James used to get 30,000 steps a day in when he worked on a building site. But when he went back to work after lockdown, his calves started swelling up. He didn’t know why.

Over the course of two years, his legs kept giving way, kept swelling up, leaving James (not his real name) unable to work. Doctors gave him statins, and a trip to hospital yielded no answers. Yet the 59-year-old found himself unable to qualify for personal independence payment (PIP).

“I just kept getting knocked back, six points, four points, three points,” he tells me. “I gave up in the end, I said we’ve tried everything.” So he came to the Bridge Community Centre .

Around the table, in this community centre in a Liverpool suburb, there are similar stories: one woman, Diane (also not her real name), who uses a

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