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David Cameron can sort benefits systems, says man cited in speech
9 Oct 2009David Cameron will need to show "balls" to sort out the nation's finances, according to the man whose benefits nightmare the Tory leader cited as an example of the "crazy" system.
Viv Williams, from Pontypool, South Wales, emailed Mr Cameron in desperation after being told a sprained ankle made him unfit for work so he would have to claim incapacity benefit.
His plight inspired Mr Cameron, who vowed this week to massively reduce the numbers on state sickness payments, to read out the message in his keynote speech to the party's annual conference in Manchester yesterday.
Mr Williams, who is a lifelong Tory voter but has never joined the party, said he was happy to have inspired the passage and backed Mr Cameron to sort out the system.
He said that after finding no work in the two months after he was laid off in February 2008 - the first time he had been jobless in his adult life - he went to Pontypool job centre to sign on for Jobseekers' Allowance.
He said he was told that, as they had no dependants, he and his wife Pamela, who had cataracts in both eyes, would have to make a joint claim, something they did not want to do.
But when the official spotted his limp, the result of a slip off a pavement, he said he was told, despite protests that it would be gone within days, that he would have to go on Incapacity Benefit instead.
For the next year he relied on help from his brother and sister to get by but by Christmas was left feeling "suicidal with worry" about losing his family home.
Unable to find work - a fact he blames on employers looking to recruit less experienced staff to save cash - he sought help from Citizens' Advice who told him a plethora of other health complaints, including three mild heart attacks, gout, diabetes and asthma, would qualify him for IB.
After an appeal, he was granted the benefit on which the couple, one of whose three children lives with them, survive.
"They told me I was a cripple. I had a twisted ankle. Any man or woman would carry on working. You take it a bit easy or do lighter duties but you carry on working," he said.
"For 12 months, after working for 43 years, they just told me to p off. For 12 months I did not get a penny off anybody apart from my brother and sister.
"Come Christmas I was suicidal. I have a family and they wanted to repossess the house. I lost my brother ... and my sister could not keep helping me.
"I was looking everywhere for work. I was a contract manager in interiors for more than 30 years, but they would rather pay somebody £15,000 with two years' experience."
Asked if he thought Mr Cameron would make a difference if he led the Tories to power, he said: "I do, yes. As long as he has the balls to get hold of it.
"He has to. It'll be a short-lived thing if he does not.
"There are a lot of shirkers but there are a lot of genuine people who need benefit too. If they take out the shirkers they can afford to pay for the ones who need it."
He said there had to be a clampdown on bumper payouts for MPs and in the City.
"One of those banker's bonuses would pay for hundreds of thousands of people's dole money for a week."
Mr Williams, who also has four grandchildren, missed the live broadcast of Mr Cameron's speech but said he was looking forward to watching it in news reports.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: "People claiming Jobseeker's Allowance do have to be able to show that they are capable of work, free to take up a job, and actively looking for one. Having a limp does not mean you're not capable of work.
"The help available does not depend on an individual's diagnosis or condition, but on the effect that condition, or a combination of conditions, has on each individual's mental and physical function.
"We have reformed the old system of incapacity benefits with the Employment and Support Allowance that focuses on the work an individual can do and gives them the tailored help and support needed to get back to work quickly."
