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Penalties for being Disabled.

Can you give more detail of what you mean?  Re-assessment on which benefits?

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  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    Is this a gardening question, lots of people on here are suffering health problems and manage to do some gardening. 

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • I'm not sure what you mean by "penalties for being disabled" Mike. I'm "disabled", although I don't like to think of it as that, however, I've never felt penalised for being so. I have an incurable health condition with the only treatment being management of the symptoms and significant lifestyle change. The NHS have given me excellent support and I've never felt that I've been penalised or treated unfairly by any government agency or organisation operating on behalf of the government. I understand that everyone's circumstances are different but I, and everyone else, can only comment on their own.

  • AWBAWB Posts: 421

    My circumstances are similar to D H R.

    And agree with the sentiments expressed by Potteringabout.

    it is the people who exploit the system that cause the problem, can't work but can play football and golf.can only walk with a stick when they are being assessed. 

  • AWBAWB Posts: 421

    There is also the situation where a person/ friend has mental disabilities,but is physically fit being deemed fit to work although to my certain knowledge is not.

    the problem is that the assessors work on the principle, cut the benfit, let them appeal.

    again to my certain knowledge the assessors will put things in their report that are not true and that have not been said, although when challenged will back down.

  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,012
    AWB says:

    the problem is that the assessors work on the principle, cut the benfit, let them appeal.

    again to my certain knowledge the assessors will put things in their report that are not true and that have not been said, although when challenged will back down.

    See original post

     The first statement is simply untrue.  The HCP's who do the assessment work to a defined set of criteria, and 'score' the assessment accordingly.  That is true of the vast majority, although I do not dispute that a few do not work as they are supposed to. 

    There is some truth to the second statement, although again those who do that are a small minority.  I have actually seen a completed assessment form where the doctor (it was a doctor in this instance) contradicted himself several times in the paperwork.  In that instance the DM did what they are supposed to do - made the decision to put the claimant into one of the qualifying groups.

    The Ken Loach film does use instances where the system has gone badly wrong, and those errors should not have happened.  That doesn't change the fact that it was a very slanted film, by a film maker with a political agenda.  What many people forget, or choose to forget, is that ESA was introduced by a Labour government.

  • Kitty 2Kitty 2 Posts: 5,150

    Yet another contentious issue is dropped into the forum by the OP.....who never joins in with the conversation image.  

    I can appreciate that forum members can enjoy sharing opinions and discussing matters other than gardening in "the potting shed", it makes it a lively place to chat.

    I hope this thread continues with a reasonable debate between members with an interest in the subject and doesn't go the way of last years "brexit thread" which got a bit hot under the collar at times image.

    I've nothing to add on the subject of disability or benefits (no experience of either). 

    Happy chatting.....and gardening image

    Kitty image

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,477

    I had  a student who came in with a carrier bashful  of documentation concerning her disabled child and a multipaged form to fill in. Apart from putting the papers into some kind of order, I didn't have a clue.

    She always tried to think positively about her child's disability. Another student who had been through the process explained to her that this was not the mind-set needed to get benefits - accentuate the negative.

    I had another who was paralysed from the waist down and going blind. He was terrified that he was going to lose benefits and his flat.

    I understand that there is a bounty of several thousand pounds for each person who is launched into the job market.

    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,617

    I agree that assessors have to work to a criteria. When MIL was being assessed for her care package, SIL insisted on being there and getting a copy of the report.  On a scale of 1 to 5, a bedridden patient with end stage  alzheimers, hallucinating episodes,  and double incontinence was assessed at 3.   Her mobility was also in that range. This despite needing two people and a hoist to get her from a bed into a wheelchair .

    The assessment was challenged. If SIL had not known her way around the system, and been married to a solicitor who wrote all the challenge letters, MIL's care package would have been stopped as she was deemed to be not ill enough.

     It turned out that the assessor was a physio who was used to recommending packages for people who had been in car accidents.

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Kitty 2 says:

    Yet another contentious issue is dropped into the forum by the OP.....who never joins in with the conversation image.  

    See original post

     I see you've cottoned on Kitty....  image

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,012
    Mike Allen says:

      She gad been awarded her benefits plus her high rate mobility for LIFE.  Obviously she wasn't alone.  So the government scrap the system.

    .

    See original post

     I might be wrong, but I believe DLA award could be made 'indefinitely' rather than 'for life'.  The underlying problem with DLA was that, so many assessments were made purely on the basis of the information completed on the form, some realised that they could cheat the system, and others who had a genuine disability at the start of the claim didn't report improvements.

    As a result, the cost of benefits soared and something had to be done to get them back under control.  What has certainly happened it that the pendulum has swung too far the other way in some instances and those with genuine problems are being caught up in it.  There is an appeal process and that is the route people need to take if they believe they are being wrongly assessed.

    Just on example of the 'lead swingers'.  I worked for DWP, in a building where health assessments were done.  I had just left the office at lunchtime when I was passed by a guy carrying a pair of crutches - carrying, not using.  I watched him as he neared the corner where he would be visible from the office.  He stopped walking and started to use the crutches and shuffled the rest of the way to his assessment.  It's a********* like that who create problems for all.

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