Minefields and Crystal Balls. Och its the DWP/ATOS again. Argh!!!!

I don't often speak about my current personal circumstances but on this occasion it just has to be done.

I have a long term illness called ME or CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) with fybromyalgia, with the added complications of some other issues too which I shall not go into for brevity.

Minefield

Realising I was ill in 2011 I was loathed to get into to the minefield of the UK Benefits system again having been ill all ready between 2005 to 2008. I therefore stayed on Job Seekers Allowance hoping I would get better in the meantime but couldn't cope with the constant harassment of attending unexpected appointments and applying for jobs that I knew that because of my illness I would not be able to do anyway.

Crystal Balls

I was just thinking that today's issue with the ‪#‎DWP‬ is similar to the time my ‪#‎JSA‬ (Job Seekers Allowance) payments were sanctioned for not attending an appointment with my advisor at Parkhead Job Centre. The only issue on that occasion was the fact the letter advising me of aforesaid appointment arrived after aforesaid appointment. So in order to have kept my JSA I would've needed a crystal ball or multiple crystal balls, and the ability to read it/them too of course!

 This is not my experience and nor anyone elses experience who actually lives in the real world.

So currently due to illness I have to suffer the UK sickness benefits system once again, which is enough to make you feel worse before you start, if you or any of the people you know have actually been involved in it. I don't know what world some politicians stay in, or the one constantly portrayed by the mainstream broadcasters i.e. that there are millions of people on these benefits who are actually not ill at all, and are therefore diddling the system. This is not my experience and nor anyone elses experience who actually lives in the real world.

Being on ESA isn't a lifestyle choice anyone with half a brain would chose if they were able to avoid it.

Being on Employment and Support Allowance is not a lifestyle choice anyone with half a brain would chose if they were able to avoid it. Every single year I have been refused it, except oddly this one, and then had to go to tribunal always getting it once the evidence was actually considered and not just dismissed.

This was despite having a long term condition, which caused me additional expenses, which the benefit is actually for.

Therefore with severely limited energy I avoided applying for #DLA or #DisabilityLivingAllowance after my first abortive attempt when despite my evidence being credible my application was refused. This was despite having a long term condition, which caused me additional expenses, which the benefit is actually for.

So this year I decided I would tackle PIP (Personal Independence Payment) the new replacement to DLA which I applied for in March. I am still waiting to be assessed.

Firstly ATOS contacted me to tell me to be patient (well I should have gotten this benefit about 8 years ago so I am that!).

I was contacted in October. After properly looking up where I was exactly to go to be assessed for ‪#‎PIP‬ - I thought it was a ‪#‎Falkirk‬ postcode but it was actually a Business Park outside ‪#‎Stirling‬. How do ‪#‎ATOS‬ expect someone with a disability or long term illness to get there? Is this a cynical ploy to stop folk from ‪#‎Glasgow‬ getting PIP?

However on contacting ATOS, despite this being standard procedure to send people from Glasgow to Stirling for assessments, they stated that in my case they would arrange for one actually in the city I lived.

In my case they would arrange for one actually in the city I lived.

I then waited with bated breath and was not disappointed when a letter from them popped through my letterbox when I was asleep again. Well no surprise there?

A letter arrived from the ‪#‎DWP‬ today advising my ‪#‎PIP‬ (Personal Independence Payment, the new replacement to ‪#‎DLA‬ or ‪#‎DisabilityLivingAllowance‬) application has been unsuccessful. Why? Because the reason I gave for my lack of attendence at my assessment on 31st October 2014 with ‪#‎ATOS‬ at Salus in ‪#‎Glasgow‬ was unsatisfactory. Yet I gave no reason as ATOS themselves cancelled the appointment! You could not make it up!!!!
 
I have to wait for months and months for this crap! You wouldn't need to need the money (which I most definitely do). To think I paid my taxes diligently for years and years when I was working (unlike Gideon and his rich pals) expecting that the Welfare State would be there when I needed it and this is what I end up with!

stop the government from taking disabilty benefit people

Responsible department: Department for Work and Pensions

This petition is to ask the government to stop its current work on changing and removing disability benefits from disabled peoples lives before it gets able-bodied unemployed people and people it put on the disabled list to massage figures from 1980's-present day and to leave disability benefit for those that deserve it and re-instate it for those that deserve it and have lost it. Possibly they could change tactics and chase bankers with huge pensions, tax dodgers and thieves that stole tax payer money to recover the money they are trying to take from disabled people during a time that the cost of living is rising to an all time high in the middle of a recession.

 http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/36522

CHANNEL 4: BRITAIN ON THE SICK

Using undercover filming, reporter Jackie Long investigates the controversial processes used to assess whether sickness and disability benefit claimants should be declared fit for work by the UK Government contractor company ATOS Healthcare. If you are not a cynic beforehand you will be after!

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od

PANORAMA: Disabled or Faking It

A thoroughly shocking programme shown on Monday 30th July 2012 on BBC2 showing that people on disability and sickness benefits are being systematically victimised by the UK Government to try to get them back into work with in many cases disastrous or even fatal consequences.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01lldrc/

WHEN I WAS ILL I DISCOVERED I COULD HAVE NO LEGAL INCOME SOURCE

WHEN I WAS ILL I DISCOVERED I COULD HAVE NO LEGAL INCOME SOURCE

A story of being on INCAPACITY BENEFIT and EMPLOYMENT AND SUPPORT ALLOWANCE

I have had an extensive period when I was ill in my life.

Part of that time (although it should have been all) was spent on incapacity benefit.

During this time my benefit was stopped after a DWP medical assessment and then after a successful appeal several months later it was reinstated and backdated. Over those few months when I had no income the stress considerably exacerbated my illness and extended the period which I was ill. Indeed so did having to go through the appeal process as I felt my honesty and integrity were on trial.

However over this period of no income I discovered I could not legally claim or earn anything.

1. I could not claim incapacity benefit as the DWP said I was not ill, although my GP stated I was.

2. I could not claim either job seekers allowance or indeed income support as I was not available for work as I was still signed off and my GP would not sign me back on.

3. I could not work as I was ill, signed off, and indeed working would have voided the employers liability insurance so therefore it would have been illegal for me to be working on their premises and for them to employ me.

Fortunately I had some savings which I could use to fund the gap but without these I would have had only 2 options.

1.       I could have applied for a crisis loan which has to be redone on a weekly basis (or so I understand) and really at that stage I could not have coped with the hassle, or,

2.       Go hungry, freeze, sit in the dark and ultimately become homeless.

At the time I thought this was an isolated incident but have discovered this seemed to be regular occurrence. I know two people to whom this happened, indeed for one of them it has occurred more than once.

I realise there are some people on sickness benefits who should not be, but there seem to be increasing number of people who are not on it who should be.

I hope the new Emplowment and Support Allowance will be better, although initial investigations indicate it is worse – many charities are taking the Government to court over the changes to the benefit system which is not a good start.

I paid into a system when I was working so it would be there to help when I needed it. I found that was a naïve hope. If you become ill you are doomed because the Government and society in general does not seem to care. If it does it has a very odd way of showing it.

Three out of four people applying for sickness benefits are being found fit to work or are abandoning their claims, according to Government figures.

Of the 686,500 applicants assessed for the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) between October 2008 and November 2009, 39% were judged able to work, while 37% stopped their claims before their assessments were completed.

A further 14% were put into a "work-related activity group" to prepare them for future employment.

Only 6% of ESA claimants were exempted from work-related schemes after being judged too sick or disabled to do a job.

From October, the Department for Work and Pensions said it plans to re-test millions of existing claimants to check whether they are fit for work.

Minister for Employment Chris Grayling said: "The vast majority of people who are applying for these benefits are being found fit for work or have stopped their claim.

"These are people who under the old system would have been abandoned on incapacity benefits. It's a clear indication of why reform is so urgently needed.

This is excellent news (not!!!) given that the trials have resulted in a complete shambles.

What of the woman who was diagnosed as fit for work with 0 points under this new scheme but was dead in 5 months? What of the woman who was signed off as unfit for work by the company who does these 'medicals' one week as she worked for the civil service, and then the exact opposite happened as she got 0 points in her claim for ESA the following week. This was on the BBC last week.

The latter happened to me under the old system of incapacity benefit meaning that...
1. I could not legally work as my GP had signed me off and I therefore would not be covered by an employers insurance.
2. I could not claim JSA or any other benefit as I was not seeking work.
3. I could not claim incapacity benefit as they judged me fit for work.
Therefore I was left without any way of legally having any income whilst still ill!!!! The incapacity benefit 'medicals' were a farce and were nothing to do with whether you were ill or not. The ESA 'medicals' are harder to pass and therefore will only serve to force more ill people to suffer.

As for the ridiculous system of appeals. Having gone through this process when ill and won my appeal (although it took 3 months to occur leaving me with no income for this time) which greatly exacerbated my illness due to the stress and feeling my honesty was on trial, I refused to go through with it the second time since I could not cope with the experience again again leaving me ill without any income.

The benefits system is meant to look after people who were ill. Having paid taxes for years this is what I expected but most definitely did not get. The Government's new system merely makes a bad problem worse.

http://www.christophercrawford.110mb.com