Mesothelioma

Yesterday, the Department of Work and Pensions apologised but did not offer a reason for the delay.His widow Julie, 51, of Mount Pleasant, Lowestoft, said: "The only people who let us down were the benefits system.

It took seven months to get his claim processed.

He got it the week he died.

"I don't think people can appreciate the devastation a terminal illness causes.

Your whole life is changed.

When a disease hits a family like that that is the last thing you need."I feel very strongly on his behalf.

I just think it is appalling when someone is terminally ill."Mrs Moore, who is a nurse, took time off work to nurse her husband and had to fight for benefits on his behalf.

She said she had trouble getting through to the Benefits Agency on the telephone, and when she did go to the Jobcentre in Lowestoft, she was told their computers had crashed.

When he was finally offered payment last month, the grandfather of four was told to cash the postal order at the post office - even though he was too ill to go out.She said: "He couldn't have had better medical care.

He was just let down by the benefits system.

When people are on their own and have no family, what do they do?

"She was speaking after yesterday's inquest in Lowestoft, at which coroner Peter Dean recorded a verdict of death from industrial disease.

The inquest heard that Mr Moore, 64, a retired pipe welder a...

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