Rachel is a job centre employment adviser and carer. She says, “We, as advisers and support workers, are angry on our clients’ behalf. We are looking at these rules and thinking, ‘That’s not fair, you cannot do that to people who are suffering’ – and an awful lot of people are suffering who weren’t previously. It’s hard enough filling out the form for Employment and Support Allowance. It’s something like a 36-page form. I myself am a carer, so I know. I have to fill out my partner’s form every six months. Yeah! I also have to fill out the Disability Living Allowance form every three years and that takes me a month. I’m educated. I know how to fill out a form properly and yet it still takes me a month to fill out a DLA form!”

Source: Mary O’Hara (2014) Austerity Bites, Policy Press, 169