A WOMAN who had been told she was “fit to work” by Government assessors died nine days after her benefits were stopped.
 

Linda Wootton, who lived in Oakhurst Hill, Rayleigh, was on 10 different prescription medications a day following complications with a double lung and heart transplant 28 years ago.
 

The former council worker suffered with high blood pressure and regular blackouts, but Atos, the Government-contracted healthcare assessors ruled that she was “fit to work”.
 

Her husband Peter, 50, said: “I sat there and listened to my wife drown in her own body fluids. It took half an hour for her to die; a woman who is apparently fit for work.”
 

He described the last few months of his wife’s life as “a misery”, saying that she worried constantly about her benefit payments, feeling useless, and worried that she would be seen as “a scrounger”.
 

She was formerly granted less than £110 a week in employment and support allowance, but following the ruling, was told that it was being stopped as she lay dying in hospital.
 

Linda, who was 49, had her first heart and lung transplant in 1985. She returned to work after the surgery, but shortly after, her body began to reject the transplanted organs.
 

She had a second heart and lung transplant four years later, but complications meant that she was in surgery for 31 hours. Following the second transplant, she was unable to return to work and began to receive benefit payments while her husband worked.
 

Peter said his wife was “listless” and fainted regularly. She regularly collapsed, and was frequently in and out of the Harefield Hospital in Middlesex, where she was seen by heart and lung specialists.
 

In February, her employment support allowance was withdrawn as the Coalition Government promised to “get tougher” on welfare.
 

The new rules meant that Linda would have to prove to Atos assessors that she was unfit for work. Despite her regular blackouts and medical history, her husband was not allowed in to the assessment, in Southend, to support his wife.
 

She was questioned for 20 minutes, and found to be fit for work, stopping her employment support allowance and disability living allowance.
 

The Atos assessment for capability to work includes questions such as: “Can you touch your nose with your left hand?” “Can you push a single button?” “Do you live alone?” “Can you wash and dress yourself?” “Can you spell the word ‘world’?”
 

Linda appealed against the decision, but the Department for Work and Pensions rejected the appeal. She died in hospital on April 24, with her husband Peter by her side.
 

He said: “I do not know how, or if, it will change the system, but at least we can show the population what people like Linda have to go through at the hands of these people.”