List of those for whom Welfare Reform and cuts were too much to bear
- Thread starter Frankie Jack
- Start date
If over 48 hours, it's too late to do that without self-reporting.
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
This is more of a memorial thread than a debating thread, bearing in mind that relatives of those killed by this system may read it.
There are plenty of other threads where debates of various aspects can be held, to be honest.
There are plenty of other threads where debates of various aspects can be held, to be honest.
Frankie Jack
Not a bloke..
A grieving husband received official letters addressed to his late wife months after her death – threatening to stop her incapacity benefits.
Alan Baxter, 39, lost his wife Lyn in June last year – but continued to receive letters from Atos Healthcare warning her that her benefits would be cut off unless she attended a meeting.
Atos Healthcare, a government organisation which conducts disability benefit assessments, continued to contact Lyn Ashby-Baxter for six months after her death at the age of 49.
The letters informed Lyn – who had suffered from a range of medical issues – that if she didn’t attend an assessment her incapacity benefit would be cut.
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/grieving-nunetaon-husbands-anguish-over-6766033
Alan Baxter, 39, lost his wife Lyn in June last year – but continued to receive letters from Atos Healthcare warning her that her benefits would be cut off unless she attended a meeting.
Atos Healthcare, a government organisation which conducts disability benefit assessments, continued to contact Lyn Ashby-Baxter for six months after her death at the age of 49.
The letters informed Lyn – who had suffered from a range of medical issues – that if she didn’t attend an assessment her incapacity benefit would be cut.
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/grieving-nunetaon-husbands-anguish-over-6766033
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
Mental Welfare Commission rules that the WCA was the main (if not only) factor contributing to a woman who took her own life in 2011:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-26740651
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-26740651
I'm so tired of the complete lack of understanding mental health.
People that don't have these feelings or problems simply cannot know the desperation.
In fact, speaking from my own experience, as someone that passed their ESA through appeal, I know myself that such issues are not always or even dependent on outside circumstances. Maybe she felt that, having all the things the article mentions that others might presume preclude depression, the fear of loss becomes acute and a contributory factor. In some ways my own mental health has gotten worse after winning the appeal. I have some money in the bank, for the moment, but the problems still remain. These are problems that are not easily explained or understood - especially against a backdrop where people are, unfortunately prejudcied against them. Where the systems intended to support, ie the DWP, fall so very very short.
The DWP then tout their ignorance as an excuse they might say things like "she seemed fine to us". Well clearly that wasn't the case.
People that don't have these feelings or problems simply cannot know the desperation.
In fact, speaking from my own experience, as someone that passed their ESA through appeal, I know myself that such issues are not always or even dependent on outside circumstances. Maybe she felt that, having all the things the article mentions that others might presume preclude depression, the fear of loss becomes acute and a contributory factor. In some ways my own mental health has gotten worse after winning the appeal. I have some money in the bank, for the moment, but the problems still remain. These are problems that are not easily explained or understood - especially against a backdrop where people are, unfortunately prejudcied against them. Where the systems intended to support, ie the DWP, fall so very very short.
The DWP then tout their ignorance as an excuse they might say things like "she seemed fine to us". Well clearly that wasn't the case.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
Yes, it's faulty logic: "we can't prove it exists, therefore it doesn't exist"
Frankie Jack
Not a bloke..
Article with a bit more feeling and humanity than that BBC. So many of the Beebs articles are 'matter of fact' these days I feel.
Woman with ‘a lot to live for’ took her own life after ‘flawed’ Atos work capability assessment slashed her benefits by a third, watchdog says
Frankie Jack
Not a bloke..
Sincere apologies for the fail link.
'We were wrong': Government admits it should not have axed disability benefits of Asperger's sufferer who starved to death just five months later weighing five-and-a-half stone
Mr Wood's GP Nicolas Ward has blasted the Government-backed contrator for 'pushing him' before he died.
Speaking at an inquest into his patient's death, he said: 'Something pushed him or affected him in the time before he died and the only thing I can put my finger on is the pressure he felt he was under when his benefits were removed.'
He added that he was an extremely vulnerable and fragile individual who was struggling to cope with life.
Mr Wood, from Bampton, Oxfordshire, had suffered for years from obsessive compulsive disorder, Asperger's syndrome, phobias of food, pollution, paint fumes, and social situations, and cognitive behavioural problems.
However, in March last year Atos insisted he was fit to work.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...r-weighing-five-half-stone.html#ixzz2xMsIXDQr
'We were wrong': Government admits it should not have axed disability benefits of Asperger's sufferer who starved to death just five months later weighing five-and-a-half stone
Mr Wood's GP Nicolas Ward has blasted the Government-backed contrator for 'pushing him' before he died.
Speaking at an inquest into his patient's death, he said: 'Something pushed him or affected him in the time before he died and the only thing I can put my finger on is the pressure he felt he was under when his benefits were removed.'
He added that he was an extremely vulnerable and fragile individual who was struggling to cope with life.
Mr Wood, from Bampton, Oxfordshire, had suffered for years from obsessive compulsive disorder, Asperger's syndrome, phobias of food, pollution, paint fumes, and social situations, and cognitive behavioural problems.
However, in March last year Atos insisted he was fit to work.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...r-weighing-five-half-stone.html#ixzz2xMsIXDQr
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
Was just coming to post the same thing Frankie Jack - as the family said, it's a hollow victory as it doesn't bring him back.
I thought it was pretty low of the DWP to try to blame his GP for not giving them 'the right information' though.
I thought it was pretty low of the DWP to try to blame his GP for not giving them 'the right information' though.
Frankie Jack
Not a bloke..
Aye it is. They don't/didn't ask for evidence until appeal. His phobia was only one reason he should never have had his benefit taken away. There's not an excuse on the planet for the vile deeds of the WCA, DWP and Atos.
superfly101
Well-Known Member
Link to actual MWC Scotlands' report finding on the case above.
http://www.mwcscot.org.uk/media/180939/who_benefits_final.pdf
Frankie Jack
Not a bloke..
A disabled man died penniless when he lost his benefits after being judged fit to work.
Robert Barlow died last November aged 47 while suffering from a heart defect and brain tumour.
He was deemed fit to work by benefits assessors Atos despite doctors at the time urging him to have a heart transplant – he passed away less than two years later.
Now his family and Labour MP Luciana Berger want the Government to learn lessons from this tragic case.
His aunt Joan Westland, 85, said: “I don’t know how they expected him to work. Nobody would have loved to work more than him but he simply couldn’t.”
University of Liverpool graduate Mr Barlow, from Wavertree, worked as a Government scientist but gave up his job nine years ago when diagnosed with severe cardiomyopathy, a weakness or failure of the heart muscle.
By the end of his life he could not walk, struggled to read due to poor eyesight and often fell over, smashing his teeth on one occasion.
Doctors eventually gave Mr Barlow a year and a half to live and recommended a heart transplant.
He was often in and out of hospital during his final months. He never married or had children.
Mrs Westland said: “Robert said he wouldn’t have the heart transplant. He had no commitments and thought it would be better if there was a heart for it to go to somebody else.
“We tried to talk him into having the operation but he wouldn’t do it.”
Mr Barlow, born in Wallasey, was given a fitness-to-work test by Atos in January 2012 and his Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) was stopped three months later. He also lost the right to free NHS prescriptions.
Mrs Westland said: “Robert was dying and he accepted that. I feel he should have been left to enjoy what little time he had left.”
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) says Mr Barlow initially challenged the decision to stop his benefits but the appeal was withdrawn because, according to Mrs Westland, he felt too ill to fight the case.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/dying-merseyside-man-told-benefits-6924979
Robert Barlow died last November aged 47 while suffering from a heart defect and brain tumour.
He was deemed fit to work by benefits assessors Atos despite doctors at the time urging him to have a heart transplant – he passed away less than two years later.
Now his family and Labour MP Luciana Berger want the Government to learn lessons from this tragic case.
His aunt Joan Westland, 85, said: “I don’t know how they expected him to work. Nobody would have loved to work more than him but he simply couldn’t.”
University of Liverpool graduate Mr Barlow, from Wavertree, worked as a Government scientist but gave up his job nine years ago when diagnosed with severe cardiomyopathy, a weakness or failure of the heart muscle.
By the end of his life he could not walk, struggled to read due to poor eyesight and often fell over, smashing his teeth on one occasion.
Doctors eventually gave Mr Barlow a year and a half to live and recommended a heart transplant.
He was often in and out of hospital during his final months. He never married or had children.
Mrs Westland said: “Robert said he wouldn’t have the heart transplant. He had no commitments and thought it would be better if there was a heart for it to go to somebody else.
“We tried to talk him into having the operation but he wouldn’t do it.”
Mr Barlow, born in Wallasey, was given a fitness-to-work test by Atos in January 2012 and his Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) was stopped three months later. He also lost the right to free NHS prescriptions.
Mrs Westland said: “Robert was dying and he accepted that. I feel he should have been left to enjoy what little time he had left.”
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) says Mr Barlow initially challenged the decision to stop his benefits but the appeal was withdrawn because, according to Mrs Westland, he felt too ill to fight the case.
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/dying-merseyside-man-told-benefits-6924979
He withdrew his appeal on health grounds, and no doubt IDS didn't think to pursue that claim on his behalf because it might be to the claimant's benefit. Heartless.
eskdave
failed lover
Fuck these hypocritical pseudo government patrician brain dead wallahs-UK is saturated with priviledge far above its natural water table-they succeed in taking the biscuit-for a watered down version of hydrodynamics-consult your own noodle-yt eskdave
Bernie Gunther
Fundamentalist Druid
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/dying-merseyside-man-told-benefits-6924979
Compassionate Conservatism at work ...
"the billions we spend a year"
!
!
Frankie Jack
Not a bloke..
Archived url as it's a Daily Hate article.
After an inquest in Heywood into Mr Hadfield’s death, his stepfather Peter O’Gorman, 47, said: ‘Martin was obviously never a statistic to us.
'But in the last months of his life he became a statistic to other people. He was a statistic by being out of work, a statistic when he went into the job centre and now he a statistic by killing himself.
‘Sadly this statistic seems to be growing especially in boys Martin’s age who are struggling in the current climate, or struggling with life and they forget to think about talking to someone.
http://archive.today/0JipO
After an inquest in Heywood into Mr Hadfield’s death, his stepfather Peter O’Gorman, 47, said: ‘Martin was obviously never a statistic to us.
'But in the last months of his life he became a statistic to other people. He was a statistic by being out of work, a statistic when he went into the job centre and now he a statistic by killing himself.
‘Sadly this statistic seems to be growing especially in boys Martin’s age who are struggling in the current climate, or struggling with life and they forget to think about talking to someone.
http://archive.today/0JipO
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
That's so sad. A whole generation is being made to feel surplus to requirements
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
Different country, but....
I'm surprised more foreclosures aren't met with this. He'd been making threats against the cops if they came, but his gun wasn't loaded. This is a classic case of suicide by cop.
http://journalstar.com/news/local/9...cle_a4fb2b55-8536-511b-a32a-d0cc1468727a.html
I'm surprised more foreclosures aren't met with this. He'd been making threats against the cops if they came, but his gun wasn't loaded. This is a classic case of suicide by cop.
http://journalstar.com/news/local/9...cle_a4fb2b55-8536-511b-a32a-d0cc1468727a.html
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