Tag: Disability

21 his job prospects

Posted on
Her husband
a former painter and decorator
is bed-ridden
registered blind
with severe dementia.
She and a team of carers look after him
24 hours a day.
Doctors told him
his condition is terminal.
He was sent a letter offering an interview
to talk about his job prospects.

[Scottish Sun (via the Internet Archive), 20/01/2012, Wife blasts ‘get a job’ letter]

31 when this also failed, she walked

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One of the first officers to arrive at the scene
noted evidence of a poor attempt
to clean up the mess;
watered-down blood in the kitchen.
Officers noted how her husband had blood on his clothes.
His brother, who received a call at work
urging him to rush round to the house,
had dirt on his hands.
Both men were arrested
but cleared of any involvement;
close examinations of the pattern of blood
ruled out foul play.
Her husband had woken up to find her missing.
He discovered an empty packets of painkillers,
blood,
a note.
She had been worrying about a meeting she was due to have
to discuss her entitlement to disability benefits.
Her health problems meant she had to give up
her job at the bakery. She was described
as cheerful, hardworking and trusted.
Her husband’s model shop had recently collapsed,
plunging the couple into financial difficulties.
They were forced to sell her childhood home.
It was likely
she had walked to the shed to fetch craft knives
in order to cut herself
after finding a serrated kitchen knife
was not sharp enough.
When this also failed, she walked to the Drain –
fifteen minutes from the couple’s home –
where her body was found.
She had died of drowning,
more than ten self-inflicted cuts
on her wrists.

[Hull Daily Mail (via Black Triangle Campaign), 12/07/2011, Woman who drowned in drain was upset about health check]

47 two. one

Posted on
January.
She was called in for an assessment.
She and her sister
spent two hours
on two buses
travelling to the centre
for a two minute assessment.
She was only asked one question:
did you get here by bus?
53 years old,
a former nurse.
She was left partially sighted
after an industrial accident in 1987.
She required walking sticks.
She had slipped and bulging discs
in her back and neck
after an accident at work.
Her pain was exacerbated after an unsuccessful operation in 2012.
Bones from her hand were removed
during separate surgery
after she was savaged by a dog.
Every time one of her arms was touched
she was left in agony
strong pain relief could not ease.
Did you get here by bus?
She replied
‘Yes.’
She was found fit to work.
Her benefits were stopped.
She hadn’t even had the chance
to take her coat off.
Later, she received a letter
telling her to find employment.
She lost her appeal against the decision.
In November,
thirteen days before her second appeal
she was found
on her kitchen floor.

[Daily Mirror, 26/11/2013, Sick nurse killed herself after disability benefits were cut and she was ruled ‘fit to work’ ; Daily Record, 27/11/2014, Former nurse killed herself after controversial ATOS health test ruled she was fit for work ; Bristol Post (via the Internet Archive), 25/11/2013, Bristol woman ‘killed herself after benefits were stopped’]

53 it’s not as if nobody knew

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They kept food in plastic bags
in the shed;
the cold night air.
They couldn’t afford a fridge,
couldn’t afford to heat their house.
They lived in one room.
Every Sunday they walked
six miles each way
to a soup kitchen
to have something to eat
and pick up food bags,
free vegetables
to cook into a broth
on a camping stove.
It’s not as if nobody knew.
 
A year ago,
they appeared in a film
about living below
the breadline.
She had learning difficulties
and needed support from her husband,
an army veteran.
He was her full-time carer.
The Jobcentre decided she couldn’t sign on;
she wasn’t fit
for work.
Her benefits were stopped.
He worked in the army
as a PE instructor,
but fell on hard times
after the service.
Struggled to cope with
civvy street.
Their 12-year-old daughter
was taken into care.
He fought to get a carer’s allowance
but they wouldn’t recognise his wife’s disabilities.
He was told he could not claim
until she had been fully diagnosed:
month after
month after
month of specialists, living
hand
to mouth.
They were terrified she was about to be sectioned.
They stayed with relatives and friends
to avoid the authorities.
They walked everywhere
hand-in-hand
like young lovers.
Neighbours raised the alarm.
They had not been seen for several weeks.
This is where despair ends.
They were found
lying side by side
on the settee.
A police spokesman said
post-mortem examinations
had been carried out.
The deaths are being treated
as unexplained.

[The Daily Mirror, 11/11/2011, The tragic story of suicides Mark and Helen Mullins is a tale our politicians should pay attention to; Coventry Telegraph, 08/11/2011, Bedworth ‘suicide pact’ couple found lying side-by-side; Coventry Telegraph, 11/05/2021, Death of Warwickshire couple included in review into serious harms of people claiming benefits; Channel 4 News, 09/11/2011, Police investigate death of couple; BBC News, 09/11/2011, Inquiry call over Mark and Helen Mullins deaths; Metro, 08/11/2011, Married couple driven to commit suicide by utter poverty; Mail Online, 09/11/2011, Army veteran and his wife die in tragic ‘suicide pact’ after becoming ‘too poor to live through the winter’]

54 the old system

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During the 1960s
while pregnant with her
her mother took thalidomide.
She is blind in one eye,
partially deaf,
can barely walk,
barely dress herself.
She has arthritis.
In 2004 she underwent surgery
to remove a brain tumour.
She retired from her job
as a care assistant.
She was to undergo spinal surgery
late in 2013.
‘It is because of the way I have had
to manipulate my body over the years
to try and live a normal life.
Because we have to use our bodies
in different ways
what anyone else finds normal
has killed us.’
She and her late husband
were believed to be
the first thalidomide victims in Britain
to get married.
(Her carer
helps her make tea
and brushes her hair.)
In July 2012
she received a letter
saying she must go
on a training course.
Her family appealed
and the decision was overturned.
Then
in October
she was told
once again
she should not
be claiming benefits
as she could not prove
she was unfit to work.
A further appeal was rejected.
A spokesman for the Department said
‘The old system
condemned too many people
to a life on benefits
with little hope
of moving back to work.
Now
people who can work
will be given help
to find a job
while those who need unconditional support
will get it.’
She was served with court papers
and must attend a tribunal
where she will have to prove
her disabilities to a judge.

[Daily Star, 16/03/2013, Benefits hell for Thalidomide patient; Daily Mail, 15/03/2013, Blind in one eye, partially deaf and facing major spinal surgery but Thalidomide mother is still found fit to work; The Independent, 15/03/2013, Capable of ‘work-related activity’: Partially blind Thalidomide victim with brain tumour fights Atos decision to force her to attend interviews and put together CV]

55 not compatible

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After a half-hour interview at his home
he was assessed as capable to return to work.
 
He was very distressed.
(Rising rent arrears,
warnings from the electricity company.)
He was reluctant to ask relatives for help;
they were unaware his benefits had been removed.
Concerned about his patient’s condition,
his doctor wrote a letter
in support of his application:
‘extremely unwell
and absolutely unfit
for any work
whatsoever.
Please do not stop
or reduce his benefits.
He simply is not well enough to cope
with this extra stress.
His mental and medical condition
is extremely serious.’
It is not clear whether the letter
reached the Jobcentre.
He was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome
and obsessive compulsive disorder
in his late 20s.
He had an eating disorder
and cognitive behavioural problems.
He was sacked from his first job
because he was unable to follow instructions.
The Department’s assessment concluded
his mental state
was normal.
This triggered a decision
by the jobcentre
to stop his sickness benefits.
His housing benefits were stopped around the same time.
He was not told.
He struggled to survive
on his disability allowance.
Forty pounds a week
to live on.
His sister said
‘He would have wanted to be seen as normal.
He was desperate to get by
as normal.’
A body mass index
of between eighteen point five
and twenty-four point nine
is considered healthy
for a man.
Between April and August his
dropped
from fourteen point one
to eleven point five;
he weighed five stone eight pounds
(thirty-five kilos)
when he died.
The doctor told the inquest
his body mass index
was not compatible
with life.

The Guardian, 28/02/2014, Vulnerable man starved to death after benefits were cut]

56 until the money ran out

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His family only pieced together his predicament
after discovering a repossession order
in the bin.
He had lived in the house all his life.
The order,
dated 13 September 2013,
gave him ten days to leave.
He suffered from mental health problems
including agoraphobia.
He had worked
as an assistant sales manager
in the 80s but
after leaving
he failed to find further employment.
Depression
and a suicide attempt
followed;
1989, an overdose
which damaged his vision.
(He was registered as partially blind
in 1994.)
After this he never worked again.
‘He was never extravagant,
didn’t go on holiday,
never had a car,’
his sister said.
His benefits were stopped in December 2012
after an assessment
found him fit for work.
‘He couldn’t ask for help.
He didn’t want to be a burden on anyone.’
Relatives believe he lived off his savings
until the money ran out.
It was his sister who found his body,
two days before the eviction date,
hanging in his hallway.

[Stourbridge News, 26/12/2013, Disabled Kinver man killed himself after being left “almost destitute” when his state benefits were axed]

58 we have to think this way

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In the undercover film
the trainer tells trainee assessors:
“If it’s more than
twelve or thirteen percent eligible
you will be fed back
‘your rate is too high.’
That’s what we’re being told.”
During assesments
company health professionals
award claimants points,
reflecting the apparent severity
of their condition,
with information gathered
through a set of questions
led by a computer.
“We talk about mobilising,
which means
being able to transfer
from point A
to point B
either by
walking or
walking with aids
which is
crutches
walking sticks
Zimmer frame
or wheelchair. So
if someone has
no legs
but they have
good hands
they can sit
and propel a wheelchair,
they don’t score anything.
This is one of the toughest changes.
Recently I had somebody
with prostate cancer, but
of course that’s not traditionally
treated with chemotherapy. So
I gave him no points.
I couldn’t
do anything else.
Same
with breast cancer.
The hormonal treatment doesn’t count. So
no points.
I felt very uncomfortable doing it.
I didn’t
like doing it.
But I had no way of scoring him.”
The data is typed into a computer.
Patients who score 15 points
are likely to be found eligible for support.
Patients who score below
are not.
“It’s terrible sometimes.
People having problems.
Both hips, both knees, but
good hands.
Terrible.
You know
we talk about
modern work adaptations
but we know how it looks
from the other side.
There’s no jobs
for healthy people,
normal people.
We have to think this way.
Sometimes you feel awful.
You can’t do anything
for people.
You can’t feel sorry
and give them the money
just because you feel
sorry.
You’ll go on a targeted audit.”

The Guardian, 27/07/2012, Atos assessors told to disability benefit approvals low, film suggests

62 stop worrying

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You are a fucking bitch”: a man’s voice.
Then the sound of violent banging,
a woman’s sobs.
Officers were on the way;
sobbing and breathing heavily,
she said the man had retreated.
Police arrived and arrested him.
She had opened her window.
If the man had succeeded in getting through the door
she was prepared to jump two floors to escape.
The woman was calling from her bedroom.
She had been placed in ‘exempt’ supported housing
after leaving prison –
a five-year term for serious fraud and deception.
She had a history of mental illness:
suicide attempts, spells in psychiatric hospitals.
She had been the victim of violent abuse
at the hands of a former partner:
twice he had fractured her skull;
marks on her arms; burn scars
snaking across her chest,
where he had set her on fire
while she slept.
The man hammering on her door that night
was a troubled alcoholic with demons of his own.
He was under
a suspended prison sentence
for making threats with a machete.
Police ultimately did not bring charges against him –
a result of conflicting versions of events that night.
“Officers attended the address just after midnight
and arrested a man.
It was alleged he had
been verbally aggressive to the woman,
made threats, and
damaged the door to her room.
The woman was not injured.
The man was later released without charge;
the property owner said
the damage to the door
was already there.
He would not support
a prosecution.”
A Probation Service spokesperson said
“Prisoners released without somewhere to live
are 50 per cent more likely to reoffend.
Providing basic accommodation on release
helps cut crime and make
our streets safer.”
The man was moved to another property.
Exempt accommodation: supported housing
funded through a higher rate of housing benefit, exempt
from caps applied to normal housing.
Prison leavers, rough sleeper, refugees and migrants,
substance abusers, people with mental health issues,
disabilities, people at risk of homelessness:
strangers
housed together, mostly left
to their own devices, with arms-length help
amounting to an hour or so of dedicated support a week;
a support worker
at the end of a mobile phone.
She has lost weight and become more ill;
thefts were so common
she now stored her kitchen pans and cutlery in her bedroom.
She described a fellow resident:
he had not been out of his pyjamas or had a wash
for five weeks; he kept her awake all night.
Access is via a steel staircase.
Inside, the corridors and shared kitchen and common room
are monitored by CCTV with audio mics;
private conversations may be listened to.
Bedrooms are small.
A hole burnt in the kitchen top,
rusted hobs. The common area and kitchen
are full of the belongings of one of the tenants;
crudely written notices in felt tip
on stereo, tv, kitchen gear:
‘hands off’.
Heating comes from plugged in storage heaters.
In the night it’s freezing.
“I eat two sausages and vegetables every night,
cereal in the morning.
I don’t drink, don’t take drugs, yet
it’s all around.
Nobody seems to do anything much about it.”
At her lowest point she tried to jump in front of a train.
She was pulled back at the last minute;
another spell in psychiatic hospital.
“While living here
suicide is the only thing
that goes through my head,
day in,
day out.
The owners say I am too much hard work for them,
they said
they didn’t have problems
before I moved in.
It’s not a great place to be.
The landlord told me
‘just ignore it’, stop worrying
about other people.”

[Birmingham Live, 25/09/2021, Chaos, fear and suicide attempts – life inside ‘exempt’ housing in Birmingham]