Following a stroke, Gillian applied for Personal Independence Payment to help with the additional expenses of impairment. Having waited five months for a decision, Gillian and her husband’s income is so low they have sold clothes to try and get by, and have relied on food parcels from the Salvation Army, and on friends and family to help pay bills. Her husband, Mark, cannot look for work because he is caring for his wife round the clock, yet he cannot apply for carer’s allowance until her PIP is confirmed. Mark says, “The end result is that we are no longer living, simply existing. Last week we had no milk, no bread, not even a toilet roll.” They lost their family home a month ago, and are still without a cooker, which means Mark cannot prepare the right foods to help his wife recover. He says, “It is making her condition worse.”