Refused ADP just need to vent

[Astridastro]

I’m lying in bed tonight and it’s going to be a long night. I’m in a lot of pain and sleep don’t come easy tonight, my sciatica is b painful tonight as is my ribs, knees, back and jaw. I’ll have to wait until I’m exhausted to actually sleep. I’ve taken all the painkillers I can for the day.

I have fibromyalgia, Raynauds, TMJD, sciatica, chronic migraines, anxiety and depression. I’ve recently had to drop from full time to 3 days a week at work as full time was too much for me, Im going to see how I cope with 3 days. My main emotion is guilt Im a rotten mum and partner now as im always in bed, I come in from work and go to bed, sometimes im so sore and tired I sleep through dinner and wake at 8pm, do a bit of work and go back to bed at 10pm. Friday nights im in bed for 8pm weekends I have afternoon naps. Im not the person I was I hardly go out, I can’t walk far or I get sore, im slow. Inside im always asleep it’s a joke amongst my DC.

So a friend suggested I apply for Adult Disability Payment (PIP). Equivalent in Scotland. It’s £60 a week she suggested I use it for a chiropractor/massage to help my pain levels as since im dropping days Money will be tight.

I thought I had no chance but thought why not, when it came back I had been rejected and I only got 2 points because im in pain after I shower. That was it. Nothing about the agonising chronic pain condition I live with everyday and all the medication I have to take to try and live a half normal life.

I know im am not the only one to face this but it’s my first experience of “the system” and im sure there are so many people out there so much worse than I am that have been rejected.

Did you send in a lot of medical evidence ? Was your fibro diagnosed by a Rheumatologist ? It's my understanding that ADP is based purely on the form and medical evidence as they don't do an assessment?

I’m so sorry you had this experience <flowers>

This time last year I was going through the horrible assessment process for PIP and I was rejected too - zero points across the board (my conditions are mental, so I knew it’d be more of a struggle to prove it, but they’re so severe I can’t work and I’m mostly housebound)

I ended up going all the way to tribunal where I was successful. Please don’t lose hope - request an MR as soon as you can

If you don’t mind me asking, what evidence did you submit? And did you fill in the form on your own or have input from a healthcare professional/disability expert/etc?

Again I’m so sorry about this, but you’re not alone, and there is hope!

@Babyroobs yes my fibromyalgia was diagnosed by a rheumatologist and my TMJD by a consultant maxi facial surgeon and chronic migraines by a neurologist. I think I have been naive in that I didn’t provide any evidence as o thought it would all be provided by my GP as it’s all in my medical records. The GP who provided evidence isn’t my usual GP but one I haven’t seen in oh 10 years. She didn’t see me at my last appointment in tears telling my GP the pain is unbearable and my HP suggesting different meds again this time naproxen for the TMJD and gabapentin instead of pregabalin as I had a bad reaction to it.

@cattycatcatt I’m so sorry about your experience too, having poor mental health is just rotten. I have depression and anxiety and that wasn’t mentioned at all on the form. I’m about to start a ADP claim for my 18 year old DD, she is housebound too with crippling anxiety but if I looked at the questions on this form she wouldn’t qualify as she can feed herself, toilet herself, shower herself, walk 200m, has cognitive function yet she cannot work, go to college or leave the house. She cannot support herself at all. I thought it was for people who couldn’t support themselves as they couldn’t work as they had a disability or people like me who had a chronic condition that they would always have that incurred extra costs in their lives.

me being me I’m not just angry for me I’m angry about the system and the way it is set up for it’s nearly impossible for you to actually be awarded ADP unless you are bedbound, unable to feed yourself, need personal care, have cognitive difficulties so all the people that would have been awarded higher rate DLA but not so great for middle and low rate DLA.

I would ask for a mandatory reconsideration and address each point where you think you should have scored points and didn't. include copies of all medical evidence from consultants etc.

I have CRPS (from a work injury, emergency delivery with forceps as baby was having a very prolonged bradycardia, Dr I was assisting left a glass vial lying and it went through my hand as it was hidden by the paper towels) and applied for it, it got rejected even though I'm on copious amounts of medications and had to change jobs to a more admin than clinical role (hand isn't stable enough to support deliveries anymore so now work in the Fetal Medicine clinic when I'm not on mat leave). Apparently 80% of applications are rejected- I can't confirm his but 9 out of 10 people I know have said theirs was rejected at first and they had to appeal.

Got your redetermination form sent in @Astridastro , go to citizens advice, they are fantastic at this stuff and will fill out the form for you while you're there and go to any appeals with you if you need to go in person. It's a free service and they really do fight your corner for you. Best of luck!