Very sad story about ex-serviceman and his wife

[hiddenhome]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2059238/Army-veteran-Mark-Mullins-wife-Helen-driven-suicide-poverty.html

Dear god - and they had relatives too. It shows how desperate people can get and just not ask for help.

I'm not sure how relevant his Services background is. It's not clear how long he served for, but his (possible) alcoholism and his wife's learning difficulties must have been important factors.

Given that they were itw CAB and the Salvation Army, and that their benefits were under £60 per week, I think there must be more to this story than reported (assuming the Mail is accurate in the first place).

But the saddest part of it is their orphaned daughter

Wow , very sad

There must be a lot more to this

For a start, Royal British Legion would gave helped had they known. They would buy a fridge for them for a start!

Why wasn't he accessing help? It all focused on his wife and her disabilities

Would he not have got an army pension?
Agree the British legion would have bought a fridge.
Someone must have known the dire situation they were in, did they ask for help or decline help. anyway, still sad

The problem is that they were not able to access the support they needed - they didn't apply for the right benefits which would obviously have kept them out of poverty.

They both had mental health problems which prevented them accessing support. Really, someone ought to have called Adult Care Services to help them.

There was no need for them to be cold and to feel irrationally that someone was going to section the woman.

Lots of people with mental health problems fall through the system.

He had MH issues too ? Missed that

coccyx: the article says he didn't qualify for a pension (which I think would have to mean an immediately payable pension - he'd have a preserved award but that would start paying at normal pension age).

They do seem to have been in touch with both the authorities and charities, but still did not get adequate help. There isn't enough in the article to be sure why.

I am suspicious of the DM pinning an ex-Service headline on this in the run up to Remembrance Day, especially as there seem to have been a number of other factors in their lives.

It is a tragedy they did not find help.

edithweston think you are right to be suspicious.
I thought the couple were going to be retired and in their 80's!
Seems to be more an issue of mental health problems and accessing help

I think that's what annoys me - there are very few people who are too poor to eat and too poor to heat their homes - the ones that do fall into that category are families with disabilities (many of whom are young families), and some elderly people who have problems (like dementia/isolation) that prevent them accessing services.

This couple owned their own home and I'm guessing where it is it was probably worth £160k plus - if they had been mentally well they could have sold that and moved into a decent flat and accessed proper benefits to maintain them there.

Another reason to hate the Daily Mail - claiming they were 'poor' when actually the growing problem is that people with mental health problems are falling through the cracks.

The majority of the elderly that die because of 'fuel poverty' have other mental health problems and other 'access' problems.

Actually, I have just re read the article and nowhere does it say that the husband had MH issues.

He was fit to work. But wasn't. He also claimed they had appealed before, so someone wasn't facing up to the fact they weren't entitled to certain benefits. Something not quite right about this

He wasn't mentally Ill though?

Tiff - I'm inferring that he had MH problems as he was hiding her from the authorities believing (mistakenly) that she was going to be sectioned.

As you say he had told someone something which either doesn't ring true (MH problem) or the system was failing them and there will be an investigation.

Does say that they did not claim incapacity benefit as worried the wife would be taken into care , so some help was there.

This is exactly how the welfare system is now. The Daily Mail supports that system and calls the people eligible to claim 'scroungers' etc. and their thicko readers lap it up.

RIP Mark and Helen Mullins

I think there was a lot more to this.

People in the comments section blaming "Cameron's Big Society" - sorry, no govt. would have allowed this to happen. Surely nobody dies of poverty in this country unless they have some accompanying mental health issues. Nobody would have seen them go hungry - they had family and neighbours and plenty of local resources.

I feel pitifully sorry for them and the despair, though misplaced, they must have felt to do this.

Jobcentres to send poor and hungry to charity food banks

The government is allowing this to happen.

But the article says they had recently been staying with friends

From the BBC

'"The job centre decided that she couldn't sign on because she wasn't capable... she had no brain functions, no numeracy, literacy skills.

"But the incapacity people... wouldn't recognise her until she had been fully diagnosed - which meant month after month after month of specialists.'

The people on here who are surprised or say there is more to this obviously know nothing about trying to access incapacity or disabled welfare benefits. That's not because there hasn't been enough media about it, it's because you haven't listened. This is the norm in the UK, 2011. And it's not because of 'Big Society' or anything of the sort. It is a system started by Labour and continued by the Tories. Just look at the hate speech employed by politicians against people claiming welfare for the last 15 years.

I think you're right to avoid painting this as a party political issue - if you look at the timelines in the BBC article, the problems for this couple clearly began well before the change in administration (as they and had so many claims/appeals by late 2010).

I hope that the calls for there to be an enquiry are successful. A proper examination of all everything which happened will probably be more illuminating than the press coverage.

Katherine...how had she been surviving before then? Why at the age she was was she applying for benefits for the first time?

It was her 12 year old daughter who was removed from her care. Implys it's not her husbands child...so how had she been living previously?

I really hope so EdithWeston.

Helen Mullins wouldn't of been applying for benefits for the first time. The benefits available would of been continually changed over time. Benefits have to be reapplied for again and again using bewildering forms and different requirements. Everyone who used to be able to claim incapacity have been required to claim for ESA. If you really have no idea about the difficulties in claiming ESA then there is a lot of information available on the net.

I don't have the exact details of this tragedy ILoveTIFFANY, but it part of a hideous pattern.

'Why at the age she was was she applying for benefits for the first time?'
It says because he had lost his job and £57.50 wasn't enough to live on.

'so how had she been living previously?'
It says that she got child allowance, which stopped after her daughter was removed from her.

Lost his job. Well it implies he was discharged. Alcohol issues.

Army don't just kick you out for no reason.

The BBC reported on this couple without mentioning his time in the Army at all. It may prove to be more important to the DM headline writer than to the actual chain of events.