{"id":4332,"date":"2019-04-15T20:13:45","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T20:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cmshub.wpengine.com\/?p=242876"},"modified":"2024-11-03T15:17:14","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T15:17:14","slug":"breast-cancer-mom-is-living-on-84-pence-as-she-fights-for-the-government-assistance-she-deserves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/breast-cancer-mom-is-living-on-84-pence-as-she-fights-for-the-government-assistance-she-deserves\/","title":{"rendered":"Breast-Cancer Mom Is Living On 84 Pence As She Fights For The Government Assistance She Deserves"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Gillian Sykes was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was shocked to find out just how difficult it was to get the government assistance she needed to survive. As the weeks dragged on and the bills piled up, she reached the point where she had only 84 pence to her name.<\/span>Sykes, 45, is a single mom of two kids who worked as a supply teacher up until the time of her diagnosis in January. Since her diagnosis, she has been going back and forth with the Department of Work and Pensions \u2014 the biggest public service department in the United Kingdom \u2014 about the benefits that are due to her.<\/span>What she\u2019s had to go through is infuriating.<\/span>\"\"<\/span>Photo: The ECHO<\/span>
\n<\/span>Sykes found a lump in her breast in December of 2018. She immediately assumed the worst, as she has a family history of breast cancer. Sadly, this year marks 20 years since she lost her mother to breast cancer.<\/span>She officially got her breast cancer diagnosis in January, and her treatment began in earnest. She has already begun losing her hair \u201cin handfuls<\/a>,\u201d and she will be getting a mastectomy this summer.<\/span>However, the UK government has been painfully slow to catch up.<\/span>\"\"<\/span>Photo: Adobe Stock\/ronstik<\/span>
\n<\/span>The Universal Credit is a new system that is combining<\/a> six previously distinct benefit systems into one in the UK: income support, income-based jobseeker\u2019s allowance, income-related employment and support allowance, housing benefit, child tax credit, and the working tax credit.<\/span>But the system isn\u2019t working too well just yet.<\/span>Sykes wasn\u2019t told what she did and did not qualify for. Once she discovered the benefits she was due, she still ended up fighting the department for weeks \u2014 all while undergoing grueling treatment.<\/span>\u201cTwo days after my first chemotherapy session, I was told I had to take my bank statements in to the job centre to prove that they had taken money from me that they shouldn\u2019t have,\u201d said Sykes.<\/span>\"\"<\/span>Photo: Adobe Stock\/satyrenko<\/span>
\n<\/span>Sykes was initially told she needed to be looking for work, even though she wasn\u2019t able to due to her treatments and had had to quit a job she loved. Apparently, being told to find work was simply an \u201cautomated response\u201d in the system, but Sykes wasn\u2019t told that for some time.<\/span>\u201cI\u2019m having battles left, right and centre with Universal Credit \u2013 and issues with not being told what I can and can\u2019t claim,\u201d Sykes said<\/a>.<\/span>Sykes has suffered from depression for years, but had it under control. Her struggle to make ends meet while undergoing treatments has been understandably hard on the single mom.<\/span>\u201cI just feel like I\u2019m fighting for survival with benefits, that I shouldn\u2019t be fighting with right now. I\u2019ve got enough stress,\u201d she said<\/a>.<\/span>\"\"<\/span>Photo: The ECHO<\/span>
\n<\/span>It was a reporter from the Liverpool ECHO<\/a> who actually ended up giving the government the push they needed to sort out Sykes benefits. They brought up her case with the Department of Work and Pensions on a Friday afternoon. Within less than four hours, Sykes was notified that she qualified for assistance. The next day, she was notified that she would be getting hundreds of pounds in backpay that the government owed her.<\/span>A spokesman from the DWP told the ECHO<\/a>: \u201cWe have apologised to Gillian Sykes for the distress caused by this delay and are paying her full arrears.<\/span>\u201cShe has been placed in the long-term health condition group, meaning she receives a higher level of support and will not be required to seek work.<\/span>\u201cWe want to ensure that anyone with a health condition gets the support they need, which is why the Government is rolling out a recovery package to support people diagnosed with cancer and over 300,000 people will benefit every year by 2020.\u201d<\/span>\"\"<\/span>Photo: The ECHO<\/span>While Sykes is grateful to finally have the assistance she deserved, she\u2019s disgusted that it took a reporter to finally get a response from the DWP.<\/span>See more from Sykes in this video.<\/span>Proper BCS greatergood_ctg_abovevideo<\/span><\/span>Source<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Gillian Sykes was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was shocked to find out just how difficult it was to get the government assistance she needed to survive. As the weeks dragged on and the bills piled up, she reached the point where she had only 84 pence to her name.Sykes, 45, is a single […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44536,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4332\/revisions\/44536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}