To be frightened about the Government’s plans for benefits reform?

[PilgorTheGoat]

I am one of the millions of people currently on long term sickness benefits. I receive the LCWRA element of UC and PIP due to poor mental health and autism. I have severe anxiety and depression and I am awaiting an appointment to see if I also have PTSD due to sexual abuse in my childhood.

I have tried every element of support offered to me. I’m maxed out on 2 different types of antidepressants. I have had back-to-back (excluding the 6 month wait in between) 12 week sessions of counselling offered via the NHS. I am on a waiting list for intensive CBT due to my possible PTSD. I am currently having twice weekly private, video counselling appointments.

I can’t leave my house alone due to panic attacks. I struggle to meet my own care needs and my husband has to do a lot of the work for us both (although he works full time). I have a very understanding friend whom I force myself to go for a short walk with twice a week in order to stop myself becoming completely imprisoned at home but I find this very distressing and we have to take the same route each time.

I am so, so scared about the government’s plans to end sickness benefits for people like me. We don’t have a load of spare cash, we’re just about getting by. There is no support available. I’ve taken everything offered and my husband has been very proactive in seeking out other services for me to be involved with. I’d love to be better, I’d love not to live in fear but there is no help.

Agreed. It's disgusting. These people who claim to be making helpful suggestions need to be thankful they're not experiencing that level of distress and should step away.

It isn't assessing someone's health for benefits that is cruel, it is the way the assessments are currently done that are cruel. The assessors manipulate and out right lie and the system is set up to make as many people give up trying to claim. The whole process made me more unwell. That is what is cruel. Not the concept of an assessment. Nothing wrong with assessing someone's health, there is something wrong with lieing about them in an official report though.

You, @XenoBitch and the OP don't have to justify yourself to people who are ignorant enough to think you'd be well if you tried a bit harder.

What did they outright lie about? I’m curious to know if you wouldn’t mind sharing

I did low paid work. When I worked, that was all I could get. I am used to living on fuck all.

Like I have said I have not worked for 14 years. I have a huge gap on my CV that can only be explained away by me being too fucking bonkers. Who is going to employ me? My own MUM wont employ me, and has has to sack me from the family business.

A coffee van? Are you for real?

My UC claim is about £9k a year. That is all I get.
So I am not costing the tens of thousands per year. My fault for being a single middle aged women with no kids. Oops, I forgot to reproduce.

The problem with most if the unhelpful suggestions is not just that they come from a place of ignorance but that they rely on punitive measures, which don't work. Because disabled people are not choosing to be in that situation. Its not a lifestyle choice.

There used to be schemes to help disabled people back into work but voters decided they wanted more stick and less carrot instead.

You could insist that large employers have some fixed hour and pay contracts and make them available to single parents, the disabled, and carers. If you run a business you could even do that yourself.
It wouldn't cost you anything. Why don't you all do that?

They said I had no history of anxiety. They literally had doctors reports showing I have been under psychiatric care since my early teens and generalised anxiety disorder is frequently listed on my diagnosis.

They said I said I could prepare and cook healthy cooked dinners and that I did so several nights a week. I said that I used to be able to do that but since getting unwell no longer could. I had told them I used to be able to because they asked me directly if I used to be able to when I said I couldn't do it. They asked me if I used to be able to do it.

They said I was laughing during the assessment (was COVID times so was over phone) and seemed bright and cheerful. I actually cried through out of the assessment and had to keep stopping the assessment because I said I couldn't breathe with anxiety and needed a few mins.

They said I walked the dog. I didn't say that. They asked if I had pets. I said we owned a dog and that my partner walked it.

Also not a lie as such but demonstrated a lack of knowledge. They said that I "claimed to have auditory processing delay however this can't be true as I have no hearing loss" auditory processing is not the same as hearing.

There were some other lies but I can't remember off the top of my head now. The report was upsetting to read and didn't reflect my health at all. At the time I applied I was bed bound 90% of the time with long Covid and under crisis intervention. I scored 0 in all areas. When we went to appeal it was over turned before appeal. Luckily I had insisted that the assessment be recorded. They were able to listen to the recording and I had the whole thing over turned without needing to go to court because they agreed there were lots of things in the report that could be proven to be false with the recording.

Yep, so many people on this thread just not getting it.
Probably have no experience in claiming any benefit whatsoever... so really concerned about where their tax money is going.

BTW, my UC WCA assessment form was filled in my by CPN. Both times. I don't have much of idea of what was actually in it.

When you say such ridiculous things to try and discredit people and shut them up, it just makes me (and probably others) think that you're hiding something.

Is that your intention?

Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?

If what you've said is accurate, I i hope that the people that lied were held accountable. It's clearly unacceptable to have lied.

It does, however, highlight a problem facing the government - i.e. claims are based upon people self-reporting their limitations. If people lie about what they can or can't do, how can those lies be detected?

Given the explosion in the number of people claiming, I think it's natural for the wider public to be somewhat concerned/skeptical that a proportion of people are exaggerating/lying to make a successful claim. When there are websites coaching people on what they need to say to make a successful claim, such as the ADHD website that I linked to previously, it just heightens suspicions that something isn't right.

Why are we now blaming NHS waiting lists? Oh this post is hilarious! Yes the NHS isn’t perfect, but my recent experience is that they see you on a clinical need basis. If you’re waiting it’s because you are able.

Maybe private healthcare wouldn’t be a bad thing, if everyone paid in to the system based on how much they used, I reckon there would be a lot less people too sick to work!

It's alright everyone, based on this one poster's experience, the NHS is fine and everyone's moaning about nothing.

" not a lie as such but demonstrated a lack of knowledge. They said that I "claimed to have auditory processing delay however this can't be true as I have no hearing loss" auditory processing is not the same as hearing."

They said the same at my pip assessment. They also said I don't need to see a hearing therapist. Did they really think the NHS would refer for something that's not needed? But she had to ask what one of my diagnoses related to my hearing was.

I’ve just been diagnosed with breast cancer and have had the clinic appointment with the surgeon to discuss treatment cancelled twice. I’m now waiting to see if another consultant can take my case as the original surgeon to whom I was assigned has gone off on long term sick. Do you think I’m able to wait ? Would you like to be in the position of knowing you have cancer and having to wait until the NHS can provide you with a suitable doctor - not knowing how long that will be ? No ? Didn’t think so.

Of course the NHS waiting lists feed into how many people are claiming sickness benefits. Even simple conditions can affect your ability to work. My late husband lost his job in IT because he was waiting too long between cataract operations. He would no sooner receive an appointment than it would be cancelled. That went on for over six months and in the end his sight deteriorated so much that he couldn’t do his job. Unless you’ve been there and experienced it maybe think before you post.

@Universalsnail You don’t have to justify yourself to a goady nobody who, let’s face it, probably has no real interest in the social security system other than to use it to beat down those less fortunate. Your health problems are none of her business. That’s between you and your health care professionals. She doesn’t have the intelligence to distinguish between genuine need for help and benefit fraud. She’s enjoying you explaining your situation and your discomfort and no doubt she gets her ridiculous soundbites from The Daily Mail or The Sun.

The reason the NHS is up the shit is because this Tory government hasn’t invested fuck all in it. Why would they? Their ultimate goal is to privatise. Where is the £350m a week that was promised after we left the European Union? If corporations paid the correct tax we wouldn’t be in this mess. Do you think little Rishi’s wife pays tax on her billions? Course not because although she lives here her company is listed as non domiciliary for tax avoidance purposes. All wrong but let’s all pick on the most vulnerable in society

If their goal was to privatise don’t you think they’ve left it until the very last minute after 15+ years of being in power…?

Ending non dom status would raise 3 billion in tax.

The annual NHS budget is 163 billion

It would barely make a dent.

And lots would simply suffer and die because they couldn’t afford to access it. The lack of NHS dentists is causing people to attempt to remove painful teeth themselves.

They’ve been privatising it by stealth since 2013. Look at the compulsion to open services to competitive tendering the Lansley bill introduced. The cost of tendering is so high the NHS can’t afford the time or money to go through the process. Branson is currently running big chunks of healthcare under the NHS logo.

We can’t nationalise everything. The NHS is now so enormous and serves so many more functions than when it began that we can’t source everything for it via nationalised services. Either we pare it down and keep it purely taxpayer funded or we keep expanding in which case adaptation is necessary