Posted: Wednesday 7 October 2009
UPDATE: Disability Living Allowance will not be scrapped!
Over 12,000 people have now signed the petition on the Number 10 website calling on the Government to protect Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Attendance Allowance (AA). The petition was launched by Mind in partnership with other disability charities and it's really great that so many people have signed up in just a month! It just goes to show how incredibly important DLA and AA are for people with mental health problems and other disabilities.
Now we really need to hammer home the message to this Government - and any future Government - that DLA and AA must never be scrapped as part of any reform of the social care system.
Please sign the petition now if you haven't already. You can also have your say on this issue, and the wider social care debate, by responding to the Government's consultation which runs until 13 November.
Please campaign with us and add your voice to the thousands already calling for the protection of these vital disability benefits.
Amy Whitelock, Policy and Campaigns Officer
I worry constantly about the future now, as just the thought of having to live on less money (I live on £133 a week) will make my mental illness far worse. Also, I was made ill by the Jobcentre-Plus-Schemes that are suppose to find you work! I was shut in a room with about 12 others, for 13 weeks, Monday-Friday, 9am-4.30pm, with NO Internet access (As someone had been looking at child-porn, so the staff 'blocked' access COMPLETELY, we couldn't even look at the Jobcentre-Plus-Site!) We were then told to apply for 10 jobs a day! I was under SO much stress that I came very close to a total mental breakdown, then ended up on Incapacity & DLA!!
after three years of trying to access DLA i have finally been assessed as suitable. ive been struggling with the extra cost of living caused by added appointments and medication which is a direct result to my mental illness. im shocked that the government is considering putting an end to DLA, when they continue to pay out job seekers to people that have never done a days work in their lives just because they are too lazy!
I recently stopped work as a self employed builder due to the fact that I was either constantly crying or trying to start a party and this did not go down well with the other trades on site.
My girlfriend made me go to the doctor because of my odd behavior and i was redirected to the psychologist.
At this point my girlfriend put a claim in for "employment support allowance(ESA)".
Three weeks later the psychologist told me I have Bipolar which is a fair assesment though hard to take in.
My only income is working tax credit and due to my decreasing interest in work for the last few months I have already got into financial termoil.
So here is my short story "a brief encounter with the ESA"
Original phone call by my girlfriend of 16 years."can my partner claim ESA"... ESA:"Yes he can also claim for you as a couple"
So my girlfriend filled an on-line claim.
A week later, in a letter.., ESA: "can you send in sick note" so I did.
A week later, in a letter again...ESA:"can you send in a sick note" so I did, again. Actually I sent two because the doctor didn't put the correct start date down on the first one and I had to go back for an additional one. This time I phoned three days later to check they had everything....ESA "yes, we have everything".
A week later, in a letter...ESA:"Can we have a sick note for a certain date **/**/** ". They only had one of the two two sick notes I sent last time. By this time I had started taking quitipine and was feeling quite unusal and very distressed. I phoned ESA and explained. they told me to go and get another sick note take it to the local Job centre, email the sick note and they will sort my claim within 3 days. I did as they asked and started crying in the job centre (33yo, 19 stone, sobbing like a baby)very emmbaracing. So three days pass I phone the ESA and they say they have everything I ask when, they say two weeks. I tell my land lord for the third time a different date. During this period I can not claim housing benifit because I do not know my income. At last 1 day after they said a telephone call saying they have finished my claim and I get £43 a week for the two of us. and they put a check in the post. Arghhhhhhhhh noooo. I need the cash now and I was expecting £105 a week, she could not explain. So i phoned them up after I collected my thoughts, they said they will phone backin three hour. I phone them three hours later they said they had no record of my last call and they will phone back in three hours and eventually they did and explained because i have working tax credit that they deducted some money, hay ho. That is it, the bailiffs are coming round on Thursday to take everything I own, My telephone has been cut off (I have spent £43 on pay as you go phone calls to DSA), I will have absolutley no money for at least three weeks because I need to pay my rent and I am at the stage with all my bills wher I am going to court. My children dont speak to me hardly any more because i am a bit wierd and I argue constanly with my girlfriend. Weather I am high or low Iconstanly feel like I cant continue and I feel the benifit system makes it worse. While I am not after sympethy I do feel a bit of empathy would go a long way. I am sure I will be back at work shortly but who knows.
P.s ......My girlfriend went into the local jobcentre and after explaining that I had a breakdown the worker said "Did he have a breakdown in the last reccesion"
Sorry for boring you
Andrew
I have great sympathy for Andrew. I have been trying for nearly 2 years to receive counselling. mY WIFE ALSO SUFFERS FROM mental health problems. We are both on DLA and IB. Where do we go for help.
John
I was made redundant 8yrs ago and the way people who work in the job centres make you feel is like a second class person. Turn up 20 mins before your appointment time so that they have time to check that you filled in the form correctly they actually take 1 or 2 mins. If your 2 mins late they cancell your appointment and remake one two days later but if they are 20 mins late in seeing you thats O.K. If you are ill wether physically or mentally you are now placed below the ordinary unemployed. My ex worked in a job centre and what she told me about the attitude of the people that work behind the counter is absolutly disgraceful.
They are pressurised from goverment to get X number of people off the unemployed register when they do the goal posts are moved but that does not excuse the attitude that a lot hold that we are all out of work because we want to exist on benefits is taking the holier than thou attitude a bit too far.
I am now 60 reg disabled and have been out of work for 2 years I voluntered to seek employment but the pressure I was put under to find work was unbelieveable. A twenty year old looked at me gone out when I said I had had enough and wanted to go home due to my disability and gave me a lecture on the benefit of being in work the money I would earn the social side of work, teaching your grandmother to suck eggs was the prominent thought in my mind. I never went back again.
I am fortunate that I don't have to look for work but I would love a little part time job just to have some form of a social life instead of spending 24hrs in my flat watching TV for 17hrs and doodleing for 14hrs on my pc. I do get depressed and break down in tears and in someway that lessons the pain that I'm constantly in only I wish it was the mental pain would diminish. Suicide is for me a very real option and I don't expect to see this xmas. Am I bovered .......
Wizzmick, thank you for sharing your story with us, and I'm very sorry to hear you are in such pain. As I wrote to you separately, we aren't able to provide direct support to you, but I urge you to contact someone who can. The Mindinfoline (http://www.mind.org.uk/help/advice_lines), Samaritans (http://www.samaritans.org/) and Saneline (http://www.sane.org.uk/SANEline) are all good resources.
i didnt know that there were issues over the dla and scrapping it? i have been on dla for many years and it pays for so much towards my wellbeing. i have bi-polar and stress triggers me to have episodes that put me in hospital. i have tried jobs in the past but usually end up breaking down after about 6 weeks as i cant cope. thus adding to the thoughts that i really am useless, learning to live with the fact im only a shell of my former self is bad enough but to take away my only form of independence my dla which is the only benefit i receive would not be good for me. does anyone know what they propose to do instead if the dla is scrapped?
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