Found Fit For Work With Epilepsy, Depression, Brain Damage And Heart Disease

AN EPILEPTIC, his carer and their determined neighbour will fight the Government to the “very end” after the disabled man’s incapacity benefits were cut.

Geoffrey Wilkinson, 53, of Wheatfield Way, Chelmsford, also suffers from depression, brain damage, impaired memory, ischaemic heart disease and ongoing thrombosis.

Yet he was deemed fit to work around January following reassessments by government contractors Atos, despite medical advice, leading to a reduction in his monthly allowance from about £700 to £300.

“It felt like someone had smashed me over the head with a sledgehammer,” said Geoffrey, who takes 16 lots of medication a day.

Geoffrey and carer Peter Harrison, who is also his brother, are monitoring a third appeal to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal over the decision and along with neighbour Christine Mitchell, met with Simon Burns MP on Friday.

Peter says his brother has been left to live on £298 a month in Disabled Living Allowance (DLA) and temporarily £143 in Employment and Support Allowance (ECA)

“We want to take on the government and rip them to bits for what they’re doing to Geoff and thousands of others,” said Peter.

“It’s quite a lot of money we’ve lost. At the end of the day we are lucky if we have a meal.

“Christine had to lend us £10 for food the other day.

“He is not fit to work. What employer will deem my brother fit to work? If he worked now as a groundsman and parked up his tractor, walked away, he would forget where it was.”

Geoffrey, once a groundsman and labourer, fell out of work after a carbon monoxide poisoning incident in 1995 and has since been admitted to mental health service the Linden Centre.

In April 1998, five doctors wrote that he “will never work again”, while on this occasion his doctor Shahzad Ahmad has written: “I very much feel that Mr Wilkinson is not really fit to work.

“He would be a risk to himself and his colleagues with the medical condition he has.”

Springfield Hospital neurologist Dr Peter Bradbury has also written: “He is yet another victim of the inability of Atos to cope with more sophisticated neurological problems.”

The two approached Christine, their neighbour, who is more used to tackling government bureaucracy, when Geoffrey’s DLA was not paid. After two days of calls she found it was paid to Geoffrey’s old bank account.

“It’s such a damn mishmash,” she said.

Christine added: “We will fight it to the very end.

“The man is clearly being denied his just dos by an over-zealous government who think they can make laws to suit themselves.

“As far as I am concerned that man needs nurturing, not punishing.”