Sorry Your Son Is Dead, but Prepare to Starve

Apparently this mum hasn't heard about Britain's new austerity measures which require sacrifice from everyone. Her 18 year-old son sacrificed his life, now it's time for her to sacrifice food and shelter.

The mother of the youngest British soldier killed in Afghanistan has condemned officials for using a death-in-service payment to stop her income support allowance.

Lucy Aldridge, 42, returned from an Armistice Day ceremony - in which her son William's name was unveiled on her village war memorial - to find a Jobcentre Plus letter warning that her £307.80-a-month income support had been suspended.

[...]

'To open that letter, on Armistice Day of all days, after watching William's sacrifice honoured on our local memorial, was insensitive beyond belief,' said Miss Aldridge a single mother with two other children - George, seven, and Archie, five.

'The letter was dated November 9th. It was timed to arrive on the 11th. Have they no shred of compassion? 'I received £66,000 as a death-in-service payment for Will. I didn't want it - I'd rather have my son back than take the government's blood money.

'None of it is for me. I've put it in a savings account for Will's brothers to give them the future he never had. No one ever said I had to declare it to anyone.'

[...]

Former printer Miss Aldridge, of Bredenbury, Herefordshire, is unable to work because she suffers from a degenerative and incurable tissue disease called Hypermobility syndrome.

[...]

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions said the rules on receiving income support and military death-in-service payments were 'quite detailed'.

She added: 'It is unfortunate that our letter arrived on Armistice Day. However we have a duty to taxpayers to act as soon as we receive information about a claimant.'

[Daily Mail]