Right-to-die campaigner's outrage over benefit's advice

She said benefits officials told her on five occasions that she would get more money if her musician husband Omar Puente stopped working.

"It is outrageous. The benefits system is supposed to be a safety net, not a hangman's noose," she said.

The couple's benefits were recently reviewed and officials told them if her husband was unemployed they would get further benefits such as free council tax, free prescriptions and help with paying the interest on their mortgage.

She said: "Omar wants to work but five times people at the benefits office have said it would be better if he didn't work. Omar was disgusted by that. He's Cuban and he believes you should work.

"He doesn't think that is right. He wants to work. He thinks that is right. He wants to earn money. He wants to be a musician.

"They said 'If you earned less, if you didn't work at all, we would get you more money.'

Speaking to the T&A, she said the current economic situation had heavily affected the work available to her husband, who had previously worked part-time as a music teacher and the couple had no money left to pay the council tax.

She added: “Many people have offered to pay for me to get this sorted out but there are hundreds of people in the same situation and it is wrong and it should be sorted out.

“It is not right that people are being told not to bother working. Omar is shocked at the cavalier attitude that politicians have towards the welfare state.

“The benefits system should be a safety net, not a hangman’s noose.”

Wednesday's court case was deferred while Ms Purdy, a euthanasia campaigner who made the headlines when she won a fight to clarify the law on assisted suicide, sought further advice from the Citizens' Advice Bureau.

She said she was afraid of losing her Bradford home, which she said would "break my heart". She said the situation with the benefits had made her feel a "terrible burden"