Spinal stenosis
Hi I've just been diagnosed severe spinal stenosis I knew my lower back pain was painful because I worked 12 hour shifts. 2021 I cud not work and got signed off by my doctor he signed me off with lower back pain my back has been sore for over 7 years. Over that 7 years I've asked my doctor for a MRI scan and he just sent me to physio so I went told them about my pain they have exercise to do. So after 3/4 visits they said there's nothing else they can do for me. I could not walk far because of the pain and when I did walk my feet and legs went numb. So I went back to doctor and explained and that I was depressed. Eventually I get sent to the specialist making to assess me finally I get MRI scan and comes back that I have severe spinal stenosis stage 3. I did put in for ADP and got the standard rate no mobility because i did not have proof of my condition. Now I have my MRI scan and a letter from my MSK physio saying I L4 and L5 needs surgery and I struggle when walking up to 20mtrs. So hopefully I get the enhanced rate for the daily living and mobility rate.
Comments
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Hi @steviegee51, welcome to the community. Sorry to hear you've been in so much pain, but it's good that they've been able to find out what's causing it. I don't have experience with this myself, but I've seen a few members on the community live with Spinal Stenosis, so you're definitely not alone in what you're going through.
Fingers crossed you get the enhanced rates now that everything has been confirmed. Have you managed to update them about your condition?
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Hi Rosie thanks for your reply yes they have all my medical reports so hopefully get some good news am just glad they know what's wrong with me now.
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Hi @steviegee51
Well done for putting in for ADP.
Theres more for you to look in to claiming though.
As well as a disability payment you may also be entitled to a sickness benefit payment from New Style ESA. This could be worth up to £138 per week. This is not means tested (apart from some pension income)
You could also look in to claiming Universal Credit which could be worth up to £186 per week. This is means tested.
You can claim both or only one of them. They overlap one another, this means you cannot get more than the the UC amount of £186 per week. But you should claim both if you can because you get a money quicker on New Style ESA and can backdate it for 3 months without needing to give a reason.
Did the health issues happen to an accident or injury at work?
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I don't understand what you mean by "UC could be worth up to £186 per week."
How much they maybe entitled to will totally depend on their circumstances because it's a means tested benefit. As Stevie hasn't given any specific details about their circumstances then we can't tell them how much they maybe entitled to.
UC is a benefit made up of many different elements. Will they be claiming as a single person, or with a partner, do they have dependant children that live with them, are those children claiming disability benefits, do they rent or own their home?
Not forgetting that if they have capital/savings of more than £16,000 they will be excluded from claiming. There's so many possibilities and it's not one answer fits all.
If they did have enough NI contributions in tax years 2021/22 and 2022/23 they can claim New style ESA. If they claim both of those together the ESA will be deducted in full from any UC entitlement.
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Thanks for your comments i never knew anything about that esa I will look into that today thanks again
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It's ok @poppy123456 , I can see you're a bit confused and I'll explain it all to you.
When someone comes on, we never know if they'll add another comment not. As such, it's important to give the best possible advice with the information given. The advice I've given, is based on knowing very little about Stevies circumstances.
You're correct that because Stevie hasn't told us their circumstances then we cannot give an accurate amount of universal credit. But, we have a choice on whether or not to give more advice around this which might help them to claim. I have chosen to give a basic overview based on what we do know.
What we do know is:
- There is at least 1 person and they are an adult
- They are sick/disabled
- They were working until 2021
- They struggle to walk 20 meters
Knowing the above means we can work some of it out. And, you're right, it's done by looking at the different elements - It's good poppy that you know all about the elements of universal credit as this helps to work it out.
Knowing this means we can say that on UC they'd have a personal allowance and likely a limited capability for work related activity element due to walking less than 50 meters.
Because there is also New Style ESA it helps to have a way of comparing the two amounts of money. What I did was convert the monthly UC amount into a weekly amount to compare with ESA.
Because we can't be sure about the WCA decision or capital deductions I wrote 'up to £186'.
Again, it's good you know about how ESA is deducted from UC which I why I wrote that they overlap one another.
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Hi @steviegee51
Thanks for coming back on.
How did you get on with looking in to New Style ESA?
I'd recommend if you have the time going on to entitledto.co.uk and using their anonymous benefit calculator to work out exactly what you might get. This will do both universal credit and new style ESA at once together.
Further, please take little notice of Poppy's post to me and my reply to poppy as it might be distracting when you're trying to work lots out for the first time.
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Hi I never knew about ESA I have stopped work in 2020 and been signed off by my doctor for 3 years for lower back pain I do get UC but just the basic and got LCWRA with no extra payment from them. when I I applied for ADP in dec 2023 I got awarded standard living rate no mobility rate I finally got my MRI which confirmed my severe spinal stenosis I have now put in my change of circumstances to ADP so hopefully I get the higher rate for both components
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You may not qualify for New style ESA because for this you need to have worked at some point in tax years 2021/22 and 2022/23. If you haven't then you will not have the correct NI contributions to qualify for payments. You can of course still apply just so that you know for certain whether you qualify or not. There's no financial gain anyway because the ESA is just deducted in full from any UC entitlement.
For your UC you said you have LCWRA but don't receive any extra payments for this. Are you claiming UC with a partner that already receives this element on your claim? You can only receive one element per claim.
If no partner is receiving this, are you 100% certain it's LCWRA (Limited Capability For work related activity) you have and not just LCW (limited capability for work) please check through your journal for the decision letter and it will tell you exactly what that decision was.
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Hi Stevie, as I sufferer of both severe Cervical and Lumbar Stenosis I know just how painful and frightening it can be. I too had to go through futile Physio. But today we had a lovely Physio come to our home and he has offered to write a letter to Neurology, Orthopaedics and my GP basically to ask them to speed up management of my symptoms as I am not a candidate for surgery as its too risky. Unfortunately I now have drop foot and can't feel my hands or feet and lower legs so fall over a great deal. Spondylosis is not easy to live with but luckily the lovely James the physio explained everything thing to us and that physio is actually pointless for me but said I deserved a better quality of life than to just be expected to get on with a degenerative condition.
It's not been easy having to adapt to all the changes and limitations caused by the condition but with the help of the Scope forums with advice on benefits and just being able to vent it's made it far easier. It's good that they can look into surgery for you and that hopefully that will give some relief.
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Thank you yes I have 😊
I have my PIP review starting October 2025 as my award ends December 2026. As I have so much Medical evidence and support I hope it will not be as traumatic as the first two were! Also my conditions are far worse now and I have incontinence to deal with on top of everything else . The assessor tried to catch me out all the time when all I was doing was telling the truth.
Osteoarthritis, Spondylosis and Stenosis are all degenerative so let's hope common sense will prevail as there is no hope of my getting better.
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I'm on enhanced for daily living but only standard for mobility which was correct at the time but not now as I can't drive or get out of the house easily. That's why I hope the review goes ok.
We get UC and luckily I got LCWRA without an assessment due to all my medical evidence. Due to my past employment I have 42 years of NI contributions. I was dismissed in May due to my disabilities and UC have been very supportive.
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I see from previous threads that I advised in the past about New style ESA, did you claim that? Just thought I'd check because here you said you were claiming UC but didn't mention NsESA.
Although there's no financial gain because it's just deducted in full from any UC entitlement, it's definitely worth claiming it because it's not means tested like UC. You will also receive class 1 NI credits for this but for UC it's just class 3.
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Hi Poppy I closed my claim for New Style ESA on the advice of the Jobcentre as it meant fit notes and made no difference to my NI contributions as I already had enough for the state pension and I also went with your advice that it didn't make much difference and it was deducted from our UC. To be quite honest we have enough to deal with with the benefit cap as my grace period is up at the end of September and my Husband reaches retirement age next May.
I don't think the benefit cap applies to us as both on PIP and have LCWRA and my husband claims ESA in the support group. We are both tired of having to deal with our health concerns and the benefits.
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Fit notes weren't needed for the ESA claim if you were already found to have LCWRA at the time you applied for ESA.
You are correct about the benefit cap not applying to you, even after that grace period.
My only concern here is when your husband reaches state pension age. If you are under state pension age at that time then you will be known as a mixed aged couple. Your UC claim with continue as a couple but your husbands state pension will be deducted in full.
For this reason it could definitely be worth claiming the ESA especially if you're a mixed aged couple. Your husbands state pension will not affect NsESA. The tax years for a claim now will be 2021/22 and 2022/23. This changes on the first Sunday in January 2025 and then it will be tax years 2022/23 and 2023/24 so please do be aware of that.
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I'm sorry Poppy but I have not got a clue what to do for the best and am very concerned
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Are you younger than your husband? If so then I'd advise you to claim New style ESA and then at least you'll have that once he reaches state pension age.
What elements are included with your UC please? Standard allowance, LCWRA element, carers element perhaps? help with the rent?
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My husband is 66 next year and I am 63. He gets ESA in the support group until he retires this is deducted from our UC. We get the standard allowance. We get 1x LCWRA 1x Carer's element and help with the rent. Why was I advised that it would not make any difference if I claimed NS ESA as it would be deducted from our UC?
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