This man had to fight for benefits just before he died – when do we start to care? | Frances Ryan

Stephen Smith’s struggle exposed the cruelty of the benefits system. Now he is dead, but the system goes on

You may not remember the name Stephen Smith, but his body is hard to forget: a photo taken by the Liverpool Echo emerged in February that showed a skeletal Smith sitting in a hospital gown, his spine protruding from his six-stone frame. He had just had his disability benefits stopped.

It quickly became one of the most notorious images illustrating the cruelty and unreliability of the disability benefits assessment system: Smith had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, osteoarthritis and an enlarged prostate that left him barely able to walk and in pain, but regardless he was found “fit for work” and told to look for a job.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2IMDbhq