“Twelve bags, mainly men’s and baby’s clothes. All washed and clean,” Dawn Wilson lists, pleased, as she checks through the latest donations collected from her local area. Wilson, in her forties, has been co-running the Durham Socialist Clothes bank for three months now. She’s a full-time carer for her disabled husband and is characteristic of […]
Malcolm Burge wrote to his local council last year telling them he was “depressed, stressed and suicidal”. The 66-year-old retired gardener had had his housing benefit cut by 50% but a backlog at Newham council meant he had unknowingly continued to receive the higher amount. The council issued him a demand for £809.79. “I have […]
This week saw the internet collapse when Katie Price disclosed her son Harvey, who is blind and has a range of complex health needs, receives local authority support. “Why should the taxpayer fund Katie Price’s disabled kid?!” asked random members of the public, in language that might be better suited to describing a leech sucking […]
You’d be forgiven for having missed the current mess of Access to Work – the fund delivered through Jobcentre Plus that pays for practical support, from computer software to support workers, for disabled people at work. Last year, it seems that the government started quietly cutting the amount of support available, resulting in payment delays […]
“Hunger stalks this country” is the finding of a church-funded report by an all-party group of MPs and peers released today. Lady Jenkin, a Conservative, used its launch to declare the main cause of this national crisis was “poor people [who] do not know how to cook”. Jenkin is symbolic of a climate of denial, […]
Lorna Jamison is selling things from her home in Haverhill, Suffolk to buy her two sons winter coats. Family photo frames, ornaments and toys; whatever she can get her hands on and will get some money quickly. She’s full-time carer to Ellis, who is six and has Asperger syndrome, and the benefits the family gets […]
Ched Evans, professional footballer and convicted rapist, walked out of prison on Friday. It’s unclear whether he will be walking back into his career and the money and celebrity that come with it. Over 100,000 people have signed a petition against Evans being reinstated by his ex-club, Sheffield United. The boys have his back though. The […]
