A BURNLEY grandmother says she can barely afford to eat after becoming a victim of the Government’s benefits crackdown.

Iris Willis, 51, from Rosehill, who has chronic fatigue syndrome, has been living on £60 a week after failing a medical for Employment Support Allowance (ESA).

She said it was only the support of her family, providing food parcels, that had enabled her to survive since then.

Mrs Willis, who organised a protest outside Burnley Town Hall as part of a national day of action, said: “The protests are aimed at ATOS, which carries out the medical assessments for the Department of Work and Pensions.

“When I was first put on ESA, the level of my benefits was raised because they said I was more incapacitated then normal.

"The stress from this is doing me no favours.

“We would like to see GPs given more input into the condition of their patients.

"People with severe illnesses and problems are being diagnosed as fit to work by ATOS.”

Benefit claimants in East Lancashire, receiving ESA’s predecessor, incapacity benefit, are currently seeing their cases reviewed as part of a national pilot scheme.

No official figures have yet been made available detailing how many claimants are thought to be fit work to return to work.

But national statistics were released yesterday claiming to show reassessment of ESA claimants had shown a greater proportion were fit for work or could undertake some tasks with support.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said: “It’s unacceptable that so many people have been written off to a lifetime on benefits.

"These figures show just how vital it is that everyone who has the potential to work receives the right help and support.”