Stephen Smith died after fighting the DWP from his sickbed. His story is far from unique Six stone and emaciated, he was deemed fit for work, and was even forced to leave hospital to fight the decision

The images of 64-year-old Stephen Smith‘s withered and emaciated body were some of the toughest I have ever had to publish.

To see a human being in that condition was distressing. To find out he had been denied benefits and told to go and find work was unforgivable.

Learning about his death this week was really difficult. When I last met Stephen at the end of January he was looking a bit healthier, had put on some weight, and was relieved to finally be getting the money that he had been so wrongfully blocked from receiving for so long.

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In February @AmberRuddHR responded to the pictures of Stephen Smith’s emaciated body and said her department would look into his case to see ‘what didn’t happen correctly’.

Following Stephen’s death – we’d like to ask if she has come to any conclusions.https://t.co/Hjt8H6mhiK — Liam Thorp (@LiamThorpECHO) April 22, 2019

Two doctors were ignored

We don’t know the exact reasons for Stephen’s death at this stage – he was battling a range of debilitating illnesses including COPD, osteoarthritis, an enlarged prostate and, more recently, pneumonia.

But his draining year-long battle against the state, which included having to get a pass out of hospital to fight and win a tribunal, can only have had a detrimental effect on his already failing health.

It is eternally maddening to know that the opinions of two separate doctors were ignored when the Department of Work and Pensions repeatedly turned down his plea for vital support.

It is even more dispiriting to think that the final years and months of a man’s life were consumed with trying to overturn a decision that should never had been made in the first place.

After six-stone man, Stephen Smith from Liverpool, was denied his benefits, tonight's edition of @granada_debate asks: is the Government fit to decide who's fit to work? Watch on ITV at 10:45pm. pic.twitter.com/8JhQIasUO7 — Rob Smith (@robsmithitv) February 7, 2019

The money Stephen received will now pay for his funeral

After the Liverpool Echo first reported on Stephen’s story – and the images sent shockwaves across the country – we were pleased that as well as having his benefits restored, he was awarded more than £4,000 in backpay for all those months in which he should have been being paid.

When I spoke to Stephen’s friend and benefits adviser Terry Craven this week, he informed me of the cruel irony which means that the money he eventually received will now be used for his funeral. He never had a chance to spend it.

‘As a political journalist in Merseyside, an area with soaring levels of poverty and deprivation, there is not a week that goes by where a distressing case doesn’t make its way across my desk’

Terry and the team at the Liverpool-based CASA community centre are brilliant. They take up the cases of people like Stephen for no other reason than that they refuse to let people suffer as a result of a broken and failing welfare state.

Terry told me that he has many more cases just as heart-wrenching as Stephen’s, including one woman who was kicked off benefits while she was on dialysis.

Errors are exposed by the media

How can anyone claim this is a system that puts the welfare of vulnerable citizens first? How can one look at what happened to Stephen Smith and think anything other than this is a system which seeks to save money wherever possible – and is content with seeing people slip through the cracks during the relentless pursuit of efficiency?

As a political journalist in Merseyside, an area with soaring levels of poverty and deprivation, there is not a week that goes by where a distressing case doesn’t make its way across my desk.

Just last week I reported on a single mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the turn of the year and had spent the subsequent months not focusing on her life-changing illness, but battling with the DWP to get the appropriate level of Universal Credit support that she needed and deserved.

In both that case and Stephen’s, the department acknowledged that errors that had been made shortly after the stories gained media attention. It just makes you wonder how many others are being denied what should be rightfully theirs every day.

It shouldn’t take a negative headline to prompt a government department to do the right thing.

I can only hope that Stephen Smith’s death will bring national attention to a benefits system and government culture that is clearly failing some of the most vulnerable people in our society. I hope his brave battle at a time when he could barely put one foot in front of the other will inspire even more people to speak out about what is going wrong.

Liam Thorp is the Political Editor for the Liverpool Echo. Twitter: @LiamThorpECHO