Monday, April 04, 2005
British medical bureaucrats should be caned.
Iraqi orphan denied disability pay for 'unproved' injury
Ali Abbas, the Iraqi orphan who lost both arms in the war, has been told he will not receive backdated disability payments in Britain because he cannot prove his injuries existed before last week.
The teenager became a symbol of the suffering of ordinary Iraqis after television pictures of him crying in a Baghdad hospital were shown around the world....
Ali arrived in Britain two years ago, where he received artificial limbs to help him try to lead a normal life...
...he had applied for disability living allowance last October but received a letter early this month saying he was not entitled to back payments because his disability could not be proved before that date...
Related story: 12 August 2003, Iraqi orphan Ali meets the British doctors who will give him new arms. [Telegraph, via Tim Worstall]
