Benefits victory for disabled son after Dagenham father goes to Downing Street

A father has won a victory for his severely disabled son by going to Downing Street to demand the Prime Minister hire his boy if the government thinks he is fit to work.

Fred Hazle, 46, from Grafton Road, Dagenham, was protesting a string of “bullying” letters sent to his 19-year-old son James, who has the mental age of a five-year-old, threatening to stop his £71.95 a week in benefits unless he could “prove” he cannot work.

James needs round-the-clock care and has autism, blindness, epilepsy and severe learning difficulties.
Speaking exclusively to the Post, Fred said he has now secured a promise that the letters will stop, and that James will receive benefits “indefinitely”.

Fred, who works as a bus driver, said: “First they put me on to some call centre. I told them I would go back down there to Downing Street, and about 20 minutes later they got me on to the manager of the Employment and Support Allowance. I told them, ‘All you people want to do is fob me off, leave it a year and send more letters. I’m not having it.’”

The manager apologised and said James would receive financial support “for the rest of his life”, and promised to send written confirmation of this to Fred.

“I’m very happy,” he said. “It was never about the money for me. No-one with a disability should have to be humiliated in front of people to prove they cannot work.”

Fred hopes to meet with Prime Minister David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith, the minister for Work and Pensions, to seek an apology and make them change the benefits system to protect disabled people from this treatment.

He added: “I want an apology from Iain Duncan Smith and Mr Cameron, not to me, not to my wife, but to James.”

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said there had been a “misunderstanding” over the Hazles’ case but confirmed it was resolved and no money would be stopped.

Barking and Dagenham Post