CAMPAIGN Universal Dis-credit


‘You have to “”


If Capita hadn’t have put the pressure on Victoria and hadn’t stopped her PIP she would have had the will to live. I hold them accountable


Susan Kemlo Unite memeber and Victoria Smith’s mother


When Capita refused to pay a grieving mother after her daughter’s tragic death, Unite took on the case – and won


Susan Kemlo was still mourning her daughter, Victoria, when benefits assessment firm Capita decided to drag her through the courts over supposed “reputational damage” – sustained because a judge ruled Capita pay Susan £10,000 for the appalling way it had treated Victoria.


Unite Community member Victoria Smith, who suffered from agoraphobia and fibromyalgia, died aged 33 of a brain haemorrhage in July last year – just months after her personal independence


payments (PIPs) were stopped following a wholly inaccurate Capita assessment.


Mrs Kemlo, who with Unite’s assistance took Capita to court for mal- administration after Victoria’s death, said, “If Capita hadn’t have put the pressure on Victoria and hadn’t stopped her PIP she would have had the will to live. I hold them accountable. After her PIP was stopped she told me ‘I don’t want to be a burden, I can’t go on’.”


The decision to appeal the Telford 30 uniteWORKS Autumn 2019


County Court ruling was taken, the firm’s legal team said, because it caused “significant reputational damage to Capita’s business”.


But in August, Capita dropped the appeal and agreed to pay Mrs Kemlo the compensation. “I didn’t do it for the money. I launched the legal action to clear my daughter’s name. To prove that they’d lied,” Mrs Kemlo explained.


A Capita health care assistant visited Victoria’s home in Market Drayton,


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