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An Open Letter to David Cameron & Ian Duncan-Smith

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Pen66 · 28/08/2012 11:59

An Open Letter to David Cameron & Ian Duncan Smith.

Hitler would have been proud of your treatment of the Disabled. Since you came to power you have both vilified and marginalized us. You started what is tantamount to a witch hunt because of the few bad apples that abused the system and you have tarred us all with the same brush and the media has played its part in this. Headline news when disability benefit fraud is reported, but the news never reports when those who desperately need, and have legitimate claims are denied help, unless that is, it affects wounded military personnel.

When you came to power and announced these reforms you stated that those in genuine need of help would get it, and yet you have devised a medical assessment that is not fit for purpose. If the medical assessment is fit for purpose then why are 40% of appeals overturned in favour of the claimant? Instead of saving money, your medical assessment is costing you more in the long run because of the sheer number of appeals, because it has failed those who really need the help, the same people that you told they had nothing to fear.

I am a single parent and a Carer and I?m also disabled, I have Chronic Fibromyalgia Syndrome. I have two sons, one is 19, Autistic with a speech & language communication disorder who needs 24/7 care. My elder son is 20, he suffers from Grand Mal Epileptic Seizures and has a recurrent type 1 dislocation of his right shoulder, the damage to his socket is such that he needs surgery but cannot have the surgery because his epilepsy is treatment resistant and should he have post op seizures it would rip the repairs to his shoulder apart.
Because of this we have been told that unless the seizures come under control he will NEVER have the operation. This leaves my son in the situation of having an arm that has a 90% risk of dislocation performing everyday tasks and a 99% risk of dislocation when he has a seizure.
I am also his carer as he needs 24/7 supervision, but I am not recognised as his carer as I am already the named carer of my younger son, you can only get carer?s allowance for one person, which I receive for my younger son. And just so as people are clear on this issue, that carer?s allowance is classed as an income so it gets deducted from my income support.

You also state that ?the bill? for Disability payments has to be cut and yet the Carer?s of this country save the Government £119 BILLION a year. If this is the case then why can?t the money we save you as carer?s go to those who desperately need it?
You also say that the DLA system has to be changed because it is open to so much abuse, making it sound like anyone can get it, you never go into how many genuine people were denied it.
When I first applied for DLA on behalf of my epileptic son he was denied as the decision maker stated ?He was not at risk of epileptic seizures?
I myself was also denied until my consultant wrote a very strong letter to them about their decision and how debilitating my condition is.
I also had to appeal for the mobility component of DLA for my Autistic son, because despite the reams of information I?d sent them from Ed psych, Social workers, Learning Support and the Learning Disabilities Clinic & his Clinical Nurse, they chose to use a statement from his head teacher who had only been in the school for six months and didn?t know him very well as their evidence. Even the judges at the appeal were disgusted with this and overturned the decision in favour of my son, there and then after only 5 mins deliberation, it was unprecedented to be given a decision on the day, normally it is sent in writing.

My eldest son had to have his ATOS ?medical assessment? in June. Up until Monday 20th August we did not know the result. It was only after phoning the DWP about another matter that we were told they had sent us the decision on Aug 2nd. My son had failed the assessment, we were told he had only scored 6 pts. Apparently he is ?fit for work? despite QUALIFIED doctors saying he isn?t fit for work. At no point during this assessment did ATOS or the DWP contact any of my son?s doctor?s or specialists
We were informed by welfare rights that he only has a month in which to appeal, but we still have not received the decision letter or appeal forms. During the phone call on Monday they said they would resend everything and it should take three days to get to us, I had to phone again on Friday to say we had still not received them. I therefore am wondering if this another ploy by the DWP to put people beyond the appeal date?

My eldest son spent two years training to be a plumber, he had his career all planned out, but he had to give up as his epilepsy got worse and the damage to his shoulder was revealed after an MRI.
Now he is literally housebound, he cannot go anywhere without someone with him, he gets no warning to his seizures, they occur regularly both night and day, and when his arm dislocates, which is frequently, he needs to go to A&E. It is not the life of a normal 20 year old.
This is just one example: On the 24th July at 12 a.m he had a seizure luckily this time his shoulder stayed in, but the following afternoon at 1.15 p.m he had another and his shoulder dislocated. I took him to A&E, they relocated the arm and then had another. It took five of the A&E staff to get him on a trolley and into resus. We didn?t leave the hospital that day until 8pm.

We actually ended this week back down A&E at 5 a.m.
And this is someone you expect to go out and find full time work? His seizures are aggressive and in the words of his Neurologist??epilepsy can prove to be fatal that?s why we try to treat it with medication? unfortunately in my son?s case he is in the 20% of epileptics that prove to be treatment resistant.
How can he look for work when he can not go anywhere alone? How can he work with his right arm dangling out of his socket and being in constant pain? How can he work with uncontrollable epilepsy?
I shouldn?t have been surprised really after ATOS? & the DWP?s track record..the man with the heart condition declared fit for work who died 39 days later, a man with motor neurone disease declared fit for work as he lost use of his limbs..what chance did my son have?
How can you sit there and condone this system and what it is doing to people? It takes the likes of someone dropping dead for it to become a newsworthy story, how many more will this happen to?

You sit in your ivory towers completely out of touch, you strip us of our dignity labelling us all as ?malingerers and liars? blaming us for costing the tax payer so much money, causing hatred against us.
How about telling the taxpayers how much money the Carer?s save you? But then that would have to be telling the truth and that is something that Politicians seem to be allergic to.
It seems to me and many others that I have spoken to that this Government would like nothing more than to see us all eradicated. You have made sure that the entire country sees us a burden.
My carer?s allowance is £58.45 per week, I care for my sons for 168 hours per week which equates to 0.34p per hour, but that?s just for one of them, divide that 0.34 by two and I am being paid an astonishing 0.17p per hour, well I would be if they didn?t deduct it from my income support.
I do not get any respite, I do not get to go on holiday, I do not get to retire?I rarely even get any sleep, and yet what I do goes completely unrecognised by this Government.

So for all those people who seem to think those on DLA have an easy life and are swanning around on holiday all the time?nothing could be further from the truth, and its about time they realised this.
I have had to fight tooth and nail for the past 19 years for any help at all, the education system, the care system and the benefit system, I?ve had to fight them all. I used to be fit and healthy but now I am one of 625,000 people to suffer mental and physical ill health as a direct consequence of the stress and physical demands of caring long term, not to mention the additional stress that you, the government put us under.
I, like many others in my situation, am at the end of my tether, sick to my stomach at your treatment of us and this nightmare world you have created for us. What?s next? Put us all in workhouses??

I find it abhorrent that in this ?civilised? society that you are crucifying the most vulnerable people of all, and subjecting us to emotional and psychological abuse.

Yours Most Sincerely Distressed
Penny Brooks

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flatpackhamster · 28/08/2012 12:23