Legless man told to pick asparagus

Legless man told to pick asparagus

An unemployed German man with no legs has been told to get a job picking asparagus.

Winfried Gutschwager, 47, said he was outraged when he received a letter from his local job centre saying they had found him a job harvesting asparagus.

"My disability was clearly recorded when I went to sign on for benefits. They simply have no respect for anybody," said the Berlin man, who lost his legs to diabetes last May.

Job centre spokesman Andreas Kanter, 51, apologised saying: "It was an unfortunate mistake due to the fact the client's records had not been updated."

It is not the first time the German welfare office has come under fire for its treatment of people with disabilities.

Last year a woman with no arms and no legs was told she could not get full handicapped benefits because she was not disabled enough.