Benefit deaths: Man was crushed to death by refuse lorry while scavenging in bins

“One of our clients was sanctioned. He had
no money for seventeen weeks. He was
scavenging in a bin, the lorry came, picked
him up and he was crushed to death.”

The above is a statement by Vince Hessey, a member of the board of trustees at Birkenhead YMCA (listed as YMCA Wirral), given in evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Hunger in the United Kingdom, printed in the section entitled The vulnerability of people relying on food banks.

The inquiry’s aims included investigating the underlying causes of hunger and food poverty in the UK, and considering ways of improving the situation.

The report’s central recommendation is for the creation of a new national network called Feeding Britain, composed of the food bank movement and other providers of food assistance, the voluntary organisations redistributing fresh surplus food, the food industry and representatives from ‘each of the eight government departments whose policy affects the numbers of people at risk of hunger’.

That’s all very well, but something isn’t right here.

What about the fact that a major cause of hunger and food poverty in the UK is the UK’s own government?

What about the fact that a decision by a UK government employee, following guidelines set down by UK government ministers, led to a man being crushed to death in a refuse collection lorry?

What about the fact that this was one of many incidents that would not have happened if UK government policy had been different?*

And what about the fact that the UK government clearly couldn’t care less?

Thanks are due to Ann McGauran, the blogging food bank helper, for raising this issue. Her own article on the Feeding Britain report goes into far greater detail and may be found here.

*See, for example:

Dying woman ordered onto the Work Programme

DWP urged to publish inquiries on benefit claimant suicides

Woman’s benefits sanctioned when she is 23 weeks pregnant

Claimant death: Job Centre staff say: “We are only following orders”

Too poor to eat; too long to wait

The work capability assessment and suicide – a.k.a. ‘chequebook euthanasia’

Work capability assessor asked why depressed claimant had not committed suicide

Inquiry to be launched into ex-soldier’s death after JSA stopped

Was Mark Wood the last stumbling-block for Atos?

Was Stephanie Bottrill a victim of corporate manslaughter?

Smith v Jones over benefits, the disabled and the truth about homelessness

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11 Comments

  1. Ray McHale December 17, 2014 at 3:53 am - Reply

    I would feel more comfortable with this item if I could find any reference to such an incident being reported in the press. I am as certain as i can be that no such incident has occured on the Wirral.

  2. Jeffery Davies December 17, 2014 at 6:57 am - Reply

    Strangly another charity speaks out about this government’s abuse
    melted out the unemployed sick disabled mentaly ill people but are
    they themselves still taking slaves from the jcp stacking shelves
    for them grabbing homeless people under the guise of for their rent
    a room enterprises hum but any help in showing these deaths up is
    got to be taken how many more must die before sanity is brought back
    I wonder even jr is quiet on his flock being decimated by the wolves jeff3

  3. Chris Griffiths December 17, 2014 at 8:47 am - Reply

    There would be a big hoo ha if it was someone famous or a banker wouldn’t there?…..because he is just a ‘peasant’….not much in the news then?…..

  4. foodbankhelper December 17, 2014 at 2:01 pm - Reply

    Thanks Mike for covering this terrible incident that ended in tragedy. I’ll send a link to your piece to the local media so that they can follow it up. Your article gets right to the essence of the problem at the heart of the Feeding Britain report. The main causes of hunger and food poverty are UK Government policies. ‘Food hubs’, cooking lessons, debt advice, social supermarkets etc however well-intentioned will do nothing other than paper over the cracks. What could this new national network that’s recommended really offer someone who has been hit by a toxic combination of the bedroom tax, a six month wait for PIP and a chronic long-term illness? Thanks for all the support you’ve given to my foodbank blog in 2014.

    • Mike Sivier December 17, 2014 at 4:23 pm - Reply

      And thank you very much for the kind words about an article I spent a considerable amount of time trying to get right. It’s always a relief, in such circumstances, to have the support and encouragement of the person who referred the matter to me in the first place.

  5. John McArthur December 17, 2014 at 2:34 pm - Reply

    One of our clients was sanctioned. He had no money for seventeen weeks. He was scavenging in a bin, the lorry came, picked him up and he was crushed to death.”
    The above is a statement by Vince Hessey, a member of the board of trustees at Birkenhead YMCA”

    The YMCA are involved in forced labour schemes in which people are made to work for no wages or lose their subsistence level social security benefits. If they refuse on principle then they can end up like the poor soul reported in this article i.e “scavenging in a bin”.
    http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=3419

    • Mike Sivier December 17, 2014 at 4:25 pm - Reply

      While that is an issue worthy of further study, it would be wrong to let it obscure the main issue, which is the fact that a man died.

  6. MetA December 17, 2014 at 8:07 pm - Reply

    Think you miss one point about “Feeding Britain”.
    It will be a not for profit organisation, it will have well paid senior positions, it will have boards provided with substantial remuneration and costs. It will be filled with cronies of the current government and will build future strategies to increase their power, their influence, their PROFIT.
    Welcome to “democracy UK 21st C”

  7. sandra redden December 17, 2014 at 9:51 pm - Reply

    i hate the goverment thay dont care its so wrong there dying peple out there coz of the goverment

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