Shelia Holt: Woman ordered to find work while lying in coma dies aged 48

Sheila, described by her sister as “beautiful, gentle and kind-hearted”, ad been in a coma following a heart attack she suffered at a psychiatric unit



Last Monday, a woman called Sheila Holt died.

I first wrote about Sheila over a year ago. Since December 17 she had been in a coma following a heart attack she suffered at a psychiatric unit.

Sheila, described by her sister as “beautiful, gentle and kind-hearted”, had severe bipolar depression following childhood trauma.

She hadn’t worked for 27 years. But she was admitted to the unit after being pushed into the Government’s Work Programme – terrified that her benefits would be cut.

Sheila held on for these last 15 months, with her father Ken and sister Linda at her bedside.

But last week, the brain injury she sustained during her heart attack took her life. She was 48.

When I spoke to Ken yesterday he told me the saddest thing was that Sheila had known all of this was going to happen to her.

“I told her not to worry,” Ken says. “I said, ‘They won’t take your benefits, they can see you can’t work’.

“But Sheila said, ‘They will because they are a cruel Government’.” His voice breaks. “You see, Sheila was cleverer than any of us. She knew.”

What she couldn’t have known is that the private companies employed by the DWP would continue to hound her even when she was in a coma.

Linda says: “Sheila had her life stolen from her by the ill-thought-out cost-cutting measures of this Coalition.”

In July 2013, despite her condition, Atos placed Sheila – from Rochdale, Greater Manchester – in the Work Related Activity Group of disability benefit claimants following one of its now ­infamous assessments.

“I believe that if it wasn’t for Iain Duncan Smith, Sheila would still be alive,” Ken, 75, a former mill worker says.

“Sheila should never have been on the Work Programme. She spent her life in and out of psychiatric hospitals and tried to commit suicide several times. She was terrified of people.”

As soon as she was called in by Atos, Linda was worried.

She wrote on Sheila’s form: “It is extremely important Sheila doesn’t experience stressful situations”.

But in August, Sheila was allocated a Groundwork placement in Middleton, Greater Manchester – two bus rides away – where she forced to compile CVs.

Her severe anxiety went into overdrive.

“She just couldn’t cope,” Linda says. "Sheila’s CV had one line on it: ‘1984 to present day – recovering from an illness’.

"Those courses were the catalyst that tipped Sheila over the edge.”

When Ken visited his daughter on December 5, she was so agitated he took her to A&E.

The next day she was sectioned and on December 17 she suffered a massive heart attack at the psychiatric unit.

Staff fought to save her but her brain was starved of oxygen for 30 minutes and she fell into a coma.

While Sheila lay unconscious in hospital, she was sent letters from Seetec, the private company providing the Work Programme.

One said: “We hope that all the activity completed so far has not only supported you to achieve your aspirations but has moved you closer to the job market.”

After her MP Simon Danczuk raised her case in the Commons, the then Minister for Disabled People Mike Penning apologised unreservedly.

“It clearly has gone wrong and the family have every right to be aggrieved and I hope she makes a full recovery, as much as she can,” Penning said.

On Friday, her postmortem found Sheila had died of injury caused when her brain was deprived of oxygen.

“This never needed to have happened,” says Ken. “I blame Iain Duncan Smith. I blame Atos and Seetec. If it wasn’t for them she would still be with us today.”

Yesterday the Department for Work and Pensions said the Government stood by Mike Penning’s apology.

Simon Danczuk says Sheila’s case is one of the most distressing he has come across.

“My heart goes out to Sheila’s family,” he says. “I’ve seen Ken’s devotion to his daughter. He’s been through hell having to see her lose her fight for life.

“This should never have happened and it shows why we shouldn’t rush headlong into bad, half-baked policy.

“A Government minister has ­apologised to Ken but we need proper assurances the Tories won’t make others suffer the same fate.

“The welfare system is there to support the most vulnerable, not kill them.”

Yesterday Tom Pollard at mental health charity Mind said Government back-to-work schemes were failing a “majority” of people with mental health problems.

“Programmes supposed to help those unwell and struggling to get into work are having the opposite effect, damaging their health,” he said.

“If someone is out of work because of depression and anxiety, asking them to attend a CV writing course doesn’t address the real problems they are facing.

“Forcing people to engage in these activities, and cutting their benefits if they struggle to do so, is inappropriate and counterproductive.

“We know most people with mental health problems do want to work, they just need the right support.”

After Sheila’s funeral this week, she will be laid to rest in North Wales with her mum who passed away in 2011.

She will finally be at peace.

“There’s no more bipolar episodes for her to suffer any more,” Ken says. “But it’s not just her.

“There are hundreds like her. People are dying because they are being hounded.

“It’s got to stop here.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ros-wynne-jones-sheila-hounded-death-5353202

No need to say anything really.

That is really " scraping the barrel"

What? You don't know how many people this has happened to Nicko? They did the same to a heart lung transplant lady who died a few weeks later and many, many others. They even had an Select Committe Inquiry into it in HOC because it was getting so bad. So this isn't 'scrapping the barrel', the barrel unfortunately if full to overflowing.

I saw no mention of that in any paper, if true the Mirror would have been all over it!

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/23/benefit-sanctions-investigated-mps

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/work-and-pensions-committee/inquiries/parliament-2010/benefit-sanctions/

http://www.methodist.org.uk/news-and-events/news-releases/new-data-more-than-100-people-per-day-with-mental-health-problems-are-having-their-benefits-sanctioned

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/urgent-inquiry-needed-impact-100k-5300120
Urgent inquiry needed into impact of 100k mentally ill people losing disability benefits, says ex-health minister


You really need to read a little more and discover how many people are living lives of misery because of this government.

Sassy, sorry i did not read anything about this or hear any mention on tv ,

No problem Nicko, it's happening though and it's awful, and most of the people dying have mental health problems and don't know how to deal with it when they are sanctioned, they just go under. Ex Army with mental health problems because of it and diabetes diied when sanctioned because he couldn't afford to eat properly and run his fridge to store his insulin. What is happening is criminal.

The people most despised because of it are IDS and Esther McVey, who sat in the HOC and LAUGHED when it was being discussed and then walked out, even though it is their responsiblity.

Why aren't these stories being reported on national news?

eddie wrote:Why aren't these stories being reported on national news?

Maybe because of all the public funding?

They are, no-one takes any notice

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2852101/Half-blind-widow-killed-incapacity-benefit-axed-fit-catch-bus.html

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/killed-benefits-cuts-starving-soldier-3923771

http://rt.com/uk/206247-benefit-cuts-related-deaths/

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/government-benefit-cuts-are-already-being--blamed-for-the-deaths-of-three-vulnerable-people-and-there-may-be-60-more-9942735.html

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/28/man-starved-to-death-after-benefits-cut

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-tragic-tale-of-the-pensioner-who-killed-himself-after-begging-for-help-over-benefit-cuts-10029754.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/20/benefits_disabled-man-nicholas-barker-welfare-reform_n_3121688.html

http://money.aol.co.uk/2015/02/04/pensioner-killed-himself-after-receiving-800-bill-for-overpaid/

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tomchiversscience/100279306/the-10600-people-died-within-six-weeks-of-being-declared-fit-to-work-by-atos-stat-is-simply-wrong/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2852101/Half-blind-widow-killed-incapacity-benefit-axed-fit-catch-bus.html


Hundreds more.

Here's the BBC -- http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-26377119

The reports of what the DSS is doing and how people are being driven to despair are everywhere.

Sorry no, I meant is it on the TV news?

Lets have some honesty here please and I can certainly understand how some families will look to blame something for the death of someone, but there is no conclusive evidence in many of these cases it was these measures that caused their deaths.
If some have it is appalling, but they are rare and what it should mean is any appalling mistakes are corrected.
People should be very careful to draw conclusions based off assumptions as some of the media do.

Well we could do with a bit of honesty from the DWP who have refused to publish peer reviews that have been carried into the deaths of people who were on benefits whilst being hounded to find work. They won't even respond to requests to do so under FOI so there is no other choice but to use the personal experiences of people who make their experiences known.

I mean, what have the DWP got to hide?

LOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Irn Bru wrote:Well we could do with a bit of honesty from the DWP who have refused to publish peer reviews that have been carried into the deaths of people who were on benefits whilst being hounded to find work. They won't even respond to requests to do so under FOI so there is no other choice but to use the personal experiences of people who make their experiences known.

I mean, what have the DWP got to hide?

Who says they have got anything to hide? Again that is an assumption because and this is the worst part you want there to be a connection.
Again I am all for any deaths to be reviewed of which is important as I am sure you should wish for honest reporting instead of making unsubstanciated conclusions based off hearsay as such articles do above.
So you would agree that such articles are in fact poor when they do not have medical evidence to back them up.
It works both ways, I am all for reviews, but I am also for honest reporting and how such articles are in fact deliberately made to play off the deaths of individuals which I also find in very poor taste with some of the claims they make.
Sure print an article stating that there needs to be an investigation into a death, but again drawing conlusions based off assumptions is very poor indeed.