The ultimate insult for hard-working people

Yesterday, The Sunday Post shone a spotlight on an ordinary, hard-working couple who are facing extraordinary pressures.

Helen and David Stuart are going through a living hell a gruelling daily battle to keep their heads above water. Trapped in a depressing cycle of poverty from which they can’t escape.

Read Helen and David’s story hereTerrified at the prospect of how they’ll pay their next bill. Exhausted by the endless money worries, the sleepless nights, the lack of simple joy in their lives. Desperate for support, opportunity and love from a society that seems glaringly lacking in all three.

Who among us doesn’t feel great sympathy for this most decent and deserving of couples? And who can blame them for their anger? They’ve worked hard all of their adult lives, but now just at the point where they should be winding down the bottom has fallen out of their world.

And why?

Because the system they’ve paid into religiously and honestly for 85 years between them has failed them, as it is failing countless others. And that’s what makes the Stuarts’ plight so frightening their situation is far from unique.

Many thousands across the country will read Helen’s letter and identify with her painful plea for help. That so many do is a damning indictment of 21st Century Britain and its welfare system.

It seems deeply unfair that those who have never shirked from a hard day’s work, who have paid their way and contributed without complaint year after year, are left to simply slip through the gaps. Where is the safety net for people like Helen and David?

As a society, we must do more to protect good people from bad times. And, if it could happen to them, it could happen to any one of us.

The UK may be inching its way out of recession, but the threat of redundancy still hangs over many millions of us. Since last October alone, 107,000 workers have found themselves on the employment scrap heap. David has lost his job three times in as many years. All he wants to do is work, but it isn’t that easy.

Helen’s letter in fullHe and Helen are sure his age 64 is being held against him, and there’s every chance they’re right. Now, he’s not even entitled to a meagre Jobseeker’s Allowance that only lasts for six months and now his time is up.

Surely he’ll he get Income Support to tide him over? Will he heck.

That’s because Helen works more than 24 hours a week. Under the rules, that means David is deemed ineligible for any help from the very State he has supported with taxes for decades. Not a penny.

Helen’s job is not well paid. She brings in just enough money to cover the bills and no more. They can’t afford Christmas presents or birthday celebrations or often even a warm house. Theirs is truly a “food or fuel” existence.

According to the Citizens Advice Bureau, there is no set figure at which household income prevents income support being paid. The level of Income Support that a person is entitled to depends on their “applicable amount”, which is the weekly amount the Government considers a particular household needs to live on. This will depend on the claimant’s individual circumstances.

Meanwhile, if Helen voluntarily leaves employment she’ll be ineligible for any JSA for up to 26 weeks. It’s simply not an option. She and David are trapped. And in any case, the last thing she wants to do is give up work. She is a proud woman with a work ethic that runs deep.

So where on earth do they go from here?

The options are scant, and the hope minimal.

“All I want is my peace of mind back,” Helen told The Sunday Post. “I thought that, by time we got to this stage, we wouldn’t be rich but we would be comfortable and happy. But it doesn’t work that way.”

It doesn’t, but it should. The Government must review the system that has let Helen and David and many others like them down so badly.

It simply isn’t fair that the decision is based on the number of hours worked, not the actual income a household may have particularly as it punishes the very people who give most back to society.

Touched, angered by Helen’s story, or in the same predicament? Let us know in the comments below, call our newsdesk on 0141 567 2812 or email us on mail@sundaypost.com