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DLA for 20 years and now 0 points on PIP!
Hey all,
I just signed up to Scope because I am soo furious and didn't know where else to turn. I've been on DLA for about 20 years because of my congenital disabilities (mild hydrocephalus & spina bifida) and anxiety, depression and chronic pain. After 20 years of them deciding that I really do struggle and that I really am in pain, the DWP have suddenly cured me - right in time for Christmas!
My DLA is due to stop on 13th November and I now have to call up and request a copy of the report. Already, from the letter that I have received, I can see some inconsistencies. I said I need help with toileting? I never said that! Also, apparently the fact I went to my assessment and got a taxi (which my husband booked) means I can plan and follow an unfamiliar journey? Go fugure!
Fortunately, very fortunately, I have a tonne of stuff to sell on Ebay and I've gone minimalist so I only buy what I need, I'm also used to white label food and don't drink heavily, smoke or take drugs so I think (hope) I will be able to make ends meet for now. Hubby also has a reasonable job and said he'd take more hours for now if needs be (he's such a sweetie) so hopefully we'll get through this relatively unscathed. I now have to go through the MR and potentally (probably) appeal stage too, so it'smost likely going to be a very happy new year for me- NOT!
Sorry for the moan, all
Helen x
I just signed up to Scope because I am soo furious and didn't know where else to turn. I've been on DLA for about 20 years because of my congenital disabilities (mild hydrocephalus & spina bifida) and anxiety, depression and chronic pain. After 20 years of them deciding that I really do struggle and that I really am in pain, the DWP have suddenly cured me - right in time for Christmas!
My DLA is due to stop on 13th November and I now have to call up and request a copy of the report. Already, from the letter that I have received, I can see some inconsistencies. I said I need help with toileting? I never said that! Also, apparently the fact I went to my assessment and got a taxi (which my husband booked) means I can plan and follow an unfamiliar journey? Go fugure!
Fortunately, very fortunately, I have a tonne of stuff to sell on Ebay and I've gone minimalist so I only buy what I need, I'm also used to white label food and don't drink heavily, smoke or take drugs so I think (hope) I will be able to make ends meet for now. Hubby also has a reasonable job and said he'd take more hours for now if needs be (he's such a sweetie) so hopefully we'll get through this relatively unscathed. I now have to go through the MR and potentally (probably) appeal stage too, so it'smost likely going to be a very happy new year for me- NOT!
Sorry for the moan, all
Helen x
Replies
The success rate for MRs is 17% but for appeals where you attend and are represented it’s 71% so persistence is key. It’s easy enough to rip apart a HCP report but don’t put too much effort into that. Highlight 2 or 3 proveaable discrepancies (not ones where it’s your word against theirs) to make the point and then look at the strength of your own evidence. Showing issues with the HCP report will not get it disregarded. It just lessons the weight it’s given. If your own evidence doesn’t outweigh it then you could still lose. By evidence I’m not referring to medical evidence. You need to identify which points you score and why and then back that up with 2 or 3 recent examples per points scoring activity of what happened last time you did that activity.
Now is the moment to get some face to face advice.
In my points, I have mentioned that I have aids to help me with life, and what activities they help me with. For example, it's more than just "needs help with..", I have a grab rail and step to get in and out of the bath, without it, I cannot shower at all. I have mentioned my adapted knives and cutlery under the 'prepring food' activity and pointed out that the fact that my husband was in the room with me was the support I needed to get through my assessment. I was tempted to take my adapted knives with me so that the HP could see them for herself but I gathered they might not like it too much if I pulled my "saw" out on the Maximus staff
Helen x
ETA: Trouble with getting face to face advice is that I'd need support to go and get it and hubby and Mum work full time! I'm going to write to my GP and ask if she can't throw any weight into things and i will include a copy of my diary (which I wrote before my F2F and she never asked to see) in with my letter. Here's hoping.
- Mild hydrocephalus, arrested, non-shunted
- Mild spina bifida
- Mild scoliosis
- Mild cerebral ataxia
- Mild low-tone hearing loss
- Endogenous depression
- Generalised Anxiety Disorder
- Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome -Type 2 - Causalgia
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder "traits"
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder "traits"
It's quite a list!I agree that it should have been a straight-forward transfer. Hydro, SB, scolio, ataxia & LT hearing loss are congenital, depression, anxiety were diagnosed in 1998 and the CRPS in 2001. I'm on ESA in the Support Group myself and I went through that with flying colours. The nurse just basically asked if I had suicidal thoughts because of my depression, noticed my hair was messy and my nails were a bit mucky and signed me off! It makes no sense at all!
Not sure why you're on the dole if you still have SB & hydro and need adaptations, did you go to appeal?
Helen x
Helen x
Helen x
Helen x
I do have a bunch of content to put on my blogs and have thought about monetising them. The biggest problem with writing is the insufferable writer's block, of which I have been a victim numerous times!
Helen x
Helen x
How stupid is that, this is what you pay the taxi for, to get you from one place to another, you sit there, they do the driving, they chose the route and take you to the door, wheres the planning a journey come into it doh!
Say the taxi suffered a breakdown on the way and you knew that if you waited for help to arrive from the AA/RAC you would be late for the assessment. What would you do? Could you plan how you would get to the assessment centre on time?
Wow this has escalated a bit! Yes, the taxi situ is a crazy one to me, too. If the taxi broke down I;d be thrown into a full-scale panic. In fact, for me to get in a taxi at all on my own just wouldn't heppen because of my anxiety. I can plan an unfamiliar journey with no issue because that's just using a map, but follow it? As in manage the bus, car, train or whatever without crippling anxiety which would probably make me abort the journey? That's a no!
Also, as a sidenote, I wouldn't book a taxi myself - I get anxious using telephones!
Helen x
Helen x
Helen x
Sue x
Helen x
More is lost by the DWP in errors and in maladministration than there is by way of fraud.
Helen x
The real reason is that the Treasury want to save money but if that was the reason given it would fall on deaf ears.
As for fraud, we’ve been here a lot if times before. DWP accounts, including those on fraud have now been qualified, not accepted as accurate, for 19 successive years. The amount of fraud is well below their figures. Most of it is urbanised crime rather than individuals but that’s not a good political message so all people get to hear are the often ridiculous media stories where had the person been properly represented there’s every chance the overpayment wouldn’t have been recoverable let alone turn into a fraud case.
As for people who know fraudsters I long ago stopped taking that seriously. Everybody knows a fraudster and yet everybody complains how invisible impairment isn’t taken seriously. Only 1 of those statements can be true and we already know fraud levels are wrong; too high and fraud on disability benefits is the lowest in the whole social security system.
Helen x
Helen x
Helen x
Helen x
Helen x
@MrsWolfie2210 and anyone interested.
Whenever someone tries to use the benefit scrounger argument, refer them to this below.
The DWP lose more through their own errors than to fraud. Tax avoidance and evasion obviously dwarfs all.
As you can see Benefit fraud is minimal....
I created one of the campaign election video for Labour, and Jeremy Corbyn,
This is a new version of Emeli Sande, Hope "You Are Not Alone
You can see the video here.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P5o8hRHh9IY
Helen x
Yes they are very sneaky the way they do things It's so unfair what people have to go through
Helen x
In the main it is nothing more than you say, they say. Without independent proof you will probably get nowhere.
I've been where you are
Indefinite High rate DLA for both Care and Mobility since 1995.
Since 2013 I have had 3 face to face PIP assessments and all three resulted in 0 points.
In the assessors' reports their justification was that I no longer have specialist input for both mental and physical issues - simply my GP now looks after me.
I'm not cured either, but it is for the claimant to prove that the illness/condition/disability actually exists. then again for the claimant to prove why and that the relevant PIP descriptors fit the impact of those on your life.
I have had 5 years of this rubbish and decided earlier this year that enough was enough.