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A Sooty and Sweep fanatic has been left heartbroken after being forced to withdraw his support to a Facebook page dedicated to the children’s puppets – because his benefits have been cut.

Michael Knight paid for prizes for visitors to the social media appreciation page who won competitions that were run there.

But the 42-year-old, who suffers from heart problems, said he had been unable to pay for the rewards since his Living Disability Allowance of £290 was withdrawn following an assessment.

Michael, who lives in Chelmsley Wood with his husband Michael Hazlett, has been a fan of the TV puppets since he was a child.

He owns over a dozen puppets from the show and claimed the page, which has 1,036 likes, could be forced to close due to his financial problems.

He said: “Sooty and Sweep is my life. As soon as I saw Matthew Corbett perform with Sooty and Sweep on TV while growing up as a kid I was smitten.

“I have collected over a dozen puppets over the years.

“I have met Richard Cadell (the current presenter) and he is a fantastic bloke. He has even provided prizes for our Facebook site in the past.

“I will be gutted if the page has to close and so will the fans who follow it. But money is so tight now and I just can’t afford to provide the prizes for it.

“I received a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions saying that, following an assessment, I have now lost my allowance. It has left money so tight.”

The Sooty and Sweep page is also managed by Luke Hulme and Rachel Cook and is still running.

Luke recently thanked Michael for all his support and posted: “We would like to thank: Michael Knight.

“Michael has been a loyal and hard-working admin since he first joined our team in early 2014. He sadly had severe heart problems toward the end of last year but I am happy to say he has fully recovered from these problems.

“Michael also runs all of our competitions and spends HIS own money to buy the competition prizes and spends time contacting Richard and others about these prizes.

“I (Luke) would like to thank Michael for the hard work he has put in over the last year.”

Sooty was first created by Harry Corbett in 1948 and has been on TV since the 1950’s and, according to Guinness World Records, is the longest-running children’s programme in the UK.

Harry’s son Matthew took over in 1976 and he continued running programmes on TV until 1992.

Richard Caddell bought the rights to Sooty in 2008 and since then Sooty’s Big Day Out was released on DVD.

A new 26-part series is currently airing on CITV and is set in a holiday camp with Richard Cadell as the caretaker.

The Disability Living Allowance (DLA) has been replaced by Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) as part of the government’s welfare reforms.

The government claims PIPs will target resources more effectively towards those who need it most.

But Disability charity Scope have concerns and say hundreds of thousands of people living with disabilities could now miss out on much needed benefits.