New minister for disabled must be made to listen to ignominies & cruelty of ATOS & bedroom tax - by Michael Meacher MP

With a new minister in DWP dealing with disability and a government increasingly riled by persistent reports of the mishandling of work capability assessments by ATOS, now is the time for a renewed push for fundamental changes in these two hated measures.   I continue to receive dozens of letters that tell heart-rending stories about lives that have been wrecked, even destroyed, by the callousness of government regulations as administered by the French IT company, ATOS.   One concerns Richard, a 62 year old blind man who was forced to take early retirement 12 years ago, now left in shock after it was ruled at an assessment that he is now fit to return to work.   He has been registered blind since he was 18 months old, and his wife is also blind.   He had previously received incapacity benefit for the past 10 years, but is now likely to lose that.

Even more distressing, I recently received a letter about a woman who took her own life when the stress of having to find extra money to stay in her home in the face of the bedroom tax became too much.   Stephanie, 53, had the auto-immune system deficiency Myasthenia gravis, an illness that weakens muscles.   On constant medication she was told she needed to pay an extra £80 a month or leave her 3-bed home after her two children moved out.   Already cutting back on food – Stephanie had just tinned custard in her cupboards – and too poor to put the heating on in winter, the demands of the bedroom tax drove her to walk out in front of a lorry on the M6 in May this year.   She had wanted to downsize her home in the West Midlands, but the council had nothing smaller available and the demands for extra money followed.

Another person who has written to me had a bad car accident in November 2000 as a result of which he has serious back and neck injuries and has been confined to a wheelchair for 13 years.   In his own words: “I suffer from fibromyalgia, depression, severe pain in the lower back and constantly have to have pain relief.   My left leg is useless as a leg and will if I don’t watch it get caught under my own wheelchair wheels as I’m not always aware where it is.   My right leg is better but standing upright for even a few seconds causes a massive increase in pain, then I collapse and have even passed out.   I do not work as to spend more than 4 hours out of bed reduces me to tears because of the increase in pain.   I have had 3 assessments by the occupational therapist in recent years, and all recommend I have my own separate bedroom because of my medical conditions.   Then we had a letter telling us our housing benefit was to be reduced by 14% as my wife and I have a 2-bedroom bungalow and we only need one.   We already do not have any heating on in the house except Sue has a Calor Gas heater for which she makes two bottles of gas last her the whole autumn winter and spring.   I have not had heating in my bedroom for 5 years.   I just pile on extra covers on my bed to keep warm and wear mittens to keep my hands warm when using the computer.   So I am now having to take a cut in my food.   I have devised a plan to bring my weekly food bill down to just £12.71.   I will have porridge for breakfast every day costing just £0.17 a day, with that I will have a herbal tea costing £0.04, then at lunchtime I will have a frozen meal which costs just £1 a meal.   For my evening meal I will have a tin of rice pudding, £0.15 every day and before Sue goes to bed I will have a cup of drinking chocolate costing just £0.07.   Add to that a bottle of flavoured water at £0.38 and that will be all my food budget for a week.

Michael Meacher MP