A RELATIVE of a man who died of starvation after his benefits were stopped said yesterday that the system is “not fit for purpose.”

Errol Graham, who had mental-health issues, died aged 57 at a weight of just four-and-a-half stone.

His body was found by bailiffs who broke into his council flat to evict him in June 2018.

Just a few tins of canned fish that were five years out of date were found in his kitchen.

An inquest into his death found that his loss of income and impending eviction “likely caused huge distress.”

The inquest heard that the flat had no gas and probably no electricity, with post piling up by the door.

His cause of death was recorded as starvation.

Mr Graham’s daughter-in-law Alison Turner told the BBC yesterday that the “system is not fit for purpose” as he was left without money for eight months.

She said: “Errol could not physically bring himself to talk to strangers or ask for that level of help and if he hadn’t have lost [the support], he would still be here today.”

Mental-health charity Mind said yesterday that Mr Graham’s “appalling and saddening death shows how the benefits system is failing those who need it.”

Mr Graham’s last contact was with officials from Nottingham City Homes who, four months before his death, approached him at his flat about rent arrears and heard him shouting and punching a door.

He had been sectioned in 2015. He returned home days later, but after this he was rarely seen, missing several GP appointments and refusing approaches from mental-health teams.

Mr Graham also did not respond to contact from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and his employment and support allowance was stopped in August 2017. His housing benefit stopped two months later.

Former shadow work and pensions secretary Debbie Abrahams called in the Commons this week for an independent inquiry into cases where people died after DWP reviews of their care.

Mind director of external relations Sophie Corlett said: “It is the most vulnerable who we hear are slipping through the net.

“This gentleman and many people have lifelong conditions that are unlikely to change and yet they are recalled again and again for face-to-face assessments which people find very challenging.”

The DWP said it was establishing a serious case panel to review its work.