Will my wife shoot herself in the foot?

eyeinthesky

Hi All, my wife receives DLA, high mobility, and medium care, and is in the support group for ESA. She has been on these for some years now,( was incapacity before), and her condition is getting worse. She suffers from osteo-arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, primary biliary cirrosis, (not alcohol related, lol), and is also diabetic type 2. She has other conditions which I can't remember at the moment.:o
Her mobility is poor, although she can walk a few steps from the house to the car, so I have bought a folding wheelchair. It had to be a chair to be pushed, because my wife's condition means she couldn't self propel, but when going over cobbles and cracked pavements, she is getting severe pain in her hip joints.
I have asked her to get her GP to refer her to the NHS wheelchair service, which I only found out about today, but I am worried that if she is given a powered chair, she may not qualify for PIP mobility, when she is moved to that benefit. Can anyone advise on this?

nannytone_2

i don't know how it would affect a claim for PIP, but are you seriously saying she would refuse a powerchaor, which would make her life so much easirer and more pain free just because she may lose benefit?

surely something that can help her is worth the cost?

rogerblack

PIP requires use of a non-power chair for mobility.

Assessment that a power chair is required is pretty much an assessment that the person can't walk, and can't use a non-power chair, hence should qualify for PIP mobility.
(to a degree anyway)

eyeinthesky

nannytone wrote: »

i don't know how it would affect a claim for PIP, but are you seriously saying she would refuse a powerchaor, which would make her life so much easirer and more pain free just because she may lose benefit?

surely something that can help her is worth the cost?

Oh! Lord no, she would not refuse something just because of claiming a benefit. I was originally looking to buy either a scooter, or power chair to help her get out of the house more. She is reluctant to use any kind of wheelchair, because she sees it as "giving up", because she is only 59 years old. I have tried to get her to use the scooters at supermarkets, so we could go shopping together, but she flatly refuses to. The wheelchair I bought for her resulted in floods of tears at first, but with persuasion, I eventually got her to try it. But as I said before, she is having problems with the low level impacts of the chair on uneven pavements, so needs something that will absorb the shocks. I did buy her a good cushion with memory foam, but the problem is still there.
The worry about PIP is if she should lose the mobility, then her car would have to go back. I have my own small car, but she cannot get into it, nor out of it.

eyeinthesky

rogerblack wrote: »

PIP requires use of a non-power chair for mobility.

Assessment that a power chair is required is pretty much an assessment that the person can't walk, and can't use a non-power chair, hence should qualify for PIP mobility.
(to a degree anyway)

Thank you for this Roger. My wife has arthritis in her neck, spine, hips, wrists, and hands, so she is unable to propel herself at all. It is me that is driving her to ask for a wheelchair assessment, to make life easier for her. It would also make a difference to me, as pushing the manual chair is killing my back, knees etc.

benniebert

eyeinthesky wrote: »

Hi All, my wife receives DLA, high mobility, and medium care, and is in the support group for ESA. She has been on these for some years now,( was incapacity before), and her condition is getting worse. She suffers from osteo-arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, primary biliary cirrosis, (not alcohol related, lol), and is also diabetic type 2. She has other conditions which I can't remember at the moment.:o
Her mobility is poor, although she can walk a few steps from the house to the car, so I have bought a folding wheelchair. It had to be a chair to be pushed, because my wife's condition means she couldn't self propel, but when going over cobbles and cracked pavements, she is getting severe pain in her hip joints.
I have asked her to get her GP to refer her to the NHS wheelchair service, which I only found out about today, but I am worried that if she is given a powered chair, she may not qualify for PIP mobility, when she is moved to that benefit. Can anyone advise on this?

To be honest I am very surprised that your wife was ever awarded DLA in the first place. I have a relative that has a necrotic pancreas, as well as damaged arteries that supply the spleen and liver, resulting in difficult to control Type 1 diabetes all caused by alcohol. Additionally like your wife she is riddled with arthritis, has high blood pressure and is treated for thrombosis - she had a PE in 2013. When she applied just before her 65th birthday in 2013 she was told that she wasn't disabled enough!


Still I wish her well and good luck with the PIP claim.

densol_2

benniebert wrote: »

To be honest I am very surprised that your wife was ever awarded DLA in the first place. I have a relative that has a necrotic pancreas, as well as damaged arteries that supply the spleen and liver, resulting in difficult to control Type 1 diabetes all caused by alcohol. Additionally like your wife she is riddled with arthritis, has high blood pressure and is treated for thrombosis - she had a PE in 2013. When she applied just before her 65th birthday in 2013 she was told that she wasn't disabled enough!


Still I wish her well and good luck with the PIP claim.

The correct response would be - I'm very surprised my relative wasn't awarded ! It's ridiculous to judge another's circumstances on one relative's refusal - better to spend that energy on appealing a wrong decision !

m4rc

benniebert wrote: »

To be honest I am very surprised that your wife was ever awarded DLA in the first place. I have a relative that has a necrotic pancreas, as well as damaged arteries that supply the spleen and liver, resulting in difficult to control Type 1 diabetes all caused by alcohol. Additionally like your wife she is riddled with arthritis, has high blood pressure and is treated for thrombosis - she had a PE in 2013. When she applied just before her 65th birthday in 2013 she was told that she wasn't disabled enough!


Still I wish her well and good luck with the PIP claim.

It doesn't matter what illnesses or disabilities someone has, you don't get a DLA / PIP award because of a descriptor, you are assessed on your ability or lack of to carry out day to day tasks and live a relatively normal life. I have known people with severe disabilities simply write their diagnosis on the forms and send them off confident they would get assessed as needing financial support, however e assessors then have nothing to go on and so award exactly nohing.

On the flip side I have known many people without a diagnosis as such, more a list of ongoing symptoms that made life very difficult and currently not yet leading to a descriptive diagnosis. Because they had been able to explain how their life was challenging and situations they simply couldn't manage where someone else could they were awarded the benefit.

I understand it may be frustrating when someone else gets awarded a disability benefit when you have been declined but you have a right to appeal and to take it to tribunal, there may well be a local charity that would support you and your local CAB would most likely be supportive. If you are genuinely entitiled to the benefit you will get it, there isn't a mysterious quota that means some get declined, however many people are not successful because they don't give enough or the right information. This is something a I have issues with as sadly many people who miss out don't have the ability to complete the forms in the right way so I have sympathy for anyone who gets rejected when they feel they should have been well considered.

benniebert

m4rc wrote: »

It doesn't matter what illnesses or disabilities someone has, you don't get a DLA / PIP award because of a descriptor, you are assessed on your ability or lack of to carry out day to day tasks and live a relatively normal life. I have known people with severe disabilities simply write their diagnosis on the forms and send them off confident they would get assessed as needing financial support, however e assessors then have nothing to go on and so award exactly nohing.

On the flip side I have known many people without a diagnosis as such, more a list of ongoing symptoms that made life very difficult and currently not yet leading to a descriptive diagnosis. Because they had been able to explain how their life was challenging and situations they simply couldn't manage where someone else could they were awarded the benefit.

I understand it may be frustrating when someone else gets awarded a disability benefit when you have been declined but you have a right to appeal and to take it to tribunal, there may well be a local charity that would support you and your local CAB would most likely be supportive. If you are genuinely entitiled to the benefit you will get it, there isn't a mysterious quota that means some get declined, however many people are not successful because they don't give enough or the right information. This is something a I have issues with as sadly many people who miss out don't have the ability to complete the forms in the right way so I have sympathy for anyone who gets rejected when they feel they should have been well considered.

That is well explained and understood. As you say it is very annoying when we know people very well that are given these benefits, yet there are others who we equally know as well that have to pay for carers to come in to help out with all manner of personal issues and they are refused everything they claim for.
Seems totally unfair especially nowadays when there is little help out there compared to years ago to have these forms completed in the right way.
The latter is the relative that I was comparing the poster with. As she became 65 she was no longer able to make a new claim for DLA. Incidentally I have told her about Attendance Allowance, but she refuses to have to go through the same distressing scenario again. I helped her fill out the AA claim form, but when she had a telephone call a few weeks later from a 'doctor' who wanted to see her at home, she panicked and told them that she was cancelling the claim.

cbrown372

benniebert wrote: »

To be honest I am very surprised that your wife was ever awarded DLA in the first place. I have a relative that has a necrotic pancreas, as well as damaged arteries that supply the spleen and liver, resulting in difficult to control Type 1 diabetes all caused by alcohol. Additionally like your wife she is riddled with arthritis, has high blood pressure and is treated for thrombosis - she had a PE in 2013. When she applied just before her 65th birthday in 2013 she was told that she wasn't disabled enough!


Still I wish her well and good luck with the PIP claim.

Andy, get it through your head, no-one is interested in your interminable fairy stories by your interminable AE's.

People come here for help on their problem and don't need to listen to your lies.

benniebert

cbrown372 wrote: »

Andy, get it through your head, no-one is interested in your interminable fairy stories by your interminable AE's.

People come here for help on their problem and don't need to listen to your lies.

Why are you quoting my post in connection with that reply?