UC – A grandfathers ‘cruel’ battle with the DWP and twins commit suicide

By TruePublica: As if the continually mounting evidence is needed of the state now deliberately attacking the most vulnerable in society with stories of Universal Credit causing mental health problems, homelessness and even suicide – comes two more awful accounts of the escalating death toll.

 

A grandfather who had fought a “cruel and lengthy” battle with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over sickness benefit entitlements has finally had his benefits reinstated … but not before severe health issues resulted in his death seven months earlier.

Jeff Hayward died having spent 18 months fighting for the benefits he was rightly entitled to after the DWP ruled he was “fit for work”, despite providing evidence showing he was incapable of doing so.

Mr Hayward, 52, who died from a heart attack, had worked for all of his life before his deteriorating health forced him to apply for benefits for the first time in his life.

As tragic individual stories go – it is heartbreaking enough to hear of hard-working people who have fallen on hard times being heartlessly punished for the crime of … being ill. But the government have managed to beat even that.

 

Twin brothers were found hanging from the same tree in Greater Manchester within months of their benefits being axed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), it has been reported.

Manchester Evening News reports that Neil and Paul Micklewright were found by a dog walker in Urmston at about 8.40am on 31 July 2018.

Suicide notes were found “neatly laid out” on a table.

The two brothers, who are said to have “relied on each other most of the time”, received £40,000 inheritance following the death of their mother some time ago, which resulted in their benefits being stopped.

However, it is reported that neither brother had more than a few pounds in their bank accounts at the time of their deaths.

The two suicide notes were described by a coroner as “essentially identical”, and offered no real clue as to the reasons behind the apparent suicide pact, other than to say that they had “had enough”.

 

Other stories of people struggling are not hard to find. There is, for instance, this little collection of gems:

• an illiterate man sanctioned so often under universal credit that he lives on £5 a week;
• someone told to walk 44 miles to attend a job interview, despite having had a stroke, to save the state the cost of a £15 bus ticket;
• an elderly person – after her son, who had suffered a stroke, had been sanctioned 15 times – said, “The system needs more caring people. They are like little Hitlers”;
• another was expecting the bailiffs to take back her two-bed council house because she was in arrears, including on bedroom tax. Her second bedroom is used by her granddaughter five nights a week, so her son can work, but that doesn’t count – only children qualify’

 

 

 

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