I was diagnosed with Severe COPD eight months ago, aned went on ESA two months later. I was given an ATOS appointment for last week in Dec', got to it only to have it cancelled due to staff illness; my new appointment is next week. I have also been sent an appointment for a home based PIP assessment in mid Feb....
Thing, is, while I have cut down considerably, I haven't stopped smoking (I've tried)! Can this be held against me by ATOS Assessors?
Hi I don't think so as they are not allowed to play the 'game blame'. They should purely do it on your symptoms. x
What is pip i dont understand it can someone tell me please
Hi bluefish....Personal Independence Payment (PIP) helps with some of the extra costs caused by long-term ill-health or a disability if you’re aged 16 to 64. 
No i dont think so but it would help ur condition if u could stop took me a very long time in excepting i had c.o.pd as my mum had it i went 3 years no treatment i was very silly but now iam just about ok any way good luck with ur plp u should get it
It should not make a difference to the assessment. But as been said on here give them up it will save you loads of money that you are literally burning. Stopping smoking has been a proven way to get better health with COPD. I was 40 a day in 1992 I was in hospital with severe pneumonia and had the DT's and all sorts but I gave up it was hard but if I had continued. With what has happened to me since I am sure I would not be here now!
Be Well
Please get off the cigs - if you can't quit at least make the switch to e-cigs; I did five years ago and I swear it saved my life. Don't think it affects claim but please STOP.
Dragonmum, thanks for the concern, and I have tried e-cigs, my kids nagged me into them. I was doing great on them until I got a bad dose of flu, and couldn't get back to them. I still have them, but they make me cough worse than tobacco! I think I became sensitised to them.
I was in the same boat over 10 years ago I went to the quit clinic and was given champix you take the tablets while smoking and after about 10 days you give up it worked for me and many others. When I gave up I coughed for about 8 months getting all the rubbish off my lungs but now I feel much better my lung condition has got worse but I eat a healthy diet and go swimming good luck its not essay but we are always on line to help and support
Well all I can say is you havnt experienced the depths of lung disease if you can still smoke and be able to walk around with obviously not enough concern for ending up in hospital ,not a blame game a fact !
Wrong there Colours23, it seems I had COPD for considerable time before going to GP's. I don't do much walking around, and have minimised my smoking. Many bouts of difficulties without treatment. I watched my Dad take 13 years to die with what would be diagnosed today as COPD, so I know what the consequences are, and have no illusions; but I have no intentions of 'ending up in hospital'.
That's good. ,I think we know are limitations ,and have a few pleasures left, I hope your well and happy.
The more walking around the better your lungs will be,if you do very little excersise your lungs will most likely worsen much quicker add to that the fact you still smoke your outlook doesn`t look good,even e cigs are not good for us,never thought I could quit the cigs after more than 40yrs a heavy smoker,but with the help of champix and a very good nurse I did quit a year gone November,my nurse and re hab encouraged me to excersise as much as possible,which do and have also had both knees replaced,I was diagnosed in Sept 2011 with severe COPD and asthma,but feel much better now than I did back then,like most people will say,wish I had quit the cigs much sooner.
Best of luck to you
Hopefull, I love your reply... You have a strong life force, and a good outlook, and rightly so I wish you well!
But,you knew these things before you got ill, and it seems the consequences are just now starting to look 'expensive' ?
I have always known, and would be doubly condemned because of it!
Yet, the quality of life is not determined by your mistakes, but by what you got right when it mattered... I have a wardrobe full of well earned T shirts, and only a couple of shrouds (I'll never get to pick the one I wear; that's posterity's job'!
at least your honest here kephre, if the knew you smoked i should imagine it would go against you,
it went against the miners claiming for that miners disease pneumoconiosis , it lowered their claims.
but your health is far more important than any money in the world, and sorry to be so blunt kephre, if you have severe copd and smoke, you are wasting your time even claiming, as you wont live long enough to enjoy it,,,
i am genuinely sorry to be so blunt, but unfortunately this is true,
please stop, by any means you can,
believe me if i can do it anyone can
you'll notice a difference in no time,
best of luck mate, i hope you succeed, i wish you all the very best,
jimmy
thanks Jimmyw123, Nothing wrong with being blunt, or even dead right! Even before I was diagnosed I had gone onto e-cigs, and didn't smoke for three months... I got a lung infection, then was diagnosed... I now find e-cigs impossible to use without paroxysms of coughing. Strangely, hand-rolled cigs do not have the same effect. I was a fifty a day man once, but am now under ten a day. I find that most of the time I am doing it unconsciously; I have been HIGH-SPEED sort of bloke all me life, (62 now) and it is boredom that is main concern?
Kephre, you know you smoke for the nicotine and die from the tar don't you? Like all of us smokers you are using excuses - I'm being as blunt as Jimmy now. If you could do three months on e-cigs then you can do a lifetime on them, and they certainly won;t make you cough more than tabs, and if they do it's to get rid of the gunk. I smoked for 60 years and ended in hospital with asthma, COPD, you name it; on the 28th of this month it will be five years since I smoked a cigarette and in that time I have had no serious lung problem and only 2 lots of antibiotic - just getting over a nasty bug, but no asthma attack. I respect your right to live life as you wish, they're your lungs, so good luck.
Thanks MUM, I wasn't intending to be stubborn or obdurate, and I know how STUPID I must seem; my kids have an absolute licence to give me a hard time at every available opportunity, but the more the merrier; and your posts have more authority as you'r an ex smoker yourself. I spend most of my time alone, so I am likely doing it for company?
Get a dog mate get out walking every day be company for you and give u exercise double bonus, plus if u feel like holding a fag hold e cig instead, only get 18ml so it doesn't make u cough,good luck xx
If you really got into the rebuildable e-cigs (not looky-likeys) it would give you something to think about and something to do with your hands if you are at all technical-minded. UKvaping forums are a mine of information and a source of companionship in the form of some very nutty but friendly like-minded folk. It's also a great way to vape on the cheap, unless you succumb to shiny syndrome!
Hi
I gave up cigarettes almost a year ago and commenced vaping at 1.8mg nicotine, I then reduced to 1.4mg nicotine. Since I was aleady diagnosed with 'mild' copd? about two years ago, I thought I must do something to improve my breathing problems. I completed a spirometry test a couple of days ago and it gave a result of 40% or stage 3 copd. I am also currently undergoing tests for the problems I have having with my back and legs, meaning chronic back pain and my legs sometimes collapse. Will I be entitled to pip under current circumstances?
What's atos ?
Never heard of this?
COPD and Bronchiectasis
Steroids for COPD flare up
Sputum bugs and OSA/COPD
Recently Diagnosed COPD 
