In the past couple of weeks there have been two stories, two conversations both involving vulnerable and desperate people who were in need of support and were denied it.
The ECHO often covers the failings of this country's welfare system - sadly that's because there are just so many examples of where it has pushed people to the edge, or over it.
Lee Tarpey was one of those people.
A proud husband and father, he had worked as a builder all his life and saw providing for his family as his number one priority.
It was not his fault that he was struck down with a heart attack in 2015 and developed subsequent debilitating health issues as a result.
The 40-year-old from St Helens did not want to claim benefits - in face he probably made his faltering health situation worse by trying to go back to work several times when he was not fit to.
When he reluctantly accepted that he needed some help from a system he had paid into all his life, it wasn't there for him.
Having been initially won an appeal to be awarded just a small level of Personal Independence Payments, his claim was then reviewed and a brief assessment decided he was not unwell enough to receive the benefits - despite the fact he could not work.
That decision and the mental anguish it brought was too much for Lee, who tragically took his life just a few weeks after his claim was stopped.
In conversation with ECHO political editor Liam Thorp his wife Kerrie, said: "He had left me a note which said he was sorry for not being the man to provide for us, it said he didn't deserve to live because he was a drain on us."
What a country we live in, where a proud, hard-working dad who just wanted to provide for his family but could not because of ill health has been left so desperate, so hopeless by a failing support system that he felt this was his only option. It is shameful stuff.
Lee's story is not the only one covered in recent weeks that highlights the punitive and painful experience handed out to many vulnerable people by the welfare state in its current form.
We all take plenty of stuff for granted - but what about just being able to get out of bed of a morning, to walk outside and breathe in the fresh air?
These are simple realities for most of us - but for Liverpool woman Emma Dolan Horlock they are currently unachievable.
She has been trapped in her bed for the past 6-years owing to an awful range of illnesses that mean simply sitting up is a bridge too far.
After vital NHS treatment was delayed, friends and family of the 46-year-old launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise cash to pay for private treatment and a specialist stretcher that just might make life a little more bearable.
Generous donations poured in and the appeal raised a remarkable £35,000 in a short period of time.
But after informing the Department of Work and Pensions of this change to her situation, it was decided that Emma no longer required the Universal Credit payments she had been relying on for daily living costs.
Emma said she will never spend any of the donated cash on her day-to-day costs, because that was not what people gave it for - but the system decided otherwise.
In another one of those unforgettable, indelible conversations, Emma, voice breaking with despair, and said how desperate and lonely the situation had made her feel - how powerless it had left her.
She said: "I have taken a lot of blows in the last 10 years and had to swallow my pride on more occasions than I care to remember.
"This DWP ruling is by far the most monumental knock to date and feels like the most cruel of blows."
The welfare state was designed to catch these people when they fall, to offer that safety net when they need it most - not to make already struggling people feel even more desperate and alone.
As Kerrie Tarpey put it: "I just think it's disgusting. These assessments that they do are not right, proud people like Lee may not admit how unwell they are, but he couldn't work - he wanted to and he tried to go back, but he physically couldn't."
When is this government going to realise that a punitive, brisk and cold approach to deciding whether someone is 'ill enough' to receive support is both dehumanising and deeply flawed.
