The descent into barbarism continues unabated while our politicians of all stripes conspire to deny all of us our basic human rights. These are crimes  perpetrated by the British State that cry out to Heaven for vengeance.

“An attack on One is an Attack on ALL”

~ Black Triangle Campaign


Powered by Guardian.co.ukThis article titled “Double death in asylum seeker family reveals gap in state benefits” was written by Amelia Gentleman, for The Guardian on Friday 5th October 2012 17.34 Europe/London

A baby boy starved to death in Westminster as his seriously ill and “socially isolated” mother struggled to obtain proper housing, benefits and support, a serious case review into his death has revealed.

An inquest returned a verdict of accidental death, noting that the baby, known as Child EG, died after his mother developed a rare brain infection, rendering her unconscious, so unable to feed her child. She died two days after her son.

However, the full serious case review highlights a number of failings that contributed to the family’s vulnerability in the months before the tragedy.

The child’s mother found it difficult to obtain benefits after her asylum application was approved and she found herself caught between two separate support systems, the review notes. “There were significant problems in the transition from National Asylum Support Service (Nass) to mainstream benefits.”

The family had become “destitute” because of the withdrawal of the service’s support, a critical letter from the chair of Westminster’s independent local safeguarding children’s board notes, and were being given cash handouts by healthcare workers and social services “to tide them over”.

The safeguarding children board’s recommendations were released this week to Inside Housing magazine.

Although it was his mother’s illness which was the direct cause of Child EG’s death, the review points to weaknesses in the support system for asylum seekers whose applications are granted, which can mean they wait weeks before they are transferred to a new benefits system.

These changes meant that both in Westminster, and in the family’s previous home, in the Midlands “the family became dependent upon ad hoc payments by local agencies, which must have added to Mrs G’s anxiety and, in consequence, to her difficulty in managing her children and their collective health needs”. A requirement for her to “become homeless before the local authority or Benefits Agency could assist her left Mrs G in an extremely uncertain position. Uncertainty about where one might be living next day would be worrying for anyone. For Mrs G and, in particular, FG [her three-year-old daughter] who was old enough to be aware of her mother’s anxiety, it must have been extremely difficult.”

The case prompted the independent Westminster local safeguarding children board to call for a better “joined up” system, to improve the transition “without households having to face the additional stress of uncertainty and insecurity”.

Because of chronic medical conditions, the family was receiving “significant levels of health and other support services”, the review notes.

Mrs G called an ambulance early 8 March 2010 to say that her son was having difficulty breathing. When the ambulance staff arrived, paramedics noted that the baby had been dead for some time. An initial postmortem found there was no food in the baby’s stomach or digestive tract. He was described as “seriously underweight and dehydrated”, which was noted as “clearly the immediate cause of death”

His mother was arrested on suspicion of neglect but also rushed to hospital where she was admitted to the high dependency unit and told doctors she had not eaten for two days. She died two days later.

James Thomas, director of family services at Westminster city council, said: “This was clearly a tragic case involving a family with complex health needs.

“We share the Westminster safeguarding children board’s concerns about the current transitional support available to successful asylum seekers before they are linked up to mainstream support services.”

Dave Garratt, the chief executive of Refugee Action, said: “The transition from Nass support to full state benefit entitlement funded by the Department for Work and Pensions continues to fail some of the most vulnerable and marginalised people in society. Unacceptable delays in these transition arrangements are all too common, resulting in homelessness and hunger.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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6 thoughts on “

  1. jeffery davies says:

    this lot are nothing but evil who take the bread out of the poor mouths just to put back some of the moneys the bankers robbed .are there any in jail nah the rich look after the rich while the poor starve and that is our lot by this lot jeff3

  2. kasbah says:

    This is utterly sickening and distressing-nothing short of contempt for these most vulnerable and traumatised people, who are deemed less worthy than scum. How wrong that is- it is those that have the power to care competently by putting worthy policies in place- and DON’T do so, ie, it is the governemnt that are scum. Contemptible, ignorant, over-privileged in-bred gold-plated evil bastards. May they pay heavily for the extraordinary and growing amount of crimes against the people that they blithely perpetrate.

    Power to the people.

  3. Vee StJohn-Byles says:

    I am sick to my stomach. The people running the ‘system’ are just sick.damn sick psychopaths. How the hell can you ignore the fact that leaving people in such a vacuum devoid of any help apart from handouts, would lead to anything but such a despicable hateful outcome.

    The whole draconian system is plain vicious.

    Anyone who knows anything about the benefits system (especially if they have had first hand dealings with it) knows it is a nightmare to get benefits to ‘flow’ – one department does not know what the other department has done or is doing, and the whole lot is excruciatingly paper heavy. And this is when you even GET benefits.

    For instance, someone in receipt of housing benefit, and job seekers allowance, once in work – when their circumstances change, will OFTEN find themselves in debt for unpaid rent to the council who actually pays their housing benefit, but that benefit is paid late, and in arrears. How the heck can people be expected not to have rent arrears when their benefits are not received in good time, or a reason is found not to provide them.

    Sadly, such examples as above with deaths occurring, will become the norm with the ‘system’ and the current controllers!

  4. Allen Vincent 489 says:

    Just beyond awful. I wish England were a population of armed people, akin to the USA…. Somehow logically I don’t think our respective Governments would dare copulate us so harshly for fear of us having the means to fight back.

    @AllenVincent489

  5. Humanity2012 says:

    This is Sad and an Clear as CRYSTAL Indication of the Evil State of Affairs that
    is the United Kingdom Situation

    Common Sense Tells One that with Evil such as This Happening The United Kingdom
    is Crying Out for Revolution which will Give Us a Decent Government A Constitution
    Based upon Decency and Morality which Ensures that the Poor and Vulnerable will
    be Helped unlike this Cowboy Capitalist Present

    Murder by Poverty is Still Murder

    It is Beyond Acceptable that Babies should Suffer Starvation whilst those Stuck Up Ignorant and Self Serving Politicians in Westminster Live the Life of Riley Not
    Forgetting the Real Scroungers of the British ” Royal ” Family with Buckingham Palace
    Windsor Castle and other Pleasure Palaces at their Usage

    The System is the Problem and The System Needs to be Replaced by Mass Peaceful
    Public Opinion and Resolute Revolutionary Political Action by a Safeguard which
    is Caring Benevolent and Civilised

  6. tanith says:

    where is this going to end how many more deaths have to occur before that monster is got rid of for goodness sakes. they booted thatcher out why is this evil man still in and allowed to carry on like this how can he sleep at nite how dare he walk out in public , when are the people of this country going to wake up and get rid of these inhuman monsters its appaulling and despicable yet hes being allowed to get away with it and mark my words theres more to come aswell unless something radicial is done about it

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