LCWRA and potential holiday abroad

Sonnyliston56

HI guys, I put a post up Thursday and this is a follow up cos maybe I wasn't very clear.

So I was awarded LCWRA in 2020 for Alcohol / drug addiction. My mental health was severe when I had my assessment and I have not had a follow up assessment since that year and I have many more conditions they do not know of since then.

After been told by my GP to carry on drinking as I was at risk of a massive seizure if i just stopped I was put on the rehab waiting list and several months later I finally got a date for a funded rehab by the local alcohol service. I then went sober from all substances till June '23 then I suffered a huge relapse and had to go private for a 2 week stay at another rehab unit. My life depended on getting immediate treatment.

Now I am currently 19 months free from addiction once again, but in that time I have explored the reasons why i abused my body like this and currently have treatment for Social anxiety, CPTSD, mixed anxiety and depressive disorder and I am currently still working on this with CMHT.

I also carry physical health complications brought on by the 35 years of binge drinking. Neurologist has diagnosed me with Peripheral / Alcoholic neuropathy and it won't get any better it will gradually only get worse. I've also been diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation probably from excessive drug abuse.

So my question is this..the DWP do not know about any of these new conditions because I'm still in my eyes legitimately sick and i gather you are supposed to tell them if your condition gets any better or even worse but I never went down that road as I thought I'd save it for my next assessment but obviously haven't had one.

So would I be right in saying if I booked a holiday abroad what could be beneficial for the peripheral neuropathy would the DWP look at why I was awarded in the first place which they would probably have down as mental health breakdown due to Alcohol or substance abuse and if they thought I was well enough to go abroad to a different climate then I would be contradicting why I was awarded in the first place?

Like I mentioned they have absolutely no idea of the complications that addiction brings mentally and physically with new diagnosis that they have not seen since that original assessment in 2020..if I let them know I would be leaving the country for 2 weeks and arguably my last holiday before my physical health really deteriorates could they stop lcwra with immediate effect soon as I told them? Or is it likely they would review and do another assessment further down the line?

Sorry for this all this stuff but my anxiety is really thru roof with worrying as I feel I deserve a holiday after what I have been thru. But I'm constantly overthinking scenarios in which they will have a dim view on this and just stop lcwra immediately trying to weigh the whole situation up. Has anyone had experience of lcwra taken off them with immediate effect? I'm really stuck here and I appreciate your time reading it.

anisty

You don't need to let them know you are going abroad as you are in LCWRA and have no work commitments.

noonebelieves

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/998059#Comment_998059

@anisty , I’ve ben informed by my jc that any our of GB trips (however short or long trip)need to be entered on the UC home page.best wishes

noonebelieves

[Moderator note: The comment this is responding to has been deleted]

Thanks for your reply. Although what you suggest would be ideal—Based on my recent experiences, I’ve honestly lost trust in any governmental organisations to truly support us, whether DWP or home office . They seem more focused on creating obstacles for vulnerable claimants like us rather than being proactively helpful. Better to be safe than sorry.

I’m currently dealing with the hassle and mental agony of fighting through an HMCTS independent tribunal after losing two months of UC and having my LCWRA stopped—all because I took a trip for medical investigations. I had informed UC well in advance, received no warning, yet was penalised simply because my trip exceeded 28 days for necessary medical reasons, despite informing them well in advance.