A charity has hit out at government cuts that have resulted in an eight-year-old boy with a congenital heart condition being stripped of financial support. Ben Gamble was born with half a heart and has undergone five heart operations in the past five years. He will need a heart transplant if he is to make it to adulthood.
Until he turned eight, Ben’s condition was deemed sufficiently serious by assessors at the Department for Work and Pensions to warrant access to disability living allowance (DLA). However, after his latest assessment in the summer, DWP officers axed the financial assistance given to his family after judging that the eight-year-old could walk 50 metres at a normal pace. The unexpected cut means that the family is no longer eligible for a raft of support measures from their council, and will see their income reduced by £700 a month.
Ben’s father, Paul, is his full-time carer and learned of the decision in a letter that arrived on the day of his son’s eighth birthday. He told the Coventry Telegraph: “It was ridiculous. Happy birthday, you’re not disabled any more and you have a perfect heart. All I could think was: ‘How can they come to the conclusion he’s fully functioning?’ It was like a bomb went off in my head.”
The boy’s condition means he struggles to get through the school day and is left exhausted by the 500-metre walk from his home.
Linda Burnip, co-founder of campaign group Disabled People Against the Cuts, said the decision to cut Ben’s DLA “seems to be a way of trying to reduce expenditure without making sure the person is getting the help and support they need to contribute to society”.
“You need constant monitoring with a heart condition – it is more or less a 24-hour job. Someone always needs to be on hand to make sure the child doesn’t overdo things, to make sure they rest,” she told the Guardian.
Burnip said the family now face financial hardship because DLA is a “passport” benefit. Claiming higher rates entitles families to apply to their local authorities for carer allowances, council tax reductions and housing benefit support. For families like Ben’s, she said, once the allowance is cut, their access to other support packages is removed.
The family’s appeal will be heard at Coventry magistrates court on 15 November, and their case is backed by Coventry city council’s cabinet member for children and young people, Ed Ruane. He told the Coventry Telegraph: “It does make you question how we’ve allowed a culture in society to develop so strongly, where central government thinks it’s acceptable to take money away from an eight-year-old boy with a severe heart condition.
“Ben Gamble’s case is not an anomaly or accident of a flawed system with good intentions. It’s the human consequence of this government’s active decision to bring in what they call ‘tougher measures’, measures such as significantly increasing the amount of money they were able to take from sanctioned disabled and chronically ill people.”
A DWP spokesman said: “Decisions are made after consideration of all the supporting evidence provided by the claimant and their family, their school, and their GP. Anyone who disagrees with a decision can appeal.”
