‘We fear lessons will not be learned’: Chloe Moffat’s parents on their fight to hold Treasury to account

Couple considering suing for wrongful death after coroner found disciplinary process materially contributed to suicide W hen a coroner ruled this month that the Treasury “materially contributed” to Chloe Moffat’s death , her parents breathed out in bittersweet relief. For a year, David and Anne Moffat had been forced to become detectives in the worst case any parent could have to solve: why their daughter took her own life. Chloe, 26, went to her job as a personal assistant at the Treasury on a Monday last May “happy as Larry” after a weekend she’d told her friends was a “10 out of 10”. She was planning a holiday with her sister, Alice, and arranging for friends to come for a dinner party the next weekend. She was, according to her father, living “the best life”. That afternoon, however, she was sent to a surprise disciplinary meeting with her manager and her manager’s manager, which the coroner found left her distressed and convinced she was going to lose her job. The following morning, Chloe was dead. Anne, 64, who is retired and used to work as the head of care at a children’s hospice, said: “When she first did it, we had to question Chloe. We had to question what might have driven Chloe to this.” She paused, and David added: “Criminality? Fraud? All sorts of things. Because why would somebody take their own life if they were the person that we expected?” Anne interjected: “Are they on drugs? Are they in debt? Everything.

And so we searched and questioned our own daughter.” None of this was the case. After trawling through emails, talking to Chloe’s friends and colleagues and holding the Treasury to account in a gruelling, multi-day coroner’s court hearing, they found out their daughter had been mistreated by her employer. “After our investigations, it was clear it was literally that one-to-one meeting,” Anne said. “Chloe never recovered. She walked out of that meeting absolutely destroyed and never recovered and went down a black hole.” Since that finding two weeks ago, the Moffats have had no contact from the Treasury to offer condolences or an apology. “Now that the inquest has said that the coroner has found them responsible for Chloe’s death, we would have expected for them to have written to us,” David said. Chloe was described as cheerful, popular and funny, and a person who took her job seriously. “I think Chloe was always looking to serve,” David said. Anne added: “I didn’t realise, but people like Chloe, who are bright, confident perfectionists, when they’re given a piece of shocking news such as they might lose their job, can be very vulnerable.” The young woman was blindsided after being presented with anonymous complaints that she had shared confidential information at work, which she denied. She was not reassured that her job was safe even though she was unlikely to be dismissed, or offered a third party in the meeting to give her support or advice. “If Chloe had known that it shouldn’t have happened, if she’d known her rights, she could have walked in and said: ‘I’m not having this meeting’, and walked out. But of course she didn’t. She didn’t know that, she was a people pleaser,” David said. The coroner found Chloe was denied her rights at work, such as being told what the likely outcome of the disciplinary process would have been, which was a written warning, and that she could bring a supporter with her.

Instead, she felt ambushed and was convinced she would lose the job she had worked so hard for. Anne said: “I don’t know about the original complaints about Chloe, if they were malicious or to bring her down a peg or two – she was a big personality in the office.” The Treasury is obliged to give the coroner a response to the prevention of future deaths report she issued to the civil service. The coroner found there was a risk of further deaths at the Treasury because of how the department handled disciplinary cases. The department brought a team of lawyers to the inquest, who pushed for Chloe’s death to be recorded as an unexplained suicide. “We definitely want to be in touch with the Treasury because we do want Chloe remembered for the Chloe that she was,” Anne said. “And be that a bench in her name or whatever, but we want her to be remembered, but we do fear that she is going to be brushed under the carpet and lessons will not be learned.” Unusually for an inquest, the small, drab room in Surrey was full of young people in their early to mid-20s – Chloe’s friends and colleagues, who wept throughout. Those who attended from the Treasury were not given bereavement leave to attend the inquest into their friend’s death. “They didn’t get any time off from the Treasury or support for that horrible ordeal they had gone through,” Anne said. The couple said they hoped the Treasury acknowledged Chloe and issued a satisfactory response to the prevention of future deaths report, so this nightmarish chapter could be closed and they could begin to grieve. “We need to grieve. And I’m not sure that we have. I think the inquest has delayed that,” Anne said. David said: “The hole it’s left in our lives is just enormous. We’re only still coming to terms with that.

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