my neighbour who is an alcoholic with various health problems (drink related) was signed off incapacity benefit with zero points. she appealed & got 12 points still not enough to get her benefit back. she appealed to the upper tribunal & won.
the judge decided that the previous judge had made an error on relying on the nurses evidence & from going from o points to 12 points..
in the letter of which i have seen it said if she can get supporting letter of 3 point from her gp, her benefit will be reinstated.
i am pleased for her, but at the same time i think she is much fitter than myself, she has a social life & does her own shopping.
i too went from zero points to 12 at my appeal, so i have sent a letter to the upper tribunal.. im not expecting anything but i think its worth a try, after all we cant lose anything can we??
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eirwen
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It is so wrong when we have to fight so hard for our basic rights. However when you get signed off Incapacity they rely on people not appealing the decision.
I haven't been hauled in for my Work Capability Assessent yet, but it is only a matter of time, when I expect to be in the same situation.
no matter what you say to atos,they will twist it around, she asked if i could meet up with friends i said no, my friends come to me ,she put i could meet with friends,and various other twaddle i did not say,as soon as you have been to the atos assessment if you feel you were unhappy with the way it went ring the dwp and complain about it and tell them you want the complaint noted in writing(in case you have to appeal),i am this month going to my appeal after waiting a year almost
Sorry but Im not pleased your neighbour got her benefit reinstated. WE didnt ask to be ill or disabled and didnt do anything stupid to inflict ourselves with it. Yes the health issues of alcoholics are tough, but they are (usually) self inflicted. EVERYONE knows excess alcohol intake is potentially life threatening, so you dont HAVE TO do it. We had illness or disability thrust upon us without any fault or permission or risk of our own doing. It seems that alcoholics and drug abusers get all the financial help going. Thats not really helping, is it? Your neighbour obviously gets enough money to have a social life. I can neither afford a social life financially or physically. Well lucky her.... Sorry, no support or sympathy from me. Id much rather YOU had it.
bumblebee, I hear what you are saying, believe me I do. but MY daughter is a recovering, (sometimes not) drug addict. She is truly suffering the consequences at 34 her body is totally wrecked! She walks with a crutch because of repeated blood clots, she has quite severe Hep C, which is really taking it's toll in many ways, but she's unable to have treatment because she is bipolar, and she would need to come off all her anti psychotic medication, which just isn't an option, she's often suicidal as it is, people who are perfectly of sound mind in the first place and have treatment for Hep C have committed suicide. So she just has to go on and suffer with the consequences. She knows she has made herself worse, however she was let down by the medical profession in the first place. At 8 years old she began having problems where she couldn't get along with class mates, and developed almost an unreasonable hatred, and jealousy of her younger brother. At 12 she started self harming, (in recent years I've found out it started because she was raped, and the 2 boys threatened her so she kept quiet for many years). At 15 I saw a psychiatrist with her who decided she was attention seeking! At 16 she attempted suicide for the first time, before her dad died almost 9 years ago, we had lost count of her attempts, all pretty superficial, up to3 years ago when she took over 250 Tramadol, and a further 2 overdoses in 2 weeks. At this stage she was eventually diagnosed as bipolar! Only 15 years too bloody late, had they really sat up and took notice 15 years earlier her life may have been a lot different. She had her son at 18, by the time she was 20 she was told her Fallopian tubes were blocked and she'd never conceive naturally again, her next 6 years were spent fighting for a hysterectomy, as she had such bad endometriosis she wasn't able to look after her son, and between that and her then spiraling drug addiction we gained custody of him a couple of months before his 6th birthday, he's lived with me for over 10 years now.
I have now discovered, and not just through my daughter, that the incidence of people with bipolar abusing drugs is the highest there is. the medication suppresses all release of adrenaline, and your body craves the high of a release of adrenaline, like when you are excited, the only way to get that high is to take illegal drugs. She fights and lives with her demons every single day of her life, she's missed out on her only sons childhood, and teen years, he has lots of issues with her, so rarely sees her. (At 16 now, it's his choice). Yes I know she could have said no to drugs, as an alcoholic can say no to drink, but there's often underlying reason for the illness, and believe me it is an illness, I never used to think it was, but having seen the effects, and how ill she is, etc, it really is an illness. Condemnation without the full facts is futile, they are just as ill (a lot of them, I admit NOT all) as we are. .
im so sorry stormy lady , i feel for you & your family like i do for my neighbour. even though she has more energy & a social life than me,, i wouldnt want her life for a gold cow
I think that is perhaps the worst point, that she has more energy than you. I'm 55, my daughter is 34, and is more ill than I am, I truly expect her to die at a very young age.
i have sort of the same sinario, with my family. its heartbreaking 2 see them destroy their lives. i wish you & your daughter all the best in health & happiness..
your right with the point i was trying 2 get across is yes she has more energy & a better social life than me..
i think us fm sufferers should say we got a drug dependency due to the medication we take, perhaps we will get more reconition then.. xxx
im not judging her penny, i have family members who are alcoholics, like i said im pleased shes won.. but what i am saying is shes a lot fitter than me.. x
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Second tribunal tomorrow : (
Lost My Appeal at Tribunal and feel so low
Tribunal Adjournment 
tribunal
