Incapacity Benefit Review in Spain

seven-day-weekend

Hi there Marcos.

No news yet about the questionnaire (seven weeks now).

I too heard they had changed the scoring on the PCA.

I think it is going to change in the future but has not done so yet.

hjb123

Yeah I remember an email coming through about the assessment changing - but when does this come into effect? Think it was from the benefitsandwork site but not sure.

CFC

I hate to poke my nose in, but there's something really and fundamentally wrong with a system that pays out to people with depression who are still capable of coping with the upheaval and stress of relocating abroad to a country where they don't speak the language, while stopping the payments of someone with collapsed lungs and requiring a 5 times a week dialysis patient to attend a review.....nothing personal to any of the people involved, just a comment on the system.

Feel free to flame, I'm just a taxpayer....

RayWolfe

It do seem a bit strange, don't it?
Ray

seven-day-weekend

CFC wrote:

I hate to poke my nose in, but there's something really and fundamentally wrong with a system that pays out to people with depression who are still capable of coping with the upheaval and stress of relocating abroad to a country where they don't speak the language, while stopping the payments of someone with collapsed lungs and requiring a 5 times a week dialysis patient to attend a review.....nothing personal to any of the people involved, just a comment on the system.

Feel free to flame, I'm just a taxpayer....

We already had our house in Spain and knew the village, and didn't sell our house in the UK, so all we had to do was transport ourselves and a bit of furniture. My husband's depression actually hasn't been any better since we've moved here - and his IBS has been worse....but at least he can feel anxious/panicky/have a colicky tummy in the sun and not have to perform in front of a class of thirty teenagers all day. If you are classed as too ill to go to work, why does it matter where you are ill?

We were actually going to cancel his claim when we came here, as we thought it would have to stop, but someone told us that if he reached the threshold of incapacity he could still claim it. It just had to change from our local office to the one that deals with overseas claims.

However, I do agree that the person mentioned in your post should be entitled.

By the way, my husband is still a taxpayer to the UK too.

seven-day-weekend

hjb123 wrote:

Yeah I remember an email coming through about the assessment changing - but when does this come into effect? Think it was from the benefitsandwork site but not sure.

I think I read 2008.

katiepoppycat

My Mum used to be on incapacity benefit - she has aschemic heart disease and had been signed off for a number of years. She was called in for assessment and failed the medical - there were a few question marks about why she failed and she had grounds for appeal, especially as she had recently been diagnosed with diabetes as well. But as she threw herself into the appeal, she realised that maybe she wasn't as ill as she thought she was, she'd taken the 'incapacity' label to heart and given up on herself. Thanks to that medical she's now working with learndirect and applying for jobs. Yes it was rotten to lose the incapacity benefit but in her case it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. This is not to suggest that everyone would have this happy ending, and it is sad that people are suffering as a result of the PCAs, but in our case it was a win win for everyone. The government have 1 less incapacity stat and my mum is happier and more confident than she's been in a long time.

seven-day-weekend

katiepoppycat wrote:

My Mum used to be on incapacity benefit - she has aschemic heart disease and had been signed off for a number of years. She was called in for assessment and failed the medical - there were a few question marks about why she failed and she had grounds for appeal, especially as she had recently been diagnosed with diabetes as well. But as she threw herself into the appeal, she realised that maybe she wasn't as ill as she thought she was, she'd taken the 'incapacity' label to heart and given up on herself. Thanks to that medical she's now working with learndirect and applying for jobs. Yes it was rotten to lose the incapacity benefit but in her case it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. This is not to suggest that everyone would have this happy ending, and it is sad that people are suffering as a result of the PCAs, but in our case it was a win win for everyone. The government have 1 less incapacity stat and my mum is happier and more confident than she's been in a long time.

My husband was also on long-term incapacity in 1990. He had to give up teaching and was on IB until 1992. Then he thought he'd try again and returned to teaching part-time until 1996 when he believed he was well enough to go full time. However, this was detrimental to his health and after a lot of illness, he went part-time again in 2001 until he took early retirement in 2004 after another year-long bout of depression/anxiety/IBS from 2003-2004.

He does know what it's like to try again and has never chosen deliberately to play the 'sickness card', he is not that sort of person.

I repeat, he gets his IB now because he has passed the PCA.

seven-day-weekend

Eight weeks and still waiting.......

Marcos

seven-day-weekend,

I can really associate with all your comments in the last few days. I have carried out some more research and it does seem that the proposed changes (that will go ahead I am sure) are scheduled for 2008.

I have similar problems to your husband plus physical disabilities as well, I tried to stay in the UK but moved over to Spain to try for a better quality of life. Whilst in the UK I tried a totally different job but has the humiliation of being sacked. I collapsed in the office and had to take time off during my probationary period, my poor short term memory also caused some problems.

I had hoped to improve here but the only real help is that the cost of living is so much less. I just have a pension to live on now!

I still pay some tax in the UK and obviously lost my DLA on leaving!

I worked all my life from the age of 16 and was never out of work, no-one knows what might befall them healthwise in the future. I am in my 40's now.

However, whilst the Government appears to now pick on disabled people it has to be said that millions of pounds are being spent on foriegn nationals coming to Britain with NO funding! They have NEVER paid into the insurance type based system in the UK where we have all our working lives.

My last job was in housing benefits and a lot of applicants were coming into Europe via Sweden then on to the UK. Many hardly speaking a word of English but enough to claim benefits.

I agree that the DWP scales for various types of disability IS crazy but who ever said that the DWP were sane in the first place. You have to make the best of the system that is in place at the time of application.

Many people can only move house/Country etc with the help of their carers/family wereas in the past would have been able to cope alone. I used to be a medical professional so I do know something about these difficulties.

The bottom line is that most of the assessors in the DWP do not have enough medical understanding to make accurate desicions, they look things up in a guidence manual. I think a large majority of IB claimants are genuine and live on a huge drop in income, with the rising cost of living in the UK; I predict that a lot more people will emmigrate to Europe to live.

Good luck!

Marcos....:rotfl: