THE government was slammed for failing a young mother with severe mental illness after an inquest revealed that she took an overdose when the removal of disability benefits left her destitute.

Philippa Day was trapped in a months-long state of high anxiety and haunted by suicidal thoughts after she lost her benefits while suffering from agoraphobia and was unable to attend a face-to-face assessment, coroner Gordon Clow said on Wednesday.

Her long struggle with the benefits system had been a “stressor” in her decision to take the overdose in August 2019, Mr Clow said.