BIG Benefits Problem...

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I always used to suspect that they had a quota system where they'd give a certain number of claims an "approved stamp, and for the rest of the day they'd turn claims down.
Nothing I've seen or heard since has made me change my mind.

and that was after he took his socks and shoes off and showed the woman his blue toes

I don't even know to this day on what basis he won his appeal, whether it was on the grounds of having no short-term memory and would therefore not be allowed to drive or whether they gave him one at their discretion (as I read they sometimes do) and pointed that out in the appeal letter to them.

I also think that Lambeth has to give out more than other boroughs for two possible reasons, one that there may be more diabetics with foot problems due to the Afro-Caribbean population who I've read are at higher risk of diabetes, and two, maybe due to the mental health patients (who I'm guessing, but not sure) may be eligible for free travel.

 

[han]

Fucking hell. Horrendous.
Good luck Jefe.

It seems like honesty isn't always the best policy after all

 

[Greebo]

FWIW and IME you don't need to lie on a DLA form, you just need to avoid being brave & stoical, at least while filling in the form. And that's difficult. Stop thinking about how you more or less manage to get through each day with a smile, and remember all those things you have to do (or put up with) which you wouldn't have to do if you were completely able-bodied and/or well. Instead of thinking "yes I can just about do that, but I need this/ it hurts etc" you need to keep saying and thinking "I can't, without help / because it hurts"

eg "How far can you walk unaided and/or without discomfort?". A bad answer would be "Once my painkillers and anti-inflammatory have had time to work, I reckon I can manage half a mile before it's agonising, but I have to stop a couple of times". A better answer (from the same person, with the same limitations) might be "Discomfort is there from the first step. If I continue to walk, the pain worsens, obliging me to stop a couple of times within half a mile because the pain becomes unbearable, even after taking prescribed painkillers and an anti-inflammatory"

ETA: The person reading those answers on the DLA form would be likely to understand the first answer as "can walk half a mile" and the second answer as "cannot walk at all (without discomfort)"

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

FWIW and IME you don't need to lie on a DLA form, you just need to avoid being brave & stoical, at least while filling in the form. And that's difficult. Stop thinking about how you more or less manage to get through each day with a smile, and remember all those things you have to do (or put up with) which you wouldn't have to do if you were completely able-bodied and/or well. Instead of thinking "yes I can just about do that, but I need this/ it hurts etc" you need to keep saying and thinking "I can't, without help / because it hurts"

eg "How far can you walk unaided and/or without discomfort?". A bad answer would be "Once my painkillers and anti-inflammatory have had time to work, I reckon I can manage half a mile before it's agonising, but I have to stop a couple of times". A better answer (from the same person, with the same limitations) might be "Discomfort is there from the first step. If I continue to walk, the pain worsens, obliging me to stop a couple of times within half a mile because the pain becomes unbearable, even after taking prescribed painkillers and an anti-inflammatory"

ETA: The person reading those answers on the DLA form would be likely to understand the first answer as "can walk half a mile" and the second answer as "cannot walk at all (without discomfort)"

Fair enough, but it's much harder for someone to fill it in on someone's behalf.

I've got myself in the situation now where I've told b/f's vascular doc that he can walk a slightly further distance than he can without resting, because he is supposed to walk through the pain, so I make him walk even if he's in pain, so they've got it noted down that he can walk a certain distance which would affect his mobility claim just because I decided to impress them with the fact that I was forcing him to walk IYSWIM

Also, if I'd said he couldn't walk that far, they might have wanted to operate on him again and I don't really want that.

 

[ericjarvis]

you should deffo appeal it, they have a tendency to say no then give you it on appeal, to put people off like

Seconded.

Appeal every bloody thing. If the government want to try to save money by making things tougher for those least able to cope, the least we can do is make it an administrative nightmare for them.

There's also another approach for Lambeth council tenants. Housing officers can also bring up benefits cases at regularly scheduled meetings with Lambeth Benefits. Our lot have actually managed to get the benefits people to sort out five cases so far this year. Which may not seem a lot, but in the previous three years not one single case was resolved.

 

[Greebo]

Fair enough, but it's much harder for someone to fill it in on someone's behalf.
<snip> they've got it noted down that he can walk a certain distance which would affect his mobility claim just because I decided to impress them with the fact that I was forcing him to walk IYSWIM

<snip>if I'd said he couldn't walk that far, they might have wanted to operate on him again and I don't really want that.

IME it's easier to fill it in for somebody else than for yourself , because you're less likely to think "But everybody aches a bit in the morning, everybody has to wait until their painkillers start to work etc" Teasing out the answers can be difficult and upsetting for all concerned, I grant you. Took 4 half-days to fill in VP's dad's AA form while staying there because he kept finding flimsy excuses to do anything else but sit down and do it. All the time muttering and grouching about how it was all lies and nothing wrong with him at all. Did I mention he reads the Daily Mail?

I see what you mean, but for DLA purposes, the distance Mr Minx can safely walk unaided (AFAIK if you normally need somebody with you, a wheelchair, prosthetics, crutches or a walking stick, that's not walking unaided) is irrelevant after discomfort (defined in DLA case law to be far less than pain) has begun to be there.

If "discomfort" begins at 20 yards, the fact that you make Mr Minx walk through it for another 500 yards or more doesn't count at all, even if that's what you've been advised by doctors to cajole him to do to help his circulation problems etc.

If (gods forbid) the DLA thing needs to go to review or appeal, you can explain about Mr Minx having been medically advised to walk through the pain, but he needs persuasion to do so (from you or somebody else walking with him). Also, that he needs persuasion because the pain (and of course, discomfort) starts after a v short distance - even though what with him being a youngish bloke he grits his teeth and bears it as best he can. Being able to bear discomfort and pain is neither here nor there - what counts is whether it's there at all. VP was told by doctors that ideally he should use a wheelchair - he prefers to walk (in pain and with a stick) but it hasn't counted against him for DLA.

FWIW nobody is allowed to operate (or give other treatment) without the consent of the patient or next of kin - and it has to be properly informed consent, not "whatever you think best, doctor". Surgery can be very strongly advised, but you have the absolute right to refuse it (if you're in your right mind), without doctors being allowed to refuse to give other treatment and/or referrals.

Good luck to all stuck in the benefits maze at the moment - keep at it and take no prisoners.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

IME it's easier to fill it in for somebody else than for yourself , because you're less likely to think "But everybody aches a bit in the morning, everybody has to wait until their painkillers start to work etc" Teasing out the answers can be difficult and upsetting for all concerned, I grant you. Took 4 half-days to fill in VP's dad's AA form while staying there because he kept finding flimsy excuses to do anything else but sit down and do it. All the time muttering and grouching about how it was all lies and nothing wrong with him at all. Did I mention he reads the Daily Mail?

If "discomfort" begins at 20 yards, the fact that you make Mr Minx walk through it for another 500 yards or more doesn't count at all, even if that's what you've been advised by doctors to cajole him to do to help his circulation problems etc.

If (gods forbid) the DLA thing needs to go to review or appeal, you can explain about Mr Minx having been medically advised to walk through the pain, but he needs persuasion to do so (from you or somebody else walking with him). Also, that he needs persuasion because the pain (and of course, discomfort) starts after a v short distance - even though what with him being a youngish bloke he grits his teeth and bears it as best he can. Being able to bear discomfort and pain is neither here nor there - what counts is whether it's there at all. VP was told by doctors that ideally he should use a wheelchair - he prefers to walk (in pain and with a stick) but it hasn't counted against him for DLA.

FWIW nobody is allowed to operate (or give other treatment) without the consent of the patient or next of kin - and it has to be properly informed consent, not "whatever you think best, doctor". Surgery can be very strongly advised, but you have the absolute right to refuse it (if you're in your right mind), without doctors being allowed to refuse to give other treatment and/or referrals.

Good luck to all stuck in the benefits maze at the moment - keep at it and take no prisoners.

Yeah, I think the problem is that b/f has no memory so he can't really help answer the questions, and the fact is, it might not be his feet hurting all the time (neuropathy and peripheral vascular disease), but it may be his hips (osteoarthritis) or nerve damage on upper leg where they carried out an endarterectomy. So it's a combination of things that might all be hurting him at different times but not all at once.

As to your questions re: discomfort, don't the forms come out with questions along the lines of "how far can you walk before you need to sit down?"

All well and good if there's actually somewhere to sit down, but if there's not, then you're forced anyway to keep walking. Furthermore, Brixton isn't exactly the type of place you want to look vulnerable however much pain you're in.

As for the vascular doctors, they would prefer NOT to operate as the blockage is in his lower leg and he'd therefore need a bypass rather than an angioplasty which isn't as dangerous. But I think I've told them he can walk further as because it's me pushing him. He'd walk a lot slower and rest more if I wasn't with him.

 

[subversplat]

I filled out one of these forms pretty recently and there was nothing about sitting down. It said, paraphrased, how long can you walk continuously until you are in severe pain or discomfort. You don't have to stop or sit down at all, just be aware of these facts about your situation.

e2a: Here's the actual form notes which state:
Getting around outdoors
24 How far can you normally walk (including any short stops) before you feel severe discomfort?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I filled out one of these forms pretty recently and there was nothing about sitting down. It said, paraphrased, how long can you walk continuously until you are in severe pain or discomfort. You don't have to stop or sit down at all, just be aware of these facts about your situation.

e2a: Here's the actual form notes which state:
Getting around outdoors
24 How far can you normally walk (including any short stops) before you feel severe discomfort?

ah right, I've just assumed the "including short stops" would mean sitting down to rest

 

[subversplat]

ah right, I've just assumed the "including short stops" would mean sitting down to rest

Nah it's those bits where you stop briefly to swear at your own personal saviour, the entire medical profession for getting you in this mess, the entire medical profession for not being able to get you out of this mess, the people who make trousers and trainers and pavements and that sort of thing

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Nah it's those bits where you stop briefly to swear at your own personal saviour, the entire medical profession for getting you in this mess, the entire medical profession for not being able to get you out of this mess, the people who make trousers and trainers and pavements and that sort of thing

Yeah, but like I said, we just try to get indoors, rather than hang around Brixton Hill waiting to be mugged, have beggars hassling you

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I stopped signing in August but yesterday I got a letter.

We have reassessed you claim.
From April to August you will get £64
You will get £0 because you have run out of NI contributions
We will pay you £960 into your bank account.
You will not get this money because we need to check if an error has been made (No shit)
We will inform you in 5 days.

Why not wait 5 days instead of sending me one of the most nonsensical letters I have ever had.

 

[zenie]

I stopped signing in August but yesterday I got a letter.

We have reassessed you claim.
From April to August you will get £64
You will get £0 because you have run out of NI contributions
We will pay you £960 into your bank account.
You will not get this money because we need to check if an error has been made (No shit)
We will inform you in 5 days.

Why not wait 5 days instead of sending me one of the most nonsensical letters I have ever had.

Ha! What a fuck up you should frame that

El Jefe no words of wisdom but this is very shitty and I hope you get the help and support you need from peeps.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I stopped signing in August but yesterday I got a letter.

We have reassessed you claim.
From April to August you will get £64
You will get £0 because you have run out of NI contributions
We will pay you £960 into your bank account.
You will not get this money because we need to check if an error has been made (No shit)
We will inform you in 5 days.

Why not wait 5 days instead of sending me one of the most nonsensical letters I have ever had.

What a wind-up

I bet the signature was on its own page as well. They do like to waste paper by putting the signature on a separate sheet on its own.

My sister signed on once (just for NI purposes) and they sent her something silly like 15 pence. It cost more to post it

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

My sister signed on once (just for NI purposes) and they sent her something silly like 15 pence. It cost more to post it

Thats why I signed. They later told me that because we claimed family tax credit (or something) that I didn't need to sign on for NI purposes. I'm worried now because I have been misinformed before and they can obviously make quite dippy mistakes.