Worried about this DLA medical assessment thing

[madhairday]

I have just caught up on the budget, having been in hospital for the past fortnight. Now getting myself in a tizz about them chasing after DLA claimants. I know what it will be, some undertrained pen pusher ticking off on his little chart whether you are 'disabled enough' or not, without taking into account anything regarding fluctuating conditions or how it affects your life as a whole.

They seem to be putting forward that it will get people back into work, but surely they know that's not how DLA works? DLA is for expenses that are unavoidable if you are disabled or chronically ill, you can still work on DLA. They are confusing it with IB surely? So using terms like this scares me silly - they can't even get their facts right at the outset, so what hope do we have, really?

DLA gives me just enough to cope with my illness and all the extras it entails. If it's taken away by some snotty nosed twunt I will be completely lost. I am really scared about this, despite the fact that I had no problem getting it in the first place. I had letters of support from consultant, physios etc etc. But I don't hold out hope that this will make the difference in these 'assessments.'

Is anyone else feeling the same about this or am I being daft thinking that the tories seem to want to keep screwing over the most vulnerable, despite their vehement assurances to the contrary?

Just me then?

There was another thread about this

But I can't remember the title, sorry

Oh ok will have a search, as I say have been in hosp so not around. thanks for replying

might it be this one??

Thanks Katy. Hope things are going ok for you.

I think you're being unnecessarily pessimistic. The reassessments are on incapacity benefit claimants, as a response the exponential rise in the claims, not consistent with the general health of the population. £10m paid out last year to people with headaches, for example. If you are genuinely sick, disabled and not able to work then you are a legitimate claimant. DLA is likely to be affected most by the change to the inflation measure applicable to all benefits i.e CPI rather than RPI

Medical assessments for all DLA claimants and recipients are to be brought in in 2013.

comme ce comme sa

Life just is atm

Chil, if you look at the other threads on this you'll see that many of us are anxious about this. It is definitely DLA they will be reviewing, which is totally different to IB/ESA, which is much easier to defraud. I do hope you're right and that I am being unnecessarily pessimistic. Trying to think positive.

It confused me too because they were talking about dla & back to work - but like you say, you can get DLA if you're working it's about your disability, which you can have and be working.

I think the news people are confusing dla - not means tested, not something you are given only if you can't work - and incapacity - given when you cannot work.

You wouldn't lose dla if you got a job. Only if you were no longer disabled. So I don't know why people are saying get people off DLA and back to work.

I know Hecate that confused me too, it's only IB that you can't work on. DLA is support, non means tested, for disabled people, in work or not. I hope it is only the news people mixing it up, and not the actual government, because that's pretty worrying

You're right, it is the DLA that is being subjected to assessment. My mistake. It's here

"That brings me to another universal benefit, Disability Living Allowance.
Mr Deputy Speaker, it is right that people who are disabled are helped to lead a life of dignity. We will continue to support them, and we will not reduce the rate at which this benefit is paid. But three times as many people claim it today than when it was introduced eighteen years ago. And the costs have quadrupled in real terms to over £11 billion, making it one of the largest items of government spending.

We will introduce a medical assessment for Disability Living Allowance from 2013, which will be applied to new and existing claimants. This will be a simpler process than the complex forms they have to fill out at present. That way we can continue to afford paying this important benefit to those with the greatest needs, while significantly improving incentives to work for others."

However, I would still say that if you are genuinely affected by disability then you should not assume things will be worse as a result.

I think it's because many of us have had experience of 'medical assessments' in the past which have been utterly pointless and in no way given a full picture of the illness or disability, and in addition have been carried out by assessors who have little or no knowledge of the condition you are living with, and are more concerned with filling in a form and ticking boxes. For example, they may ask you to walk across a room. For me and countless others with fluctuating conditions this can be easy to do one day and impossible the next. If they ask me on the 'easy' day they tick the box that says 'can walk', etc etc, and can form a skewed and wrong impression of my illness. Whereas with the forms, while being a nightmare, at least we have the opportunity for painting a complete picture of life, and also of giving supporting evidence from specialists in the field.

So I suppose I am worrying more about how these assessments will take place, and finding it difficult to trust that they will be done taking things properly into account, and that countless vulnerable people will suffer as a result.

But that may be because I don't trust the Tories