A LEADING charity has warned that Scottish cancer patients could be at risk of homelessness under the UK Government’s plans to slash benefits.
Disturbing new research, commissioned by Macmillan Cancer Support, has revealed cancer victims could lose their homes if proposed government cuts to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) go ahead.
A survey of nearly 1,000 people living with cancer in Britain found that one in 10 would struggle or be unable to pay their rent or mortgage if they lost £30 a week.
This is the amount the Government is proposing to cut in 2017 from those who receive the work related activity element of ESA benefit, a group of people assessed as currently too ill to work, but capable of returning to work at some time in the future.
While Macmillan’s research shows 10 per cent of cancer patients could face homelessness if they lost £30 a week, the risk is drastically higher for those in receipt of ESA.
Of the 78 people in the survey who received this benefit, more than one in three (36 per cent) said they would be unable or would struggle to pay their rent or mortgage if the benefit was cut by £30 a week, almost a third of the entire benefit.
Now Macmillan Cancer Support is calling on the Government to remove the proposed £30 a week cut to ESA work related activity group (Wrag) from the Welfare Reform and Work Bill.
Janice Preston, head of Macmillan in Scotland, said: “We know cancer has a huge financial impact and this research shows that any cuts to benefits could have devastating results.
“We hope the Westminster Government will rethink their proposals to make cuts to Employment and Support Allowance.
“Anyone with cancer who has been affected by financial problems should get in touch with our benefits advice services so we can make sure they are getting all the support they are entitled to.”
Around 5,000 people with cancer currently receive the work related activity element of ESA which entitles them to £102.15 a week.
Macmillan says this is a benefit that many people with cancer will be in receipt of at some point during their lives, so cuts will affect many more than the 5,000.
Recent Macmillan research shows that living with cancer can be extremely expensive and many people already face financial strain after their diagnosis. Most will incur extra costs, such as transport and heating, as a result of treatment at the same time as they are left unable to work.
One cancer sufferer from Edinburgh, Lynn Laing, 55, received the work related activity element of ESA after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010.
She had a mastectomy and then went through chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment during which time she was signed off sick from her job as a receptionist in a doctor’s surgery.
Mum-of-one Lynn, said: “It was horrendous.
“I couldn’t work. It was the tiredness – I was physically exhausted. I couldn’t get my head off the pillow. The chemotherapy knocked me for six and I just wanted to sleep all day. Then I was in and out of hospital for six months afterwards with various infections.”
Even with sick pay and then Employment and Support Allowance, Lynn and her husband Charles, who was in temporary employment, got into arrears with their mortgage and council tax payments.
They almost lost their home but Macmillan Cancer Support helped them pay the mortgage and “keep the wolves from the door”.
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