MSE News: Half a million could lose disability benefits

BJV

My sister has a friend, she was a bright young professional with her whole life ahead of her. Lived in the centre of London and made lots and lots of money.

Seven years ago she was diagnosed with a tumor on the brain. Within three years she went from happy confident outgoing to introverted and unemployed. She has had four courses of treatment and each time they think they have got it it comes back. She has been told on two occasions she only has a limited time left.

She has been on DVLA for six years now and has just had another review.

In the review they said they she try and get a job! This was four weeks after the last attempt to splice it out! I have not had treatment like this but as I understand it you can have good days where you are almost your old self and bad where it is unbearable. As she always says you don't hear about my bad days because I am too ill to go out or tell anyone about it, you only see me on my good days when I can at least make it out of the house.

Sick. I work hard really hard and do not want people to abuse the system but my god what how can we allow people in need, real need to have the extra burden of financial worry!

There really has to be a fair way of assessment!

ineed

Dunroamin wrote: »

Wait until you've been a member for more than 5 months (I used to have another name) and see if you're still so naive then!

Wouldn't make a difference if I'd been a member here two months, five or twenty six. I believe people have a right to defend themselves and polo hasn't had a chance to do that yet, you make rash judgements because your a cynical bitter person. Maybe your right about some people, but you cannot judge anyone until you have all the facts. I refuse to condemn anyone until I have heard all sides. Being a fair person doesn't make me naive.

sunnyone

krisskross wrote: »

If I was pootling along nicely with a cash income of up to £250 a week plus all my housing costs paid, perhaps a mobility car thrown in with most of my 'needs' being simply on paper, needing little or no intervention, then I would be extremely concerned about the planned reform of disability benefits. Especially if this lovely state of affairs had been chugging along for many years.

Good to see you back sunnyone. Have you been iller (don't think that is really a word!) than usual?

Ive been in and out of the spinal unit and Ive had some monster infections in my stoma KK, I cant seem to fight anything off at the minute so I might have to come off my RA drugs, thanks for noticing I havnt been around and for the welcome back.

danielanthony

I love the way people on here ignore the fact that we, as a country, borrow £1 for every £4 we spend. This is MSE, we should be discussing ways to save money and increasing benefits does not help get the budget deficit down.

And before anyone chimes in with the usual, "well I didn't cause the problem, so why should I suffer?", we've all enjoyed the benefits of having the extra taxes from the banking system over the years and now the gravy train is coming to an end we all need to cut our cloth appropriately.

ineed

danielanthony wrote: »

I love the way people on here ignore the fact that we, as a country, borrow £1 for every £4 we spend. This is MSE, we should be discussing ways to save money and increasing benefits does not help get the budget deficit down.

And before anyone chimes in with the usual, "well I didn't cause the problem, so why should I suffer?", we've all enjoyed the benefits of having the extra taxes from the banking system over the years and now the gravy train is coming to an end we all need to cut our cloth appropriately.

No one is talking about increasing benefits, we are talking about people getting the right benefits and people in real need getting money to survive. Not being punished for daring to be disabled.

Better_Days

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

On the other hand - people with low mobility, and chronic health problems often also feel the cold much more and need to have the heating maintained at a constant temperature. This means their bills are higher and being in the house 24 hrs a day compounds this. This is an expense directly related to the disability, and for many if they get cold their condition can be severely affected, thus uncreasing their care needs. So in my view it is perfectly legitimate to spend DLA on this.

This is exactly the problem that I have. Last summer I turned off the heating in an attempt to save money but I ended up triggering a relapse instead (even though I spend nearly all of my day in bed). Putting on another jumper just doesn't work when your body doesn't regulate it's temperature properly. Usually I am cold, but sometimes I 'overheat' too and perspire profusely, then clothing and bedding needs to be washed and changed.

The additional costs as a result of disability are not always immediately apparent from the outside.

sunnyone

21Twinkle wrote: »

How many DLA claimants actually use the money just for the purposes for which it was designed (ie Specifically for expenses other than "normal day to day living expenses") ?
I bet that the vast majority just add it to their meagre income as a small top up for paying for food/transport/heating etc etc


I know that I do .....

Every penny of my DLA is spent on whats its meant for (and much more money as well from my savings too), when you are severely disabled life is very, very expensive.

For example Motability is great if you are fit enough to use a normal car/people carriers but when you need very expensive adaptions like drive by wire or drive from wheelchair accessable vehicles for the most severely disabled who cant stand or transfer into a seat they wont help you unless you are employed or in full time education. You could buy three normal vehicles of the same model as mine for the price of my car and still have enough oney left over for a years diesel where as I was happy with a cheap Ford Fiesta pre accident.

My HRC goes on my care and the adaptions I need to be abe to stay in the family home.

ineed

POLO_BINT wrote: »

thank you chick, yes alot has, and with it my DLA claim was adjusted accordingly to what I have or have not been able to do. I had a major operation feb 7th of this year - hence being bed bound yet again! I also have a condition called lupus which runs hand in hand with something called fibromyalgia, this is on top of my congenital bone condition. I have operations every year without fail, some simple, some long term recovery like this one now. I am p!ssed I have to defend myself and my struggles. The trip was planned with the help of who I won it with to allow for my condition and the list of tours planned was not compulsory. every day is a struggle and i chose to post certain pictures without the use of my crutches pfffft!

I knew it wold be something like this, and I'm so happy you had a nice holiday, your pictures look amazing .

danielanthony

ineed wrote: »

No one is talking about increasing benefits, we are talking about people getting the right benefits and people in real need getting money to survive. Not being punished for daring to be disabled.

No-one is being punished for anything, less money coming in = less money going out. I'm not disabled but I pay more in taxes now than I did in 2007 due to changes in the personal allowance and national insurance increases. I'm surprised that more people have not complained about that but then I'm probably one of those rare individuals who don't claim any cash benefits (including tax credits) from the government.

Yes, the severely disabled should be looked after but there's a lot of people who say they can't work when they actually can. My granddad lost some fingers in the war and never claimed DLA or anything he probably would have been entitled to, just because you're entitled to claim something doesn't mean you should automatically claim it.

krisskross

ineed wrote: »

I knew it wold be something like this, and I'm so happy you had a nice holiday, your pictures look amazing .

However not quite the poor suffering bedbound person that she appeared to be from her first post on this thread.

Those steps up to the palace place look fearsome for someone so disabled. Still I expect she had informed DLA of the improvement that enabled her to take this holiday.

People on here have the cheek to tell me my husband should inform the DWP of a fairly minor drug induced improvement in his RA which will be temporary, it always is, yet this lady is congratulated on having recovered sufficiently and managed to get from her bed to such an arduous trip. No signs of any walking aids in the photos either.