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UC basically stealing money from some
Ralph
Member Posts: 40 Connected
This is due to the 5 week delay in benefits. I am losing 1 month benefits and 2 weeks housing benefit, we have a two week HB transition allowance. Around £1000 total. The DWP say oh you’ll get this when you start work but if you’re permanently disabled with no hope of getting work you’ll have to wait until pension age 12 years away. Just a rant.
Replies
For the record my “status in life” is that I am dual sensory with ongoing spinal and stomach issues i.e. I am a disabled person much as yourself. I also manage within a welfare rights service and have done so for many years. That’s usually the cue for some posters to make further personal comments. Please refrain.
These usually relate to a lack of empathy etc.; lack of respect for the opinions of others. I’ve no problem with that. Empathy is a word trotted out with little thought for what it really means. Great article on this at http://bostonreview.net/forum/paul-bloom-against-empathy. I’ve also recently been reading Behave by Sapolsky who makes the point that empathy almost never results in action or objectivity and activates the parts of our brains that make us feel better about ourselves rather than want to do something for others. Respect for others opinions is also fine but I’m an advice worker and factual inaccuracy in the current climate is positively dangerous. Numerous people are being given wrong advice either by government departments or lay people which can result, particularly with UC, in permanent loss of income. Correcting inaccurate advice is not disrespect for another’s opinion. It’s correcting an opinion which is being presented as fact when it is anything but. I hope that fully clarifies where I’m coming from.
michfinch said: To answer the question/comment in full then. Your GP issues a fit note which relates to your normal employment i.e. whilst it says “all work” it usually means “your work” or “your last work”. GPs issue them almost always without addressing the “all work” bit. Try and think back as to whether you’ve ever had a detailed conversation with your GP about whether there was anything else you could do before they signed a fit note for example. My guess is never. Happy to be corrected.
The benefit assessment side of things requires an assessment against “all the tasks you might do in work” so having a fit note only takes you so far down that road and legally it’s irrelevant once you’ve had a DWP funded medical. Your psych, just like your work coach, aren’t really fully knowledgeable about capability for work and the benefits system. The views of the former are valuable but their priority and knowledge lie with diagnosis, treatment and prognosis rather than the impact of working etc. In the case of a work coach they have fairly limited knowledge of how many bits if the benefit system work and their views of capability for work vary from well intentioned to downright wrong. Having medical professionals on your side is obviously hugely useful but of itself it’s no guarantee that there will be a capability for work decision in your favour each time.
There’s no “silver bullet” if you like that guarantees that because you are ill you will automatically be deemed to lack capability for work.
So, as an Epileptic, disabled person, overlooked, as the majority of Epileptics are, what should we do as a Disability together to make our case stronger? What do you know about Epilepsy?
The key if you like is to stop thinking that the problem is that epilepsy is somehow unique and difficult for the benefits system. It’s not. You are. Your story. Your epilepsy. They’re unique to you. You’ll have lots of common ground with other people with epilepsy but whole areas where your experience is completely different. So, for example, my gf could go clubbing and risk a fit if she was feeling great but couldn’t if she’d already fitted that day. She’d need to sleep for 4 hours after some fits and all day after others. Your experience will be different. That’s what you need to focus on more than the medical side of things.
I won’t go into further detail here as this is a UC thread and I don’t want to go off topic but hopefully you get the gist.
Sometimes they only get a cursory glance by interviewers but it is evidence.
Plenty of advice web sites still mention it as a must do thing. I’m not sure why. Literacy levels in the UK mean it can’t possinly be done by all claimants and therefore it’s not of universal use and the idea of it possible puts more people off claiming or challenging a decision than it helps.
As far as PIP or ESA are concerned I pretty much feel the same way. The bigger questions should always be “what is it that you need to show?” and “what does the diary show?”
For PIP you need to show the risk of a lack of supervision. That really requires no more than a bare statement of what happens pre episode. You then need to show frequency. Keeping a diary can help you get that right but in terms of what you submit as evidence it’s unhelpful to submit the diary itself. No decision maker or tribunal need the volume. They need the summary. “My diary shows that I fit x times without warning during the day” and so on. Volume is the enemy of good, accurate and quick decision making.
It’s also useful for doctors visits. It’s very easy to mix up days when fits have occurred, as the memory plays tricks, so I take the current one to the surgery.
Talking of MP’s I think the current 50% rule on pip is probably the most unfair rule as far as epilepsy and other fluctuating conditions are concerned and that needs addressed immediately.
It’s a significant improvement on DLA which required nearly 60% of the time (4 days in 7 etc.) and its of little relevance to epilepsy and shouldn’t harm the case at all. To put that in perspective, someone who gets no warning; can fit at any time unpredictably but only fits maybe once a week should still be able to construct a successful case for daily living because the “any time” bit is what’s relevant. Obviously that balance shifts if the fit is only once every 3 months the case law is quite clear in stating that you balance risk againat frequency exactly as for DLA.
I agree that they should be getting care if they are getting frequent fits without warning. They pose a danger of injury to themselves and others at all times and therefore must be supervised.
If you need constant supervision you should get the care component.
Frequent could mean once a week or fortnight, or month I don’t know.
After that it’s really about presentation of the claim. There’s no reason someone who got DLA would automatically get PIP. Different benefits with different rules but epilepsy in itself should be no more difficult than other conditions when it comes to qualifying given the case law.
Waaaaay off topic now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler:_My_Part_in_His_Downfall
How appropiate.