The process left her \u201cdevastated\u201d and convinced she had lost her job. The morning after the meeting, Moffat killed herself.<\/p>\n
The coroner found Moffat \u201cappeared well and happy\u201d before the meeting on 19 May last year and that there were no previous concerns about her mental health. She said: \u201cI am satisfied that the shock and distress of the allegations and thinking she was going to lose her job contributed to her state of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chloe Moffat\u2019s mother described her as \u2018a bright, caring and talented young woman\u2019. Photograph: Anne Moffat<\/p>\n
The Treasury\u2019s human resources policy, which is in line with Acas guidelines, says that serious misconduct allegations have to be dealt with formally. This is so the person involved is \u201cnot deprived of their rights\u201d, such as having a third party present during meetings, being given five days\u2019 notice and being informed of the likely outcome if the allegations are found to be true, the coroner said.<\/p>\n
She found that because decisions had already been made to limit Moffat\u2019s role and responsibilities, the allegations \u201cneeded a formal process\u201d. Crawford said: \u201cI find the meeting was not in accordance with [Treasury] policy\u201d, which \u201cmakes no provision\u201d for such informal meetings. \u201cThe reason for this seems abundantly clear,\u201d she added. \u201cIt is necessary to put safeguards in place, including informing about the likely penalty and the right to be accompanied.\u201d<\/p>\n
The head of global issues at the Treasury, who was running the investigation into Moffat, said during the coroner\u2019s hearing that she did not give Moffat prior notice of the meeting because \u201cshe did not want Chloe to worry about it\u201d. She had also told the court that when Moffat asked in tears whether she would lose her job, she had replied that she could not predict the outcome of any potential investigation.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the hearing, when asked if she would have done anything differently, Moffat\u2019s line manager told the court: \u201cNo, I think we did all we could at the time with the information and advice we were given.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the coroner found: \u201cBy handling the matter in the way they did, Chloe was denied safeguards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe concern that she would lose her job did materially contribute to her state of mind and the decision to take her own life,\u201d Crawford said. She found the Treasury played a part in Moffat\u2019s death by not informing her that the likely outcome would be a written warning and not dismissal.<\/p>\n
Crawford was issuing a prevention of future deaths notice because the Treasury claimed these informal meetings were \u201cstandard practice\u201d. \u201cThat is a matter of concern,\u201d she said. \u201cIt runs the risk of serious and\/or gross misconduct allegations being put to colleagues without safeguards in place.\u201d<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every day<\/p>\n Sign up to Headlines UK<\/p>\n Get the day\u2019s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The Treasury previously said it was reviewing its disciplinary process. \u201cThis does not set my mind at rest,\u201d the coroner said. \u201cI consider there remains a risk of future death.\u201d<\/p>\n Anne Moffat, Chloe\u2019s mother, said: \u201cChloe was a bright, caring and talented young woman who loved her family, her friends and her work. The evidence heard during the inquest has reinforced our belief that the allegations made against Chloe were nothing more than workplace gossip.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was treated with a complete lack of empathy with regard to allegations made by colleagues who chose to remain anonymous. We continue to believe that HM Treasury failed in its duty of care towards Chloe. At a time when she needed support, reassurance and fair treatment, she was left frightened, isolated and convinced that her career and reputation had been destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n Anne Moffat suggested the family may take further action: \u201cWe will continue to honour her memory and seek the changes needed to ensure that no other family suffers a similar loss.\u201d<\/p>\n A Treasury spokesperson said: \u201cWe continue to mourn Chloe\u2019s passing as a colleague and friend. Our thoughts remain with her family and friends. We take the coroner\u2019s concerns extremely seriously and recognise it is important to act quickly. We are now considering the findings carefully.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have introduced improvements to guidance, support and wellbeing arrangements but recognise we must continue to take action to prevent this happening again.\u201d<\/p>\n In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans<\/a> can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline<\/a> at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org<\/a>. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline<\/a> is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Treasury \u201cmaterially contributed\u201d to the death of Chloe Moffat, a 26-year-old personal assistant who took her own…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-733533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782332000_529_500.jpg\")
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