Question about Disability Benefit
Posted , 17 users are following.
I'm in he process of waiting for a appeal to go to a independant tribunal for Disability Benefit. I've been diagnosed as having severe Cervical Spondylosis - I also have a Myclonic condition [muscle spasms] I'm in pain 24 hours a day - and find it hard to cope with life - The decision makers at the DWP turned me down for Disability Benefit on the grounds that I'm able to walk in their opinion 200 metres before the onset of severe pain.
The question that I would like to ask sufferers of CS is:
Are there any fellow sufferer of Cervical Spondylosis out there that have been [granted] Disability Mobility Allowance?
Reason for the question is: I believe that the DWP dont class this condition as being a disability - Please respond it's very important.
1 like, 262 replies
Guest
Posted
I'm appalled at the treatment youv'e received so far, but I admire your tenacity, and wish you good luck in the future with it all. You sound a little like myself, dog with a bone syndrome :lol:
I have to say though, that all the comments on here have helped me with my intended claim for DLA. I'm curretly waiting for the results of an MRI scan (another one :roll: ) Some of the things too, that to be honest I thought maybe I was imagining, the tiredness, general fatigue, depression, and reading all of your posts made me feel a little better in as much as it's not just me, these are symptomatic of this condition.
On your note of letters not being received Alan. In the past iv'e suffered this too. If I need to send anything of importance now, I spend the extra pound and send it recorded delivery. It's had it's amusing moments when people have abruptly (as they do) told me, no we haven't received it, because iv'e then asked for a name and said ok, i'll get back to you in a few minutes, I just need to check on the Royal Mail Site, which will tell me when it was delivered and who signed for it, they usually ask you to hold for a moment, and hey presto!! they find the correspondence :lol: so that might be one to try too Alan. Good luck with your progress, I shall be watching it with interest.
Guest
Posted
Many thanks for your interest - and i'm sorry to hear about all your troubles - I think we all deserve all the help that we can get, it's not our faults that we're not like healthier people - I sort of envy people now who dont feel pain, because most of us are really struggling with every day life - I know that I am, i'm in pain virtually every single day and i dont get any relief at night - because i'm in pain in bed.
The latest news is: I've had a reply from the tribunal service, and they've appointed another Judge to look into things - what I've done now is to type up the whole conversation of my hearing - it's a bit like a script for a TV soap but it's the best way to see if they agree with me that the hearing wasn't conducted properely. I mean after all, it's my hearing and I'm trying to defend myself - if these people on the panel are not independent, then none of us stand any chance - when I get time I'll type in the document ofthe questions that I was askedat my hearing, it will give other people following a good chance to prepare themselves - instead of facing these people blind like i had to.
Ill speak to you soon
Alan D
angelicghost
Posted
Darren_Wilson
Posted
angelicghost
Posted
I just read your post and find that we have both been diagnosed with the same problem. I have degenerative disc disease, i've had 6 slipped discs so far with 2 lots of fairly unsuccessful spinal surgery and am now left with lots of nerve pain and damage. I can't work any longer but after the first lot of surgery i did manage to return to work being taken on as a disabled person only to have to give up work 9 months later due to more disc problems. A few weeks ago i was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome and an impingement in my left shoulder. Please read this it may make you feel that at least one problem can be dealt with .
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000438.htm
I had the steroid injection in my shoulder to calm down the pain and inflammation about 2 weeks ago and although my shoulder is improved it's still not right but it's calmed down enough to begin physio which hopefully will help. I go on Tuesdat 2nd November to begin that and i'll let you know how it goes.
I totally understand where you're coming from regarding your partner having to work and look after you etc. My hubby works all day and he has a very physical job and he then has to come home and cook a hot meal for both me and my daughter (she's 13 and bloody useless in the kitchen but he's teaching her how to make basic , nutritional hot meals). I can't peel any vegetables or lift any pans etc due to the carpal tunnel and i have in the past burnt myself on the oven on many occasions due to nerve damage. He also has to do the food shopping every week and any heavy housework i haven't managed to do. He is very understanding and so is my daughter and the older she gets , the more she is willing to do for me. All i can say is they wouldn't help you so much if they didn't love you and you know you would do exactly the same for them. If you're like me then you just muddle through each day and do what you can when you can, that's the only way to cope with it all and i really think going back to work will only make matters worse for you. If you look after yourself now it will stop any problems progressing more quickly and at the moment my chief goal is to stay as independant as possible for as long as possible, after all i am only 45 and may have a lot of years left in me yet. I plan on doing some voluntary work once i have got my hands and shoulder more managable and i look upon it as a chance to do something worthwhile for someone else , it may just be a cup of tea and a chat with an elderly person who has no living relatives but how much difference is that going to make to that person, i would think it would be quite a lot. There is always someone else worse off than me and if i can help them in any way then that's fulfilment enough for me.
Don't give up on the benefit claims, persistence is the key, i had to fight to get my DLA but get it i did in the end.
Guest
Posted
Dont give up - this is what I'm fighting for - I know what your going through, its the same for me: I'm in pain every single day. Have you tried TRAMADOL? This is the only pain killer that works for
Before I found Tramadol I was drinking 2 bottles of wine a day trying to get some ease from the pain!!! But now I hardly drink at all because if I drink the pain killer wont work. but the Tramodol only eases the pain for a short time but it's better than nothing.
Like you I want to go to work - but I cant, and I really dont like people calling me a social scronger - I'll swap my possition with these people every day of the week. They wouldn't like what we've got!!!
I'm taking this case far as I can go - My complaint has gone in, I've got a Reginoal Judge investigating my case and the system. I wrote and told him what people have been telling me on this site - your all involved.
I've made an account (word for word ) of my tribunal. It's been 2 months since my hearing and i still haven't heard anything from them - they're obviously worried, my case could throw the whole system of the DWP and the Tribunal Hearing out of the window. Because the whole ststem is biased, and unfair.
Hang in there Darren - read these pages to your girlfriend - maybe she'll understand what you're going through.
Alan D
Guest
Posted
Still haven't had any reasons why the tribunal panel turned me down - it's been 2 months now!!
I've had a letter from the Reginal Judge - He say's that I would have grounds to appeal to The Upper Tribunal because I wasn't given an oppertunity to put my case - this sounds like another \"quango\" to me.
The judge also said that he wasn't certain what document that I was referring to when I wrote. \"according to Tribunal procedure\" The mind boggles!! It's a document that you receive when you apply for an appeal.
It's called \"The Tribunal Hearing\" This document lays out procedure, and it came from his office!! Oh dear.
I've sent a word for word document of my hearing to him - i promise as soon as I've got the time I will let you all see what this panel of people asked me at the hearing, it's very interesting.
I'll write to you soon.
Alan D
Guest
Posted
At last I now have the reasons why they turned down my claim for DLA Mobility - but all was not well with the documents!!
I couldn't read the handwriting of the Judge in his (record of the proceeding) which is of vital importance to me. It was like it was in a foreign language!! dont theses people learn how to write when they're at school? And a vital page of the document was missing!! in what they call (statement of the reasons) so I havent't a clue as to what was said.
They started off by saying that I said that I could walk\" 10 minutes to go shopping most days.\" Beware, this is a throw away question that you would think is harmless - but it's a trap, one of many that the DWP approved doctors set at your medical. I later wrote and told them that I go shopping by car and that my partner does the shopping in a supermarket - so this question really doesn't arise. But it's too late, every single word that you say out of place will be used against you.
The so called \"independent\" tribunal panel then cherry picked everything out of the documents to be in favour of the DWP and wrote nothing that was in my favour. Example of this was the DWP doctor wrote that \"in his opinion, the appellant could walk with good gait and balance up to 200 metres, albeit slowly,(at roughly 2/3s speed\" What they left out was that he also wrote that \" I would have to take a few brief halt within the 200 metres\" this is what your up against.
The DWP doctor didn't actually see me walk anywhere!! When I confronted the DWP about this - I was told that they dont have to witness you walk anywhere, because it would only be that point in time that they where witnessing. The DWP tell you in their claim pack to get somebody to witness your walking ability outdoors. This is what I did but the tribunal panel took no notice of this.
I also changed some of my answers in the original claim pack, because i couldn't understant what they where on about. But thois made no difference to the panel - they took my first answers and ignored the changes.
As promised I'm going to reconstruct my hearing for you:
Judge:
\"We've read your submission\" (and then he sniggered) - the submission was 300 pages.
Judge:
\"We wont be discussing anything past your claim pack at the moment - but we may come to that later\" ( they never did)
Alan D:
I would like to say before I start that all people with disabilities have good days and bad days.
Nobody made any comment
Judge:
\"what has changed for you in the last 2 week Alan D?
Alan D:
What do you mean?
Judge:
\"Well what have you been doing?\"
Alan D:
Nothing much my car was stolen and my partner has been ill.
Judge:
\"Well what have you been doing in the last month then?
Alan D
Nothing much why?
Judge:
\"Oh never mind, we'll move on. Would you like a drink Alan D?
Alan D;
No(this was some kind of trap)
Judge:
\"How did you get here today?\"
Alan D:
My brother brought me by car
Judge :
How long did it take you to get here?\"
Alan D
One hour
Judge:
\"You live in ......dont you? How long would you say the nearest shop to you is in walking distance in minutes?\" (this is another trap)
Alan D
I dont know about 3 minutes I suppose
Judge:
\"How long would it take a normal person to walk to this shop in minutes?\"
Alan D
I dont know
Judge:
\"Well take a guess\"
Alan D
I cant because I dont know - I said on my claim form that it all depends on the day of how my walking capabilities are - sometimes I can walk fairly normally and sometimes i'm virtually unable to walk - it all depends whether or not I'm able to take a pain killer, and whether the paikiller has worked.
I found it difficult to fill in the claim form because the criteria for the answers to some of the questions didn'
Guest
Posted
Judge:
\"You can use the law cenre Alan D to help you.\"
Alan D
Yes I know - I've already done that
Disability expert
\"You can get the information off the internet about DLA Mobility criteria.\"
Alan D
I tried that but I found the information lacking in content - I eventually got the real criteria from a laywer.
DR
\"You had a operation on your eye, haven't you? - could you tell me what you can see with your bad eye?\"
Alan D
The vision is blurred - but my other eye is very good - The DWP couldn't careless about my eye.
DR
\"You can still drive with your vision.
Alan D
Yes I know.
Dr
\"Has anybody ever told you that the dizzy spells could be caused by your eye?\"
Alan D
No.
Dr
\"Do you think that they could be caused by your bad eye?\"
Alan D
No - because the dizzy spells only started 2 years ago, and I damaged my eye 9 years ago. I been told that the dizzy spells are caused by the vertebral pressing on an artery. I thought that it was because my ear was blocked with wax - but no, it wasn't that. this is one of the reasons why I cannot work.
Judge
You used to be a ........ didn't you?\"
Alan D
Yes but I haven't done much work over the last 9 years - after my accident I wasn't able to walk - I had something wrong with my pelvic girdle and had horrendous pains throughout my body - I had a year off, before I could do anything.
Dr
\"Why dont you use a walking stick?\"
Alan D
Because I dont want to.
Dr
\"Do you have a blue badge. Alan D
Alan D
No.
Dr
\"On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you describe your pain?\"
Alan D
10 out of 10
Dr
\"You have myoclonus. dont you? How does this effect you?\"
Alan D
It effects me mainly at night when I'm in bed - sometimes I cant sleep. I dont know why I suddenly got this Myoclonus - but I do shake and shudder all through the day.
Dr
\"What do you take for it?\"
Alan D
Clonzepam
Dr
\"Do they do any good?\"
Alan D
I'm not sure.
Dr
\"You go on holiday to Spain dont you? What airport do you go from?\"
Alan D
Gatwick
Dr
\"How do you get to the airport?\"
Alan D
By cab.
Dr
\"It's a long walk to the plane isn't it?\" (this was another trick question)
Alan D
No, you can get the buggy to take you to the plane - so you dont have to walk anywhere, and in anycase Gatwick has walking escalators.
Dr
\"What do you do when your in Spain?\"
Alan D
Sit on the beach. Why are you asking me these questions? because we rarely go to Spain.
Dr
\"Where do you go shopping, and how many times a week do you go?\"
Alan D
ASDA - and we go once a week - me and my partner drive there and she does the shopping, and then it's put in the car and we drive home...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To be continued
Guest
Posted
Judge
\"You dont seem to be having any trouble sitting, and your neck movements seem fairly normal\"
Alan D
That's because I took a pain killer before I came here.
Judge
What time did you take the painkiller?\"
Alan D
About 2pm (the time now was 3:15pm)
Judge
\"Would you like some water? (what's with all this water?)
Alan D
No.
Judge
\"Do you have any hobbies?\"
Alan D
I used to work an allotment, and I like gardening but I dont do that anymore because any physical activity will cause me pain - and I used to go fishing. I was a champion.
Disability Expert (this was her only question regarding my disability)
\"Have you walked around a garden centre in the last week?\"
Alan D
No - Ever since I touched my head on a live wire fence - I seem to have gained the ability to be able to write - I never had this before my accident. I've written several stories and these are not small stories they're 150.000 words and they're very exciting.
Disability Expert
\"That's interesting.Have you had any of them published?\"
Alan D
No, because unless you're famous - it's nearly impossible to get published, you cant even get an agent - JK Rowling found this out for herself - 20 publishers turned her down. The publishing world is a \"closed shop\" The DWP Decision Making system is run on similar grounds.
Judge
You can always make a complaint against the DWP.\"
Alan D
I've already don ehtat - but it's a waste of time lodging a complaint against a state controlled system. Several years ago I made complaints against the .....Social Services. I knew at that time that they were not (fit for purpose) somebody nearly got shot because of them - actual gun shots were fired and class A drugs were involved around children. I warned these people that this was happening - but they sent in a untrained person who I thought was a social worker - She offered no help and caused absolute havox. Somebody nearly got killed.
This was over 5 years ago, long before Baby P
The system of Social Workers was out of control then and I knew that and I told them so. I wasn't allowed to put my case - they boasted of a ombusman system - but I found that it didn't exist for me - if I was allowed to put my case at the time it would definately have saved the lives of some of the children that have since died because of the system that was in place at that time and is still in place in some parts of the country.
Judge
\"Has anybody got anymore questions?\" (asking the panel)
There was no more questions
Judge
You can go.\"
Alan D
But I have a closing submission that i've typed out. And I must say i've found the hearing very intimidating.
Judge
\"The clerk will take a copy of your submission.\" (it was handed to the Dr who commented that she thought that I was very articulate in my writing, and that I must be good on the word processor) I told her that it took me 5 days to type it out.
THE END
The judge later wrote that ( I had been \"evasive\" in answering the questions that they were putting to me. And that they were going to go on the paper evidence rather than listening to me.
What I waste of time - these people were clearly working on behalf of the DWP and ignored every bit of evidence that I produced - They only took as evidence the Disability report made by a person who didn't actualy see me walk anywhere. All of you be warned these people are not what they're claiming to be \"independent\"
The story goes on - I'm appealing to the Upper Tribunal.
macca
Posted
Guest
Posted
Thank you for taking time to write - I'm really grateful for any help that I can get - I've written a response letter to the Tribunal Regional Judge.
It's pretty strong - The tribunal judge at my hearing \"reasons for the decision \" document was a very erroneous peice of work - it took him seconds to turn me down at my tribunal - but 2 months to come up with his manipulated lying reasons!! I'm not kidding you if you could read it you would laugh - it was like it was written by compulsive liar! He's (cherry picked) my 300 page document to find any flaws that he could use for the secretary of state, everything he has written is rubbish. I've just spent 4 days of my life construction a 10 page document of my own for my case when it goes to the upper Tribunal - thats if they allow me to appeal - believe it or not you have to ask permission for the right to appeal from the very people who turned you down! God this is all getting to be something that is totally ridculous - This judge called me un-helpful and evasive and said that he would use the bundle rather than talk to me.
He was trying his best through the hearing to entrap me with his questions - when I didn't bfall for it - he left himself no choice but to try and come up with something to justify his decision - I felt like a criminal at my hearing - I thought that I might be jailed for trying to claim what rightfully is mine. what a country this is becoming.They've put in place these puppets that will do everything that they're told to do. I know your story is true macca - but when I first started reading it I thought that it was a joke. If all else fails i will think about what you have said with the Social workers - but at the moment I really dont like Social Workers for reasons that you will know. Many thanks.
macca
Posted
But it worked for him !!!. take good care and stay strong for those that will follow your example. Macca xxxx
Guest
Posted
Dont you worry - this case is going the full distance, as you can probably guess, I'm a very srong willed person, and I dont mind fighting the establishment - we're getting pretty close to the legal system now - i'm not only fighting for myself but for everybody - there's clearly something wrong with the current system. when you get the Tribunal Judge having to tell lies to justify his decision, then you know that you're getting to them.
I believe that this judge has done himself no good whatsoever - he's a laywer and he's lied at a tribunal hearing - this cant be good for him. It wouldn't surprise me if he was sacked. He's got the wrong person with me, because I'll fight, and I delve, to find out the facts - I believe that I've caught them all out this time. His lies is going to be his un-doing and could well be the thing that finally wins my case for me.
macca
Posted