is investigating alleged violations of disabled people’s human rights as a result of welfare reforms.

Distraught at the loss of her adored father, she said she had been unable to move on and believed that the DWP should stop WCAs for vulnerable people.

She said: “Despite the DWP admitting to ‘regrettable mistakes’, our understanding is that the WCA system is still unsafe, so why have ministers taken no action, more than two years after dad died?

“These people have to be held accountable. I’d like them to apologise, not to me or my brother but to my mum for what they put her through. I want them to stop this treatment of vulnerable people. It’s brutal treatment. I don’t want another family to lose a loved one the way we have, to go through the suffering we have.

“Dad was one of 60-odd cases where suicide has been linked to benefit changes. That’s way too many lives.

“This assessment process is broken and unsafe and I urge the government to halt the WCA immediately until a more transparent and fairer system can be found.”