‘Why don’t I just die, and make life easier for you?’Jan Ward - professionally, Jan Daniels - from Hodnet is an entertainer. She’s a singer and songwriter, but her live performing career was cut short by her life-long health problems. You can find an album of her songs on Spotify.Jan’s on Universal Credit. Her recent dealings with the DWP left her distraught, depressed and contemplating suicide, as she explains in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast.Have you had a similar e...
‘Why don’t I just die, and make life easier for you?’
Jan Ward - professionally, Jan Daniels - from Hodnet is an entertainer. She’s a singer and songwriter, but her live performing career was cut short by her life-long health problems. You can find an album of her songs on Spotify.
Jan’s on Universal Credit. Her recent dealings with the DWP left her distraught, depressed and contemplating suicide, as she explains in this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast.
Have you had a similar experience? Jan isn’t the first person to tell me they’ve felt the DWP’s approach to dealing with claimants has been uncaring, inflexible, officious and simply unkind. She is, though, the first to be prepared to tell their story. Are these stories representative of only a few people’s experiences? Or does this indicate there could be a cultural problem at the DWP?
At the very least, shouldn’t benefits claimants be entitled to be treated with the same kindness and respect that, for example, a bank account holder would expect from their bank?
What do you think of Jan’s story? Leave a comment by clicking here
Coming soon on Hello You the Shropshire podcast
Jan contacted me direct because she wanted her story to be heard. She’s not alone.
Over the next couple of weeks you’ll hear some more remarkable stories, including startling claims from former staff at a very high-profile local organisation, and a response to those claims from the man at the top.
To make sure you don’t miss anything, become a member of the Hello You family by subscribing. Just click here:
And if you have a story you want to share, if you want to be really heard, just send me a message:
The Hello You Signal Tip Line
That big episode I mentioned above, with people’s claims about their famous former workplace? That story came in via the Hello You Signal Tip Line.
It’s a secure, confidential way of passing me information. If you’re concerned about possible consequences of sharing what you know, use Signal to contact me and it’ll be as watertight as it possibly can be. Secrets are safe with me.
Download the Signal app then find me on there. My username is jimallthetime.69
I’ll be putting a longer text post on Substack soon about why you might want to contact me confidentially, how to go about it in detail, and some do’s and don’ts for information sharing and whistleblowing. To be sure of that dropping into your inbox, along with everything else from Hello You World Headquarters, please subscribe:
Don’t forget to tell your friends!
If you like Hello You, if you find it interesting, helpful, entertaining, thought-provoking or just good company, then that makes me very happy indeed.
Why not share Hello You the Shropshire podcast with your friends? Your colleagues? Your family, wherever in the world they may be? Your WhatsApp chat group?
You can just click on this green button:
… but the lower-tech way of spreading the word about Hello You is probably the most effective:
Just talk to someone about Hello You. On the park-and-ride, at work, in the café, at the school gate, in the pub … wherever you meet people, you’ll meet someone who’d love to hear about Hello You the Shropshire podcast.
So please, do me and them a favour? Sometime in the next week, just mention Hello You in conversation. Tell people what I do, and that you enjoy it. If they want to know more, send them to jimallthetime.substack.com.
Take care of yourself
Take care of the people around you, and I really hope those people are taking care of you, too.
Hello You - the Shropshire podcast from Jim Hawkins is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimallthetime.substack.com/subscribe
