The ongoing fun of claiming benefits.

MissA you have the patience of a saint ?

Ooops. Its £50 off a £200 overpayment they've stopped.

Not so bad.

Dispute!
A dispute has been raised.
I forgot the word.

Oh no! I can't believe this hasn't been sorted yet. It must be very worrying for you

Ah, thank you.
It'll come right in the end, then it'll be time for a review, I expect.

Good grief MissA I’m surprised you haven’t been driven completely mad by now. This seems to have been going on forever

I do feel a bit closer to the edge than I ever used to!

There is no point getting angry really, though.

MissA I am sorry you are still having to sort things out. I thought when you got 1,000 posts and finally got the financial help you deserved it would be plain sailing for you.

It not fair you are having to pay something back when it's their fault they made the mistake in the first place.

As I have said on another thread my PIP and MRN decisions went against me. So with the help of the Brain Charity and the solicitor they use will be going to tribunal. It will probably be next year before we are seen as there is a backlog of tribunals. Had a copy of the assessors report my solicitor asked me to get it. Every page there where multiple errors. Had to mark them all up and sent my solicitor a copy and write a long email correcting the errors. 23 pages long and only page without an error the page she signed and put how long it took to write 38mins. We talked for hour and 46 minutes during the assessment. I knew she hadn't listened to me. ?

That's awful, isnt it?
I have heard that sometimes the dwp decide to award the benefit just before the tribunal.

Beware, though, as I have also seen that they will often offer a kind of "bargain" deal.

A bit of back pay, so that you more or less agree to meet in the middle and not persue the full amount.

It's quite scary, reading the headlines, and then you start to wonder at the wisdom of chasing the amount owed.

I'm so glad you have help, and a solicitor, no less!

They are so far behind with all benefits, claims, assessments, queries, everything. On a site I keep in touch with, that deals with a lot of PIP claims, I could weep for the people waiting for over a year since they applied. It really is appalling.

I can only imagine how long the backlog must be.

I appreciate how lucky I was that at least most of mine has been sorted, and that i was treated kindly.
(Even if I think I could have been awarded the higher rate for the mobility component)

DaisyAnne I have been fighting for 34 years. They kept saying no diagnosis no claim. Finally I got diagnosed in April only through genetic blood testing. I was born with this condition and it's rare. PIP received my completed form the 12th April. Since the assessment and MRN decision my health has gotten worse. Luckily the Brain Charity has a solicitor practice they use for all tribunals. The one I have is very through and easy to talk to. People at the Brain Charity are amazing and only found out about them through one of my craft group. But I only moved here 3 years ago. If I still lived 100+ miles away even though I am was under a neurologist he never thought to get my blood genetically tested. My neurologist here it was the first thing he did and put me on a tablet that finally stopped my limb jerks and seizures. My blood was sent off January 2020 but because of Covid only got the results in March.

Also found out through my new GP sending me to see a cardiologist I was also born with a hole in my heart and have PAF.

Where you live really does make a difference to the health care you receive.

It would make sense for them to let your award go through, that is what I can't understand.

A consultant is hardly like to collude with you to make up an ailment.

my daughter was born disabled, couldn't walk, talk, went to special school has a physical/cognitive and medical needs, all severe and complex. Went to a special school. She has no mental capacity and has 1:1 24/7 care from the local authority with some health input. She still has to have fit for work assessments at the job centre and she (me) still has to fill in PIP forms - AND she had one of their crappy assessments She has so many professionals involved they wouldn't fit n my tiny house

It would be a joke but it's not funny, is it?

No, it's really not.

I accept that for me, they will want to assess me to see if there is any change in anything, because mine is a much more "wishy washy" sounding ailment, which is ongoing.

I should have said, my dd is in her mid 20s now so it's not like it is going to change

But it's not on for you either. It adds stress in people's already difficult or challenging lives

I think it's safe to say I am now very nervous when a brown envelope pops through the letterbox.

Whiff

DaisyAnne I have been fighting for 34 years. They kept saying no diagnosis no claim. Finally I got diagnosed in April only through genetic blood testing. I was born with this condition and it's rare. PIP received my completed form the 12th April. Since the assessment and MRN decision my health has gotten worse. Luckily the Brain Charity has a solicitor practice they use for all tribunals. The one I have is very through and easy to talk to. People at the Brain Charity are amazing and only found out about them through one of my craft group. But I only moved here 3 years ago. If I still lived 100+ miles away even though I am was under a neurologist he never thought to get my blood genetically tested. My neurologist here it was the first thing he did and put me on a tablet that finally stopped my limb jerks and seizures. My blood was sent off January 2020 but because of Covid only got the results in March.

Also found out through my new GP sending me to see a cardiologist I was also born with a hole in my heart and have PAF.

Where you live really does make a difference to the health care you receive.

I read your story previously, Whiff. It is/was an exceptionally hard case. What I have commented on are the day-to-day claims that should be easier if not easy to process.

Sadly, there will always be some like yours and, of course, adaptions to the entitlement criteria could help. However, I do think the everyday should be running better than they are.

Just for the record, I never did receive the promised phone call from the universal credit people today.

So sorry you are still being put through the mill, MissAdventure. The system is not fit for purpose.

It does not make any sense that so many people have to go to Tribunal, with all the costs involved ( not to the claimant).
I haven’t come across a single PIP claim that has been awarded after a Mandatory Reconsideration. They all needed to go to Appeal. So that is a level of bureaucracy wasted.
From my recent cases:
I do not understand why evidence from a consultant is not accepted.
I do not understand why many assessor’s reports are full of lies. Eg You do not need help with….
I do not understand why having “no input for mental health” means a claimant has no problems with mental health. It is so hard to get the right help.
I do not understand why Decision Makers can get away with statements like “I have decided you can walk 200 metres” . That is effectively calling the claimant a liar, if they have said they can only manage 50m.
Rinse and repeat.

As a seasoned welfare benefits legal adviser my advice is always ask to see what notes the assessor has taken at the end of the assessment, insist on it! after all if they are planning to lie you can call them up on it there and then and if its sloppy note taking you can demand it is corrected eg “I didn't say I could walk to my local shop and back daily!” Also please, please make sure you are careful about how you word things! a seemingly innocuous comment such as I like to have a coffee with a friend when I feel well enough is translated as goes out for coffees with friends most days?
I would always advise that you get help with MR and tribunals especially from Cit A or charities linked to your health condition. Please make sure you are absolutely clear about your difficulties never put a (misleading) positive spin on things through embarrassment! Health problems are nothing to be embarrassed about and its essential that you give a complete and accurate picture of your life with the limitations that you have.

Agreed.
Even better if help is sought for the initial claim. People asking for help at a later stage might have saved themselves a lot of trouble by getting a good claim in in the first place.

JaneJudge sorry you and your daughter have been treated so badly.

Trouble is the forms are written, assessed and decided by able bodied people. Who have no idea what it's like to have a mental or physical disabilitiy or both or even have a family member who has. They sit in their offices and pass judgement safe in the knowledge they will never have to see people face to face. If they did they would hang their heads in shame .

But what they don't realise anyone can become mentally or physically disabled at anytime in their life.

Jenpax I couldn't believe what the assessor had written when I had the copy of it. 23 pages long only one page without an error was the last page where she had to sign it and put how long it took her to write the report. 38 minutes. The phone assessment took hour and 46 minutes.

I marked every error and sent a copy to the solicitor the Brain Charity use and has been assigned to me and a long email stating all the errors and what the truth was. Knew the woman hadn't listened to me.

Cabbie your post says it all. That's things I couldn't get over in the PIP and MRN decisions. Especially the PIP decision. According to them because I can get in a car I can get in a bath. Last time I had a bath I was 14 and my arms collapsed my mom had to help me out. My parents them changed the bathroom to low level bath with shower over it . This was 50 years ago. The shower worked off the taps you turned them on and pull a knob up so the water came out of shower head.
The assessment said I can stand for 20 mins a day and cook a fresh meal. I can't I told her I have to cook enough for 6 lunches which is always homemade soup and a stew enough for 6 dinners. I can't cut the veg up but manage to peel then with an old fashioned peeler but they go in whole. Soups I use a hand blender and stew's cut into with scissors to cut up the veg. It only got more ridiculous. It's a wonder it didn't say I could run a marathon.

They didn't even bother to contact my GP, neurologist or cardiologist for further information. I had sent them copies of all the letters I had got don't think they even read them.