An emotional Member of Parliament broke down and fought back tears as she named more than 20 people who have died while battling the benefits system - including six-stone Liverpool man Stephen Smith.
Labour's Debbie Abrahams cut an emotional figure in the House of Commons as she read out the names of 24 people who had died after being found fit for work.
The Oldham East and Saddleworth MP, who sits on the Work and Pensions Select Committee, led a debate on the death of those on social security benefits since 2014.
Colleagues in the house intervened to give Ms Abrahams time to gather herself as she broke down on several occasions.
The cases included Errol Graham, who was found starved to death and weighing five stone in council flat eight months after his ESA disability benefit stopped.
And they included Jodey Whiting who took her own life after her ESA was stopped in 2017.
And it included the heartbreaking case of 64-year-old Liverpool man Stephen Smith.
The nation was shocked in February last year when the ECHO first published images of Stephen's emaciated, 6-stone body and revealed that he had repeatedly been found fit to find work and denied benefits.
Despite several doctors warning he could barely walk, Stephen was forced to get a pass out of hospital where he was being treated for various illnesses and take on and beat the DWP at a tribunal.
With the ECHO's help, he was then awarded back payments of around £4,000 that he never should have been denied.
Sadly the money arrived too late for Stephen as he died or organ failure in April - the extra payments instead paid for his funeral.
Speaking about Stephen, from Kensington, in Parliament, Ms Abrahams said: "Then there was Stephen Smith.
"Stephen, the Liverpool man who many people will remember from being on the front of many newspapers with his emaciated body, more reminiscent of someone from a concentration camp than 21st century Britain.
"Last April we learned he had died of multiple organ failure after being found fit to find work."
Urging the government to take action, she said:"These are people’s family members and we are failing them, we’re absolutely failing them.
"We mustn’t let this continue.’
"This isn’t an exhaustive list but it shames us all, it shames the government in terms of the inaction. I’ve raised this so many times over the last five years and there’s been no change whatsoever."
The important intervention comes after the National Audit Office revealed that the Tory government has investigated 69 benefit claimants' suicides since 2014 - but said there are almost certainly many more that haven't been looked into.
Responding, work and pensions minister Justin Tomlinson said: "Day in, day out, DWP as a department interacts with many, many people - around 20 million each year - and a number of these are some of the most vulnerable in our society.
"In the vast majority of interactions with these people we get it right.
"The wellbeing of everyone who interacts with DWP is of the utmost importance. That is why we improve support and guidance for staff on how best to support vulnerable people and are constantly looking at our processes, striving for continuous improvement.
"However, we can see there are cases we haven't got it right for which we apologise."
