I am a 56 year old woman, enjoyed good health up until now. I have worked in this country since the age of 13 two jobs after school and at the weekends. Then full time working up to seven days a week. Having difficulty breathing so went to the GP I have a collapsed lung and Copd. I won't bore you with detail but a so called 'health professional' at the assessment did not give me enough "points" ( I didnt realise my life had come down to be point scored" Then some civil servant at DWP decides (and I actually have this in writing !!!) that I could obtain a wheelchair from the NHS stick my Oxygen bottle to it and get myself down the job centre. I am so enraged Ive written to Theresa May, I would love to be in good health and return to the workplace I am not work shy. Asking me how far I can walk, Where do I shop , Can I go to the toilet myself this is a degrading and disgusting . I don't measure how far I can walk - life is too bloody short. All this for less than £100 a week ?? None of my employers ever contacted me when I was signed off sick by my doctor to see how much of my job I could do even though I was ill . When your GP and Hospital Consultant advise you are unfit for work, what gives these Civil Servants the right to disagree with them. What do you have to do ? go to the assessment claiming you couldn't make it on your own and needed help, go in on all fours to prove how ill you are ? I was supposed to be at the hospital having a lung function test not treated like a fraud and having to try and score enough point stop win this stupid game. This government or whichever one decided it would be a good idea to harass sick people and those with a progressive Illness should hold their heads in shame this is disgusting. Why don't they stop paying child benefit to immigrants whose children were not born here and don't live here, that would save them a fortune, and stop treating non residents for free in our NHS hospitals. They tell you not to send you explanations of your conditions, well I insisted on doing so simple fact is if you can't breathe well you can't DO ANYTHING let alone operate a wheelchair, and if you stop breathing Im sure even they can work that out. Good news is though if you have only six months to live or less you don't have to attend the assessment and hopefully you will get paid your benefit before you die. I have come to close to telling them to stick their benefit but then thought why should I ? I've paid tax and national insurance (a huge amount) for years. Im not having to appeal as the "Decision Maker" refuses to change his decision. I am going start a petition to have these interrogations stopped . If a GP and Hospital Consultant is prescribing Medication and writing you a sick note that should be more than enough for benefit to be paid. There was a woman at my assessment with Cancer and Spina Bifida for God's Sake. THIS HAS TO STOP we should not be subjected to this rubbish anymore it is wrong. Let me know if you agree .
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paula1962
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I agree completely. I have just posted on a post about stress. I'm of the view that the antics of the DWP have caused the bulk of my stress. Furthermore, I think they fully understand the impact of stress on health so their behaviour is calculated to cause maximum harm.
I'm in the process of deciding what action to take. However, they have also removed access to legal help and therefore diminished our ability to enforce our rights. The UN has again strongly criticised the government on its failings.
It is not enough to refer everyone to the CAB. They are a charity of volunteers, and the quality is hugely variable. They are also largely inaccessible. I do not believe upholding rights should be down to charities. Many of which are at best incompetent.
Wow you’ve said it all, I’ve wanted to for so long but couldn’t find the words too. I suffer Fibro Fog and forget what I’m saying, if you were starting a petition I’d be first in line to sign. Well done 👏🏻👏🏻 For saying how everyone feels. BULLYING from start to finish. Have you seen Sabrejan post ??
I completely agree: after years of working for the government, sacrificing my home life to extend my shifts to “get the job done”, helping them out when extensive and ludicrous cuts left our borders vulnerable I am also disgusted with the pathetic assessments that bare no relevance to my condition and hoops ive been expected to jump through! Having been granted ill health retirement by the Homeoffice and assessed as unable to work again you’d think that would be enough. BUT because I have NO SUPPORT so HAVE to drive myself to my assessment, because I can use a mobile phone, because I can pick up my handbag and answer questions (relevance???) I’m treated like a fraud even thought I have been deemed too ill to work by 4 GPs, 4 specialists and a panel of independent assessors over the last 2 years and am on a cocktail of drugs to get through the day! 🤪
I totally agree it's disgusting I'm 100% with you on this the government need to support people like us.We work hard all our lives pay huge amounts of tax and national insurance for what???????Hope you get what you deserve.💐💐
We do not choose to be ill but we are and until we were we worked our hole families work but for what to be made to jump though hoops. As my dad says in his day they was no child support so if you could not afford them you made shore you did not make one.
Forgot to say I will sign the petition in big capital letters ! That's how much I agree with the statement.ive had to pay all my child benefit back for my children which I should be entitled too 6 years worth as they said my hubby has just earnt over the threshold so we have had a hefty bill to pay back to government and im on statory sick so not happy about that brown letter as u can imagine😔yes the government need to get priorities right xx
According to the news recently the government have looked into it as there have been so many complaints.
They've now said that there have been new guidelines for the assessments laid down and the companies have been told that if they don't start behaving properly they will lose the contract, as they're making it so other companies can apply for the contract in two years time.
They have also ordered that all the decisions for the past year out so have to be re-assessed. Given that, if they do what they say, things should start getting better real soon. I've had mine re-checked and the decision overturned, so let's hope a lot of others do too.
Apart from that, they cant stop you appealing, regardless of whether rhe assesor refuses to change their original decision. You can appeal to an independent body. Don't let them bamboozle you into not appealing. You should be able to find all the info you need on the government website. Good luck.
P. S. I would sign the petition too! Especially if what the government says is not carried out!
Well said, you covered it all. I would sign too a petition x
Hi Paula1962, agree with everything you said, would definitely sign petition, we have all had enough of these unfeeling people that decide what we do and don’t deserve or should be entitled to! It’s easy for them sitting behind their desk to judge, without a care about how much effort, stress and pain it took us to get there 😡hugs to you🤗, NanaT.
Well said I totally agree if ever you decide to stand for election then you got my vote. I am afraid that there are lots out there who just accept this *rap and they deserve every penny and more I am sorry that we have a tendency to just lie down and accept this when we should be revolting in the streets and outside that horrible place where the rats reside
I agree I have so much wrong with me but on my review all there questions related to my incontinence I was put in supported group they didn't need to know about anything else I was in there ten mins person before me was in there over an hour she told me they have five things they judge on and they had enough info so the person in the wheel chair was having a harder time proving their case that's not fair I'm glad I got my decision but can't understand how it works and feel it is very you have to fit a box
This has all been going on for 8 years, to many, many disabled/chronically ill people. The truth, according to the DWP itself, is that less than 1% of disabled/sickness benefits cases are fraudulent, although they and the media make people believe that it's a lot more. The process screws over an enormous # of people in order to catch <1%. That makes no sense.
The process isn't saving money, either. Year on year, they pay ATOS and Capita 10's-100's of millions of £ to have Health Professionals (who don't know much about the conditions of the people they're assessing) do rushed and often incomplete assessments, and regularly seem to have decided that you're faking before you even get into the room. Then they write a report which, either through incompetence or malice, bears little resemblance to the actual assessment, often contains major factual errors, and sometimes contains outright lies. They don't seem to care about the standard of the assessments, or the fact that assessors often ignore or don't even read the forms or the FME.
Year on year they pay Case Managers (HP) to rubber-stamp the assessors' reports, and although they're supposed to look at the forms and FME too, they often don't.
Mandatory Reconsiderations (MR) only change the decision about 16% of the time, so paying CMs to do this is a waste of time. They often just rubberstamp the first decision (but a lot of people get very discouraged or too sick/stressed to continue after the original decision or the MR, so they stop trying, and hey, the number of people on benefits goes down a bit more.
They pay CM's to write extremely poor submissions to appeal tribunals, which the senior president of tribunals has called, "so poor that they would be wholly inadmissible" in other courts. They also pay the charges for tribunals, but don't pay the salaries of the judges/doctors/disability specialists who sit on the tribunals, the admin work, the building rent, etc.
Last year they spent £10s of millions sending DWP representatives to tribunals to try to avert higher awards. Regardless, claimants are winning PIP and ESA tribunals 69% of the time - there's something very wrong there!
In the end, the DWP is paying more money to run the benefits system than they're saving by using my these tough new benefits. Yes, you read that right: they're spending money to stress out disabled and sick people, and to keep them from getting the benefits they need and are entitled to. Some claimants commit suicide over it, many become destitute, etc.
So why are they doing it? It is lowering the benefits bills, although not because they're finding frauds. It's ideological: they either truly believe that we're all scroungers, orctheybfin't care about what happens to be sz so now Ng as theyget votes.
Disgusting, but not new.
BTW, you should do an Mar (usually doesn't change the decision), and then appealntona tribunal!!
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