Sounds like the same basic problem that caused the Horizon scandal. Just like the Post Office, nobody in DWP will have consciously *set out* to do this, but just like the Post Office a blind focus on process coupled with jobsworthery, incompetence, laziness, incuriousness, a desire for a quiet life, and a near-total lack of accountability led inexorably, and just like the Post Office, to misery, ruin and death.
That poor, poor woman.