Cherie Blair’s stepmum claimed Universal Credit after her actor husband’s care costs left her penniless
CHERIE Blair's stepmum was forced to claim universal credit after caring for actor husband Tony Booth.
Steph Booth, 64, cared for the ex-PM Tony Blair's father-in-law for over a decade until his death in 2017.
Tony Booth - who rose to fame for his role in Till Death Do Us Part - was diagnosed with dementia in 2004.
Steph told that costly care for Tony wiped out their savings - with Steph quitting work as a teacher to care for her husband full time.
She said: "When Tony died we were broke. I had no income for five years and we had used all our savings.
"All the benefits stopped and I had absolutely nothing."
Steph admits that she was forced to live on Universal Credit for six months, adding that Cherie, 65, helped out bit it was "difficult" asking for her financial help.
She says that she wanted to give her husband a good quality of life, but that "one-size-fits-all" care packages "don't take into account the needs of the human being."
The 64-year-old former teacher cared for her husband alone in Todmorten, West Yorks - some 200 miles away from step-daughter, Cherie.
Steph says she faced a lonely, daily battle - including struggling to scrape together funding.
She said that figuring out her entitlements was a "nightmare."
Steph says she also felt under-supported: "When he was diagnosed I was told to just take him home and look after him."
She says the disease is already causing "untold misery," adding "it shouldn’t be like that when looking after someone so ill.
";The system leaves you bitter and resentful from the lack of understanding."
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