> Josh Smith was so anxious about his disability benefits assessment that he told his mother Tracy he planned to take a hammer and chisel to his leg. “That’s a disability they can see,” she breaks into tears as she remembers her son’s desperate words. “They can’t see my mental health. If they can see my disability they’re more likely to give me the clear.”
>Josh was just 25 when he took his own life. His final months were consumed with anxiety that his benefits would be snatched away. Tracy, who is speaking out for the first time three years after her son’s death, blames the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and public services for failing Josh when he was at his most desperate.
>“Life was already a massive struggle for him,” Tracy says. “The benefits system added so much pressure. I know there’s people who work the system, but you know when someone’s really depressed and mentally ill. It doesn’t take rocket science. This is the consequence of adding pressure to people who are genuinely ill. They are pushed over the edge.”
> Tracy is one of nearly 200 people to have written to The Big Issue to share their experiences following our reporting on the failures of the DWP’s disability benefits system. Many disabled and seriously ill people claim to have been driven to “psychological trauma to the point of being suicidal” because of the distress of claiming disability benefits.
>Josh was never refused benefits – but the fear that his payments could be stopped, and the trauma of having to justify his condition to assessors over and over again, contributed to the tragedy of his death. And it has left his mother, father and two siblings aching with loss. They will never hear Josh’s laugh again.
>Josh was a happy child growing up in Scotland with a big group of friends. He adored his sister, who was four years younger than him, and his older brother was his best friend. Josh was caring and intelligent, with a talent for computers. But his mental health plummeted when he hit puberty. He was 13 when he told his father he planned to take his own life.
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> Josh Smith was so anxious about his disability benefits assessment that he told his mother Tracy he planned to take a hammer and chisel to his leg. “That’s a disability they can see,” she breaks into tears as she remembers her son’s desperate words. “They can’t see my mental health. If they can see my disability they’re more likely to give me the clear.”
>Josh was just 25 when he took his own life. His final months were consumed with anxiety that his benefits would be snatched away. Tracy, who is speaking out for the first time three years after her son’s death, blames the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and public services for failing Josh when he was at his most desperate.
>“Life was already a massive struggle for him,” Tracy says. “The benefits system added so much pressure. I know there’s people who work the system, but you know when someone’s really depressed and mentally ill. It doesn’t take rocket science. This is the consequence of adding pressure to people who are genuinely ill. They are pushed over the edge.”
> Tracy is one of nearly 200 people to have written to The Big Issue to share their experiences following our reporting on the failures of the DWP’s disability benefits system. Many disabled and seriously ill people claim to have been driven to “psychological trauma to the point of being suicidal” because of the distress of claiming disability benefits.
>Josh was never refused benefits – but the fear that his payments could be stopped, and the trauma of having to justify his condition to assessors over and over again, contributed to the tragedy of his death. And it has left his mother, father and two siblings aching with loss. They will never hear Josh’s laugh again.
>Josh was a happy child growing up in Scotland with a big group of friends. He adored his sister, who was four years younger than him, and his older brother was his best friend. Josh was caring and intelligent, with a talent for computers. But his mental health plummeted when he hit puberty. He was 13 when he told his father he planned to take his own life.