The parents of a severely disabled teenager say they have been forced to spend hours hunting for jobs he cannot do in a “nightmare” battle with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Connor Donnelly, from Mauchline, East Ayrshire, is wheelchair bound, blind, non-verbal and barely able to sit up after being starved of oxygen at birth.
Family forced to prove son is unfit for work
Since Connor turned 18 and left school in May, his father Steve, 46, and mother Helen, 44, say they have faced an ongoing struggle to prove he is unfit to find work while claiming Universal Credit. Unable to get him to their local job centre, which is inaccessible for his wheelchair, the family requested a face-to-face assessment. But in the meantime, they say they were told to keep looking for work for him.
Steve told the Record: “Both myself and my wife are feeling embarrassed and hurt. With Connor’s disabilities, every day is a challenge. You’re having to fight for absolutely everything.”
Phone calls ignored complex needs
“We explained his complex needs and it just fell on deaf ears. The woman on the phone was saying he needs to stick to his commitments and do this and that. I’m so angry at the fact they expected him to do job searches. We’re getting questions like ‘has he got a mobile phone? Has he got access to the internet? Has he got interview clothes?’”
“We’re saying ‘he’s in a wheelchair and can barely sit up unaided.’ What they were asking him to do is a physical impossibility and what we’ve been put through is an absolute nightmare. At one point we were sitting thinking ‘is it really worth it for what he’ll actually get?’ I then realised there is bound to be someone else out there like us, going through the same struggle.”
Universal Credit and disability benefits
A single person under 25 receives £338.58 per month in Universal Credit. In Scotland, disabled individuals can claim Universal Credit for living costs while simultaneously receiving separate disability living assistance. If a health condition or disability affects your ability to work, you may be eligible for extra monthly additions on top of your standard Universal Credit allowance. The exact monthly additions depend on assessment outcomes.
Connor, who has a big brother and three younger sisters, attended Willowbank School in Kilmarnock until earlier this year and previously received the benefit because he was in full-time education. Now he has become an adult, Steve said the requirements the family have to fulfil on top of caring for his complex needs have hit them “like a freight train”.
Guardianship and motability battles
“We had to go through the courts to get guardianship for him because he’s non-verbal and we’ve only got that for five years. We’ve already had a battle over his motability car and had to prove he was disabled enough to have a vehicle every year. His condition is not going to improve. As he’s getting older it’s getting more complex. It’s not as if he is going to miraculously be able to walk one day. It’s never going to happen.”
“His mum has had to sit and fill out his motability forms every year in tears, noting down everything that’s wrong with him. That has been recently resolved but Universal Credit is still the issue and what’s happened with the job centre has just been a disaster. His mum is his carer. The job centre said ‘you can come in and sign on for him’. But is she supposed to leave him sitting at home?”
“Currently, Helen is his appointee and she has had the commitment to do two hours of job searching a week for Connor. If anyone had actually seen him we wouldn’t have had to waste time doing this. There’s not a job out there that he could possibly do. We also have to provide sick lines to say he’s not fit for work until this gets sorted out.”
Home assessment promised but not delivered
The family say they were originally told someone would come out to assess Connor at home but that has not happened. Steve said: “We sought help from the doctors to try and put this to bed but were hitting a brick wall. It’s not even the money aspect, it’s gone beyond that now. It’s about what they’re putting us through. The government seem to be bending over backwards to help others but we, who have worked all our days, are being treated like this.”
It is understood Connor's file has now been updated to include a voluntary activity to contact his local council to seek places for social activities. The family said they were not aware of the update last night.
DWP responds
A DWP spokeswoman said: “We understand this is a difficult situation. Connor Donnelly’s status was confirmed via telephone appointment, and he has not been required to attend an in-person appointment in relation to work. Appropriate work-related requirements were set and tailored to the claimant’s individual circumstances, and a further telephone appointment has been arranged about this.”
