My Mum is 57. She has worked her whole life since leaving school at the age of fifteen. She's never been in a great paid job but has been proud of herself for working hard and paying her way in society. She's never been able to buy a home of her own or save but instead she has worked hard and got by with what she had. She put food on the table for us and taught us the value of working and being inde pendant. Both me and my brother went to college and university snd now I work as a nurse and my brother is also employed full time. Two years ago my mum had breast cancer. She was absolutely devastated and had to go on sick leave from the job she had for the last 20 years as a school caretaker and cleaner. She had never taken a single day off and loved her job. She left and went through chemotherapy and radiotherapy as well as surgery to remove the breast but became very weak. She got through the treatment but developed severe lymphodema in her arm which prevented her going back to work as she didn't have use of her arm so her employer couldn't offer her old job back and made her redundant. During this time she also learned that she had arthritis in both knees and would need to go in for further surgeries on her breast and also knee replacements in both knees. Her health started to deteriorate and she suffered from a flare up of psoriasis and started attending hospital for light therapy as well as admissions as an inpatient for skin treatments. She attends the hospital weekly for different appointnents to see cancer specialists, surgeons, dermatologists, urologists and she has attended for various investigations discovering she has peptic ulcers and and stomach problems. During this time my Mum applied for employment support askance which would be based on contributions she had made to national insurance. She had to attend a medical and was told she was fit for work and therefore wouldn't receive benefit. She had to appeal and eventually started receiving a small amount. This April the payments stopped and she was told she was no longer entitled to any money as she was only allowed to claim for a year. My dad is 58 and on a low income of less than £180 a week. He can afford to pay rent on their council house and buy basic shopping and pay gas/electricity and that's it. My Mums income was essential.and now they can't afford to even buy a new pair of shoes or clothes or even travel on the bus. The benefits agency says there is nothing else she can claim as she claimed employment support askance for the maximum time and as my Dad works more than 16hrs a week. They say she cannot claim jobseekers allowance because she is unfit to work and she won't be able to claim anything else. My Mum is so upset and depressed about this as now she has no income and no way of getting any money for herself. She is having to borrow money to get to all her hospital appointments and has no income to pay any of it back. I just think it's so unfair especially since she worked her whole life and asked for nothing and it makes me mad that there are so many scroungers who have never worked in their life living off the state. Why can they claim money their whole lives when my poor Mum is entitled to nothing.