News

You should ask your doctor to consider writing a letter describing the disability issues you have which will gain you the points as well as other things you can no longer do. A letter like that detailing the issues as per the PIP questions are usually helpful. 

There is no way to avoid a new process although under a change of circumstances if it is showing that situation is worse than before they may waive this. As I said being nearly 70 and with cancer and a major operation on the way the may be more helpful if you provide all the medical information and inform the DWP of a change of circumstances. There is no guarantee if this will trigger a new round of evaluation but a doctors and specialists letter carefully worded will help. So good luck and hope the DWP are a lot more lenient given your personal circumstances as well as social services too.

Good luck 

The means-tested cuts of Winter Fuel Payments for pensioners, whose numbers are growing because they are the post-war ‘Baby Boomer’ generation are now claiming either the Standard or Enhanced Pensions. The increase in costs have been known for 45 years, yet government after government has declined to remind the Public that their generation were born when they were part of far higher birth rate and they have also been given pension credit and extra awards because consecutive governments have kicked this financial burden down the road.

They are using the total costs of the DWP and its outsourced companies to punish the disabled and once again claiming that “painful decisions” are going to make so many disabled denied Awards and targeting the chronically ill, the disabled and children into destitution and preventable deaths because for the continuation of the two child and bedroom penalties at a time when we saw a higher number of deaths over the birthrate. For too long this policy, which was retained in a recent vote, which exacerbates the falling birth rates because of it. 

Every nation requires a birth rate above 2.2. We’re facing a decline in population of British born babies, which means that as these lowered numbers are going to further decrease the number of people that are able to work being hit hard, and the media uses this as an argument for cutting assistance for the disabled and chronically ill, in addition to the collapse of carers because we are unable to afford the costs of carers for adults that are disabled and/or chronically ill. They’re promoting a disablist argument, claiming that we are work-shy scroungers and Benefit Fraud criminals. We are being used as fuel for gaslighting us by using 0.01% that are found to be fraudulent, and they have a media that has been speaking ad nauseam about the five Bulgarians that defrauded the DWP for £54 million as proof that cuts are needed.

The impact of these repeated discussions is used to justify further cuts and the deeply flawed policy of Sanctions against so many disabled and vulnerable people. So many disabled people already are in active employment, albeit with lowered wages and in need of financial support because of the impact of our needs, but the DWP has been repeatedly criticised for suggesting that all but the terminally ill must be in work. We have been tested and found to be unable to work.

Passing changes to our Equality Act, the Disability Act and the Employment Laws are going to strip away so many that wish that they could work for the far higher wages, but passing these laws will not eradicate the employer’s reluctance and prejudice that will discourage hiring workers that are disabled, older and/or with chronically ill claimants, especially those with mental health conditions. Just because a monarch signs it into law doesn’t magically dissolve prejudice and discrimination against the disabled. Hurdles for the transportation of people that require electric wheelchairs and scooters are available for less than 3% of our trains, which are amongst the most expensive in the World, and using a Class 1 wheelchair or mobility scooter reduces your range down to very few areas and are not available for rush hour traffic. With a far more restrictive transport system most of us that are in need of Class 2 or Class 3 Motability modes of transport would be taken away from us once they decide to Sanction or award us with no mobility components. Currently there are no forms of mobility transport that can accommodate our needs, and the previous governments have said that they are not able to accommodate Class 2 or 3 transport until 2070 or later. 

Perhaps the government should consider these realities before they try to become far harsher than the Austerity measures that destroyed lives, increased resentment and prejudice against us. These changes are going to drastically increase impacts of our mental health. Every disabled person understands how effective this system has been so successful in harming us in our lives. 

How do you lose a potential new friend? Tell them “I am on Benefits.” If you are blessed enough to have the opportunity to be physically, intellectually and emotionally capable of working with an empathetic employer and supportive staff I am so happy for you. For the rest of us it’s Hell on Earth.

Combine this with an NHS that’s on Life Support and has many that are frequently reminded to show less candour and honest about their patients’ health and the hurdles are devastating and potentially fatal. I am waiting for two procedures that will prevent my outlook. I have ten broken teeth from seizures, an ultrarare Neurodegenerative disability, and severe ischaemic cardiomyopathy that was caused by a general practitioner that removed a critical medication and wrote that during an undated conversation that they gave me a choice between a follow-up or to remove a medication that is critical for the stent that was essential and is located in an artery on the left side of my heart wall. I repeatedly asked for a follow-up for years, but I was denied the request. I was rushed to the A&E after the EMTs came to my home because my pendant alarmed the emergency services. I was seen by a consultant that assisted in the placement of the stent after a heart attack. He was shocked and placed me on an appointment for testing last 27 December 2023. That was when I was told that my lower left ventricle was scarred by the removal of the medication and that there’s no medication that would extend my heart’s performance alone. I am now waiting to have an ICD for my heart.

It was not the best Christmas, and when I requested the SAR for the phone appointments I was refused because they claimed that my request was “excessive.” So I have been waiting and hoping that I will have the oral operation to reduce my risk of infections and the insertion of the ICD to improve my heart’s failure. I was asked “Why do I want to live” by a nurse when I asked for more information about the procedure and the device.

So the lack of discussion about what the government is going to do for the disabled is a stress is not needed, but I am not going to give up on my advocacy for my fellow disabled friends in the UK.