Iain Duncan Smith's flagship benefit made year of promises to cancer sufferer but he's still waiting

The failure of the Personal Independence Payment has left 180,000-plus people with no support - one of them is Malcolm White

Malcolm White, a 55-year-old cleaner, spent last winter dragging himself home on the bus from daily chemotherapy sessions.

“I could hardly lift my head or my legs when each session finished,” Malcolm says. “I was shattered, but I had no other way to get home.”

While fighting an aggressive form of lung cancer, Malcolm, from South London, couldn’t afford the short journey by taxi. “I couldn’t afford to eat,” he says.

“I don’t know what would have happened to me without friends who came over and cooked for me.

“The radiotherapy burned my oesophagus and I couldn’t swallow. I ended up in A&E with dehydration. I kept fainting.

"On top of all that, I was getting into rent and council tax arrears.”

Throughout his physical ordeal, Malcolm should have been supported by Iain Duncan Smith’s flagship new Personal Independence Payment – a benefit designed to help people like him.

But PIP – administered by ATOS and Capita – has missed deadline after ­deadline. Its failure has left many ­thousands of people – 180,000 at the last count – with no support.

When Labour’s Margaret Hodge MP condemned PIP as a “fiasco”, this was an understatement.

Macmillan Cancer Support says a shocking 30% of its ­benefits advisers say they know of someone who has died while waiting for benefits to be processed.

Several charities have called for roll-out of PIP to be suspended.

Last week, Minister for Disabled People Mark Harper faced Labour claims that one in 10 people is still waiting more than 16 weeks for an assessment.

Instead of saving the taxpayer £1.2billion, PIP has so far led to the DWP spending £1.6bn more than planned.

While officials clash over figures, Malcolm’s wait for help has been cruel and precise. He was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer a year ago and applied for help last March.

“When I applied for PIP, ATOS told me it could be 26 weeks before I was assessed,” he says.

“They next wrote to me on November 9. It took 32 weeks just to get that letter, which didn’t even offer me an assessment.”

The target is 16 weeks to be assessed.

ATOS wrote to Malcolm again on January 11 – now at 40 weeks – finally with an appointment date for later this month. Although there is an assessment centre close by, it was for 9am in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex. Three trains and 30 miles away.

“There was no way I could get there,” Malcolm says. “It would mean three trains in rush hour and a bus at the other end.”

Neil Coyle, Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Malcolm’s local area, Bermondsey and Old Southwark, has since intervened to get him a new appointment.

Malcolm says he doesn’t understand what he has done wrong. He spent much of his working life as a window cleaner until a degenerative spine disorder meant that was no longer possible. He now works as a cleaner in a theatre.

After struggling on statutory sick pay, he recently went back to work against the advice of his doctor.

So far his treatment is working, but it is still early days. “I only do a few hours and my employers are so kind they’ve often done the work for me already,” he smiles. “They say, you need the rest, Malcolm.”

Before he got sick, welfare “reform” was already affecting Malcolm. His mum had died, so he was forced to pay Bedroom Tax on the council flat he had lived in for 49 years.

“But there was nowhere to move to,” he says. He finally moved into a one-bedroom place around the time he was diagnosed with cancer.

“I’d thought I was losing weight from all the stress,” he says. He was left paying debts and the costs of travelling to hospital from his sick pay. There was no money to look after himself.

Both the Department for Work and Pensions and ATOS say they are very sorry for Malcolm’s long wait.

“We have made attempts to contact his treating health professionals to gather more information in order to try to avoid a face-to-face consultation which unfortunately has not been possible on this occasion,” an ATOS spokeswoman said.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman added: “Waiting times have now gone down significantly and any PIP award will be backdated.

“An assessment has been arranged within five miles of Mr White’s home and a taxi will be paid for.”

It’s not just people with cancer who are caught up in the chaos of PIP.

A few days ago, I also spoke to ­Kathleen Whittam whose autistic daughter Ruth was told she would have to change from Disability Living Allowance to PIP when she turned 16.

After going through an anxiety-inducing process where they feared support might be cut, Ruth was switched back to DLA without explanation.

Labour’s shadow minister for Disabled People, Kate Green, says the ­Government has broken promise after promise.

She said: “Tory Ministers promised no one would wait longer than 16 weeks for an assessment, but the latest figures show thousands of disabled people are waiting months.

“Iain Duncan Smith hasn’t admitted how long thousands of disabled people are waiting to move on to PIP from DLA.

“The process is in complete disarray. David Cameron must urgently get a grip.”

Until then, 180,000 sick and disabled people like Malcolm will carry on waiting, listening to excuse after excuse after excuse.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/iain-duncan-smiths-flagship-benefit-5101432

Utterly disgraceful way to treat the sick, and he is one of thousands that this is happening to.

Shocking, absolutely shocking.

The fact that some people defend his policy shows the level of inhumanity that some have sunk to.

It certainly looks bad when he spends £29 on a breakfast paid for by the taxpayer whilst telling the sick, the disabled and the poor that they can manage fine with what the government gives them.

Idiot

Him an Ester McVay should be hung out to dry on a very hot day.

I would also cherfully hang by the neck EVERY single person who took up posts, no matter how humble within those evil organisations.....

none of them, from top to bottom, have either concience or honour.......