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| Emily has organ failure – yet her mother had to battle for benefits | |
| (1 day later) | |
| What happened to Emily Field is unlikely to find its way on to the news. But the story of how one young woman with organ failure was denied help when she most needed it – and the subsequent battle between the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the outsourcing firm Atos, and a mother – tells us exactly how rotten Britain’s social security system has become. | What happened to Emily Field is unlikely to find its way on to the news. But the story of how one young woman with organ failure was denied help when she most needed it – and the subsequent battle between the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the outsourcing firm Atos, and a mother – tells us exactly how rotten Britain’s social security system has become. |
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| Field, who is 28 years old and lives on the outskirts of Reading, has had type 1 diabetes since she started primary school. Over the past three years Field’s health has deteriorated rapidly – she’s struggled with chronic fatigue, pain and failing eyesight – and in the spring of 2015 she was diagnosed with diabetic kidney disease. By Christmas, doctors told her she was at “end stage”. “In essence, my daughter’s dying,” Field’s mum, Louise Hughes, tells me. “She won’t live for much longer without dialysis and a pancreas and kidney transplant.” | Field, who is 28 years old and lives on the outskirts of Reading, has had type 1 diabetes since she started primary school. Over the past three years Field’s health has deteriorated rapidly – she’s struggled with chronic fatigue, pain and failing eyesight – and in the spring of 2015 she was diagnosed with diabetic kidney disease. By Christmas, doctors told her she was at “end stage”. “In essence, my daughter’s dying,” Field’s mum, Louise Hughes, tells me. “She won’t live for much longer without dialysis and a pancreas and kidney transplant.” |
| I speak to Hughes, 53, at her home in Gwynedd, north-west Wales, as she waits for her daughter to have her latest surgery. “Her entire life is needles, blood tests and procedures,” Hughes says. Field is too weak to move much and has had to postpone treatment because of her failing immune system (she currently has tonsillitis and the flu). | I speak to Hughes, 53, at her home in Gwynedd, north-west Wales, as she waits for her daughter to have her latest surgery. “Her entire life is needles, blood tests and procedures,” Hughes says. Field is too weak to move much and has had to postpone treatment because of her failing immune system (she currently has tonsillitis and the flu). |
| “Emily looks almost unrecognisable to how she was two years ago,” Hughes, says, showing me an old photo of her hugging her fiance Tim. “My beautiful girl. She’s so mentally and physically frail now.” | “Emily looks almost unrecognisable to how she was two years ago,” Hughes, says, showing me an old photo of her hugging her fiance Tim. “My beautiful girl. She’s so mentally and physically frail now.” |
| Field had to give up her career as an artist when her eyesight first deteriorated. Last year, she took a zero-hours contract stacking shelves in a pawnshop to try to get by but was sacked when she couldn’t physically do the work. Hughes tells me her daughter now has no money to live on. | Field had to give up her career as an artist when her eyesight first deteriorated. Last year, she took a zero-hours contract stacking shelves in a pawnshop to try to get by but was sacked when she couldn’t physically do the work. Hughes tells me her daughter now has no money to live on. |
| After Emily had a PIP rejection last time, she said she’d kill herself. She said, ‘I can’t do it any more, Mum’ | After Emily had a PIP rejection last time, she said she’d kill herself. She said, ‘I can’t do it any more, Mum’ |
| “I buy her a Tesco shop once a week and I send her bits, like mascara or shampoo. I can’t afford much more,” she says. “Emily’s fiance pays her bills because she’s literally got nothing. She’s been asking Tim for money for sanitary towels.” | “I buy her a Tesco shop once a week and I send her bits, like mascara or shampoo. I can’t afford much more,” she says. “Emily’s fiance pays her bills because she’s literally got nothing. She’s been asking Tim for money for sanitary towels.” |
| In a so-called civilised country, this is where the welfare state is meant to kick in: the safety net that can’t stop us from getting ill but can make sure we have money to pay the rent and buy food if we do. Instead, Hughes tells me, her daughter has been left without either of the Conservative government’s key “reformed” sickness benefits. | In a so-called civilised country, this is where the welfare state is meant to kick in: the safety net that can’t stop us from getting ill but can make sure we have money to pay the rent and buy food if we do. Instead, Hughes tells me, her daughter has been left without either of the Conservative government’s key “reformed” sickness benefits. |
| Last year, the jobcentre told Field she wasn’t eligible for employment and support allowance because her fiance works more than 16 hours a week. Two weeks ago – while she was waiting for a double organ transplant – Field’s rejection for personal independence payments (PIP) was confirmed. Looking through the rundown of the assessment sent to Atos’s customer service department, it is filled with references to Field’s appearance (“well kept”) and scatterings of medical detail in broken sentences (“she goes to the renal clinic … She has blood tests, it hurts her and stresses her out … she goes to eye clinic”). | Last year, the jobcentre told Field she wasn’t eligible for employment and support allowance because her fiance works more than 16 hours a week. Two weeks ago – while she was waiting for a double organ transplant – Field’s rejection for personal independence payments (PIP) was confirmed. Looking through the rundown of the assessment sent to Atos’s customer service department, it is filled with references to Field’s appearance (“well kept”) and scatterings of medical detail in broken sentences (“she goes to the renal clinic … She has blood tests, it hurts her and stresses her out … she goes to eye clinic”). |
| Staggeringly, this was the third time Field had been turned down for PIP in two years – this goes up to four if we include the time the DWP lost the paperwork and she had to reapply. In 2014 – by the second time Field was judged as not needing the benefit – her health had deteriorated to the degree that Hughes had to become her daughter’s appointee because she didn’t have the strength to apply herself. | Staggeringly, this was the third time Field had been turned down for PIP in two years – this goes up to four if we include the time the DWP lost the paperwork and she had to reapply. In 2014 – by the second time Field was judged as not needing the benefit – her health had deteriorated to the degree that Hughes had to become her daughter’s appointee because she didn’t have the strength to apply herself. |
| “You get an hour to prove to the DWP you’re sick enough to squeeze a few pounds from them,” Hughes says. “All of this with a so-called Atos health professional who’s never met you.” | “You get an hour to prove to the DWP you’re sick enough to squeeze a few pounds from them,” Hughes says. “All of this with a so-called Atos health professional who’s never met you.” |
| She pauses. “After Emily had a [PIP] rejection [last time], she said she’d kill herself. She said, ‘I can’t do it any more, Mum’.” | She pauses. “After Emily had a [PIP] rejection [last time], she said she’d kill herself. She said, ‘I can’t do it any more, Mum’.” |
| When the government is failing your family, what do you do? Hearing that the Atos chief, David Haley, would be at the public accounts committee inquiry into outsourced disability assessments at the start of this month, Hughes went on a mission: she travelled from Wales to London – stopping overnight at her sister’s in Bristol – walked into the building, and told Haley about her daughter in person. Next, she went to the DWP offices themselves – carrying a blown-up copy of a letter from Field’s consultant. She tells me a uniformed security guard threatened her with the police. | When the government is failing your family, what do you do? Hearing that the Atos chief, David Haley, would be at the public accounts committee inquiry into outsourced disability assessments at the start of this month, Hughes went on a mission: she travelled from Wales to London – stopping overnight at her sister’s in Bristol – walked into the building, and told Haley about her daughter in person. Next, she went to the DWP offices themselves – carrying a blown-up copy of a letter from Field’s consultant. She tells me a uniformed security guard threatened her with the police. |
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| A week later, back in Wales, Hughes rang the DWP. She was told that Field had been awarded PIP – the enhanced rate for both the care and mobility part of the benefit. “On 29 January, they said she didn’t meet the benefit requirements. And now suddenly she does?” Hughes says. “She went from four points to 20 overnight.” | A week later, back in Wales, Hughes rang the DWP. She was told that Field had been awarded PIP – the enhanced rate for both the care and mobility part of the benefit. “On 29 January, they said she didn’t meet the benefit requirements. And now suddenly she does?” Hughes says. “She went from four points to 20 overnight.” |
| When I contacted Atos it said that it had conducted a review of Field’s case after receiving her mother’s complaint via the complaints process. It felt the most recent assessment “could have better reflected the changing and worsening impact of her daughter’s condition” and “provided renewed advice” to the DWP so it could look again at the decision. | When I contacted Atos it said that it had conducted a review of Field’s case after receiving her mother’s complaint via the complaints process. It felt the most recent assessment “could have better reflected the changing and worsening impact of her daughter’s condition” and “provided renewed advice” to the DWP so it could look again at the decision. |
| When I speak to Hughes a few days later she tells me that more than £3,000 – six months of backdated benefits – was put in her bank account the same week. Haley and Atos’s chief medical officer have also contacted Hughes asking to meet her. | When I speak to Hughes a few days later she tells me that more than £3,000 – six months of backdated benefits – was put in her bank account the same week. Haley and Atos’s chief medical officer have also contacted Hughes asking to meet her. |
| It’s worth pausing on that. This month the government gave a severely ill woman the help she was entitled to – not through a competent benefit assessment – but after her mother crossed the country to confront the boss of an outsourcing firm because she believed it was the only way to make it happen. | |
| “It’s like they’re patting me on the head and they think they can get away with it. They forced Emily into poverty for two years,” Hughes says. “Where’s the transparency? Where’s the accountability? It’s practically corrupt.” | “It’s like they’re patting me on the head and they think they can get away with it. They forced Emily into poverty for two years,” Hughes says. “Where’s the transparency? Where’s the accountability? It’s practically corrupt.” |
| • The headline, subheading and text of this article were amended on 19 February 2016. An earlier version said that Emily Field’s mother had to “battle Atos’s boss for benefits”. Atos have asked us to point out that a letter they sent to Field’s mother which “made clear we had changed our advice to the DWP” and apologised was sent on 2 February, the day before she met David Haley, though she had not seen it. |