Like so many others, this latest DWP tragedy is heartbreaking – and preventable
Carol Jones was more than £2,000 in debt when she died of cancer, because the Department for Work and Pensions had stopped all of her benefits.
Ms Jones, 65, who had been fighting liver cancer for two years, had been admitted to the Royal Stoke University Hospital in May and then a Leek care home before losing her fight for life last week.
She had not received any of the DWP’s correspondence and had therefore been unable to respond to it.
Fortunately her twin brother David Agar discovered the debt – and the cause of it – and was able to rectify matters.
But this could have happened to an uncountable number of seriously-ill benefit claimants. Perhaps it already has.
The DWP’s comment to the Stoke Sentinel is despicable – and puts the problem in perspective: “We do not stop benefits because people are in hospital.”
That wasn’t the problem. The problem was the fact that Ms Jones, who lived alone, had not been asked to provide details of anybody else who could have handled her affairs.
Several members of This Writer’s own family have undergone treatment for cancer and I know that – successful or not – it can totally incapacitate a person.
If that happens, they need someone else to take over matters that concern them – for the period they are unable to cope themselves.
The DWP needs to accept this, and to ensure that details of such a person are discussed in claims for sickness and/or disability benefits.
That would prevent debts from stacking up that a deceased person would likely leave to their relatives, and which may drive a survivor to the grave after all.
It seems only common sense. Why hasn’t the DWP implemented it already?
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All part of dwp strategy aktion t4 rolling along without much of a ado
Appalling state of affairs. Social Security is supposed to look after people when they need help, but the Tories have weaponised Social Security so it’s become the enemy you have to fight, even if you have no fight left because you’re dying. Disgusting.
“It seems only common sense. Why hasn’t the DWP implemented it already?”
there is your answer
It’s STATE sanctioned murder, plain and simple. And nothing like a caring, concerned attitude will ever be implemented by the DWP (dept for wreaking ….. bcz can u imagine just how much money they save each year with the tens of thousands of legally entitled claimants that drop out of the system through no fault of their own? That’s why a digital only system was put in place… When I think how much I struggle, someone who’s pretty tech savvy, I cannot imagine how people who aren’t au fait with smart phones etc, or who have parkinsons disease like my father and can’t use a touch screen (try finding a smart phone nowadays that isn’t a touch screen), blind and partially sighted pple, dyslexics, pple with learning disabilities who give up when faced with overwhelming tech difficulties… The list is endless. And they just fall through the net. It is the DWPs mantra to pay as little as possible and to make legally entitled claimants perform so many tricks to get what they’re entitled to it often feels almost insurmountable
The DWP is suppose to look after people from all ages but since the conservatives have been in power the DWP don’t look after people anymore they are sending them to a early grave no matter what age a person is just how many people have got to die before the DWP do something about it people would not be dying if the law came out and said people who are responsible for putting them to a early grave would be charged and also these assessment companies what do the PIP and fitness for work tests the DWP should not be wasting money giving out contracts to these firms evidence by a person’s own doctor and hospital specialists should be far more than enough proof to receive the right benefits.
Shame on you d.w.p and conservatives shame on you, heads will roll, your time is up…power to the people.
The dwp ALL want putting in sealed rooms with angry large physically able members of the families of the victims they have let down and murdered.