Christine Espley, a self-employed 61-year-old chef and caterer from Cirencester, has been unable to work since the summer because of extreme mobility issues. She has been waiting 47 weeks for a hip operation and fears she may lose her small benefit income because of planned changes to the welfare system.
People with mobility and mental health problems will be asked to work from home or lose benefits as part of what a UK government minister described this week as doing “their duty”. The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, doubled down on the controversial policy in his autumn statement on Wednesday, claiming that the government’s so-called back-to-work plan would help nearly 700,000 people with health conditions find work.
In December last year, Espley was referred to a consultant who agreed that hip replacement surgery was necessary. “I’ve been waiting for 47 weeks,” she says.
Based on information on the NHS website about waiting times at her local hospital Espley expected to be operated on in August. “I had £30,000 in savings at that point, so I stockpiled laundry pods, dishwasher tablets, tinned food, and spent quite a bit of money on expensive alterations of my house I thought I might need during recovery at home.
“I had my bannisters amended to facilitate going up and down stairs, bought chair raisers, a raised loo seat and frame, a shower mat and attachment, a device for picking things up from the floor and another for putting on socks and underwear, and a washing sponge on a long stick. I wanted to be spot-on ready.
“Now it’s November and I’ve had no income since June. My reserves that I stockpiled so carefully are gone. My savings are gone.”
The only government support Espley can claim, as a result of her self-employed status, is employment and support allowance (ESA) of £84 a week, the application process for which she describes as “bruising business”.
“It’s a third of my previous day’s pay of £250, and you’re made to feel like a scrounger and a criminal. My gas and electric come to £136 a month currently, council tax is £119.
“The advice is that I cannot expect to be operated on before February, that will be 60 weeks on the waiting list. The NHS tells me over and over that ‘I have the right’ to start treatment within 18 weeks of the first consultant visit. I’m in great pain, I cannot sleep more than three hours at a stretch, I have to take [compound painkiller] co-dydramol regularly day and night, which has its own drawbacks.
“Now I have the anxiety that I could have this pittance removed if I don’t somehow find a job within my skill set that I can accomplish from home.”
Hunt told MPs in his autumn statement speech that the government would focus on those with sickness and disability and the long-term unemployed by overhauling the work capability assessment.
He said welfare recipients would be made to take part in a mandatory work placement if they were still looking for a job after 18 months, and would have their benefits cut if they refuse to engage with job offers after another six months.
From April 2025 the sicknote system will also be changed to assume that people can work – suggesting, in what will bring relief to some, that anyone currently assessed as unable to work because of disability or ill health will not be affected by the new benefit crackdown.
If Espley were to make a new ESA claim after April 2025, she would be subject to the new rules. Although she hopes these new policies will not apply to her current claim, she does not know, of course, what the future will hold, and how quickly she will be able to get treatment and recover.
“I would work from home and am open to suggestions,” Espley says, “but I don’t know what else I can do, and want nothing more than to recover my health and get back to the job I am good at and have 40 years experience in for the few years until I can get my state pension. How is this fair? This will cause a great deal of anxiety for many.”
