“I see Steven Bilton is still a compulsive liar.
Theres no wonder he didnt tell his wife about what happened in the falklands, he was never there. He certainly wasnt injured in a blast there. He sneezed and hurt his back and has scrounged off the state ever since. Poor Bethan, i hope you know who youve married.”

“LIES! LIES! You need to investigate his history and his disability as there are more lies in this story than Pinocchio!”

“what a liar. this man has never been to the falklands. He spent years claiming disability benefits, when he was able to work. Ask him how he sustained his injury to his back, the truth is not as exciting as hes telling you.”

“"comments like that,about time we BRITISH people stood up for ourselves, work all our lifes and pay every month into the system, and when hard times come they turn there backs on us."

What? What on earth are you on about? What relevance does the "BRITISH" (CAPITALS??!??!) element have to this? Is there a suggestion anywhere in the story that Mr Bilton is being badly treated because he is British??! Is there an agenda behnd your post that you haven't mentioned?”

“The benefit system is a shambles. I have only ever needed it in this last year due to redundancy. Because of my background I appear to be too qualified or not qualified enough for positions out there. As a result I now get nothing because I have been out of work for 6 months and my wife works 20 hours a week part time at a doctors, as she has for 12 years now. I cannot get any payments because she does not do at least 30 hours per week and after she has had 2 strokes I would not want her too. The only way she can get more hours is to leave her secure position and take another job somewhere else if she could get one, which could be gone at any time so both of us would be on benefits. In addition to Job Seekers you then have to deal with the council and every time you get or loose something with the benefits system you have to notify the council who recalculate what you pay them. I have a large draw full of countless forms and letters due to all the checks and rechecks to ensure the genuine people get as little as possible. Because I have worked all my life and saved I now have to spend it all looking for positions which I do not seem to be able to get, some 300 applications later I have only had 5 interviews and been acknowledged by about 20 of them.”

“Leicesterblue.....what ARE you talking about? Read the article and comments properly before joining in!

And to Mr and Mrs B......you were hardly starving with your 2 weeks in France, possible DLA, more than likely 'The Wife' working and the good old army pension. You got what you were entitled to by the Government (take THAT up with your MP) as I believe you are not eligible when you are abroad and rightly so. I, as a taxpayer, would not be very happy if we forked out for jobseekers who go on holiday! As a lot of people have said since the publication of your letter....there's more to this than you are letting on. You must've been dismissed for a very good reason!”

“notsogullibe stick to your derby mercury with ---- comments like that,about time we BRITISH people stood up for ourselves, work all our lifes and pay every month into the system, and when hard times come they turn there backs on us.”

“This is incredible.The Mercury delete comments then claim this man has the support of readers..shall we have poll then ? No...didn't think so !
What utter nonsense The 6 week wait is at worst 4 weeks due to this mans betrothed not telling him he had lost his job ! He claims not to be playing the Falklands/war hero card, hardly, no-one would have known about this unless he had banged on about it !
Why should he be treated as a special case ? No reason whatsoever.Everyone who claims any benefit is treated exactly the same and by the rules laid down by government.If you don't agree with the rules i suggest you contact your MP instead of blasting hard working civil servants doing their "dispicable" duty.
What next ? a Mercury headline "WAR HERO waits more than 5 minutes in library returning his books whilst other people dared to be in front of the queue DISGRACE !!"”

“The system is ridiculous! I was medically retired from work last year and it took months before I received any kind of benefit. My husband is my carer for which he gets Carers Allowance, which by the way is taken back from MY benefits so in actual fact he really gets nothing. I discovered this week that he should have been entitled to Income Support (after being told last year that he couldn't claim anything else). He rang and spoke to Jobcentre Plus, who arranged an appointment for him the next day to speak to an advisor at New Walk. He duly attended and was told that his claim would be looked at within the next two weeks.........IN BIRMINGHAM!! Why can't they deal with it in Leicester?? If he IS entitled to Income Support, then we will have lost out on a year already through no fault of our own!”

“After reading the various comments left by the public I felt Steve should respond, but firstly a few words from ¿the wife¿. Steve was not at home when the post arrived on our wedding day so I opened the mail. I read the letter of dismissal and after discussion with my son agreed he didn't need to read the bad news on what was supposed to be a special day for us both. Personally I think the company concerned could have been a little more thoughtful but that's water under the bridge now. Unfortunately my consideration has cost Steve two weeks of benefits. As the our post did not arrive until after 11.30 (no that's not a criticism) and the wedding was at 4pm on a Friday , what was he supposed to do ? We left for our honeymoon on the Saturday morning, the benefit office doesn't open on Saturdays so what should we have done ? The honeymoon was booked and paid for , were we supposed to forgo our two weeks away ? Unfortunately the system does not allow for individuals who cannot tick all the boxes. With regards to the comments the being a Falkland Veteran has no bearing on this matter I agree and so does Steve. He does not use his time in the war to gain sympathy. I have have only been told a few of details of what must have been an horrendous time for him and many others in that part of the world. And finally, just for the record, since I've known Steve he has always been very stoic about his disability and on his bad days he tries not to complain, yes, a man that doesn't moan, is it any wonder then I married him ! So now I've had my say , over to ¿Hubbie¿

The Wife

In Response:

Unlike some of the comments I have read, I have to say that at my local Job Centre I have always been treated professionally and respectfully by the 'front line' staff. Where I have always been left somewhat bewildered is by the Call Centre staff, not because they are rude or discourteous but because they don't seem to communicate with each other and that leads to frustration at not getting the information needed. I'm not having a go at the DWP, they have a job to do (no matter how distasteful) what I am questioning is the system and the fact that the left hand doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing.

As for riding the coat tails of being a veteran, sorry, but that is just not true. Originally in my letter I had not even mentioned that fact, but when the paper questioned me it was mentioned and I asked them to dumb down that part as it wasn't the issue. I did not want to upset my ex-colleagues as I am one of those who believes that when you sign up being hurt or worse comes with the job. But it seems they wanted an attention grabber.... For that I apologise, but it was not my intention.

To those of you that have given me messages of support and encouragement thank you, they are much appreciated. But in the long run has this done any good? Will the system be made clearer? Will the system see people who claim benefits as individuals? I'm afraid to say that personally, I don't think so. This ia a duplicate of yesterdays response.”