44-year old Richard was an unemployed helicopter pilot. He was retraining to be an electrician, but was told by the job centre that he must give up his course in order to be available for work. Informed that his family faced a £30 per week cut in Housing Benefit, he feared this would leave his family homeless. Richard stabbed himself twice in the heart. A coroner notes, “The fact his Housing Benefit was about to be cut and the family would be at risk of having nowhere to live, and being ordered to give up his training course because of the job centre’s rules, would appear to be especially poignant and tragic.”