We have replaced kindness with red tape

Two men on the radio during the week reminded me of Daniel Blake. Mr Blake was a 59-year-old widower and carpenter who had a heart attack that kept him out of work.

Despite receiving medical instruction that he wasn’t fit to return to a building site, he was assessed in the local social welfare office, which concluded that he could return to work.

Therefore, he did not qualify for any support allowance. His doctor was not contacted, so Mr Blake began a cumbersome appeals process, that requires a degree of computer literacy he didn’t possess.