The government has offered an “unreserved apology” for sending a letter to a woman, who had been in a coma for two months, encouraging her to find work.
Sheila Holt was invited to “intensive job-focused activity” in a letter from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).
Her case has been twice raised in parliament by her MP Simon Danczuk, who accused the DWP of waging a war on welfare, and being oblivious to the recent welfare reform’s effects on the sick and disabled.
Holt suffers from severe bipolar disorder and has not been in employment since she was sixteen according to the Rochester MP, but was pushed her into the Work Programme late last year as part of the governments welfare reforms.
She reportedly found the eight-day job-seeking course “extremely difficult”, but even after her family informed Seetec of her issues, she continued to be harassed to find work and threatened with benefit cuts.
She “cracked” under this stress according to her father and was hospitalised following a manic episode, where she suffered a heart attack on 17th December. As a result of the heart attack, she suffered brain damage and remains in a coma.
In the commons, the Minister of State for Disabled People, Mike Penning, said:
“I apologise, unreservedly, to the family as the minister responsible.
The family have every right to be aggrieved and I hope she makes a full recovery.”
