Good morning all.
(I hope this is allowed)
I retired from working around 10 years ago, like many on here with mental health issues my head just caved in one day and thankfully my wife of 20+ years was there as a rock for me.
Without going into too much details again "Like many" poor souls my mental health comes from from the 70s when I was a child, abusive parents, broken bones and then something happened I cant even put on here, we "ALL" have a story so I think its not right for me to go into any further details but what happened to me for the first 22 years of my life basically set me path out for me and its not been a straight safe passage by any means, luckily I have not lived a life like my father was to us and my two kids have never seen anything more than a loud shout or an early night for being naughty (They are both adults now).
Again, unlike my father ive got no criminal background and under my circumstances I am proud to say that more so im a non smoker although my entire family do and never been into drugs, but thats where the good news ends, due to the way my life has been its made me incredibly fragile to stress and work commitments, I'd start a job and sometimes walkout that very same day or week, or id be talking to someone and id go so far off subject that id forget what we was talking about or people simply wouldn’t understand me and think I was weird.
Meeting my wife was by sheer chance whilst we both worked abroad, She doesn’t originate from England and shes 6 years younger than I am, the cultural differences were astounding to say the least and the effort we have put in to get to where we are today is incredible and I am so proud of my wife.
I didnt know what "PIP" was until around 7 years ago, it was by chance my doctor advised me to look into it after I broke down in his surgery one day, now im not the kind of person who breaks down all the time in fact up until then I could count how many times I had done on one hand and bearing in mind id lost 17 family/friends in just 17 years one of my best mates death was so tragic he was in the media like The Sun and Mirror newspapers, so some tears had been dropped.
When the "PIP" assessor arrived it was a friday evening around 16:30 and he had one foot in the house one foot outside ready to get gone cause he couldnt make it anymore obvious he wasnt interested in being there and was rushing everything, He asked me questions and before I finished talking he would start talking which my wife told him to go easy on me as im a very quiet natured person.
When he left I felt we had been honest and straight forwards to him, we got the results back a month or so later and to my shock I was awarded "0 points out of 12" I was like "WHAT", I read his reply or report and like many others have had from these assessors lies lies and more lies...
So I appealed and I unlocked some legal doors from my past to allow the DWP to look into my complete history like allowing them access to my medical records, the Social Services record which was pretty bad more so one of my sisters was taken from us due to the abuse back in the 70s plus other sanctions etc from them.
I explained to DWP how right from a child my life was shocking and kept nothing back as at that stage had nothing left to lose, I went into great details and I remember the reply I sent took my days to type up and then my wife grammar and spell checked it for me.
Feeling bad to whoever received that reply from me I profusely apologised cause I really did get graphic.
Some time later I received a reply from DWP and they had reviewed my claim and awarded me "12 points out of 12" which is nothing to "Song and dance about" but it does take a mass of pressure from me I mean who likes having no income eh? more so when I loved working but almost killed one of my mates in the machine I was in and it was at that stage I decided to retire.
Getting accepted for PIP makes my everyday need possible, it takes pressure from my partner and it means I can live a life as normal as can be and NOT like this and the previous government think where getting PIP gives me a life of holidays and luxuries!
So I've gone the very long way around to get to the point im trying to state here, Last week I read that starmer and co are going for the most vulnerable people in society, they’ve done the pensioners and now for us guys, the Disabled and they are after your PIP!.
You have to be a tad careful with the media and what they put in their rhetoric as they use wordings and claims to "Panic" people as it gets hits and more traffic on their sites, it should be outlawed but then again the government are so busy trying to starve us poor souls from the very basics in life whilst them themselves get showered in 100's of thousands of pound of gifts eh.
I see starmers trying to use the tories DWP PIP changes to use vouchers instead of money and to add insult to injury starmer is also looking at forcing tens of thousands if not more PIP Claimants back into work and you better believe it the man and his ilk will be brutal!
What I find ironic is there is claims that the PIP or benefits cost in 5 years (Not now) is going to hit £30Bln a year, but yet there is £23Bln of unclaimed benefits a year so how does that work?
We all know ways the government could save tens of billions dont we but he wont go that route and has his cannons aimed at us lot.
Politically, im on the fence! I dont see a single party in government who are genuinely in for the public, they are all on "The take" whilst trying to tell us we get too much, this and many previous governments have simply forgotten they are there to "SERVE THE PUBLIC" and not milk us.
Had it not been for Scope and other companies who are our voice when it comes to the government I think we would all be in trouble, but thankfully we do have a lot of support and whilst all these changes may or may not come in via stalin starmer remember the dates are 2028/29 and by then the labour party may not even be running the country, but will another party do any better..who knows...
Rant over...thanks.
