Budget - tougher for DLA claimants

24skins

The exact wording in the budget is:



1.103 The Government will reform the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to ensure support is targeted on those with the highest medical need. The Government will introduce the use of objective medical assessments for all DLA claimants from 2013-14 to ensure payments are only made for as long as a claimant needs them.



So it looks as though EVERY claimant will be assessed and is at risk of losing benefit regardless of the length of their award.

I'm very disappointed as my son had been reassessed every two years [and given HRC/HRM each time] until last year when he was given an award lasting until Nov 2015 (with the support of his GP, consultant and neurologist) which felt like a massive weight off my family's shoulders. I really could do without the stress of yet another assessment in between working, studying and caring for my son...

Starwoman

Hello. I worry now they will take my DLA off me. With the New medical assessment for DLA in 2013. I had DLA from the age 1 to 16, then they decided to removed my DLA off me in 1997. Then I apply it again in 2004 and went to appeal and won. I have got a disability as I was born with a Klippel–Feil syndrome is a rare disease (is defined as a short neck with decreased movement and low posterior hairline and get back/neck pain sometimes) and I am hard of hearing too. Which I wear hearing aids. Which my disability it's noticeable at times and people do stare at me. I gets very self-conscience about it. Will I have to go through that again appealing and filling out though awful forums again? If I do I will be dreading it..With DLA money as I have to take two buses to get the hospital every 2 or 3 months. Sorry I am not with my literacy skills.

preciousillusions

I am also worried about these medicals and a little upset too by the ignorance and judgement made in this thread.

I suffer from depression, a severe eating disorder and type one diabetes which is complicated very much so by the eating disorder (i have daily hypoglycemic episodes and have ended up in diabetic ketoacidosis many times). A doctor isn't going to be able to tell how much i struggle from just looking at me, and i am worried about being judged on things like my weight, i just can't deal with that, and i hate talking to people who just don't understand, it is distressing.

Also, it is no one's right in this thread to decide what people receiving DLA should or should not spend their money on (yes even as precious tax payers! Seriously, put the Daily Mail's down and get a new line), there are no specifics conditions on the money you recieve and people have different needs.

Gingerbiscuit_2

The problem is that the goverment is not saying to review all on dla and then see how many shoulnt qulalify which would be fair. They are alreadying saying that so much percent will be cut. So you are in effect saying that 10% of people who now get will not get without seeing the people.

If it is based on medical need you cannot decide the % before hand can you??

nogginthenog

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

No genuine claimants need fear a medical; it's unimaginable that we have a system that allows people to claim any kind of disability benefit without one.

DLA has nothing to do with being able to work; many employed people claim DLA anyway.

As long as we will keep the right of appeal that is true.

preciousillusions

^true but that doesn't mean the whole process still isn't going to cause huge upset for many people, especially if they have idiots assessing them and have to appeal again and again, which is what i fear will happen if they don't have the funds to employ fully trained people.

cheap_charlie

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Although on the whole I agree with people having medicals, my son'sgirlfriend who has Aspergers's Syndrome and gets low rate mobility and care DLA, will not be able to properly explain to the Dr how her condition affects her daily . Being unable to explain herself clearly is actually a symptom of her condition. Presumably she would be able to take someone with her to speak on her behalf?

This is my concern too. My daughter is 13 and was awarded DLA MRC and LRM indefinitely when she was 7 - she has a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

Her autism isn't going to go away and she will need someone with her for any future doctor's appointment - she recently had her annual check up with the paediatrician and if I hadn't been there they paediatrician wouldn't have learned anything about her as she wouldn't talk to her.

I appreciate there are some people who milk the system but the sheer cost of having every single claimant have a medical of the "tick the box" variety strikes me as a false economy and one which has been thought up to keep the Daily Mail readership happy rather than as a true cost cutting exercise.

The fact a company will get rich on the back of taxpayer's money to do these medicals is another aspect that bothers me.

ramsas

burkey365 wrote: »

why should i go away i am a taxpayer whose brother lost his arms and legs in iraq he receives dla, i aqm voicing an opinion to people on here who say its unfair that they should have medicals and yet most of these people like sh1305 suffer a depression..if you are genuine you will pass the medical, FACT so stop worrying though i still cant get my head around how people can claim it when they say on here i cant be bothered to cook, or i run away...wheres that a disability...karatedragon..thats what i have been saying they will sort it all out at the medical and hopefully redefine the benefit

FACT ..over 2 million claim mobility high rate DLA....The figure for War pensioners mobility is 14000...fourteen thousand!!!reason being that the medical criteria required for this is much stricter than DLA.I fail to see that there can be 2 million plus who are in need of mobility DLA.The figures are crazy.

richard9991

burkey365 wrote: »

what aids help you be more mobile when suffering depression, thats just conning the state..care needed maybe but mobility, come on

low mobility is awarded for supervision for ppl who get scared/panic attacks in places that are unfamiliar.

sunnyone

I recieve both the high rates of DLA which the mobility was for life when it was awarded as was the middle rate care but I had a supersession on the life time care award to high rate award and my awards now indefinate do to the change in the DLA awards systems that changed life to indefinate and if they change the DLA rules that mean I need a medical, so what?

I am severly disabled and that can only get worse, my awards are safe, as is everyones who cant provide the evidence to back up there claims.

It nothing to worry about.