Rachael Smith | Reporter
In a fatally unfortunate series of events, a mother of four was found dead and alone in her chilling home after her welfare was mercilessly cut off. Elaine Morall, only 38 years of age, had her welfare payments – which, incidentally, paid for the heating bill – halted after she missed an interview with officials, due to her being ill.
Morall, a resident of North West England, was discovered wearing a coat and scarf after she had died in a house that she could not afford to heat because the government had revoked her social security payments. Morall’s case came to the attention of the internet because her heartbroken mother posted a letter on social media that has since went viral. In the letter, it has been disclosed that she grievously passed away on the 2nd of November from bitter cold, because she was lovingly waiting on her children coming home from school before she would put on the heating.
In the months leading up to her death, it has also been revealed that Elaine was previously ill enough to be put into intensive care several times, but was somehow not deemed sick enough for the government to grant her support and employment allowance. A tragic fault of our benefit system and the government has once again, lead to another unnecessary death and even more children being orphaned.
Linda, Elaine’s mother, also claimed that her daughter had been taken to court on multiple occasions to pay her rent, despite having no source of income, and was also suffering from eating disorders and severe depression. It is a known fact that people in poverty are far more likely to suffer mental health issues, and therefore need the utmost support from our politicians, and yet they are often discarded from society and dehumanised in the process, all for asking for help.
Linda Morall also commented on the situation saying,
“How many people have got to die before this government realises they are killing vulnerable people?”
Anti-poverty activists have also displayed this message and have continuously been campaigning against the UK governments most recent austerity measures saying that they
“risk endangering the most vulnerable in our society.”
We must not forget about Elaine Morall, or what was allowed to happen to her and her family due to carelessness from our government and their impotence on welfare reforms. This was a tragic act of neglect from the government against this woman and it should not be allowed to happen again.
To prevent this, there are a multitude of campaigns and petitions you can get involved in to tackle things such as Universal Credit; you can even phone your local MP to comment on the situation, or you could write a letter to the British department of Work and Pensions.
This has been a wake up call for the citizens of Britain, and evidence for the very real existence of relative poverty in our country. Hopefully it has been a wake up call for the politicians, nestled so nicely by their fires, as well.
