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Langold Amy's campaign to change 'unfair' law

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Published Date: 05 June 2009
By Jen Foster
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A WIDOWED student nurse is calling for a change to the law after she was refused a bereavement award.
Amy Jeffrey, 26, of Markham Road, Langold, tragically lost her husband Rowland in a car crash in January this year and applied to the Government for help with funeral costs.

Guidelines say that she cannot be awarded the payout because she is under the age of 45, not on benefits and had no children with Rowland.

She could have been entitled to state help for a year and Amy and her family are petitioning the Government for the laws to be 'fairer'.

The Guardian is backing brave Amy's campaign to have the law reviewed and we want you to come to our Ryton Street office to sign her petition.

"I am not doing this for me. I have a very supportive family who have helped me through this difficult time," said Amy, who is determined to complete her three-year training course as a nurse.

"But if it wasn't for them, I might not have been able to give Rowland the send off that he deserved."

"He always used to say I was impossible to stop once I got an idea in my head."

Rowland's mum Sharon is also clamouring for change, saying: "We took the case to a tribunal but they still said that they couldn't go against what the law says."

Bassetlaw MP John Mann has vowed to take the petition to No 10 Downing Street and is 100 per cent behind Amy's efforts.

"I thought it couldn't be the case when I heard what had happened to Amy but we are now going to try to get it changed" he said.

"I will let the Prime Minister know and it will be up to him to make a decision. Tragedies like this are fortunately rare but it is to Amy's great credit that she is fighting this case for others."

Rowland died on Tuesday 6th January after his Skoda Octavia collided with a bus on the A60 between Oldcotes and Tickhill.

Tributes to Rowland flowed into the Guardian office to the 29-year-old and he was remembered as a 'wonderful husband' who would do 'anything for anyone'.

At an inquest into his death, Nottingham coroner Dr Nigel Chapman recorded a verdict of accidental death.

To show your support for Amy and other widows or widowers, come to our reception in Ryton Street to sign the petition, or log on to www.worksopguardian.co.uk

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  • Last Updated: 15 June 2009 2:00 PM
  • Source: Worksop Guardian
  • Location: Worksop
 
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mrs beryl dolan and family,

worksop 22/06/2009 11:51:57
we support u
2

cybn,

Sheffield 03/08/2010 19:32:17
This is one of the most brazenly sentimental articles I have yet read in the Guardian. The argument for state help relies on an appeal to the emotions rather than to reason. What Amy Jeffrey is doing is no more than this - she is asking the taxpayer in the street to bail her out. I do not quite follow the argument which assumes it is fair for me to pay for her own husband's funeral. We can make it yet more personal by imagining this scenario. Ms Jeffrey knocks on the door of every house along her street with the following line: give me a tenner please to pay for my husband's funeral. To which I would say this, if I lived on the same street: You should be paying for this yourself by default. Have you exhausted all the following possibilities: 1. Draw from any savings accounts you have. 2. Borrow or accept the money from your family, quoted as being "a very supportive family who have helped me through this difficult time". Does very supportive mean that they are perfectly willing to assist you financially? Nowhere in the article does it clearly state that either Jeffrey or her family do not have the monies to pay for the funeral costs. Neither does it state how much the funeral itself would cost. 3. Apply for a loan. 4. Approach a pawnbroker with something of value. 5. Sell your car etc. 6. Approach friends. 7. Forestall some bills (a phone call would surely elicit some sympathy). 8. Make arrangements with the funeral directors to spread the payments. 9. Approach HIS family and friends. Somehow I doubt that such an attempt to be this resourceful has been attempted. I make this supposition on the basis that most of the nation is very much used to feeding at the state trough, a habit that explains the degenerate character of England throughout. Of course, it takes two to Tango, and the state often returns the compliment in spades.
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