Nearly 100,000 of Britain's poorest children go hungry after parents' benefits are cut

Nearly 100,000 of the poorest children in the UK went hungry last year because their parents’ benefits were stopped or cut, according to a report by a coalition of churches.

A total of more than a million benefit sanctions were imposed last year - sometimes simply because people were late for an appointment at the Jobcentre - although more than 120,000 of those decisions were overturned on appeal.

Researchers found that more than 100 people with severe mental health problems a day were sanctioned.

The report said: “We are disturbed that a benefit system intended to provide for the needy and vulnerable is used as a means of coercion and compliance.

“The penalties often do not appear reasonable or proportionate to the ‘failure’ that has occurred.

“If a similar system operated in a workplace, where pay was removed for a month for being late for a meeting or not achieving a target, we might reasonably expect action to be taken against the employer.”

Niall Cooper, of Church Action on Poverty, which helped write the report, added: “If you commit a crime, no court is allowed to make you go hungry as a punishment.

“But if you’re late for an appointment at the Jobcentre they can remove all your income and leave you unable to feed you or your family for weeks.”

The report was published as a former Jobcentre worked told Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, to be broadcast on Monday, that he had to “hammer” welfare claimants because of Government targets. Alan Davies, who works in Leicester, said: “They weren’t willing to look at them as human beings.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nearly-100000-of-britains-poorest-children-go-hungry-after-parents-benefits-are-cut-10079056.html

While HSBC advises the super rich on how to avoid paying taxes and Wanker's bonuses keep on being given even when the bank is handed money. Get the bastards on, roll on May.

What a crock of shit:

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said it did not recognise the figures in the report.
“Every day Job Centre Plus advisers work hard to help claimants into work,” a DWP spokesman said. “Sanctions are only used as a last resort for the tiny minority who fail to take up the support which is on offer.”

How any parent can allow their child to go without food shows this is nothing short of not telling the truth here, because how many are placing other needs before that of feeding their children.
Again where is the evidence for these numbers?
One person wants to gain celebrity status but is not back by the rest of the employees for the Job centres. Why are they not coming out in droves stating the same?

I'm not saying  that having less money coming in doesnt affect families, as it obviously does, but you know what I truly believe?
Most woman I've seen on shows, do not know how to cook proper nutritional dinners that will go round a family twice (once that day and then freeze for another meal)

I have watched so many programmes of "poor families" and I sit there wondering how come they don't cook or prepare food properly; even down to packed lunches!

I think Jack Munro says it best:



A year ago, a bright, unemployed 24-year old single mother in Southend summarised in a blogpost the fear, humiliation and desperation of living on the breadline. It is one of the most moving and vivid accounts of the reality of modern poverty.

The piece, entitled Hunger Hurts, was written when Jack Monroe was at her wits' end: no money, the food cupboard bare, the housing benefit cheque turning up, inexplicably, £100 short. Monroe describes in intricate detail how she had asset-stripped her life to pay the bills: sold her watch, iPhone and TV. She writes of the energy-sapping boredom of "getting by", and the paradox that the poorer she gets, the more expensive her electricity becomes as the supply is moved from mains to meter.

"Poverty is the sinking feeling when your small boy finishes his one Weetabix and says: 'More, Mummy, bread and jam please, Mummy,' as you're wondering whether to take the TV or the guitar to the pawnshop first, and how to tell him that there is no bread or jam," she wrote.

This and other posts are filled with the minutiae of a life in poverty: the forensic, penny-pinching accounting that accompanied every trip to the supermarket; the shame of referral to a food bank; the time she sold the entire contents of her house – crockery, curtains and all – to pay off rent arrears; the hundreds of failed job applications, painstakingly typed out on a mobile phone; the dread that all this paupery might somehow attract the attention of children's social services.

Austerity recipes

It wasn't just the accounts of poverty that set the blog A Girl Called Jack apart, however, but the recipes. Scores of them, beautifully set out and photographed, and carefully costed: Mumma Jack's Best Ever Chilli, 30p ("Since Sainsbury's has hiked up the price of kidney beans, I've bought dried ones"), or Oh My God Dinner, 28p.

Filled with humour and almost real-time practical advice about the weekly price movements of supermarket food, it is a plain-speaking, practical austerity cookery guide – quite literally how to feed yourself and your toddler on £10 a week, in ways that are healthy, tasty and, importantly (to relieve the tedium of baked beans), varied.

The recipes require the bare minimum of kitchen equipment ("If you just have an electric two-ring plug-in you can cook most of the things that I cook"). They are fuel-efficient, rarely taking longer than 15 minutes to prepare. Ingredients are what you might find in an ordinary local supermarket. There is a risk, of course, that Monroe's recipes will be seized upon by people eager to "prove" that food poverty is a myth, or that benefit payments must be too high. Cooking can be done cheaply, she says, but it is more complicated than that. She had been passionate about cooking ever since her food technology course at school ("a form of escapism from all the words and numbers"). Not only did she have the skills to experiment with her own dishes, she says, but, more importantly, she had the confidence.

"Food poverty comes in two strands. The first is not having enough money to buy food for yourself and your family. The second is poverty of education. If you give someone £20 and say, 'Feed your family for the week on it,' a lot of people just couldn't do it adequately and that's because there's – and I do blame the readymeal industry for it, because it is so easy and so attractively packaged, and you just put it in a microwave – a disconnection between what's in that packet, and how simple and cheap it might be to make it for yourself. I think if we can solve food education then we are part of the way to solving food poverty."

If anything, her blog is a colourful rebuke to the commenters who sneer that people on benefits should just make a cheap lentil stew to last them all week: "I do use lentils in my cooking – I make polenta bolognaise, I make burgers out of them – but I do get infuriated by people who say, 'Oh, just eat lentils.' Actually if you were to buy a bag of dried lentils it would cost you a couple of quid. Some people don't have that to spend in the first place. And not everyone wants to eat lentils."

She talks about how difficult it is for people who are already on low incomes to cope with further cuts to their budgets. Losing £14 a week to the bedroom tax may not seem a lot to some people, but for others, she says, it will mean they go hungry. "There are people who can't save £4 a week [let alone £14]. There are people like me who when Sainsbury's put the price of a basics jar of jam up from 29p to 35p it means you have got to put something back in your shopping trolley because that 6p price rise has priced it out of your shopping basket.

"I think back to this time last year. When you've got to the point where you have unplugged your fridge and you have unscrewed your light bulbs and you have sold everything you own and you are eating value kidney beans out of the pan, or using the child's formula milk that the food bank gave you. Where was I supposed to find £14 back then?"

Things have picked up for Monroe since last July. The blog is a huge success. Penguin signed her up to write an austerity cookbook (due out in February 2014). She makes the odd TV appearance, talking about poverty and benefits. In February, her local paper, the Southend Echo, gave her a job as a trainee reporter. In May, her blog won the judges' choice prize at the glitzy Fortnum and Mason food awards (they praised Monroe's recipes as "so nutritious and thrifty that they are being handed out by food banks as examples of how to manage on next to nothing"). As I finish my interview with Monroe, Sheila Dillon of the BBC Food Programme turns up to interview her for a programme on austerity food.

Not bad for the working-class girl who won a place at a posh grammar school, but left at 16, bullied and disillusioned. Monroe might still be a well-paid call handler for Essex fire service had she not resigned because she could no longer juggle night shifts and motherhood. The blog might not have happened had she not been unemployed for 18 months, and been turned down for hundreds of jobs, many of them because she was considered "too old" at the age of 24. Poverty, almost paradoxically, gave her a voice.

Not that she is in the clear, financially. When the BBC reported that she would be paid £25,000 for her book deal, the housing benefit office suspended payments until it saw her book contract, nearly causing her to be evicted. She has moved to a cheaper house share to escape the tyranny of housing benefit. "Because I'm in the media quite a lot now, everyone assumes that everything is fine. People forget I sleep on a mattress on the floor with my son in a house I share with five other people. They see me on Sky news and think, 'Oh, you must be loaded.'" Yet she is now one of the working poor: "I go out to work every day, but I still can't afford to make ends meet."

She is an energetic anti-poverty campaigner, infuriated by the media's vicious attacks on "benefit scroungers" and the inability of politicians and policymakers to comprehend the slender margins of breadline life. "I'm not going to stop championing causes, campaigning and stamping my feet about things that are wrong, just because I may not be in that position any more. Until people realise benefits doesn't mean scrounger, and austerity isn't a fun middle-class way to grow your own vegetables, there's still a lot of work to do."

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jul/23/jack-monroe-face-modern-poverty

Seems we are going to have debate articles

Tad boring
If people cannot live on little money when others do I have no sympathy.
It means making sacrifices to things you do not need.
Food, place over your head matter more than material objects.

the housing benefit cheque turning up, inexplicably, £100 short. Monroe describes in intricate detail how she had asset-stripped her life to pay the bills: sold her watch, iPhone and TV.

What part of that didn't you understand?

One person is your whole case here is it?
Glad she sold them to pay for food as she should.
She does not need such items if times are difficult, others manage their money when they have little, so why do you excuse those who do not manage their money and place material wealth over necessities.

It's a great article actually and proves my point that people just can't/won't cook.

My only wonderment though, is how on earth did she get so behind and so poor in the first place???

She needed her Iphone to apply for jobs, you didn't note the bit about doing CVs on it, even though it took her hours?

So, you are a neo-con, is someone loses their job they must lose everything exactly the rules that applied for the work houses. She is just an example of thousands, never mind the sick that have died.

risingsun wrote:She needed her Iphone to apply for jobs, you didn't note the bit about doing CVs on it, even though it took her hours?

So, you are a neo-con, is someone loses their job they must lose everything exactly the rules that applied for the work houses.  She is just an example of thousands, never mind the sick that have died.  

Where did I say that in my answer above???

eddie wrote:It's a great article actually and proves my point that people just can't/won't cook.

My only wonderment though, is how on earth did she get so behind and so poor in the first place???

Which is a very valid point Eddie. Okay its bad her housing benefit was short which she would get the money for and could delay paying her bills unless she has left it way to late which begs the question of what she is doing with her benefits.
How much is she getting a wekk for a start and why is it that being a hundred pount short means she had to sell items to pay the bills?

eddie wrote:It's a great article actually and proves my point that people just can't/won't cook.

My only wonderment though, is how on earth did she get so behind and so poor in the first place???

Jeez Eddie, didn't you know this has happened to millions, who lose there jobs through no fault of their own, or are sick, and it takes months, sometimes years to get back into work, benefits get sanctioned or messed up (they get messed up a lot) and people lose their homes, or end up on the street, or actually die because of it. I'm amazed you have not seen all the reports of it over the last five years.

risingsun wrote:She needed her Iphone to apply for jobs, you didn't note the bit about doing CVs on it, even though it took her hours?

So, you are a neo-con, is someone loses their job they must lose everything exactly the rules that applied for the work houses.  She is just an example of thousands, never mind the sick that have died.  

Nonesence, you can apply for Jobs at the Job centre and the library.
She can do her CV there also. These are just poor excuses and to me looking for excuses.

risingsun wrote:

eddie wrote:It's a great article actually and proves my point that people just can't/won't cook.

My only wonderment though, is how on earth did she get so behind and so poor in the first place???

Jeez Eddie, didn't you know this has happened to millions, who lose there jobs through no fault of their own, or are sick, and it takes months, sometimes years to get back into work, benefits get sanctioned or messed up (they get messed up a lot) and people lose their homes, or end up on the street, or actually die because of it.  I'm amazed you have not seen all the reports of it over the last five years.

No sympathy, as when others lose a job, they spend all given hours getting a new one, what makes her so special and others you make excuses for them?
There are plenty of jobs out there and if she is being picky over them, then again I would have no sympathy, as you take any work.
There is a problem in this country with some and a work ethic

risingsun wrote:

eddie wrote:It's a great article actually and proves my point that people just can't/won't cook.

My only wonderment though, is how on earth did she get so behind and so poor in the first place???

Jeez Eddie, didn't you know this has happened to millions, who lose there jobs through no fault of their own, or are sick, and it takes months, sometimes years to get back into work, benefits get sanctioned or messed up (they get messed up a lot) and people lose their homes, or end up on the street, or actually die because of it.  I'm amazed you have not seen all the reports of it over the last five years.

Sassy I know something to be very true: the social services and benefit peopl NEVER leave a parent who are caring for a child without any money.

Also, didn't she say she LEFT her job becasue she couldn't juggle work and motherhood? Now that's her choice, I'm it denying her that in any way whatsoever please don't get me wrong, but why hadnt she prepared for it by saving some of her wages or doing a massive shop etc?

It's a very sketchy outline tbh, and I'm not saying it isn't true but I bet she had some help - either from her relatives or benefit hand-outs.

I know lots of people this has happmed to sassy - I've been incredibly poor in my twenties (no children though) so I do know some of what this is about.

Brasidas wrote:

risingsun wrote:She needed her Iphone to apply for jobs, you didn't note the bit about doing CVs on it, even though it took her hours?

So, you are a neo-con, is someone loses their job they must lose everything exactly the rules that applied for the work houses.  She is just an example of thousands, never mind the sick that have died.  

Nonesence, you can apply for Jobs at the Job centre and the library.
She can do her CV there also. These are just poor excuses and to me looking for excuses.

This is very true: cvs are free at job centres

No you can't apply for jobs in job centres etc, they tell you to go on line, didn't you know that?

It is sickening that there are still people who close their eyes to those that are having a terrible time in this country and try to blame them for the wrong doings of the financial sector which got us into the mess. Just shows how stupid some people are, because they lick boots of the people who will kick them whenever they feel like it, and it could happen to them any day.

That is rubbish, they allow you computer access to apply for jobs and create a CV.


https://www.gov.uk/jobsearch

https://jobsearch.direct.gov.uk/help/help.aspx?k=/inline

I'll point you to this for good advice if you are ever in that position

https://chieelliott.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/things-every-jobseeker-should-know-and-jobcentres-dont-want-you-to-part-1-dodging-0845-numbers/

risingsun wrote:No you can't apply for jobs in job centres etc, they tell you to go on line, didn't you know that?  

It is sickening that there are still people who close their eyes to those that are having a terrible time in this country and try to blame them for the wrong doings of the financial sector which got us into the mess.  Just shows how stupid some people are, because they lick boots of the people who will kick them whenever they feel like it, and it could happen to them any day.

I never said people can't hit rock bottom.
Just a,or of her story is sketchy and yes you can do a cv at a job centre AND a lot of jobs will accept a hand-written cv!!

Like I've said, it's an interesting article and proved my point that most people can't cook a proper meal cheaply, but never would benefits allow a child to go hungry.

My friend works in a childrens centre where they give out food parcels at the good banks, so I do know what's in them too; so I'm not too sure this woman woul'be been given formula milk when she didn't have a baby??? I didn't get that bit.

Personally I would sack and blacklist every single job center "front line" employee.
They are deliberatly sanctioning people for the least "excuse" to meet "targets"

they guy is right they ARE told to "hammer " people....

all for the con lie and soundbite of "reducing" the "benefts bill"

when in reality as a proportion of GDP it is miniscule

compared to whats LOST to the thieving tax cheats and avoiders.

I have already dicarded 2 people as friends ...who worked as such...for what they did.....

they are forever without honour

and can never regain "standing" in my eyes

and these are people I have known for 40 years plus

THERE IS A BETTER WAY

Assumpstions Victor based off one person, where is the mass of people working in these places backing up this claim?
You are going off hersay because you already hold a bias on this.
Odd you thus hold intolerant views of people based on a perception you have of a system and not of people doing a job.

Eddie, Jack Munro had a baby, right at the beginning she said that he was still hungry after one weetabix and asked for bread and jam, she didn't have any to give him. If you want to know anything about Jack Munro look online, it's all there. But she is just one of thousands, and they die. IDS was questioned by a select committee because they die.

risingsun wrote:I'll point you to this for good advice if you are ever in that position

https://chieelliott.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/things-every-jobseeker-should-know-and-jobcentres-dont-want-you-to-part-1-dodging-0845-numbers/

My nephew was in this position hence why I know you are talking a load of nonesense

risingsun wrote:Eddie, Jack Munro had a baby, right at the beginning she said that he was still hungry after one weetabix and asked for bread and jam, she didn't have any to give him.  If you want to know anything about Jack Munro look online, it's all there.  But she is just one of thousands, and they die.  IDS was questioned by a select committee because they die.

Yes I read that bit sassy.
Look I am agreeign with you in the main of what you're saying: people are going hungry and people are struggling daily - I do not deny this.

I'm making the point of two things:
You can send in hand written cvs and job centres do help with them.
Benefits agencies will not allow a child to go hungry or be homeless.

It's disgusting in this day and age that people are going hungry - which is why I think it may perhaps be better to pay people in food and electric "tokens" as part of thier benefits (rest made up in money)?


(Ps sorry people for my terrible typing lol - just read back - I'm typing in rather a rush!)

I'm sorry Eddie, but if you think that benefit agencies don't allow children to go hungry you are living in cloud cuckoo land.

There are children all round the country that teachers are buying breakfasts for because they are hungry:

http://www.quaker.co.uk/FeedTheirFuture/Quaker_Feed_Their_Future-Launch_Press_Release.pdf

risingsun wrote:I'm sorry Eddie, but if you think that benefit agencies don't allow children to go hungry you are living in cloud cuckoo land.

There are children all round the country that teachers are buying breakfasts for because they are hungry:

http://www.quaker.co.uk/FeedTheirFuture/Quaker_Feed_Their_Future-Launch_Press_Release.pdf

Because of the childrens parents not providing for them.
Yes people struggle but youi never can explain why others do manage in such hard times and where their children never go without food?
The problem is down to a material world we now live in where basic necessities are placed second to unnecessary needs like food.

Oh do stop crawling up the arses of the Con Club and face facts. Even Parliament has recognised it and had a Select Committee on it.

So we are back to personal attacks and nothing to debate my points

game over

I hate to see grown men grovel, which you do every day to this vile Government.

Cost to claimants of benefit sanctions rockets by 3,000%

2 March 2015

The cost to claimants of having their social security payments stopped under this government's controversial sanctions regime has rocketed by 3,000%, analysis by PCS shows.

Using Department for Work and Pensions data, the union has calculated the value of jobseeker's allowance payments sanctioned in the year to September 2014 (the latest for which figures are available) was £355 million, compared to £11 million in 2009/2010.

This massive rise explains why sanctions have been so closely linked to the increase in the use of foodbanks, the union says.

The new figures come ahead of a Dispatches investigation to be broadcast this evening into the government's sanctions regime that was stepped up in October 2012.

Under the stricter system, the length of time sanctions can be imposed for has increased, with the minimum set at four weeks, rising to 13 weeks and up to three years.

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/cost-to-claimants-of-benefit-sanctions-rockets-by-3000

Dispatches tonight on Channel 4 at 8.00.   Be sure to watch it.

More poor claims and more poor excuses for people being very poor with their money the points you avoid at every turn.
lol channel 4 they arer not biased of course.

Benefits are a way to help people back into work, they are not a way to live your life and never should be. Only in exceptional circumstances will this be the case where somebody can never work.

risingsun wrote:I'm sorry Eddie, but if you think that benefit agencies don't allow children to go hungry you are living in cloud cuckoo land.

There are children all round the country that teachers are buying breakfasts for because they are hungry:

http://www.quaker.co.uk/FeedTheirFuture/Quaker_Feed_Their_Future-Launch_Press_Release.pdf

Is that the fault of the parent(s) or the benefits system?
For instance, how many of those parents smoke, drink, buy x-box games?

No wonder this government have goy away with killing people when, in the face of thousands of children going hungry, that kind of crap is rolled out yet again, even though it has been shown that there are mothers living on nothing but tea and toast to feed their children.

Give me strength, when will people stand and and say enough, instead of swallowing all the garbage and propaganda fed to them so that the rich can get rich and not pay taxes at the expense of the weak and vunerable.

risingsun wrote:No wonder this government have goy away with killing people when, in the face of thousands of children going hungry, that kind of crap is rolled out yet again, even though it has been shown that there are mothers living on nothing but tea and toast to feed their children.

Give me strength, when will people stand and and say enough, instead of swallowing all the garbage and propaganda fed to them so that the rich can get rich and not pay taxes at the expense of the weak and vunerable.

You,forget I worked in a school in a very deprived area sassy.
I saw these children everyday.

They came in eating crisps and sweets for breakfast and their mothers all smoked and drank.

It's not all black and white you know.

Eddie, we are not talking about people who don't feed their famility properly, we are talking about people who CAN'T feed their family because they have no money and go hungry themselves, and some of them are dying.

risingsun wrote:Eddie, we are not talking about people who don't feed their famility properly, we are talking about people who CAN'T feed their family because they have no money and go hungry themselves, and some of them are dying.

Okay fair enough, I'll forgot those scumbags (becasue they are) and we will concentrate only on what you're saying.

Now admittedly, I rarely watch the news - I have a three year old and my time is never spent on world affairs at the mo - so why am I not hearing about people/parents of Twenty, thirty, forty years of age dying and leaving starving kids behind??

I know I can be a bit behind in current affairs but this is new to me?!!

Then I suggest you start reading, because it's been out there for a long time.

People are dying!’ Oldham MP blasts Iain Duncan Smith over benefit claim sanctions
07 Nov 2014 - 08:55AM | By Tommy Wilson

Oldham MP Debbie Abrahams has sensationally accused the Government of contributing to the deaths of vulnerable people due to sanctioning benefit claims in order to improve figures.

The Oldham East and Saddleworth constituent publicly lambasted the secretary of state for work and pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, at a Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) Select Committee yesterday.

The verbal exchange erupted after Debbie had questioned the minister about the huge number of people who leave Job Seeker’s Allowance and simply disappear from records after being sanctioned in order to boost the UK’s employment data.

Mrs Abrahams said: “Hundreds of thousands of people have had their benefits stopped for a minimum of four weeks and then approximately a quarter of these people, from the research that I've seen, are disappearing.

“They are leaving and we don’t know where they are going. That’s an absolute indictment of this policy and it’s a little bit worrying if we’re trying to tout this internationally as a real success story.”

Mr Duncan Smith responded: “Well I don’t agree with any of that. I actually believe the sanctions regime as applied is fair, we always get the odd case of …”

Mrs Abrahams interrupted saying: “People are dying because of these sanctions.”

Recent research from the University of Oxford suggests that more than 500,000 Job Seekers Allowance claimants have ‘disappeared’ since the sanctions regime was toughened in October 2012.

This could mean the claimant count - one of the ways of measuring unemployment – is actually 20,000 to 30,000 higher each month than government figures. This suggests that in August 2014, the claimant count could have hit one million instead of being at 970,000.

Since the government’s regulations came into effect in October 2012 about half of all sanction decisions have led to people on JSA having their social security payments cut for at least 4 weeks, affecting over 2 million people.

Professor Stuckler, who has analysed data from 375 local authorities, said: “The data clearly show that many people are not leaving JSA for work but appear to be being pushed off in unprecedented numbers in association with sanctions.”

After the session Mrs Abrahams said: “It’s incredible that the minister can simply brush aside the mounting evidence that inappropriate use of social security sanctions is having on vulnerable people.

“We’ve already heard from a whistleblower who left his job as a JCP advisor because he refused to apply sanctions when people had done nothing wrong.

“And recently, over 200,000 people have signed a petition to look into the death of an ex-soldier and diabetic, from Stevenage, who died after having been sanctioned.

"He was found dead surrounded by job applications, penniless and with an empty stomach according to his post mortem. He couldn’t even afford to run his fridge so couldn’t keep his medicines cold.

She added: “Sanctions are being applied unfairly to job-seekers as well as the sick and disabled. And we shouldn't forget that most people on social security are actually in work but are struggling to make ends meet.”

http://www.mancunianmatters.co.uk/content/071171549-%E2%80%98people-are-dying%E2%80%99-oldham-mp-blasts-iain-duncan-smith-over-benefit-claim-sanctions

Just one to get you started.

People don't just "disappear"

I think went they refer to people "disappearing" here they arent talking death, most probably going off the radar and working the system.

These cases aren't the norm sassy, the diabetic here isn't the norm. I agree it's one person too many though.

The trouble with the benefits system is you get the people who really need it and the people who play the system and cheat.

I've just googled and found its mostly (if not totally) the sick and disabled, is that right?

Some of it is the sick and disabled, some of it is healthy people so worn down by the system they kill themselves.

How many benefits claimants have to kill themselves before something is done?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/10/benefits-sanctions-malcolm-burge-suicides

Terry McGarvey, 48. Dangerously ill from polycytheamia, Terry asked for an ambulance to be called during his Work Capability Assessment. He knew that he wasn’t well enough to attend his WCA but feared that his benefits would be stopped if he did not. He died the following day.

Elaine Lowe, 53. Suffering from COPD and fearful of losing her benefits. In desperation, Elaine chose to commit suicide.

Mark Wood, 44. Found fit for work by Atos, against his Doctors advice and assertions that he had complex mental health problems. Starved to death after benefits stopped, weighing only 5st 8lb when he died.

Paul Reekie, 48, the Leith based Poet and Author. Suffered from severe depression. Committed suicide after DWP stopped his benefits due to an Atos ‘fit for work’ decision.

Leanne Chambers, 30. Suffered depression for many years which took a turn for the worst when she was called in for a WCA. Leanne committed suicide soon after.

Karen Sherlock, 44. Multiple health issues. Found fit for work by Atos and denied benefits. Fought a long battle to get placed into the support group of ESA. Karen died the following month of a heart attack.

Carl Payne, 42. Fears of losing his lifeline benefits due to welfare reform led this Father of two to take his own life.

Tim Salter, 53. Blind and suffering from Agoraphobia. Tim hanged himself after Atos found him fit for work and stopped his benefits.

Edward Jacques, 47 years old and suffering from HIV and Hepatitis C. Edward had a history of severe depression and self-harm. He took a fatal overdose after Atos found him fit for work and stopped his benefits.

Linda Wootton, 49 years old. A double heart and lung transplant patient. Died just nine days after the government found her fit for work, their refusal letter arriving as she lay desperately ill in her hospital bed.

Steven Cawthra, 55. His benefits stopped by the DWP and with rising debts, he saw suicide as the only way out of a desperate situation.

Elenore Tatton, 39 years old. Died just weeks after the government found her fit for work.

John Walker, 57, saddled with debt because of the bedroom tax, John took his own life.

Brian McArdle, 57 years old. Suffered a fatal heart attack the day after his disability benefits were stopped.

Stephen Hill, 53. Died of a heart attack one month after being found fit for work, even though he was waiting for major heart surgery.

Jacqueline Harris, 53. A former Nurse who could hardly walk was found fit for work by Atos and her benefits withdrawn. in desperation, she took her own life.

David Barr, 28. Suffering from severe mental difficulties. Threw himself from a bridge after being found fit for work by Atos and failing his appeal.

David Groves, 56. Died of a heart attack the night before taking his work capability assessment. His widow claimed that it was the stress that killed him.

Nicholas Peter Barker, 51. Shot himself after being told his benefits were being stopped. He was unable to work after a brain haemorrhage left him paralysed down one side.

Mark and Helen Mullins, 48 and 59 years old. Forced to live on £57.50 a week and make 12 mile trips each week to get free vegetables to make soup. Mark and Helen both committed suicide.

Richard Sanderson, 44. Unable to find a job and with his housing benefit cut forcing him to move, but with nowhere to go. Richard committed suicide.

Martin Rust, 36 years old. A schizophrenic man who killed himself two months after the government found him fit to work.

Craig Monk, 43. A vulnerable gentleman and a partial amputee who slipped so far into poverty that he hanged himself.

Colin Traynor, 29, and suffering from epilepsy was stripped of his benefits. He appealed. Five weeks after his death his family found he had won his appeal.

Elaine Christian, 57 years old. Worried about her work capability assessment, she was subsequently found at Holderness drain, drowned and with ten self inflicted wrist wounds.

Christelle and Kayjah Pardoe, 32 years and 5 month old. Pregnant, her benefits stopped, Christelle, clutching her baby son jumped from a third floor balcony.

Mark Scott, 46. His DLA and housing benefit stopped and sinking into deep depression, Mark died six weeks later.

Cecilia Burns, 51. Found fit for work while undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She died just a few weeks after she won her appeal against the Atos decision.

Chris Cann, 57 years old. Found dead in his home just months after being told he had to undergo a medical assessment to prove he could not work.

Peter Hodgson, 49. Called to JCP to see if he was suitable for volunteer work. Peter had suffered a stroke, a brain haemorrhage and had a fused leg. His appointment letter arrived a few days after he took his own life.

Paul Willcoxsin, 33 years old. Suffered with mental health problems and worried about government cuts. Paul committed suicide by hanging himself.

Stephanie Bottrill, 53. After paying £80 a month for bedroom tax, Stephanie could not afford heating in the winter, and lived on tinned custard. In desperation, she chose to walk in front of a lorry.

Larry Newman suffered from a degenerative lung condition, his weight dropping from 10 to 7 stone. Atos awarded him zero points, he died just three months after submitting his appeal.

Paul Turner, 52 years old. After suffering a heart attack, he was ordered to find a job in February. In April Paul died from ischaemic heart disease.

Christopher Charles Harkness, 39. After finding out that the funding for his care home was being withdrawn, this man who suffered with mental health issues, took his own life.

Sandra Louise Moon, 57. Suffering from a degenerative back condition, depression and increasingly worried about losing her incapacity benefit. Sandra committed suicide by taking an overdose.

Lee Robinson, 39 years old. Took his own life after his housing benefit and council tax were taken away from him.

David Coupe, 57. A Cancer sufferer found fit for work by Atos in 2012. David lost his sight, then his hearing, then his mobility, and then his life.

Michael McNicholas, 34. Severely depressed and a recovering alcoholic. Michael committed suicide after being called in for a Work Capability Assessment by Atos.

Victor Cuff, 59 and suffering from severe depression. Victor hanged himself after the DWP stopped his benefits.

Charles Barden, 74. Charles committed suicide by hanging due to fears that the Bedroom Tax would leave him destitute and unable to cope.

Ian Caress, 43. Suffered multiple health issues and deteriorating eyesight. Ian was found fit for work by Atos, he died ten months later having lost so much weight that his family said that he resembled a concentration camp victim.

Iain Hodge, 30. Suffered from the life threatening illness, Hughes Syndrome. Found fit for work by Atos and benefits stopped, Iain took his own life.

Wayne Grew, 37. Severely depressed due to government cuts and the fear of losing his job, Wayne committed suicide by hanging.

Kevin Bennett, 40. Kevin a sufferer of schizophrenia and mental illness became so depressed after his JSA was stopped that he became a virtual recluse. Kevin was found dead in his flat several months later.

David Elwyn Hughs Harries, 48. A disabled man who could no longer cope after his parents died, could find no help from the government via benefits. David took an overdose as a way out of his solitude.

Denis Jones, 58. A disabled man crushed by the pressures of government cuts, in particular the Bedroom Tax, and unable to survive by himself. Denis was found dead in his flat.

Shaun Pilkington, 58. Unable to cope any more, Shaun shot himself dead after receiving a letter from the DWP informing him that his ESA was being stopped.

Paul ?, 51. Died in a freezing cold flat after his ESA was stopped. Paul appealed the decision and won on the day that he lost his battle to live.

Chris MaGuire, 61. Deeply depressed and incapable of work, Chris was summonsed by Atos for a Work Capability Assessment and deemed fit for work. On appeal, a judge overturned the Atos decision and ordered them to leave him alone for at least a year, which they did not do. In desperation, Chris took his own life, unable to cope anymore.

Peter Duut, a Dutch national with terminal cancer living in the UK for many years found that he was not entitled to benefits unless he was active in the labour market. Peter died leaving his wife destitute, and unable to pay for his funeral.

George Scollen, age unknown. Took his own life after the government closed the Remploy factory he had worked in for 40 years.

Julian Little, 47. Wheelchair bound and suffering from kidney failure, Julian faced the harsh restrictions of the Bedroom Tax and the loss of his essential dialysis room. He died shortly after being ordered to downgrade.

Miss DE, Early 50’s. Suffering from mental illness, this lady committed suicide less than a month after an Atos assessor gave her zero points and declared her fit for work.

Robert Barlow, 47. Suffering from a brain tumour, a heart defect and awaiting a transplant, Robert was deemed fit for work by Atos and his benefits were withdrawn. He died penniless less than two years later.

Carl Joseph Foster-Brown, 58. As a direct consequence of the wholly unjustifiable actions of the Job centre and DWP, this man took his own life.

Martin Hadfield, 20 years old. Disillusioned with the lack of jobs available in this country but too proud to claim benefits. Utterly demoralised, Martin took his own life by hanging himself.

Annette Francis, 30. A mum-of-one suffering from severe mental illness, found dead after her disability benefits were ceased.

Ian Jordan, 60. His benefits slashed after Atos and the DWP declared Ian, a sufferer of Barratt’s Oesophagus, fit for work, caused him to run up massive debts in order to survive. Ian was found dead in his flat after taking an overdose.

Janet McCall, 53. Terminally ill with pulmonary fibrosis and declared ‘Fit for Work’ by Atos and the DWP, this lady died 5 months after her benefits were stopped.

Stuart Holley, 23. A man driven to suicide by the DWP’s incessant pressure and threat of sanctions for not being able to find a job.

Graham Shawcross, 63. A sufferer of the debilitating disease, Addison’s. Died of a heart attack due to the stress of an Atos ‘Fit for Work’ decision.

David Clapson, 59 years old. A diabetic ex-soldier deprived of the means to survive by the DWP and the governments harsh welfare reforms, David died all but penniless, starving and alone, his electricity run out.

Chris Smith, 59. Declared ‘Fit for Work’ by Atos as he lay dying of Cancer in his hospital bed.

Nathan Hartwell, 36, died of heart failure after an 18-month battle with the ­Department for Works and Pensions.

Michael Connolly, 60. A Father of One, increasingly worried about finances after his benefits were cut. Committed suicide by taking 13 times the fatal dose of prescription medicine on the 30th October – His Birthday.

Jan Mandeville, 52, A lady suffering from Fibromyalgia, driven to the point of mental and physical breakdown by this governments welfare reforms. Jan was found dead in her home after battling the DWP for ESA and DLA.

Trevor Drakard, 50 years old. A shy and reserved, severe epileptic who suffered regular and terrifying fits almost his entire life, hounded to suicide by the DWP who threatened to stop his life-line benefits.

http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2014/10/21/uk-welfare-reform-deaths-updated-list-october-21st-2014/

risingsun wrote:How many benefits claimants have to kill themselves before something is done?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/10/benefits-sanctions-malcolm-burge-suicides

I just read that after googling. It's awful.

So we are back to my question then; how do we tell the genuine from the fakes? The genuine from the workshy?

And why are there not enough jobs, do you think?

There are not enough jobs because, in order for there to be enough jobs there has to be investment, and this Goverment is doing the opposite of that.  99.9% are genuine and we spend more on trying to find they others than we get back.  In any case, the amount is peanuts in relation to the amount that, at the other end of the scale, is being lost to tax evasion and avoidance, and how many people have been sanction for that, let alone imprisoned, which is what should happen to them.  How about the Banks Libor Scandal, that every country in the world who were effected by it have prosecuted the people doing it expect us, because they people doing it give many to the Conservative Party. And the Libor scandal effected people who have mortgages because they fiddled the interest rates.

eddie wrote:

risingsun wrote:How many benefits claimants have to kill themselves before something is done?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/10/benefits-sanctions-malcolm-burge-suicides

I just read that after googling. It's awful.

So we are back to my question then; how do we tell the genuine from the fakes? The genuine from the workshy?

And why are there not enough jobs, do you think?

Out sourcing to other nations with lower pay and less safety and environmental controls.

Basically it is the 1% fucking the 99% AGAIN they aren't allowed to have English salves so they packed up their factories and set them up somewhere they can have slaves.
Basically they want to be allowed to operate with Victorian-era like conditions where if a worker dies because of they have cut cost of safety they can just toss his body out , get the next poverty stricken worker in and get on with making profit ... and their are nations with the poverty and corruption to let them do that.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alanamassey/money-is-evil-anyway#.swrPMoE04z

And people wonder why millennials aren’t buying houses and cars.

THIS IS WHY the western economies are tanking

Australia is only a float because of our strong ties to Asia and the fact that you cant just 'relocate a mine' to anywhere.
And even then they are trying hard to find ways to screw us, by allowing overseas workers in on contracts that are do not even come close to meeting out minimum standards.

veya_victaous wrote:

eddie wrote:
I just read that after googling. It's awful.
So we are back to my question then; how do we tell the genuine from the fakes? The genuine from the workshy?
And why are there not enough jobs, do you think?

Out sourcing to other nations with lower pay and less safety and environmental controls.
Basically it is the 1% fucking the 99% AGAIN they aren't allowed to have English salves so they packed up their factories and set them up somewhere they can have slaves.
Basically they want to be allowed to operate with Victorian-era like conditions where if a worker dies because of they have cut cost of safety they can just toss his body out , get the next poverty stricken worker in and get on with making profit ... and their are nations with the poverty and corruption to let them do that.

quite. How many times over the past few years have we seen people on various forums or in talking to them in person, moan about how they cannot get through to a person without pressing 1,2,3 etc...and then end up in a call center in India? NAFTA has contributed a lot. so many American companies moved over the Mexican border because of 1) no taxes 2) can pay the workers $2-3 an hour as opposed to minimum wage of $8 or higher here depending on skill level and 3) regulations relating to workplace health and safety are either lax or non- existent.

Brasidas wrote:

risingsun wrote:I'm sorry Eddie, but if you think that benefit agencies don't allow children to go hungry you are living in cloud cuckoo land.

There are children all round the country that teachers are buying breakfasts for because they are hungry:

http://www.quaker.co.uk/FeedTheirFuture/Quaker_Feed_Their_Future-Launch_Press_Release.pdf

Because of the childrens parents not providing for them.
Yes people struggle but youi never can explain why others do manage in such hard times and where their children never go without food?
The problem is down to a material world we now live in where basic necessities are placed second to unnecessary needs like food.

and of course in a world where the needs of the needy are placed secondary to those of the theiving lying rich tax dogers