Tragic death of ‘awe-inspiring’ mum ‘desperately overwhelmed’ over benefits and housing

An “awe-inspiring” mum and anti-poverty campaigner died after being moved to a housing association property riddled with black mould and hounded over debts she did not owe. Karen McBride, 46, died by suicide at her home in Stalybridge on August 1 2022.

An inquest at Stockport Coroner’s Court this week heard a powerful statement from Ms Mcbride’s daughter, Codie, one of four children. Codie, 29, hit out at ‘systemic and policy-based failings’ in the run up to her mother’s death, saying: “My mum was a victim of systemic abuse – which is the complete neglect towards a whole class of people in this country.

“This happens when funding is cut to vital services, ineffective procedures are adopted by agencies and an institutionalised poor perception towards those who are in receipt of benefits or living on the breadline is adopted.”

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The family added Ms Mcbride was ‘wrongly pursued’ over benefits debt before her death, and was moved to a housing association property ‘in a very poor state with a myriad of serious restoration work needing to be done’.

Ms McBride declared herself homeless after being given six weeks to leave her former home after the landlord decided to sell-up in early 2019. The family moved between hostels and hotels before Ms McBride was moved to a Jigsaw Homes property on Rydal Walk, Stalybridge, Tameside, the Liverpool ECHO reports.

The inquest heard there was a delay in her moving in because of promised renovation work but when they finally did, in December 2019, there was no gas or electricity. Giving evidence, Codie listed a range of serious defects at the house, including black mould which made them ill and caused black dirt to come out of their noses – and pigeons nesting in the loft.

Codie, 29, said her mum didn’t want to accept the tenancy, but was told by Jigsaw Homes that if she refused to accept the property she would be making herself and her children intentionally homeless. She said: “She later told Jigsaw in a complaint letter that this made her feel intimidated and like she had no other choice but to accept.”

The inquest heard the property had a live wire hanging from the master bedroom ceiling; damp in two of the three bedrooms; a wall ‘thick’ with black mould; a hole in the floor where ‘you could see through to outside’; a leaking roof; a leaking boiler and a bird trapped in the chimney.

The inquest heard from the family in Codie’s statement about ‘erroneous debt’ and an ‘issue with housing benefit right from the beginning’.

“In a letter dated December 2 2019, seven days before her actual move in date, Jigsaw informed her that her rent payment was already in arrears,” said Codie in the statement. “In a second letter, dated December 9, the actual date she moved in – was a final reminder. This letter stated if she did not resolve the issue, a ‘Notice to Seek Possession’ would be served upon her.

“This meant that before mum had even moved her belongings into the house, she was terrified about being made homeless again. This caused mum further stress at an already difficult time.”

The inquest heard shortly after that, Tameside Council ‘started to chase’ Ms McBride for underpayment of council tax. Codie said they sent letters ‘chasing her for thousands of pounds worth of debt which they said dated back to 2016’.

She said: “Mum did not understand how she could have accrued so much debt as she always paid her council tax. This initiated another exasperating process of backwards and forwards, chasing the council, seeking help from Citizen’s Advice.

“Finally, she was told the debt had accrued due to her ‘wrongfully’ claiming single person discount since 2016. They informed her that they had on record that I had been living with her since that time. This again, was incorrect information.

“I had been living in Liverpool since 2013 and paying council tax there. However, mum’s words were not heard and she was forced to start making repayments of the council tax.

“She continued to chase up the council with some support from Citizen’s Advice. Eventually, they agreed a mistake was made. They told her no money was owed. However, they did not refund her for the payments she had been making to repay the incorrect debt.”

Mrs McBride complained to Jigsaw Homes in January 2020 about the house, saying she was ‘struggling to cope and cannot do this anymore’, the inquest was told. Codie said the repairs process was ‘slow’ and as Covid lockdown measures were put in place, Mrs McBride was in ‘regular contact with her GP who was making referrals to mental health services for her’.

A GP giving evidence at the inquest, Dr Paresh Parikh, from the Grosvenor Medical Centre in Stalybridge, said she was on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication, but in her most recent ‘encounters’ with the surgery, expressed no self-harm ideations.

But Dr Parikh said in his view, there have been ‘difficulties in accessing specialist mental health care in Tameside over the last 15 years’. At the time of her death, the inquest heard Ms McBride hadn’t been taking her prescribed anti-depressants.

The inquest heard in March 2022, she received a letter from Tameside Council telling her that her housing benefit had been suspended, then one from Jigsaw Homes saying she was in rent arrears. Codie told the inquest that to her mum, ‘it felt like the cycle was starting all over again’.

She said the ‘apparent issue’ was her son turning 19 affecting her entitlement to housing benefit. Codie said the debt was ‘pursued for many months’ with letters continuing, but it turned out to be an error.

“Given the previous history, she was desperately overwhelmed. She was spiralling into a dark place and whenever she rang to find out what was happening and asked about the letters she had received she would be told they were just automated and she should just ignore them. For mum, this was much easier said than done.”

The inquest heard that in the weeks before her death she was ‘solemn and helpless’ and still ‘not certain’ what the situation was. Codie told the inquest in her statement: “She said things were never going to change and no one would listen to her.”

Ms McBride was found hanged in her kitchen with writing also found on a wall. The family said that in the two years before her death, they do not believe she was in any state to manage her own mental health.

Michael Murphy, an operations director at Jigsaw Homes, was asked by Coroner Chris Morris whether the Rydal Walk property was fit to live in. He didn’t say yes or no, but said a gas and electric safety check was carried out and that it was ‘apparent’ that a ‘number of repairs were not done’.

He said now, their systems have been changed and they have ‘a new standard’. Mr Murphy said Jigsaw Homes received benefit payments from the council and no notice to vacate was served on Ms McBride, whose rent was paid via housing benefit. He said she received two automated letters in 2022 when her benefits were stopped.

Mr Murphy said the property was not up to Jigsaw Homes’ ‘standard’ and said changes had now been made. He said he didn’t know how long the house had been vacant for before Ms McBride moved in and revealed changes had also been made to Jigsaw Homes’ process of sending out letters.

From June 2022, he said Ms McBride didn’t express any concerns about the property, which was eventually renovated. On July 1 last year, he said they wrote to her to say the benefit payment issues had been settled.

Karen Milner, from the council tax team at Tameside Council, said the Department for Work and Pensions notified the council to say a ‘non-dependent’ was living at the house, but on the council’s records it said ‘dependent’. That’s why, she said, payments were suspended. But Ms McBride, she added, was told on June 27 last year that the overpayment had been cleared.

Ms Milner said information was processed based on what details the council had and denied the council had made an error.

She had been paid Personal Independence Payment (PIP) since 2016 – and that was extended after a review until July 2023, the inquest heard, but Ms Milner said the council was not notified it had been extended. The council, heard the inquest, thought that Ms McBride was not in receipt of PIP after February, 2020.

Samantha Smith, head of the national operations hub at the DWP, said ‘at no stage’ were Ms McBride’s benefits suspended and because of that, there was no need for them to be reinstated. She said: “At no point did Karen’s entitlements cease”.

The inquest heard Ms McBride had a life-long struggle with her mental health but in late 2020, became an ‘integral’ part of the Poverty Truth Commission, launched by Greater Manchester Poverty Action, and gave ‘inspiring’ speeches based on her own experiences of the system.

In one speech, revealed by her family, she said: “We need new systems which mean that everyone caught in this storm has a lifeline within reach – one that can pull us out of danger when we need it most. And that needs to cover all areas of public services.”

The commission aims to bring people together to share their experiences of poverty, together with local decision-makers, to call for policy changes. In one video interview filmed for the commission and posted online, Ms McBride talks of the house and said: “I was supposed to view it on the same day as I was picking the keys up. And when I walked in the house I burst out crying. There was mould and the floor was flooded upstairs.

“Windows wouldn’t lock, taps weren’t working, it was just in a right state. They said if you refuse to accept the property, then you’ll be making yourself intentionally homeless.”

The inquest heard, however, that Ms McBride ‘began to feel disillusioned’ because business and civic leaders, including Tameside Council, were ‘not turning up to arranged meetings, even though dates were arranged around their availability’.

Codie said in her statement to the coroner for the inquest: “The mere fact that my mum had to be physically homeless in 2019 to even be considered a priority for the local authority housing and the trauma of living in such facilities, followed by the systemic and policy based failures in relation to the handling of my mum’s benefit entitlement and the impact of the subsequent wrongfully pursued debt left her extremely vulnerable and ultimately led to her death.

“My mum was a kind, compassionate person who took the time to listen to everybody. She cared so much about others. She cared so much for us, her four children, who she worshipped. She instilled in us honourable traits, such as integrity and kindness. She was an awe-inspiring and powerful woman.

“She was a great teacher with a strong moral compass. My mum’s ethos was compassion and kindness. She gave it out so freely, you would never know she had been given so little of it by others.”

After submissions from the family, Coroner Mr Morris ruled a so-called ‘article 2’ inquest was not engaged. They are enhanced inquests held in cases where the state or ‘its agents’ have ‘failed to protect the deceased against a human threat or other risk’.

He said he found Ms McBride didn’t have a ‘sustained intention’ to take her own life, describing her death as an ‘impulsive act whilst under the influence of alcohol’. He recorded a narrative conclusion, saying: “Karen McBride died having suspended herself by the neck with a ligature whilst under the influence of alcohol.”

Mr Morris described her as ‘the most remarkable person who leaves an important legacy’. He said the inquest highlighted the ‘complexities of navigating the benefits system’ and said the evidence showed she was ‘frustrated to the point of desperation’, but ruled that he didn’t agree ‘the state’ should have been aware of a risk to her life.

Mr Morris said: “Karen was obviously deeply committed to using her experience to improve the lot of others.

“She was described as someone who inspires awe – she was a remarkable woman.”

Speaking after the inquest Codie, on behalf of the family, said in statement: “Even though article 2 was not invoked, I still feel that Tameside Council and the agencies they work with have a lot to answer for. My mum was pursued for erroneous debt on three occasions, which led to an unmanageable amount of stress, which ultimately cost her life.

“The systems in place are not working and people on the breadline are constantly falling through gaps and being failed at every level. My mum knew all of this.”

A Tameside Council spokesperson said: “Our deepest condolences go to the family and friends of Karen McBride. The coroner found that no systemic failings by any organisation contributed to her death.