EDIT II – 17 February 2011 – Today the government announced its welfare “reform” bill, the relevant document being accessible here. I haven’t examined it yet, mainly as I am very severely depressed at the minute and incapable of doing anything even remotely constructive. I would suggest that you check out the blogs of these folks for useful and insightful commentary on the proposals. There is also a very good piece on disability benefits by left-wing activist Sally Bercow here.
The information I have in this post is still relevant to DLA changes, and I hope you find it useful. However, it is not as current as some other material out there, given that it was written in response to the June 2010 budget. I hope that if this post doesn’t answer your questions, that at least some of the links here can.
Best wishes
Pandora
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EDIT – 6 December 2010 – In light of announcements made today on DLA, this post is experiencing a resurgence of hits. Unfortunately the material herein, although probably relevant to today’s measures, is not about them specifically, referring instead to ideas mooted in the June 2010 budget. I have yet to examine in detail the changes announced in today’s proposal documents, but will do so as soon as possible and then post about it. In the meantime, here is the information provided by the government itself, and an article on the issue from Community Care.
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NOTE: This is written from the point of view of someone claiming Disability Living Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance as her sole income; I do not and cannot work at present. In most cases, DLA can be awarded if you do work. However, I have only claimed it in the context of unemployment, and would apparently not be entitled to it if and when I did return to work, so I am writing from that perspective. Please see here if you need more details on the benefit.
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So apparently the delightful George Osbourne, with the backing of both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats in their spectacularly beautiful little love-in coalition of joy, has decreed that from 2013 all claimants of Disability Living Allowance – new or existing – will have to undergo medical examinations. This is in order to weed out the dirty, scrounging malingerers that go about claiming DLA…you know, those bunch of work-shy, lazy twatbags that just cannot be arsed to work.
People like me!!!
I am mental, therefore I have a disability that you can’t see on or about my body…therefore I don’t have a disability and am not mental, so seemingly goes the circular logic, because mental illness* doesn’t really exist, does it – it’s just something us pigshit, employment-avoidant obsessives make up so we can live at the tax-payer’s expense. Nevermind that filling out the bloody form is like a full-time job in itself…
(* Of course they do recognise that mental illness exists – but ‘depression’ or ‘PTSD’ or whatever are not really mental illnesses in these people’s eyes. One has to be floridly and continually psychotic, otherwise they ain’t unwell at all innit. And, yes, I know – not everyone in the government or society at large thinks this. Probably not even the majority, to be fair. But it’s still going to be the hidden disabilities that get hit here – of that I am almost certain).
Obviously, I’m being facetious here. I know that there are people claiming benefits who are work-shy malingerers, and of course I’d like to see such people weeded out of the system; I think most right-thinking people would. The difficulties with this approach are many, though.
For one, I genuinely don’t believe that there’s as many such people in the system as the Daily Fail-thumping reactionists would have us believe. That was a view that I formerly held, I must confess, and I apologise profusely for my unfair, cruel stereotyping. It hasn’t been my own work-demise that has fuelled my revision of opinion, but connecting with so many people on Twitter and Facebook whose claims for various disabilities – mental or physical, obvious or hidden – are very clearly needed and deserved. I have yet to meet one single person claiming the benefit that does not seem entitled to it.
Secondly, these medical examinations can set people like me back by months. I cannot emphasise enough how stressful they are. Unlike DLA, claims for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), the replacement for Incapacity Benefit (IB), are presently assessed. I went through one in March last year, and it effectively ruined my life for a while – the derision and contempt with which you are treated, the evident disbelief on the part of the clinician, the gruelling and intimate interrogation that they force upon you – for someone mentally stable, it would be horrific. The effects upon us that are clearly unstable are potentially devastating.
Thirdly, as Benefit Scrounging Scum points out in this post, there is a danger that DLA assessments will completely backfire on the government. If, as seems likely, assessments will ensure that many people receiving or applying for DLA will be turned down for it, then in all probability the various Social Security Agencies will be swamped with costly appeal tribunals. The capital involved in provision of these tribunals could quite possibly amount to a figure similar to the bill currently directed at DLA payments. Any savings would ergo be lost.
On a similar point, though, I fear that those of us with mental health problems, or those that are ‘easily’ distressed, may be so floored by the news that their DLA claim has been rejected that they fall into a spiral of abject depression. I think I can reasonably assume that detailing the dangers of this to most of my readership is not a necessary endeavour on my part; however, in government-speak, let’s just say that if these people are using DLA as income because they can’t work – well, refusing the benefit to them is not exactly likely to enable them to become your fabled ‘productive members of society’.
In the fourth instance, the medical professionals employed in these capacities seem universally fuckwitted (I’ve had experience of them prior to last year too). They work for the Social Security Agencies, I am convinced, because they are unemployable elsewhere (and that’s saying something when you consider the calibre of some medics in the NHS!). At no point are any specialists apparently involved. This is not just applicable to psychiatric disorders, but things like MS, arthritis, deafness, learning disabilities, autism – you name it. They’re just ‘generic’ doctors with no in-depth understanding of the sometimes complex illnesses with which they are presented.
The incompetence of the doctor I saw last year was underlined by the fact that he felt that I was at no point ‘disconnected from reality’ (hmm, psychosis and dissociation are a universal reality, then) and could return to work within a year to 18 months. LOLZ like innit. Look at me, people, look at me! I’m a bloody mess of psychological spaghetti falling off a plate! There is no way!
The incompetence of the Social Security Agency, in turn, was that they employed this useless tosser who didn’t even assess me under the correct section of the relevant legislation, and they didn’t even realise his mistake. Despite my protestations, a year later they have still not responded to my complaints. Furthermore, because I was not deemed to be ‘disconnected from reality’, I will be asked to attend work-focused interviews towards the end of this year – and unless there is a dramatic change in a mere few months, I will simply not be ready for these meetings, never mind for actual fucking work.
Not everyone that claims DLA also claims ESA or IB, but many do. For those of us with a nervous or unstable disposition, having to have two evil medical exams will be a stress beyond stress; this may sound histrionic, but I really believe this could lead to full psychological – even psychotic – breakdowns. They really are that bad. Aside from the fact that this is horrendous for the person involved, and their friends and family, if we look at it from a macro perspective, such breakdowns will only cost the government more through the health care required. Thus rendering the supposed savings redundant, yet again.
Now, if Georgie-Gideon-Tory-Boy Osbourne would link ESA assessments to those also claiming DLA, or vice versa, that might be moderately acceptable. I could live with that, but not with having to go through this highly traumatic experience twice.
Additionally, the various Social Security Agencies across the UK need to make sure they employ a range of medical specialists. Psychiatric specialists, yes, but also those in other medical disciplines. Presumably psychiatry would need to be the largest, however, as mental health problems (as far as I know) account for many DLA claims, especially amongst people of my age. I don’t even think these doctors would need to be full-time, nor would they need to be consultants. A trainee at registrar or SHO level, perhaps also working elsewhere at other times, would be better than someone who has only the most basic specialist training whilst doing his or her MB.
They will never do this, of course. But to make things fair, they damn well should.
The one saving grace of this proposed change to DLA, from an entirely personal angle, is that it won’t come into practice until 2013. I sincerely hope that I will be able to work at that point, but therapy and recovery for the conditions with which I am afflicted takes bloody time, and we’ll just have to see. One thing that I am determined not to do is return to work before I am completely psychologically ready – that would do neither me nor the employer any good.
For other people, who will never be able to work, this is a self-evident and undermining blow – and, frankly, something of an insult.
In theory, I do support some screening to make sure claimants are genuine. Those that are claiming illegitimately give us all a bad name, and more importantly, they ‘scrounge’ money that would be much better spent elsewhere – such as the health service itself.
But at the end of the day, I would rather there were one or two fakers within the system than have the rest of us robbed of the entitlements that we need, whilst being thoroughly objectified and demoralised in the process.
New Post: Brief Thoughts on #DLA Changes http://bit.ly/aMBgLg #benefits #mentalhealth #budget #borderline #PTSD
RT @serial_insomnia: New Post: Brief Thoughts on #DLA Changes http://bit.ly/aMBgLg #benefits #mentalhealth #budget #borderline #PTSD
New Blog Post: Thoughts on the DLA Changes in the Budget http://bit.ly/93end7 #borderline #PTSD
Thoughts on the DLA Changes in the Budget: NOTE: This is written from the point of view of someone claiming Disabi… http://bit.ly/cOWkRz
Reading: "Thoughts on the DLA Changes in the Budget » Confessions of a Serial Insomniac" ( http://bit.ly/9s3ANc )
@timetochange @rethink_ RT @serial_insomnia New Blog Post: Thoughts on the DLA Changes in the Budget http://bit.ly/93end7 #borderline #PTSD
RT @Operation_Lola: Reading: "Thoughts on the DLA Changes in the Budget » Confessions of a Serial Insomniac" ( http://bit.ly/9s3ANc )
I get both DLA and ESA as my sole income too. It seems to be all that’s keeping me and my mum going at the moment since her income is even lower because of the cancer. I’ve had to go for medical assessments 3 or 4 times now and I have to travel 30m to get there, including a bus and train ride. I’m sure you can imagine how stressful it is for both me and my mum before the assessment has even started! I think I need to be reassessed in August =(
From the point of view of someone still dealing with the horror of ESA medicals, having scored 0 points???(having ben hospital week before) then awarded 24. then decided I needed another medical which I will attend next week. this whole process has set me back for the best part of this year so far. My only grace is that my DLA went through easily. If I am not in work by 2013 I dread to think how I will deal with this.
Here’s a cost saving approach. Instead of employing a load of tossers who don;t have a clue (my assessing doctor thought Quetiapine and valproate were antidepressants and refused to accept diagnosis given by psychaitrists) why dont they base assesment on report provided by your consultant psychatrist who knows you has met you for longer than twenty minutes and surely is in a better position to assess.
Oh and the whole thing makes me angry and frustrated. Being treated as malingerer does nothing for self esteem does it?
I can only imagine how hard it is to go through the stress of medical evaluations. I was lucky that I applied for IB one week before ESA came into effect and so far haven’t had to go for a medical evaluation. I did have to go for focused back to work interviews about 6 weeks after I started claiming, which was beyond pointless and quite stressful for everyone concerned as I, at the time, needed to be accompanied everywhere I went, so it meant mum and my wife both taking time off work to accompany me.
I have no doubt that when the DWP deem it right they will send me for every test they can imagine and then a few more just to finish me off. If you have an assessment coming up you have my full sympathies.
Blog HUGELY busy with #DLA searches. Never had a post only a few hours old get such attention before: http://is.gd/cZg5Y #mentalhealth
RT @serial_insomnia: Thoughts on the DLA Changes in the Budget http://is.gd/cZeFF
Excellent post, thanks for writing this and I’m making my way through your other posts now too
I have to have yearly medicals and am on ESA, I hate being on benefits but my moods, anxiety, depression and panic attacks are too unpredictable for me to be able to work. This, combined with being a single parent, makes my life tremendously taxing to say the least.
In time I hope to find something voluntary, to help other people and give back to the community but this is, for now, just a dream.
Thanks for this post. I have anorexia and Bulimia and have horrible complications most permanent from my illness. I claim DLA and incap. Im at uni (through struggling with that) in order to be able to start my own business and live a life away from social security. If only money was in place for support systems and clinic to help other with ED’s and mental illness but there just isnt. In the meantime its a struggle. I dont know why i have this illness ive been sick since i was small. too young to even know what fat was. Im so worried about all this. Thanks for the post and all the comments. its nice to not feel so alone
Yamy
Excellent post Pan. I too used to think there were more ‘scroungers’ than there really are- but just like you meeting people with mentai health problems online totally changed that, as did my sis’s group therapy a few years back- when will people realise mental problems are REAL??
Best wishes
Kate
Hello everyone – hope ur all ok. I’m on income support/dla. I totally agree with making sure geniune disabled/ill people get sick benefit. But i feel that the conservatives have caused fear now amongst dla claimants, especially people like me. I have autism/fibromyalgia/severe anxiety – my health issues will never get better + i will always need constant support from family and medical agencies. But because i do not sit there in a wheelchair or shit myself, people presume that one cannot possibly be ill – people are so bloody ignorant today. I have been to income support medicals where the doc was so ignorant, i literally came out crying – yet they these medical assessors dont know u. The only thing i could advice ppl with hidden disabilities when claiming dla/ib is to make sure u get back up from ur gp/specialists. I can tell ppl that being on sick benefits is horrible and degrading, it is not a lifestyle, and i do not choose 2 be ill and on shit money. Dont class everyone as fraudsters. Take care. Xxx
[...] Read the rest here: Thoughts on the DLA Changes in the Budget » Confessions of a … [...]
My #DLA blog post ( http://is.gd/cZg5Y ) has led to the busiest ever day on SI. Pleased to see comments are all supportive so far. #budget
RT @serial_insomnia: My #DLA blog post ( http://is.gd/cZg5Y ) has led to the busiest ever day on SI. Pleased to see comments are all sup …
RT @serial_insomnia: My #DLA blog post ( http://is.gd/cZg5Y ) has led to the busiest ever day on SI. Pleased to see comments are all sup …
New post: Saturday Video: Sexy Legs Create a Thirst for Piton Beer in St. Lucia http://bit.ly/9f9aXY
RT @serial_insomnia My #DLA blog post http://is.gd/cZg5Y <– this deserves to be RT'd till it trends #carers #dla …pls read to end
RT @serial_insomnia: New Blog Post: Thoughts on the DLA Changes in the Budget http://bit.ly/93end7 #borderline #PTSD
Thanks for all the comments folks. I’m sorry to hear of others’ difficult stories in the arena of benefit claims. As noted by Sarah, claiming benefits is already degrading, and it seems like it’s just going to get worse and worse and worse.
There’s an excellent post exploring today’s DLA announcement in more detail over at Arbitary Constant if any of you are interested.
Once again, thank you all and all the best.
Take care
Pan <3 x
RT @serial_insomnia: New Blog Post: Thoughts on the DLA Changes in the Budget http://bit.ly/93end7 #borderline #PTSD
I am going through my second claim for DLA, in the past 2 years. 75% of my problems are mental, not only am having to cope with the `DLA` system, that i feel : 1) they dont care, 2) we are bullshitting, 3)how dare you try to claim again! . I have aiso had to deal with doctors who just want to throw pills at me, Even after 3 overdose`s. I have had to cope with `mild depression`, (as doctors put it) for 11 years, since a big motorcycle RTA. Anyhow, its been ongoing till a new doctor arrived! RESULT: now under mental health care for type 2 BIPOLAR Disorder, due to it being ignored i have also got PSYCHOTIC PROBLEMS NOW. My psychologist WILLNOT put me in group activities. Yet DLA are still asking if i need the benefit? (it took me 6 days just to fill the form in). To see this today I`m in 2 minds(haha!!) about it. (1) Maybe it would help in getting what we should have in help? (2) THE WHOLE IDEA IS TO SAVE MONEY-SO THEY WILL USE DOCTORS(like my old ones!) :BLIND AND STUPID, WNO CAN ONLY SPELL `NO`. Being the same as you, having worked and paid in, why do we get no help? people just want to hide mental illness. But people have got accept 1:4 have a mental problem. And we donot get the support needed to recover properly from anywhere.
[...] Pandora at Serial Insomniac [...]
[...] here to see the original: Thoughts on the DLA Changes in the Budget » Confessions of a … Share and [...]
I also live off DLA and ESA… this whole budget has really screwed over my mind. 3 days ago i was doing well, now, i cant even help my housemate down the shops because i know the government is watching me.. this is the last thing i need, to know im going to be made homeless?
I spent may to july last year in a mental hospital, over my birthday, joy; and ive had to spend every hour of every day drawing or guitar to distract myself.. on the good days i force myself to go out and buy food when i can. co-op. i can dream of going to asda by myself but too many people, thats what dla is for right?
i take anti psychotics, anti depressants, and anti anxiety tablets. when they tell me to take more (my social worker will take me ddown the doctors, and it will happen again) i can barely read and cant concrentrate at all…
I hope the government does take into a account mental health. The amount of pain that having to go somewhere, to a stranger and tell them my life, is enough once, doing it again will damn near break me.
I have multiple auto immune disorders siezures My GP and Specialist are fantastic.Surely there reports about a person claiming DLA should be respected as factual, how can a Doctor who only see’s me for aprox 30mins form a different opinion from my regular care team.Would it not make sense to trust our GP’S and Specialist’s to give an honest report on all in there practice’s who are claiming DLA. If they are not trusted to provide this info, then why should they be trusted to hold the positions that they have worked so hard to attain. Would this not be a simpler process than the one they have at the moment.
SAVE MONEY BY SACKING THE CLING ONS EMPLOYED TO GET GEN SICK BACK TO WORK.
Start trusting GP’S
Thatmanmakesmesoangry!
Two overdoses, three hospitalizations and almost a year later, DLA have decided that my mental illness is a real illness. The first consideration I had said that I wasn’t entitled because I wasn’t at risk of self harm. This is after several months of severe self harm and a suicide attempt. They also decided that I didn’t need care during the night to keep safe. This is, obviously, supported by my family having to stay up all night with me regularly. We now sleep downstairs because I’m less likely to try and kill myself or run away with somebody being a few inches away from me.
Not only do I have to suffer the indignities of that, but the indignities of being told that my problems aren’t that bad and I’m not actually ill.
The mind, literally, boggles.
[...] now I end my post but want to point you in the direction of an excellent post written by Pandora over at Serial Insomniac on her thoughts about the DLA changes… This entry was [...]
I have rapid cycling bipolar 2 with mixed states, anxiety, panic attacks and social phobia. Physical disabilities include three types of psoriasis – including pustular psoriasis ( a rare and disfiguring form) and psoriatic arthritis, (which are auto immune disorders, well documented to be adversely affected by stress) and a hiatus hernia. I am on shitloads of medication including methotrexate (a form of chemotherapy), mood stabilizers, anti depressants, tranquilisers, lanzoprazol, and I eat codeine like sweets to control my arthritic pain . I struggle with suicidal thoughts on a daily basis……I can honestly say that the added stress of having to undergo a medical with a complete stranger in a strange place WILL make me even more physically and mentally ill. I feel like throwing in the towel now. The whole system acts to instill fear in, and degrade disabled people and damages their self esteem. I just cannot take anymore. Do the DWP want to drive some of us to suicide? I may be being cynical here, but that would surely reduce their spending ……..
My husband has Alzheimers and he is claiming ESA and DLA as he cant work now, or in fact do much now without aid. He has had his medical assessements in September. I wonder if he will have to be reassessed again as it really distressed him last time and he started to scream and became a nusience to the medical team assessing him.
I have chronic, invisible physical and mental health problems (rapid-cycling bipolar, fibromyalgia, hypermobility EDS). I was reassessed for DLA every year up until last year because I’m under 25. Outlining it all landed me in a depressive episode that lasted weeks to months, every time. I was awarded indefinite LRC and HRM last year, and I was so relieved. It was a fight and a half, because I am 24 and apart from the stick I carry, appear healthy, and I’m good at faking it for short periods of time, like when I interact with other people.
Just the *thought* of going through another ATOS medical exam makes me suicidal.
RT @MindInFlux: @timetochange @rethink_ RT @serial_insomnia New Blog Post: Thoughts on the DLA Changes in the Budget http://bit.ly/93end7 #borderline #PTSD
RT @MindInFlux: @timetochange @rethink_ RT @serial_insomnia New Blog Post: Thoughts on the DLA Changes in the Budget http://bit.ly/93end7 #borderline #PTSD
RT @MindInFlux: @timetochange @rethink_ RT @serial_insomnia New Blog Post: Thoughts on the DLA Changes in the Budget http://bit.ly/93end7 #borderline #PTSD
This post is still getting a good number of hits daily, so just wanted to drop in again and thank those of you that have left comments since I last commented myself. I’m sorry to hear both of your troubles with DLA and other benefits and of the health difficulties for which you need to claim. I wanted to wish you all the very best.
Very best also to those of you reading that are in difficult predicaments but haven’t commented. I am pleased to note that there is something of an online revolt about this matter and hope that, as a community, we can ultimately do something to counteract these dangerous proposals.
Best wishes and thanks
Pandora
PS. Another post on the issue that I’d recommend is this one by Aliquant. She succinctly and eloquently outlines the very real dangers of DLA and ESA reforms.
hello…i am so distressed i can’t write yet…this is a very good discussion & will join in as soon as i can…thanks to you all…
I am completely staggered. I can’ believe the DWP can get away with causing this amount of distress to so many vulnerable people without the matter being picked up and pursued by the media. I am due to lose my home shortly because my incapacity benefit, concomitant with my housing benefit, have both been withdrawn following a failed PCA examination. As a full-time student, I have always relied on my incapacity benefit and housing benefit to cover my rent and daily expenses during the summer months. With the withdrawal of my benefits, I have been left with no money until October when my University resumes and my student loan is paid. I already have a suspended possession order on my flat because of arrears built up during periods, when I have been too depressed to claim the housing benefit I was entitled to. The withdrawal of my benefits, I now expect, will lead to my being taken back to court for failing to adhere to the terms of the suspended possession order, only recently awarded to the council who happen to be my landlord.
I already know from the horror stories I have uncovered since turning to the internet for ideas on what to do, that it will take at least 3 months before a tribunal date is likely to be set for my appeal. The Council, wont be waiting that long, unfortunately, before they write to inform me that they are going back to court to get an outright possession order which the Court will have to permit. Once the Council’s letter arrives, as I expect, it will make no difference if I do win my appeal eventually, as l will have long since lost my home of over 10 years. My degree will be lost, as I don’t expect I will be able to live through what is about to happen and then return in October to complete my final year as expected. I will have debts of over £30.000 on top of my crushed aspiration to increase my chances of getting a job that I will permit me to earn a living despite my mental health difficulties. It is, frankly, curtains for me already and I feel as though I am living through my last few weeks before I have to chuck in the towel. I would much rather die first, than take the distress and humiliation of being thrown out of my home because the Government has decided that the vulnerable in society most of whom, incidentally, are ill equipped to speak up for themselves, ought to pay for the losses of the subprime mortgages market engineered by greedy bankers.
The notion that we live in a civilised society really is nothing but pure propaganda. These sorts of underhand and, frankly, evil tactics permeates every aspect of our lives, as the Ian Tomlinson and the G20 verdict today further highlights.
one thing that troubles me greatly is that the assessors (on whom such much depends) used by ATOS and similar are not required to have any psychiatric qualifications, in fact they seem to be just about well enough qualified to spot that their interviewee might be missing a limb or two. Piece of advice, if you do not feel fit to travel to the ATOS assessment interview, ask your CMHT to send (usually by fax) a letter saying so – an ATOS appointed person will then come to you. Yes, the whole system sucks (and I privately fear that DLA is going to be scrapped) so the best thing we can do is share our experiences and advice as how to overcome the difficulties. One I the things I learn early on was to get someone (eg CAB, CMHT) to help with/complete the form for you
[...] are some posts I wrote that are relevant to this post: Thoughts on the DLA Changes in the Budget: http://serialinsomniac.com/2010/06/22/thoughts-on-the-dla-changes-in-the-budget/ Benefit Claim Win, Life Fail: http://serialinsomniac.com/2010/06/25/benefit-claim-win-life-fail/ [...]
i suffer from chronic ptsd each day is different, im worried sick whats going to happen to my benefits, i want to go back to work but cant cope yet doing so, i come down with ptsd in iraq in 2003, since then the army has just tossed me on top oif the shit pile with no help. i see cpns and docters on a weekly basis.
even when i start to be a little better can i work and still get my dla? panick attacks will never go away same with my ptsd my doc tells me i will just be able to cope better with it. i too h8 being looked at by some not all docters that think your just depressed, wish they could get it just for a day!
thanks
I can not even bear to think how I will cope with any medical. I have been stared at, prodded, probed and disbelieved for 30 years, but have only been receiving help for ten of those years. I worked hard until I was 48, brought up a daughter, suffered a marriage breakdown and all that with ME, fibromyalgia, CFS, cervical spondolosis, arthritis and mind boggling depression. I have overdosed badly (still here buggering up the system) and managed to fall in love and marry again. I am articulate, funny and in pain 24 hours a day. You can see none of my illness, hear none of it and feel none of it, BUT I HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT. A few quid here and there helps me to do that. DLA ie Living Allowance for the disabled. The definition of ‘disabled’ as taken from the DWP’s own website is: The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) defines a disabled person as someone who has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
I have emailed No 10, I doubt any one will read that, I have put the link for this website there so they can read all about us.
I have left a comment on Conservatives facebook.
I absolutely hate these people for the feeling of worthlessness they have now given me.
[...] My views on the already-proposed changes (from the June 2010 budget) to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) can be found here. [...]
I am astounded by the ignorant!! Please come and live a day in my shoes and you will see how real it is!! just because you have intelligence doesn’t make you immune to mental health – i have a thick file from 14 and only now after yet another break down where i didn’t know what was going on have i been given a decent psychaitrist who is dealing with all of my health issues which are relating to the damage i have done to my body from years of overdoses and alcohol etc to deal with my bipolar dx at 37! – please don’t misunderstand i have also have had years of working as an consultant and being paid royally in IT and i have a degree. I now am in a situation where 2 of my children have autism and i cannot cope and am far from stable but at least i am lucid at the moment under the control of some very heavy duty medication which if my husband fails to remind me to take i am at risk of a seizure additionally i also have a heart condition where i am due to have a pace maker fitted and fractured bones within my back. Do they not realise i didn’t choose whis path but i take the responsibilty of my children and struggle through the best i can. My husband works shifts to support us and i worked on and off up to two years ago when i had my neck fractured. I have only been on DLA for a year, we have a heavily mortgaged house and try to carry on – you fight for every tiny bit of help and are victumised by the majority – anyone catch ‘tormented lifes’ the other night!!
I am so sick of a system where people can come from other places and get everything on a plate so to speak and have seen it countless times – got out of prison sure we help, can’t speak english sure we’ll help not that i begruge that but the system should be far – there are no laws protecting disabled people from discrimation unless it is access issues or equipment that doesn’t account for any type of mental health, they always go after the weakest in society and majority of us can’t fight the battle or even understand what is expected i cannot deal with sensory overload so cannot go many places if i have to sit in front of a panel of people i don’t know i have no idea of the consequences to my health when i bearly am clawing out of the fog so to speak. I would love to go back to work i really would to have that satisfaction of using my fractured mind but is there a scheme that would support me in that – i’m a square peg now and i certainally do not fit into the round holes that are created! Additonally are they going to provide child care for my children – last quote i have was £20 a hour to care for one of them because they need at least one on one – Well Mr Camaron i’ll tell you what i’ll work alongside you and then you will see the difficulties and damage that mental disability causes as well as the distress when at some point in the day i become psychotic and do not understand where i am which can result in some very bizarre behaviour. I am tired of feeling ashamed of the condition i have and i certainly wouldn’t wish it on my worst enermy i would love to have a normal day and access normal activities and as mr cameron had a disabled son you would have thought he wouldn’t be so niave to believe we are scrongers and have a life of riley living on the state as i can tell you what we have no luxuries and i buy my clothes and things from charity shop and use free cycle so get down to our level and see the reality that we live!!
Trust me to discover your utterly wonderful and addictive website at 2.30 in the morning, i’m going to be up all bloody night now! Was lying awake freaking out about what i’m going to do when the powers that be in their ultimate wisdom decide I am fit to work because I look normal, speak properly, am literate and do not smell of piss. Started googling budget reforms + mental illness which only served to freak me out even more, until I found your site. Having read some of the replies here, I realise how lucky I have been so far with the doctors who have assessed me for my benefits, as I’ve found them to be fairly sympathetic on the whole. I am now wondering if this was just sheer luck, which is probably about to run out. Ok, now I’m going back to the Countdown to Abandonment post which sounds spookily like something I went through recently and I’m curious to hear the outcome…. Thank you Pandora for your wit and insight, it is a relief to find someone else who talks about their mental illness with such humour and irreverence – I find it’s the only way I can cope but, with the exception of one equally mental friend, other people are so bloody serious about it and look all embarrassed when I call myself mental! I call it embracing my inner freak but they don’t seem to get it…
sounds like u had a hard time.
i was worried becuase i have aspergers and pathalogicvaol demand avoiance. 5 aresholdses gave me a severe assualt a few months back. dla have not changed my award. even though i could barly walk.they are a bit mean at the dla.
i am not looking 4ward to the medical/ i heard there would be changes in the system. im glad i read your awsome blog
Has there been a #DLA announcement today? My post on the issue ( http://j.mp/aMBgLg ) is v popular & getting a lot of searches on the issue
I stronly beleive there are flaws in most on the changes
that this Coalition of twats have brought about and strongly
beleive they are acting illegal. 37% not renewing there claims, I
am one of the 37% almost a year now living soley on Mid Rate DLA as
they stopped the Incapacity as I was simple to ill to attend that
assessment. I disagree with those assessments as what i’ve
witnessed whilst in hospital with Mental Health it is obvious that
the vast majority in that ward that i was in would never be able to
work again even on meanual tasks. It is a hard enough task to wake
up in the morning and having to fight consistanly with ones own
Mental Stabilaty. Suicidal thoughts rage in most of the time, the
Doctors just don’t want to know any more with the experiance that
i’ve had with them it’s the same as the staff in the hospital,
first 5 days not one member of staff had spoken with myself despite
being forced into that nightmare by Police. I did ask for help
around the time of the assessment went to Social work dept. and
asked for assisstance there, they were ment to phone me the next
day. No contact came about. Out of this past year I’ve lost out on
my family as I’m to embarrassed to be left in this situation. No
monies to spend time with my neices and nephews etc. They keep
asking when they can come and spend time with myself, i have had to
make excuse after excuse as I am struggling very much just to get
some thing to eat. Until the assessments are abolished I will not
renew my claim as I strongly believe it undermines the specialists
doctors that reffer one onto those benifits in the first place.
They are very unfair on those with a history of abuse and
trumatised throughout their daily lives as a result. Basically, I
have a licence to act as a crimianl just now and profit from it by
means of acheiving a meal in prison. Sad fact.
I need my DLA for my art lessons
ATOS ? More like don’t give A TOS.
Yes. I sometimes wonder if the twats are trying to spell their own ineptitude out to the very people they’re meant to ‘protect’ (LOL. As if!).