Sheila Holt from Rochdale was in a coma but received letters asking about her fitness to work from private contractor Atos. (Picture Mirror Pix)

A woman who was hounded by government back-to-work assessors while she lay in a coma has died.

Her family said she had had her ‘life stolen’ by cost-cutting measures introduced by the Coalition.

Sheila Holt, who hadn’t worked for 27 years because of her condition and other illnesses, was sent letters enquiring after her fitness and suitability for employment as she lay in a hospital bed.

She had slipped into a coma after suffering a heart attack.


Her father, Kenneth Holt, said today, ‘’It’s not just her. There are hundreds like her. People are dying because they are being hounded. It’s got to stop here.’



Ms Holt had been sectioned after struggling to cope when she was put on to the controversial government programme then run by private health firm Atos.

Atos assessed whether benefit claimants were fit to work but its contract was ended early amid government criticisms of ‘significant quality failures’.

Ms Holt never recovered and passed away last week aged 48.

Ms Holt’s story made national headlines and drew an unreserved apology from a government minister.

MORE: Mother woke from coma after hearing doctors talking about turning off life support machine

Disability minister Mike Penning told MPs that things had gone wrong in her case.

Ms Holt, from Hamer, Rochdale, hadn’t worked for more than two decades and her family said she was terrified of losing her benefit payments.

Ms Holt’s father Kenneth said today: ‘Sheila should never have been on the work programme. She spent her life in and out of psychiatric hospitals and tried to commit suicide several times. She was terrified of people.’