Carla Groom died at home on 9 August 2026, aged 50. Her family and friends are raising money for the Carers Centre Tower Hamlets in her memory, and we would be glad of anything you can give.

Carla was a behavioural scientist who spent twenty years at the Department for Work and Pensions, where she led the reform of the state pension and then founded and ran the department's Behavioural Science team for a decade.

She was incredibly smart, loved her family and friends deeply, and was passionate about her many and varied interests – the gym, fashion, dancing and electronica, and (baffling to many of her friends!) snooker. She built friendships that lasted across decades and continents, many of them from her years in America, where she met her wife Paulina.

Paulina was ill for many years, and Carla cared for her through all of it while holding down a demanding job. The Carers Centre supported Carla and Paulina during that time, and it was a charity very close to her heart. It supports unpaid carers in the borough where she and Paulina lived – with advice, advocacy, therapy and practical help – and every pound given here goes to that work.

Paulina died in August 2018, a few months after they married. Carla's ashes will be buried beside her.

Carla is survived by her mother Lindsay, her brother Simon, her father Dave, her stepmother Pauline, her aunt Catherine, her uncle Les and a great many friends. Details of a memorial will follow. If you have a memory of Carla you would like to share, please leave it here, or on her Facebook page.

Thank you.

Lydia