Sickness benefit nightmare!

dangerous_dilettante

Can anyone help me, I really am in a whole world of poo. I've just been told by my psychiatrist that she feels i'm fit to go back to work, but she is so very wrong. Problem is that i just can't get her to listen, which means i'm going to be up a creek without a paddle. It seems to me that they were never trying to get me "well" (whatever that is) again, more that they were trying to manouvre me into a place where they could force me into work. This would all be very well if I was able to work, but they just can't see what i'm trying to say.

Is there anything i can do, i'm just at the end of my tether and need any help i can get. I just want to be left alone and not "treated" or prodded and poked and examined ever again. I'm so sick of it!

Bossyboots

I would think your only option is to ask for a referral for a second opinion.

It is going to be difficult to refute medical advice that you are fit enough to work as I imagine the word of a qualified professional will carry more weight than anything you say.

Try going back to your GP and talking it over and see if they can help.

Ted_Hutchinson

The DWP advice to doctors in relation to mental health and benefits from Professor Wessley - Psychiatrist The Acheson Report [1998] cited being out of work and claiming long-term state benefit as a potentially major risk to physical and mental health because of:

• Isolation, social exclusion & stigma
• Changing health-related behaviour
• Disruption to future work career, and
• Trapping people on lower incomes

The most effective way of assisting people back into work combines clinical management with vocational support.

Quicktime File- [File size 1.4 mb]
Real media file- [File size 1.4 mb] Transcript: Let’s be clear about the only thing that psychiatry has established in the last hundred years, is overall work is good for mental health.

People who are not working are at greater risk of all the psychiatric disorders, they are more likely to kill themselves, they are more likely to harm themselves, they are more likely to be depressed and anxious.

So overall, work is good for mental health and helping people to get back to work is probably the single most important thing that we can do for them.


If your own health professionals aren't willing to support your benefit claims it may be worth your while to consider asking if you could see the Local Disability Employment Adviser. They will be able to point you in the direction of supported work, or perhaps one of the projects run specifically for people with mental health problems by such folk as the SHAW Trust When they came round to see me they really were a great help in talking through the problems and discussing possible solutions and as they are not directly funded by the DWP are not bound to suggest work if this really isn't an option. The point about your taking the initiative is that it creates a better image and if, after discussion with the DEA and the Shaw Trust councellor it is decided that work isn't an option you will have experienced people within and close to the DWP to support you. Whereas if you are fighting a benefit appeal with no medical support and no friends in the DWP it's going to be tough.