Published at 16:47, Tuesday, 19 February 2013

POVERTY campaigners have warned benefit reforms are already hitting the most vulnerable.

Ahead of welfare benefit reforms, the government has been reassessing those who claim disability benefits.

Between October 2010 and February 2012, 980 claimants of employment and support allowance (ESA)/incapacity benefit were reassessed and 42 per cent were deemed ‘fit for work’.

Margaret Burrow MBE, chairwoman of Barrow and District Disability Association, said it is increasingly difficult for disabled people to survive without their benefits.

She said: “It is bad enough having no money, which results in a number of problems, but they also have a disability to cope with.”

Mrs Burrow said the stress of having to be reassessed and appeal often made people’s conditions worse.

“It’s extremely worrying,” she said. “Nationally there has been lots of deaths which have been directly related to the withdrawal of benefits.”

Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock set up the Furness Poverty Commission in December with the aim of highlighting deprivation in the peninsula.

He said: “Around 6,700 working families across Barrow and Furness will lose out from the government’s decision to cut tax credits from April, and many more are facing great uncertainty and stress from bungled management of the benefit system.”

Gillian Haney, 34, from Barrow, suffers from myalgic encephalopathy (ME).

She said: “They are just constantly stopping my ESA because I have ME as I am always getting reassessed because it’s an invisible condition.

“If I haven’t got the right support then I can’t fight against it.”

Ms Haney, who hopes to get into part-time work or volunteering but has struggled because of her condition, said that she often struggles to pay bills, but always has money for food and tries to do her best for her six-year-old daughter.

She said: “A lot of people say I am a great mum because I put a lot of effort into it. I do put all my energy into my daughter but I can’t look after myself and have to make sacrifices.”

The commission – together with the Evening Mail – launched a survey earlier this month in an attempt to gauge the level of poverty in Furness.

The survey can be completed on the Evening Mail’s website, or hardcopies are available from our office in Abbey Road, Barrow.

Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk