Treasury worker took her own life over ‘vexatious’ complaint, her mother says

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Chloe Moffat, 26, died on May 20 last year, the day after a meeting with managers in which she was told about allegations that she had shared sensitive confidential information, Surrey Coroner’s Court heard earlier this week.

The Treasury “materially contributed” to Ms Moffat’s death, the inquest heard, by not applying written disciplinary policy, which included informing her that the likely penalty if the allegations were proven was a written warning and not dismissal.

Anne Moffat said her daughter, who was a personal assistant to a director at the Treasury, had been “happy as Larry” in the role.

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She told The Times: “She was so happy working there, absolutely happy. She was ready for a promotion and then there were some allegations made and Chloe denied them.

“(They were made by) anonymous witnesses and, as far as we understand, they were always going to be anonymous, so they could never have given a statement.

“We know what the allegations were about — it was no more than office gossip, I’m sure it was all vexatious, sadly. It wasn’t dealt with according to policy, as the coroner said.

“They do bonuses in the Treasury at the end-of-year performance review… she’d actually just been awarded one, but she didn’t know about it. She was as happy as Larry and had no history of mental health illness."

Assistant coroner Anna Crawford said HM Treasury materially contributed to Ms Moffat’s death by not applying written disciplinary policy.

Ms Crawford said “it was agreed by everybody that Chloe enjoyed her job”, she had a good work record and had not previously been subject to any workplace disciplinary proceedings.

On May 19, Ms Moffat, from London, went to what she thought was a routine one-to-one meeting with her line manager, and a more senior manager was also present, the inquest heard.

She was told of allegations that she had shared sensitive personal information about colleagues, which she had obtained as part of her job role, within the office.

Ms Moffat denied the allegations.

She was informed that no final decision had been taken as to how the allegations would be handled but that it may be by way of a formal investigation or disciplinary meeting.

She asked if she would lose her job and the senior manager said “she could not predict the outcome at this stage”, Ms Crawford said.

She was told they were temporarily removing her access to the director’s email inbox.

Ms Moffat was shocked and upset during the meeting, the senior manager left, and Ms Moffat cried before composing herself and it was agreed she did not have to work for the rest of the day, Ms Crawford said.

She texted a friend saying she thought she was going to be fired, then spoke to her mother on the phone, who tried to reassure her, and it was decided Ms Moffat would go and stay at her parents’ house.

The next day Ms Moffat took her own life.

Ms Crawford said she would be sending a prevention of future deaths report to HM Treasury, the head of the civil service and to Acas.

A Treasury spokesperson said earlier this week: “We take the coroner’s concerns extremely seriously and recognise it is important to act quickly. We are now considering the findings carefully.

“We have introduced improvements to guidance, support and wellbeing arrangements but recognise we must continue to take action to prevent this happening again.”

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