Annie and others
Thanks so much for sharing these details - I’m not usually politically active but now I have the time as I’m not working at the moment and the purpose so your help with letters and details to include are really helpful.
Look at the Forestry overturn due to public outcry - problem is that with bc we all coping with so much and want family time time so you are really helping with support in providing letter etc.
Fran
Hi I had a year off work when diagnosed I had chemo/rads and lymphoedema.I have 2 jobs, for one job I was not entitled to sick pay and from the other I was on full pay for 6 months then half pay for 3 months then nothing for last 3 months. I claimed incapacity benefit until I returned to work.This was 3 years ago so things must have changed a great deal. I know this isnt BC related but my brother who had a stroke in 2009 and is paralysed down his left side had a terrible experience with a medical test he had to attend a few months ago,he said that the person he saw actually tried to trick him by offering him something to hold in his paralyzed hand and then asked him what would happen if she took his walking stick away his reply “erm I will fall over”.I can understand that things have to be put in place as too many are falsely claiming benefits,but this is just ridiculous and insulting.
Melxx
I would question that too many falsely claim now.
Like everyone, we are fed the notion that we live in “Sick Note Britain”, when there is little to support that premise.
Benefit fraud (DLA for example) seems to be almost too small to evaluate and confinded to a few ‘well prepared’. The few who hit the headlines. Less than 2% is reconded to bogus. Although EVERYONE seems to know of someone who is skimming off the state.
As anyone who has been through the ATOS experience will know, this is the most harrowing, intrusive interview you will ever encounter. At no other will you be asked if you soil yourself, need a drink before noon, watch soaps or films or have a pet… even a goldfish, that does not die because you cannot care for them… Do not sweat, rock, tremble, can touch their knees, put on a hat/wig. It is so draconian that all but the quadraplegic and the terminally ill - “reasonably expected to die within 6 months of diagosis” will not be placed in THE SUPPORT GROUP, but be classed as "fit for work2 - and a time scale given for that return.
Like everyone who has had gone through this, I am outraged, especailly at the implication that i am a scrouger. Or any of us are. I urge you to do all that I have have begged all of you to do, and don’t approprtion blame to others struggling in these horrendous times for which we are blameless,
Good luck and Godbless
Annie x
well said annie
hi i am on esa and ia am actually going to tribunal tomorrow.
i had breast cancer three years ago and continued to work as i was able to work from home which meant that when i was tired etc i was able to rest, last june i was made redundant i went to sign on jsa and was told to go on the sick as i had explained about having lymphnode removal nad that due to this there were limitations to what i could do with my left arm.
within a month i was up in front of the board whereby the dr. agreed that the form did not applied to me.
i suffer with achy joints tiredness depression all things related to tomoxefin which i told him. he asked me to squat as stated as long as he could help me up. he told me to lie on the bed and lift my leg since then i have been told this is the equivalent of squatting?
my husband was with me and explained how i was anyway i got no points i appealed after alot of hassel, my gp who is wonderful is behind me but when they ring youfrom the dwp and say they have discussed with their gp and he says you are not intitled to esa how does he know he does not know you like your own gp does.
i know i was diagnosed 3 years ago but i still dont feel like my old self. i have now had reconstructive surgery by the tummy method sorry dont know the medical term i had my first op last week so feel very sore infact it is quite painfull and i must admit the bruising is quite colourful. so tommorrow i go to the tribunal if anyone has done that or has some advice i would be most appreciated.
good luck to everyone
love anna1963
Good luck for your tribunal, I hope you have a trained professional with you. The success rate if you have representation is 70%.Fingers firmly crossed for you.
I am having another sleepless night. The pains in my feet and fingers are unrelenting. And painkillers just don’t seem to work at all. I have just taken 2 tramadol and hope that they might knock me out. I took my dihydacodine a couple of hours ago. Does anyone out there have any advice on how to control the pain of neuropathy?
I worry about the ;ong term implications of having to take so much medication, my liver must be taking a pounding. And since they don’t really ease the pain …
Sorry, having a wee bit of a pity party here. But tomorrow, it’ll be all smiles because that’s what we do, don’t we.
Right, I have kept down the pain pills, so am ging to try grab a few zzz.
Best of luck with your appeal, do keep us posted.
Annie xxx
Good luck with your tribunal Anna. I’ve only just started the appeal process. Meeting with a caseworker from CAB on friday.
Thanks for all your help Annie. I’ll keep you updated with how it’s all going. Sorry I can’t offer any advice on pain management. I also hate having to take any medication. I hope you managed to get some sleep.
Sue xx
Just need & want to say that it makes me so very angry that people have to go through all this & how humiliating & degrading it must feel, to think that a dx of Bc which for many will be followed by months of aggressive & invasive treatment only to find our biggest fight will never be the Bc but the rules put in place by a bunch of … cant even write the word whilst trying to survive/fight it. SHAME on the people who make & have the power to change these rules !!
Good luck to everyone attending medicals, tribunals etc.
Love & support to you all
Sarah.xx
Hi Annie,
I just happened to read your post here with a plea for something that will work better for your neuropathy. I wonder if you have tried gabapentin or pregabalin? They are both used for neuropathic pain but are quite strong and can make you sleepy. Also a med that you can’t just stop taking abruptly, but have to do it slowly.
Dawn
xx
I slept for less than an hour last night. I don’t know if it’s the meds or that I am sick with worry about the future of us all. I keep replaying that damn “medical” in my mind and it still seems unreal. The questions I was asked, the assumptions drawn … the climate of fear in the damn waiting room, being filmed and surrounded by Secrity staff… The turnaround period is 10 months, so we can expect to have to undergo the interrogation again and again till we get better or die. There is s media blackout on this issue, through there are some wonderful people out there.
You might want to look up a great piece in The Guardian exposing the attacks on the disabled. The fact that some people have been driven to suicide because their medical results. Did anyone vote for this, did this feature in any political manifesto? Like hell!!
CAB (Scotland) have branded ATOS “Unfit for Putpose”, yet they are charging through these joke testx at a rate of 11,000 a week. The scale of the misery will be staggering, The cost savings are minimal and the cost to the Taxpayer is £100m per annum. It’s like an episode of Yes Miniser!!! And where is the noise normally coming from the “Taxpayers Alliance” They usually are vocal about Our taxes being abused.
Being told you have cancer and might not see out the year is not the worst thing that can happen to you.
Sorry, emotional today. I’m exhausted and have been feeling so sick. I’m sore, but can’t risk taking pain killers.
I honestly do not know who the staff at ATOS can sleep at night.
We are overwhelming good, hard working people who deserve better
Annie xxx
It makes my blood boil when I read about the hoops that cancer patients are made to jump through just to get a little help from the State. I feel almost lucky that I’m in the support group category (until I think about the implications that is).
Why don’t the government crack down on all the billionaire tax dodgers, and then use the revenue to help cancer patients? They could also use some of it to employ investigators to identify those who abuse the welfare system, rather than hurting everybody.
hi got back from the tribunal about an hour ago. i was sat in a court room with a judge and a doctor up at the table where a judge would reside during a case.
that was very un nerving. the doctor asked me questions off the form which is stated does not apply they did not want to know about anything from 15th sept to now only up to the 15th sept when i had appealed.
the result was they agreed that i did not fit the criteria for esa. the strange thing is is that i had told them i had just had an op last week and that my doctor had given me a note for 8 weeks so their advice was to contact dwp and put in a new claim for esa which i have done i will let you know how i get on but at the momment i feel like telling them to stuff it, i am not a sponger i have not claimed for 26 years and yet there are people out there who are claiming for years but do not seem to have to have medicals i just dont understand the system. i must admit the judge said they had had a heated discussion while i was out of the room. x
Hi Lemongrove!
Thanks for your comment. I was in the Support Group till my WCA, when I was downgraded to “sevely ill” that because I somtimes shop at a supermarket that I - can walk 2 football pitches! That staggering fact is in the ATOS handbook. That is one of their more inane Descriptors. I refused to lie (EVERYONE uses supermarkets
Only about 7% of those who arem deemed “severly disabled” are in the Support Group, so be prepared to be summoned. This is not to alarm you, but to forewarn you. With that, a timeframe to reurn to work ill be generated by their software system. In my case within 6 months. My Pathways to Work advisor was horrified, and has deferred the next interview for 2 months, and will be conductted by phone. She was so sympathetic, and I was so angry at being there …
And as for the billionaire tax avoiders, well they are not vulnerable. In fact they are invulnerable, or think they are.
And they probably are.
Just be preparded for your invite, unless you have terminal illness (their definition - can reasonably be expect not to survive for 6 months) can sit in a chair for 30 mins, walk up 2 stairs (with the use of a handrail) feed a gerbil, shops at Tesco and wash your own torso, you are likely to be passed “Fit for Work” As you might gather, almost everyone is. And that’s why we are workshy and that 80% are part of some great scam on £91 per week.
Anyhow, the truth is beginning to leak out, but in the quality press, not the Redtops, or TV.
Were you aware that ATOS’s centres were occupied in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London? Nope? Quelle surprise. A piece in the Guardian reported deaths while waiting for appeal. The appeals were won the the backdated monies went into the claimants estate.
Anyway, sorry I keep on, but I am still shellshocked at the abuse we have to endure, the lack of publicity surrounding it, and the absolute misery and distress it is causing. Someone is told every 2 minutes and if they are lucky enough to survive, this ordeal will face them.
I would love to be well enough to be more active in bringing all of this to attention of everyone, and strangly, everyone to whom I have spoken knows of someone who has been through this kafka nightmre.
I have been sick about 15 times today, including in public. Wednesday is our lunch day, when family meets(if free) at our local lovely hotel. Luckily the staff know me well, and how very ill I have been (and am) so are very sympathetic, they got me to one of the bedrooms to allow privacy and the chance to clean up. I was rarely sick (vomiting) during chemo. Couldn’t eat, mind you, so everyone thinks I still have cancer as I am worse now than when I was being sliced, diced, fried and poisoned!!!
Do keep the post coming. And share our experiences. You will be amazed at how similar they all are - my local MP has the bit between his teeth now. There was a peice in our biggest selling Scottish paper about ATOS’s lack of proper cover for enquiries, They only have 57 call centre staff, and they are an outsourcing company!!! They are 2000 calls a day, which is unsupportable… If you google Tom Greatrex+ATOS+Sunday Mail. You might want to copy and past it and send it to your MP. This is just one small ctitique. The more he finds out, the more disgusted he is. Your MP’s will be aware of this also.
Feeling sick again, cannot keep water down …
Annie x
Oh Anna
I am so sorry you have to go through all this. You must appeal. From the short time this has entered into my life, I know that lots of people have to appeal more than once, The cost of this, my MP has done the research is £45m a year alone. It is crazy,crazy, crazy. Make sre that your appeal if done by a professional, involve you MP (that is important).
You might want to complain about your HCP is they made mistakes (ATOS take that seriouly)
Get well, take care and hopefully you’ll you will be able to resume work and all of this will just be a bad memory.
Thinking of you and wishing you well
ANnie
hi all been reading your comments i have appealed and have been told its goin to tribunal and do i want to go ahead. still get breathless in pain with my arm from auxillary clearance but its ayear from diagnosis. dont think its worth going on with it shud i go onto jobseekers is ther any of you on this is it any good. hate being forced to be fit when i dont feel anything like th person i was b4 this, but struggling divorced with a 14 year old at home n ex not paying maintenance. rozita
hi everyone thanks for your support, i have just had the letter for my new claim lol requesting birth certificate medical certificate which they already have received and yet they can get my p45 from my previous claim does not make scense. this time when the medical form comes through i said to my husband we will go down our local CAB because i do not think i can deal with all the hassel. i am trying to get my life back on track but with all the hassel i have had with the esa i really do feel like telling them to forget it. i do want a job when all my reconstruction is done but as some of you have said i do get days of being really tired and very weepy.
thanks again all and good luck to you. x
Hi Anna and everyone.
Yes. please seek advice. Call CAB, or go in to make an appointment.
I had a long converstion with MacMillan (on behalf of someone who is too ill to work, so cannot recieve JSA) well enough to work, (so can;t get ESA) the decisions for which were made the the same sub-contractors to the DWP, ATOS.
The system is immensly complicated. And depends on the competancy of local services.
We are going to speak again, and I am to record the procedures are they are so messy and piecemeal.
CAB are run off their feet, and mostly are unpaid vulunteers, so do plan in advance, and try to get someone who knows the way the procedure works.Or contact MacMillan. They will get back to you very quickly.
This churning of the sick through the appeals process is an absolute money spinner for the private subcontractor. They get £100m per year, then, my MP has uncovered, the appeal process nets them an additional £45m per year. So the more people are turned down, the more they can reprocess us. It’s is shameful - and everyone knows it. So get yourself down to CAB, or money matters, or a local law centre, or Maggies’ centres. And call your MP to tell him of your experience.
Good luck. If you are ill and therefore not fit for work, you should not have to go through this circus.
Annie x
Is the thread working??
yes it seems to be
Hi Girls,
Any news on ESA/JSA for you guys?
Or any cuts affecting you?
I am still waiting for my appeal result, been 6 weeks now. My GP was outraged that I can “walk 800m without discomfort” - and when I told her the citerion ie: “discriptors”, is that the Atos handbook dictates that is the criterion for a non - medical civil servant to decide if you are ill or a scrounger.
It beggers belief.
And the budget is yet to be unvieled. Expect the worst.
Any catchup on your situations?
Annie xxx