Nick Ward Director of the National Autistic Society Scotland
Dear Editor,
There can be few greater personal trials for an individual or their loved ones than to face a diagnosis that they are terminally ill.
No matter how sensitively handled by the medical expert involved, the sheer impact of hearing those words will trigger a series of emotions, events and choices none of us would like to contemplate.
People will rally round; they will show their love, care, and do what they can to ease the burden.
No-one will fail to see that compassion and thoughtful help is required – except, that is, the Department of Work and Pensions.
I chair the cross-party group on terminal illness at Westminster and, as a group of MPs, we work with Marie Curie and others to try and improve the lives of people living with a terminal illness diagnosis.
As part of that work, we heard testimony from Mark, who recalled his terminal bone cancer diagnosis as “when the nightmare with the DWP began”.
On top of trying to come to terms with his diagnosis, Mark was subjected to “endless form-filling, same questions, same answers”.
He was given the devastating news that because he didn’t have less than six months to live, he wasn’t classed as “terminally ill”, nor did he qualify for financial support.
Like too many others, he is trapped in a system that only recognises a terminal illness given a six-month-or-less expiry date.
It sounds cruel because it is, and it needs to change.
Surely even this Tory Government can find a way to help these people, rather than forcing them to navigate a thoughtless system for paltry financial support in what is their time of greatest need? We already know it can be done. The Scottish Government will rely on the judgment of doctors and clinicians with its limited new welfare powers over personal independence payments.
The UK Government can do the same for all other benefits and scrap the arbitrary six-month rule.
People with a terminal illness just want to be treated with dignity and respect and I, for one, won’t stop until they are. Drew Hendry MP Chairperson All-party parliamentary group on terminal illness