Has the DWP breached my human rights?

I suffer from chronic CFS and chronic depression and believe I fit the legal definition of disabled. Both my conditions are severely aggravated by stress and anxiety. The DWP has made both my conditions worse, causing me immense stress by denying me ESA for 8 months and housing benefit for four months. It's inhuman. Until recently I was in such distress about the prospect of homelessness that I was a suicide risk and was close to being sectioned. My CFS has recently worsened to the point that I am having difficulty caring for myself.

I claimed ESA(IR) in August 2011 but did not receive my first payment until April. Did the DWP have a legal obligation to reduce my suffering by paying me the assessment rate while my claim was being processed?

Part of the delay was caused by the asset rule. I inadvertently gave the DWP out of date information suggesting that I had £17,000 equity in an investment property. The DWP told me I did not qualify for ESA. They also informed my local council and my housing benefit was suspended for 4 months. Eventually I was able to prove I had zero equity. Decisions were reversed and arrears paid. But even if I had had the equity, was it illegal for the DWP to treat it as available cash? Given that they believed the asset to be equity in a mortgaged property, were they not obliged to give me a reasonable period in which to sell the property?

Perhaps the DWP would argue that people in my situation have recourse to the social fund. In my experience this requires at least one hour on the phone to get enough money to last a week. When I'm depressed I can't manage this. And even when I can the process causes me anxiety and makes me more ill.

OK thanks. Do you happen to know of any lawyers who are pursuing related cases in the European court? I realise this avenue could not possibly give me any redress in the foreseeable future, but I would like to do my bit to get the law changed and punish IDS for what's he's doing to the sick.

Hi,I also am looking into this have you an MP who could advise you maybe.
Good Luck.!

This is frank advice from someone who entirely sympathises with your feelings on this one.

Forget it.

You say:

I suffer from chronic CFS and chronic depression and believe I fit the legal definition of disabled. Both my conditions are severely aggravated by stress and anxiety.

If you were badly affected by dealing with the DWP, dealing with lawyers and the route to European justice will make you much worse. Indeed the fact that you were prepared to give it a go could be used (by lawyers and journalists) to show that you were prepared to take a lot of stress voluntarily, so it can't be that bad.

The financial aspect is the same - even on a "no win, no fee" basis, you would be in for a lot of money (telephone bills, travel costs etc) with no realistic prospect of getting anything back.

This is the final point. No court is going to tell you that dealing with government bureaucracy is unjust. For one thing, dealing with courts can be as bad - look up the struggles of people trying to get an innocent person out of jail. And anyone used to dealing with officialdom in some other countries (no names) is not going to listen to our struggles with real sympathy.

If you want to do something, give your help to the Spartacus campaign: www.wearespartacus.org.uk In my judgement this is the movement that has the best chance of achieving something - though that's not saying much. We are up against an immediate aim - saving money - which can be fought or reversed. The long term aim is the privatisation of social security and there's real money (the insurance industry) behind that one, which will be very hard to fight.

I wish there were some way to get back at some of the individuals responsible, but I don't think there is. Save your efforts for a fight with a chance of winning.