The story of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar is often cited as proof for the conscious torment of the damned (Luke 16:19-31). In this parable of Jesus, a beggar is laid at a rich man's gate. The beggar is hungry and in poor health. The rich man ignores the beggar's plight.
When the two men die, the beggar is carried away by the angels while the rich man goes to a place of torment. That place is translated "hell" in both the KJV and NIV, but the Greek word is not the common Greek word for hell, which would be gehenna. The rich man is said to have gone to Hades, simply the realm of death.
In Hades, the rich man is in agonizing fire. He can see Abraham far away and so he begs Abraham to send Lazarus to bring a drop of water to cool his tongue. Abraham, however, reminds the rich man of this reversal of fortunes from the previous life and insists that a great chasm has been fixed between the place of comfort and the place of torment. No one can cross over from one side to the other.
The rich man has five brothers on earth and asks that Lazarus be sent to warn them of what is in store for the unrepentant. Abraham responds that if Moses and the prophets have not persuaded sinners to repent, nor will someone who rises from the dead convince them.
The point of the story is clear. Our final state in the after-life is conditioned upon how we live in the here-and-now. Once we are sent to either comfort or torment, it is too late to change the outcome. Fortunes or hardships in this life are not necessarily indications of God's favor or disfavor.
The reference to people who already have the Scriptures, and would not repent if someone was raised from the dead, alludes to the Pharisaical types who will refuse to acknowledge the resurrection of Jesus. So the bottom line is repentance evidenced by good deeds.
The parable's intent is not to address our speculation about the afterlife regarding whether the dead are conscious, everlasting torment, or what happens between death and final judgment. This is likely a fictional story based on Greek and Jewish folklore. The whole point is a call to repentance in light of coming judgment.
Some conclude that Hades must be the intermediate state between physical death and judgment day, like a holding tank for disembodied spirits until the Lord returns to raise and judge the dead. To use the parable for such conclusions is to miss the entire point and make the story say more than it does.
So this passage really adds nothing to a systematic study of the afterlife, except to insist that how we live our lives has consequences in the next life that are irreversible. We should believe the gospel and repent before it's too late. That is the point.