A DIABETES sufferer who lost both legs because of the illness has been told he no longer needs to undergo a medical assessment to prove he cannot work.
It comes after The Sentinel highlighted the case of Chris Cann.
The grieving widower was stunned when he was told he would need to go through a stringent test to justify his benefit payments.
But the 57-year-old, of Cauldon Road, Shelton, has now received a telephone call from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in which he was told there was no need to attend the assessment.
Chris, who also lost a finger because of his condition, said: “I was told there was no need to go as they know I am not fit for work.”
The issue arose following Chris’s bid to receive the new Employment and Support Allowance.
An assessment four years ago, before he was confined to a wheelchair, found he was unfit to work.
But the DWP made an appointment for him at the Atos Healthcare Stoke Assessment Centre on Festival Park just days after he had his right leg amputated at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.
His left leg was removed in January after he developed ulcers. Chris was diagnosed with diabetes six years ago.
Chris, whose partner of 11 years Emma Wilson died earlier this month, feared he would lose around £600 a month in benefits if he had been classified as fit to work.
Now he is focused on regaining some normality in his life and hopes to receive two prosthetic legs over the next six months.
He currently relies on carers to look after him after losing both legs from above the knee.
Chris, who worked in the fast food industry for 30 years, said: “I will get the left side first and that will help me get around the house a bit more.
“It could take another four months until I get one for the right side.
“It will then take a lot longer to get my strength back and I will pretty much have to learn to walk again.
“I have a carer who comes out four-times-a-day but I need my case reassessed because I need to be taken out to go the shop and things like that.
“I want a normal life again and to be able to go out with friends or to a Stoke City match.”
Friend of 12 years Barry Seckerson, aged 72, of Oakhill, added: “It is disgusting that Chris was told he needed to be assessed as it just put him under more pressure.”
A spokesman for the DWP said the Work Capability Assessment looks at other kinds of work for disabled people, if they can’t continue in their previous roles.
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Um thats a dwp lie right there!
To say “the wca looks at other kinds of work for disabled people” is saying Atos is a recruitment service.
Atos are supposed to be medical professionals right! So why then are they now also recruitment? This bullshit is beyond the norm of scamming is it not?
make the rules, ignore them and just make it up as they go along, spouting any old bullshit they can think of x
So he gets to not have a medical after a local paper highlited his case, if that’s true then I’m going to start screaming and shouting to all the local papers so one of them can highlite my case and get my failed medical re-assessed by a qualified medical professional not a trained monkey on a computer!
Before anyone thinks I’m playing the race card the person interviewing me was white and well spoken!