Untold Realities: Brown Envelope Syndrome


Can I ask you a question?  When you go to bed tonight will you simultaneously breathe a sigh of relief but, at the same time, fear what the morning will bring – caused by something that happens to nearly everyone around the world and doesn’t cause a seconds’ thought from most people?   Unfortunately, for thousands of people on welfare benefits this is a daily reality.  “What is this cause of such trepidation?” I hear you ask.  Simple, the daily post being delivered!!

But why would the daily visit from the postie cause such fear?  Well, it’s a condition called ‘Brown Envelope Syndrome (BES)’ and I am a sufferer.  This condition is so known because if you’re on DWP Benefits most of the contact they have with you comes through the post in Brown Envelopes.  I am on the PIP (Personal Independence Payment) Benefit and am due to be medically assessed again this year.  Firstly, I will dread the envelope coming through the letter box with the application form to reapply.  Secondly, once I send the form off I will be waiting anxiously each day to be called for a medical assessment for a condition that both the DWP and I know will never improve and, thirdly, after the examination, I will live in utter dread of the brown envelope dropping through my door informing me of the DWP’s decision!

I’m sure most of you are thinking that I’m over-reacting but I’ll try to explain why the BES can cause such panic. For me, decisions made by faceless bureaucrats hundreds of miles away can have a really adverse effect on my life.  Their decision, especially if it’s to reduce your benefits, can affect your ability to meet the daily costs of life, put strain on your family, strain on your health (both physical and mental) and (can and has) lead to family and marital break-ups and, unfortunately, has led to some people committing suicide.

When you’re on benefits, you are constantly being called to account for your life.  This can either be in the form of a daily journal listing your attempts to get a job if your on Job Seeker’s Allowance or account anywhere from yearly to 3 yearly for your medical condition if you’re on PIP.  However, at the same time the decision-makers and politicians are very rarely called to account for the effect their decisions have on thousands of people’s lives.  Even when a mechanism is put in place to challenge a decision, the apparatus and procedure of getting access to this system is so complicated, convoluted and bureaucratic that it puts people off.  Eventually, when a challenge finally goes to tribunal you feel like you’re on trial not the policy-makers.  The tribunal itself can be so traumatic that there have been cases of people having nervous breakdowns after it, some individuals have even taken their own lives due to the stress of the ‘trial’.

So, friends, this is a daily reality for me and for thousands of other people up and down the country.  We are made to feel like criminals.  We have to justify our very lives – continually – and in forensic detail.  We are given no dignity, no control over our lives, no input into any decisions made that impact our lives and finally, the system is so complicated and full of traps we sometimes feel it’s easier to accept the decisions made by others rather than challenge them.  Now do you see why BES is a very real condition and why I suffer from it?


This piece is part of the Untold Realities of Poverty in the UK which is a key tool within our campaign “Poverty Is a Human Rights Issue”. The campaign aims to: