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  • Maggie37
    Maggie37 Online Community Member Posts: 77 Empowering

    I am amongst that 6/7 percent because I score 4 points on two descriptors. I’m fairly riddled with rheumatoid arthritis plus have developed severe mental health conditions. Yet I worked for decades? For anyone asking about the points system.I allowed both PIP and ADP( I’m Scottish) to access EVERY MEDICAL RECORD.. plus I have record of all tax paid/ wage slips etc over my career. I think the key is to be open about your health as there will be records there/ doctors reports, hospital visits, diagnosis and prognosis over many years. I have that. You need proof now that you are profoundly unwell/ disabled. So visit your practise, ask for referral.. keep all documents, maintain a paper trail. It’s not enough to have one professional’s opinion you need a history. You need to let them access your medical history. People with 4 points need to stop feeling guilty about it. Accept we are profoundly disabled and need help. I paid enough into the system.. I’m entitled.❤️

  • Maggie37
    Maggie37 Online Community Member Posts: 77 Empowering

    Yep.. but there are things you can do about this. I have 4 points( twice).. but I also have allowed my FULL medical records to be accessed under the ADP system. They do access all your records. All doctors reports, hosp visits are there.. so anyone worried you need to beef up proof. It’s not enough to say.. ‘ten years ago I was assessed for depression and I take seroxat now. I feel down at times and have sciatica.’ That person may be unfit for work but there is NO proof? Doctors and professional referrals need to be engaged because nothing in the current system allows for self diagnosis or referral? I do see a huge swathe of very Ill/disabled folk losing benefits because there is no paper trail. They are at the mercy of an independent assessor. Formalise and diagnose your disability?

  • Wibbles
    Wibbles Online Community Member Posts: 2,593 Championing
    edited June 2

    What ? Blue Streak ?

    A minor co k up - it was not instantly launchable - needing 4 1/2 minutes to be fuelled prior to launch !!

    Total spent £1.3 Billion - cancelled 1960 - equivalent to £14 Trillion today !

    Starmer now thinks that he's Churchill - he's trying to get the UK war-fighting ready - "We will fight them with Peaches - We will never surrender"

  • secretsquirrel1
    secretsquirrel1 Online Community Member Posts: 1,381 Championing

    Problem is there are conditions which gave no cure or treatment. I was diagnosed many years ago with ME and fibromyalgia but apart from GET and CBT you just get prescribed muscle relaxers and painkillers then discharged. I have other conditions from over 30 years ago where Drs haven’t bothered with helping me . As I’ve got older and conditions worsen I’ve had to visit my go more often but I’m fatigued and in pain daily and there’s nothing they can do . Last assessment I sent my whole medical notes in , including letters from gps stating prognosis not good. I still only got award for two years increased to three by the dwp

  • ashmere
    ashmere Online Community Member Posts: 30 Empowering

    From politics.co.uk

    Disability benefit cuts are a political choice — and a dangerous one

    By Mikey Erhardt

    Campaigner at Disability Rights UK

    It’s been three months since Liz Kendall, the minister responsible for the Department of Work and Pensions, announced potentially the biggest-ever cuts to health and disability benefits.

    Her plans aren’t just ill-advised — they’re incredibly dangerous. When I was asked to give evidence to the DWP select committee just a few weeks ago, I told them of the risks. I mentioned that freezing universal credit health will mean an average loss of £1,100 for three million people, and that almost 3.8 million Disabled people will lose payments of some kind, with some of us set to lose 60% of our income.

    Speaking to the committee, it was impossible to sugarcoat — the minister’s proposals will lead to people losing their lives. The evidence that I, Ellen Clifford, and others provided to the select committee partially filled the information gap the government has left regarding its plans since they were announced in March.

    The plans had such little thought for Disabled people that the government didn’t even have basic alternative formats, such as BSL and Easy Read versions, available when they announced the consultation. Not that the consultation even covers the biggest proposed changes to Personal Independence Payment and Universal Credit. Instead, those will be voted on by MPs. In fact, the government is suggesting 22 changes, but just 10 of them are open to consultation.

    For the past months, campaigners’ lives have been filled with the endless process of Freedom of Information Act requests and parliamentary questions, all to fill in the blanks left by the government.

    Alongside this, despite promising a consultative process, the government is trying to force through a vote (predicted to be in June) on proposals it won’t even share the proper information about. How will the new PIP assessment work? Nobody knows yet. It’s under review. What will the new employment support be? Nobody knows, except it might only come into full effect in 2029, three years after some of the most brutal cuts have been made.

    Disabled people face additional costs of an average of £1000 per month, making the proposed cuts in income for two million Disabled people even more callous. Right now, Disabled people across the country already can’t afford food, energy, rent or transport — we are statistically more likely to rely on food banks. The government’s plan to remove £5 billion from us is a political choice, and a dangerous one.

    But some Labour politicians are waking up to the dangers this bill poses. As Nadia Whittome, Nottingham East MP told me: “It is deeply concerning that MPs are being asked to vote for proposals that will affect some of the poorest people in society without the government setting out the full impact. While the government claims its measures will help more people to work, it has not provided any evidence”

    The government has promised that, in their words, Disabled people with “the most severe impairments” won’t lose support. Speaking to the select committee, I had to explain how empty that promise is. All they’ve said is that this cohort, which will not be subject to reassessment, will be a small number of people. What sort of protection is that?

    Despite all these dangers, Liz Kendall spoke in front of experts at the IPPR last month to double down on the cuts that have been panned by her parliamentary colleagues and the public alike. I was in the room when she spoke about “big changes” “to deliver greater fairness and opportunity”. Ms Kendall talked about how the current system isn’t good enough “for people in Blackpool, Birkenhead or Blaenau Gwent”.

    But what do her plans have in store for those communities? In Blackpool, over 6,000 people will lose PIP support, which could see them going without thousands of pounds they need to deal with the extra costs of disability. In Birkenhead, almost 20% of the local community will see some form of cut to their health or disability benefit support. And in Blaenau Gwent, almost 12,000 people will have health-related social security cut.

    Rather than delivering change to these communities, Ms. Kendall is delivering business as usual. Yet another government is telling Disabled and working-class people who need support — you are the problem, you don’t deserve support. The risks of Kendall’s plans are so great that her own MPs have felt the need to step in. The DWP select committee has just written to the government, calling for it to delay any changes to personal independence payment (PIP) eligibility and universal credit (UC) rates.

    They have had to warn the government that their plans “might not incentivise work, as the government hopes, but rather push people deeper into poverty, worsen health, especially in more deprived areas, and move people further from the labour market, as evidence suggests has happened in the past with similar reforms.”

    Now MPs are now responsible for changing this disastrous status quo. They need to step up and fill the void left by their frontbench colleagues. The stakes are too high, and many lives are at risk. As Nadia put it: “MPs should not be expected to roll the dice on measures that could have a devastating impact on their constituents.”

    https://www.politics.co.uk/comment/2025/06/02/disability-benefit-cuts-are-a-political-choice-and-a-dangerous-one/

  • Maggie37
    Maggie37 Online Community Member Posts: 77 Empowering

    Yes.. you are right of course. My point is given likely changes to PIP/ ADP continuation.. the more proof the better. If a condition is chronic( unlikely to alleviate) that can be recorded. I have continued to prove where I tried to work( through HMRC).. but couldn’t. I have the wage slips/ tax returns? I have every medical report / referral ever written. My point may be blunt but I think will help many. Get whatever proof you can over years that you can’t manage a job/ backed by medical evidence. That’s absolutely crucial at moment. If you have never been able to work get the proof in that moment that you could not attempt a job? That is how specific and clinical it’s getting. The DWP cannot overthrow continuous medical assessment. That’s set in stone, as it should be?

  • Tumilty
    Tumilty Online Community Member Posts: 296 Empowering

    I had my form to fill in nearly a year ago & my telephone reassessment is on Wednesday so i'd say your probably due one as i believe there is a backlog.. Surely if get award now it overrides the proposals, maybe wishful thinking i dunno.

  • mrsBB
    mrsBB Online Community Member Posts: 163 Empowering
    edited June 2

    It makes me wonder how DWP decide who and when to call for assessment ? Reading here and on other sites there doesn't seem to be any logical pattern of when ''its your turn''. Can anyone shed light on this at all ? Some folk seem to be due to be re assed, according to their award date ending and called earlier than say someone who in reality you would think would be reviewed way after or before another person when both have similar dates for renewal, or one person gets a notice of re assessment a year in advance of end date whereas others are re assessed say six months before. Sorry I cant think clearly of what I mean to say 🤔my brain is not computing lately 🤣If anyone can make sense of my question please feel free to reply lol 😃

  • Catherine21
    Catherine21 Posts: 6,216 Championing

    Does your surgery do econsults can do online that's what I do you fill out what you want to speak to doctor about and they call you I never go to my surgery you have diagnosis as you know just express how they effect your life some people have pages of stuff some don't I don't have pages just a very long history of these inflictions if you have family member friend who sees your struggles they can write a letter can order sars forms from doctor will have your diagnosis on there I paid for doctors letter I didn't have consultants notes or anything

  • secretsquirrel1
    secretsquirrel1 Online Community Member Posts: 1,381 Championing

    I don’t know if there’s any way to predict how they decide these things . It’s a mystery. Same as 10 year light touch awards. I’m on enhanced both , conditions can’t improve yet I get two year award by assessor . She was knowledgeable of my conditions and would know I won’t be better in a couple of years. I think it’s all to do with luck unfortunately

  • secretsquirrel1
    secretsquirrel1 Online Community Member Posts: 1,381 Championing

    Hi Catherine, yes I use consult . I think for me so far it’s been luck . My first assessor ignored specialist letters GP letter family everything. Just basically insinuated I was lying . I got zero points . The dwp even said I need to appeal as they couldn’t understand it with all my evidence.

  • johnnyy85
    johnnyy85 Online Community Member Posts: 143 Empowering

    Any word anywhere how the meeting was today with the rebels ?

  • lincsgranny
    lincsgranny Online Community Member Posts: 71 Empowering

    The chat was behind closed doors so we probably won't hear about the lies for awhile yet I'm guessing

  • johnnyy85
    johnnyy85 Online Community Member Posts: 143 Empowering
  • Catherine21
    Catherine21 Posts: 6,216 Championing

    I've read he disagrees with benefit cuts the way thier being implemented?

    Screenshot_20250602_135602_Chrome.jpg
  • egister
    egister Posts: 1,026 Pioneering

    Blue Streak in the finale was apparently designed for an American warhead.


    It's good that they reminded us about Churchill. In the context of recent events, it is worth mentioning the fact that Churchill flew to the airport of the city of Saki in 1945, from where he went to the Yalta Conference. Now Saki is a resort town, specially adapted for the life and treatment of wheelchair users, who make up about a quarter of the city's population. This is a fact.

  • secretsquirrel1
    secretsquirrel1 Online Community Member Posts: 1,381 Championing

    Just watched disability talk with Steve regarding the Tory’s voting against cuts. You had a good reply from Kemi didn’t you Catherine? I emailed her but no reply as yet . If I’m up to it tomorrow I’ll write again and ask if she and the Tory’s are voting against and if true is because the cuts aren’t deep enough as The sun newspaper claims .

  • Passerby
    Passerby Posts: 441 Trailblazing
    edited June 2

    Yesterday, I wrote to 6 of the MPs who wrote to Liz Kendall supporting benefit cuts. I've only received automatic replies. Will see, as they're just less than a day old.

  • chiarieds
    chiarieds Online Community Member Posts: 16,924 Championing
    edited June 2

    You can see the transcript of the Westminster Hall debate (PIP: Disabled People) on the 7 May below, where Danny Kruger (Conservative) spoke if you scroll down to 3.39 pm. In his 2nd comment below he said at the end,

    'I echo the points made by the hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) and the right hon. Members for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) and for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. They said that Labour should be better than this, and I agree: we should all be better than this. My party will stand with Members who oppose the changes.'

    https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025-05-07/debates/AF9A4463-0EB6-426A-AAD4-BB78FA659B82/PersonalIndependencePaymentDisabledPeople

    I also had a positive reply from Kemi Badenoch's Office.