Neil Carpenter was born in 1950 in Cornwall. After reading English at Cambridge, he had a variety of lecturing jobs in England and abroad before returning to Cornwall to teach English in schools. Since retiring, he has also worked in retirement as a volunteer advocate for adults with a learning disability. ‘Austerity’s Victims’ is based on that experience.
Benefits on Trial is based on my work in Cornwall since 2012 as a volunteer advocate with adults who have a learning disability. In recent years, that work has increasingly concerned benefits cases: helping people with their applications for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA); accompanying them to assessments; requesting reconsideration […]
Since 2010, successive Conservative governments have made it a priority to ‘clear up the financial mess left by Labour’ through a wide-ranging programme of austerity measures intended to reduce the deficit. As those cuts were biting, I began working as a volunteer advocate for adults with a learning disability, going into day centres, running a […]