This may be the weirdest story of British bureaucracy gone wild yet. Occasionally, disabled people must go to court to prove their disabilities or face losing benefits. However, someone decided to put the disability tribunal on the fourth floor of the Acorn House building in Basildon, England. Therefore, health and safety officials barred people in wheelchairs from attending because exit would be difficult in the event of a fire.
Sylvia Middleton, from Wickford Place in Pitsea, was turned away last Wednesday.
She said: “They said they couldn’t guarantee my safety and they didn’t let wheelchairs upstairs.
“Why are they holding disability tribunals in a building disabled people aren’t allowed in?”
The 65-year-old has been told she has to wait two months for a new hearing 12 miles away at Southend.
Officials had originally ordered she attend the court or risk losing her disability benefits.
Court officials claim the ruling is in error and are trying to work out a policy in which no one will be turned away. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Mark Cleveland)
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