State benefits
Disabled and can’t walk unaided, welcome to my world
The pernicious creature multiple sclerosis affects me more and more as time goes by. I do have two legs but one of them is virtually useless. My brain cannot send messages to all the muscles in my left leg. Also, my left leg does not tell my brain everything that it has done. Messages cannot […]
DWP decide my Personal Independence Payment
This morning I received a brown envelope from Belfast. I knew the contents straightaway, the DWP had made a decision. I had already read the assessor ‘s report. How will the DWP decide my Personal Independence Payment benefits. A normal life I did not know if the DWP decision was going to be a mere […]
Assessment for my PIP benefits
A week after my face-to-face assessment I phoned up the DWP and requested a copy of the assessor’s report. I was told to expect it within 7 to 10 working days. Two weeks later I received a letter from the DWP which said they now had enough information to be able to make a decision […]
PIP face to face assessment
Finally Wednesday 1 August has arrived, it’s my PIP face to face assessment. I had not slept well the previous night. Stress and worry were not the only reasons, that irascible little friend MS was in the mix. I just could not get out of bed as early as usual. In fact it was a […]
My PIP benefits form is in the post
I am in France it’s a beautiful hot sunny day but I cannot sit outside. Uhthoff’s syndrome has put paid to that little pleasure. Back to the plot. My PIP benefits form is in the post. So relieved that I have finished it. Bit controversial here Why do the DWP need to make their questions […]
DWP will discover and evaluate what I cannot do
The DWP have kept their side of the bargain. I have received a form so I can explain how my disability affects me. It’s a horror, 40 pages booklet with about 45 questions and statements to be completed. DWP will discover and evaluate what I cannot do. I am then awarded PIP benefits but its […]
Your Disability Living Allowance is ending
It was the usual brown envelope from the DWP with a return address of DWP PO Box 535 Belfast. It’s never an expensive white envelope and it’s never by first-class mail. Their letters always arrive on a Saturday morning just like this one, 21 April 2018. I opened it, the message was very simple, Your […]
Paying people who receive benefits
I recently attended a one day seminar on ‘paying people who receive benefits’. Typically these people are service users. How can I condense an intense six hour seminar into 500 words? Not easy, so here are a few important points. Paying people who receive benefits is not straight forward. The rules are complex. Also the […]
Capability for Work questionnaire
Every once in a while the postman delivers a letter and I think ‘Uh oh this could be trouble’. On the front of this letter in big black letters I was told ‘IMPORTANT INFORMATION THIS IS NOT A CIRCULAR’ and it was ‘PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL’. The really important clue was the sender, printed on the back […]
Feeling of being flattened by a steamroller
Do you remember a blog I wrote a month ago? The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) summoned me to an interview. I arrived at the appointed hour and came out 30 minutes later feeling as if I had been mauled by an angry lion or flattened by a steam roller. This will definitely not rank […]
DWP invite me to a meeting, The Department for Work and Pensions
The postman delivered a buff brown envelope on the 7th Feb. The Wife gave it to me. The return address was DWP, PO Box 585, Belfast. Straightaway I said, “Oh this is something about my disability allowance”. Instead the DWP invite me to a meeting, much more sinister. The basic gist was as follows The […]
