Hello And Thankyou!

Thank you for letting me join, I’m a 56 year old mum with a 23 year old son with Aspergers and Dyspraxia and a 20 year old daughter with Crohn’s disease, osteoporosis  and severe anxiety and depression, and I have long term depression, fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis myself, so we have a range of disabilities and life is pretty interesting and often challenging! But we are a very close little family and love our three dogs, cat, giant tortoise and bearded dragon, and pets are definitely our family therapy and have helped us through some bad times. We have constant issues with the DWP who regularly take away my daughters PIP on the basis that living with a lifelong stoma and Crohn’s pain isn’t apparently enough to qualify for PIP even though she is too ill to do much except be at home and sleep or help her brother with his autism. We have won 2 tribunals and know the stress the PIP process causes genuine claimants, makes me so angry.  So I feel for all you lovely folks on here with benefit struggles, which just shouldn’t happen when you are already coping with illness and disability, 
physical or mental. This group is a great place to get support looking at the discussions I’ve been reading, and that vital bit of support can make such a difference to us all when we are struggling.