In the early 1980s, while working in Acton Supplementary Office, I found the name Fielding on my list of claimants for that day. I called the name over the PA system and on entering my interviewing cubicle, there she was, unmistakable in full makeup and with fluttering eyelashes… it was Fenella Fielding (‘I thought I was finished, darling!’ G2, 9 November)! “Oh darling, I do hope you can help me,” she said. I managed to retain my civil servant gravitas and, I hope, dealt with her claim in the same sympathetic manner I tried to adopt with all claimants. Reading Simon Hattenstone’s interview, I was touched by her comment about waiting at home for her benefit to arrive. I do hope it wasn’t too long – there was no six-week waiting period in those days. I am glad that life became better for Fenella; sadly this is not the case for those who claim universal benefit today.
Bill Geddes
Worthing, West Sussex
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