Universal Credit - How Simeon had his benefits stopped because he was admitted to hospital for major surgery

Welcome to the walk a mile in my shoes podcast. My name’s Chris Young, and it’s my aim, hope, goal to enable you to get a real feel for what it’s like to walk a mile in the shoes of my guests. Sorry about the lack of jaunty music, I’m not feeling particularly jaunty just now. Sorry too about the prolonged absence, I’ve been trying to get my world in order following some pretty life changing therapy. But I’m not here to talk about me. In this episode, I speak with Simeon Wakely, a man with spina-bifida who has recently felt the cold hard slap of apathy…indifference…prejudice…at the hands of the department of work and pensions, the government department who administer Universal Credit. This is triggering throughout – so, if you don’t want to hear Simeon’s distress, you should stop listening now. He got in touch with me yesterday explaining how he felt suicidal following the inhumane treatment he’s received at their hands. I’m fucking furious. For those of you who talk about the rise of poverty in the UK in terms of absolute and relative poverty – for those of you who think abject poverty is a thing of the Dickensian past – think again. Simeon recently had his benefits stopped for the heinous crime of changing his bank account and being admitted to hospital. He missed a meeting with the Job Centre because he was in hospital having major surgery. He’d informed them at every stage of the process, but they responded by stopping his benefits and telling him the next available meeting at the job centre is a week away. The DWP didn’t tell him benefits had stopped…you’ll hear more about that in our conversation…he found out from his landlord, and when BT cut off his landline and broadband…but even more shockingly, he found out when his gas supplier, Eon, cut off the fuel for his heating on this, the coldest week of the winter so far. His electricity company, SSE, are threatening to cut off his electricity as we speak. So much for compassionate capitalism/ conservativism. At the moment he’s relying on friends for money, and his support worker for food. Devastated though he is, Simeon was still able to throw down the gauntlet to any MP who would be willing to survive on Universal Credit for a month – or a year. I guess many will have an understanding of how cumulative wealth can have a positive effect on their lives, but what about the cumulative effect of poverty? Would they, as Therese Coffey, the Secretary of State for work and pensions sang when she removed £20 a week from people on Universal Credit, be having the time of their lives? I don’t think so. Would your MP do it? Make no mistake, even though this system is rotten to the core, these are actual people causing untold damage and trauma to a man whose only crime was to believe he could live independently. Huge thanks to Simeon for sharing his story. He’s gutted, he hates himself and he feels suicidal all because of things outside of his control. If any of you listening have contacts in BT, Eon and SSE, please give them a prod to suggest that cutting off amenities in these circumstances don’t exactly show them in a favourable light. Put his heating back on. Reconnect him to the internet. Give him the money he’s entitled to. But, more than anything, restore his hugely damaged faith in human kind. We can do a whole lot better than this. In the meantime, get in touch with your MP – throw the universal credit challenge their way. Walk a mile

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Universal Credit - How Simeon had his benefits stopped because he was admitted to hospital for major surgery is an episode from Walk a Mile in My Shoes by Chris Young.

This episode is 01:05:41 long.

This episode was published on Nov 27, 2021.

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