Ms Sandra Peake:

The benefits issue is huge. In the past year, the number of men coming to WAVE outnumbered women for the first time, with 60% of the caseload involving males. We would always have had a high number of men but this related to the impact of welfare reform. We are seeing ongoing problems for people needing sufficient evidence and people who have never tapped into this, who are living with debilitating injuries, coming before the system and struggling with it. Some people have not even confided with their general practitioner, GP, what happened to them. That has been a particular problem. The records do not exist. There is a huge issue. We not only had disability discrimination through the 70s and 80s. There was conflict discrimination. People were not able to go back into work. Now they are being reassessed and are struggling because of that. We see a very direct link between the caseload coming to us and the problems that are happening. The numbers on benefits in particular centres, such as Belfast, are significantly higher than in others.