AMPUTEE CRICKETER HAS BENEFITS CUT AFTER DWP FILMS HIM PLAYING FOR LOCAL CLUB

A one-legged amputee cricketer says he has lost his disability benefits after DWP investigators filmed him playing for his local club.

Shaun Rigby, 37, who formerly played for the England disabled cricket team, took up the sport as a seven-year-old boy.

He had refused to let his disability get in his way after losing his leg below the knee in a horror tractor accident aged just two.

Shaun still tries to play twice a week for Allscott Heath CC in Shropshire with the help of a runner and an umpire holding his crutch.

But the married dad-of-four was left stunned to be told by the DWP they had launched an investigation into his disability claim and had secretly been following him around for weeks.

They covertly filmed him batting for his local team before using the undercover footage as evidence he ‘wasn’t disabled enough’.

The Government has now stopped Shaun’s Personal Independence Payment (PIP) benefits and took away his mobility car.

Shaun, who works full-time as a sheet metal worker, has been in receipt of PIP since 2016 due to his disability.

And three years ago he was also given a Motability car to help him get around after be began suffering further pain in his knee and back.

Devastated Shaun says he been made to feel like a benefits cheat and fumed: “I play cricket – it doesn’t mean my leg has suddenly grown back.”

Shaun, of Telford, Shrops., said: “I was reviewed in 2016 via a home visit, during which the assessor said ‘what am I doing here? Your leg will never grow back. You will get this for life’.

“About two years later I got the car, after I felt changes in the pain in my knee as well as pain I was getting in my back.

“I’ve worked since I left school and played cricket since I was seven but the things I could do now are a lot less than 15 to 20 years ago as I’ve deteriorated quite a lot.

“I am on co-codamol, amitriptyline and naproxen prescribed from my GP which I take moderately day-to-day to help ease the pain, and get me through work.

“On a cricket day I take more medication in the morning to help me through the day and make the pain more tolerable.

“I am still in pain but felt that some sort of activity and interaction with friends was good for my own wellbeing.

“On bad days I play cricket with a runner when batting and in the field, I’d be in positions where moving was limited and, if needed, the umpire would hold the crutch for me.

“The days after I played cricket are quite bad, but I played for the social side of things, and my attitude to life is to try doing things I enjoy whilst I still can.

“But they have said I should not have any of it because I play cricket; they have footage of me playing.

“But just because I play cricket doesn’t mean my leg has grown back. I still need help getting around.”

Shaun was informed of the DWP’s decision in a letter last Monday (16/6), which told him “he was never eligible for the benefit” and the government body is now attempting to claw back the money.

He has been given 30 days to appeal and is now around £500 worse off every month after losing daily living and mobility allowance.

He added: “It is so unfair just because I play cricket. Are disabled people not allowed to take part in sport?

“I’m at a loose end now. Everyone’s telling me to appeal but it has all taken so much out of me, I don’t think I can face it.

“I was already made to feel a criminal when I was told I had to be interviewed under caution at the Jobcentre.

“When I got there they informed me their surveillance teams had been following me around for three weeks and filming me play cricket.

“They are basically saying I am mobile enough and accusing me of lying on the application.

“But when I ticked I couldn’t walk without being in pain, I wasn’t lying, I just carry on through the pain.

“I don’t want to be one of these people who just sits around doing nothing – so I play on through the pain as best as I can.

“I played for England’s physical disability cricket team in around 2012-2014 and went on a tour to Dubai with them.

“I have also played for the Shropshire disability cricket team – I have made no secret of this or hid it from anybody.

“We’ve now had to fork out for a new car, which costs an additional £2,000 to adapt so I can have a left footed accelerator.

“And its also the little things like being able to afford prescriptions now – that is going to be a struggle and leave me in further pain.

“They have judged me on 1 per cent of the time when I make an effort to get out, they don’t see the other 99 per cent of me struggling at home.

“I don’t know how they can justify this.”

The Department of Work and Pensions said it could not comment on an ongoing investigation.

But a spokesperson added: “Where someone disagrees with an overpayment decision, they should request a mandatory reconsideration or an appeal.”

2025-06-24T08:15:54Z