Ex NHS Nurse Living In Car And Eating Out Of Bins After Disability Allowance Cuts
A former nurse claims she is still living in a car and eating out of bins, months after her disability benefit was slashed.
Ann Cumberland-Quinn, 56, says she has struggled since her Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was stopped following a review in December.
Ann has been living in her car – a Hyundai Santa Fe – on and off with her Chihuahua, Chanel, since losing her social housing bungalow in June 2015.
Six months on, she says she has STILL not been housed by her local council despite being incontinent and unable to walk without crutches.
She has told the Cambridge News she “can’t go on living like this”.
Ann, of Ely, Cambs, said: “I have been living in my car. A friend took me in for two days then she’s moved on.
“My neck is really killing me, sleeping in the car my neck locks. I told the doctor is was screaming in pain and I can’t put the chair down in that car because it’s an old car.
“I’ve been going to garbage bins, anywhere… people’s houses at three o’clock in the morning and it is not very nice when I’m wet and my trousers are all wet.
“I am incontinent both ends and I’m ashamed.”
Ann, who suffers from neuropathy and owns her own car, said she can no longer afford the costs of housing following the changes to her benefits.
She says being of no fixed abode is also hampering attempts to find a home.
In May she said: “I’ve got no family anymore and the councils are not going to house me because I have no connection anywhere. They’ve said ‘go live with your mum and dad’ I said: ‘I will be at this rate.
“‘I’ll be in the ground with them, I can’t dig them up.’
“I want some money to live and I’m not living, I’m just existing.”
Before the cuts the ex-nurse, who once worked at The Princess of Wales Hospital, in Ely, Cambs, claims she received £550 in benefits.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman confirmed she is not receiving any disability allowance, but does receive employment support allowance – which means she is deemed able to work.
He said: “Decisions for PIP are made following consideration of all the information provided by the claimant and their GP or medical specialist, and anyone who disagrees with a decision can appeal.”
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