Budget - Incapacity Benefit

[nickh]

Sorry to be a downer but just wanted to rant about the Budget. I guess people will have seen that the Government now plans that from 2010 onwards everyone on IB (Incapacity Benefit) will have to attend an interview with a doctor to see if they are fit for work - and it won't be your own doctor it will be a doctor who's agenda, I am sure, will be to make sure as many people as possible are taken off IB. There will be no interest in an individuals health needs.

Again I am repeating what people have said in other threads here but this does particularly affect people with mental health issues - how do you 'explain' your illness, the fact that from week to week, day to day, hour to hour, your condition and its severity can constantly change. How do you explain that seeing other people or going out of your own front door can be enough to trigger an attack. How do you explain a complicated history, the medication, the therapy etc. etc.. It is perfectly obvious that these proposals are made by people with absolutely no understanding whatsoever of the nature of mental illness and are just an easy attack on largely powerless people

Rant over (but the fact that I am ranting doesn't make it any less true).

Nick.

 

[Michael]

I think forums like this go a long way in trying to show what can happen. Maybe WE need to get those people in authority to read them?

We could help ourselves a little by corresponding with our own representative MP, should enough people correspond then they will have to do something - maybe not everything exactly like we would want but it would be a start.

We have to be more proactive - this is difficult though when we have our own issues with confidence and/or self esteem, how we get around this will only surface by ourselves talking more to each other.

I wish I was strong enough to put my words into actions - it is easier to rant and rave than it is to actually get up off ones bum and do something.
I do get passionate about the way society appears to work against the underdog, I also think that our political leaders think more about the votes exchanging hands and headlines than the effect of the legislation they produce has on people.
We do not live in a fair society, we live in a reactionary society whereby a reaction to a problem is more important than resolving a problem, we seem to have lost a lot of the lessons we should have learned from history.

Rant over
Sorry if I seem to have gone off thread a bit, but when I start writing it is hard to stop!

Michael

 

[nickh]

I don't think that's off-topic at all Michael and agree with all you say.

Unfortunately my own MP is a complete waste of space and I can hardly bear the thought of writing to him! But I suppose I ought to.

Nick.

 

[Dollit]

My MP is a health minister. One of my local councillors is one of her staff and he has a health and well being brief with the council. I'm seeing him on another matter at the end of the month so I'll book some time with him to discuss things.

 

[daffy]

For mental health i do think there should be some accompanying letter from your consultant. They are the ones that know whether your fit for work or not. Mine has told me to forget ever being able to hold a job down again.

All MH sufferers know you have good days and bad and if you get interviewed on a good day, god only knows what the outcome would be.

 

[ramboghettouk]

Sometimes the trick cyclists cycle one way, sometimes the other, theres never been much consistency about their views, i'm even more confused about fitness for work, the support worker insisted on putting residual schitsoprenia on a disability bus pass form even though i told him the gp had put paranoid schitsoprenia on a benefit form, he says it's what the specialist says that counts, i hope the DWP don't see it that way at that i hope i get my bus pass

 

[nickh]

All MH sufferers know you have good days and bad and if you get interviewed on a good day, god only knows what the outcome would be.

Yup daffy that's exactly the point. And how do you try and explain that?

Nick.

 

[sandybob]

well i 've always had periodic reviews re my IB

theres no doubt people do abuse it ... and i can't see that periodic reviews for genuine claimants will be a problem .

 

[Dollit]

I don't have periodic reviews or supply sick notes or anything like that. It's acknowledged that even when I'm reasonably stable (15 months now!) I can't return to work because the pressure would be disastrous for me. I have been told by my consultant and others that he works with that no-one with a severe mental health problem will be forced back into work if it would be detriment to their health and a range of factors would have to be considered.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Well I've come off IB and gone back to work albeit 25 hours a week and its killing me slowly. Don't know how much more I can put up with I'm afraid.

 

[Dollit]

MH - you tried and I applaud you for that but don't let it affect you big time.

 

[ramboghettouk]

theres no doubt people do abuse it ... and i can't see that periodic reviews for genuine claimants will be a problem .
__________________
The point is periodic reviews for claimants put people under immmense stress, having to prove your ill when on the other side you try to get better and be better, it's off putting

From whst i gather your ilness isn't in the fluctuating league nor i guess are you on means tested benefits

wed i'm attempting a trip to brum on the intercity, it will probably make my ilness flare, my family in brum are putting pressure on me to be and act well because my sister has had kids by a maltese guy and it reflects on the family in malta

On the other hand the benefit system are putting pressure on me to prove illness.

One thing no one gets better from schitsoprenia, there is remission and there is relapse, then theres the stress of lack of money exacerbating symptoms

 

[nickh]

The point is periodic reviews for claimants put people under immmense stress, having to prove your ill when on the other side you try to get better and be better, it's off putting

Much better put than I could - and Mad Hatter your post is just devestating.

Nick.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Sorry 'bout that, but that's the way things are. Turned up this morning and nobody spoke, felt like a piece of crap. Great innit??

 

[rose]

ib

now stick with me as i aint as clever as alot of you but here goes

both myself and 3 yr old son are on dla , but when you think of a person with dissabilitys you think of a lost limb, paralisis , or a child born with deformetys,
not many people think of mental health .
you can walk down the street and see someone with physical dissabilitys , but unless your talking to yourself and shadow boxing , how many people would know that you or i suffered emensly just on the day to day with just as much impact on our familys as thoughs with physical dis,
i for one hide it even to my cpn , as im scared i will loose my kids or be locked up ,
ive had 6 cpns and 2 shrinks due to shortages and cut backs , i need stability in my life not worry and upset ,
so to the point yes take some facts from thids site along with your drs report on mental health , and lets our voices be heard , the time for sitting in the dark should be over ,

anyway dont know if that was ledgable or understandable but needed to vent as well pi...d of with this so called goverment , wow should not of left school at 14 , back to english class i go :

 

[Dollit]

Perfectly understandable Rose and well said.

 

[ramboghettouk]

Suppose all those millions on benefits for mental health problems are genuine, thats an awful lot of people keeping quiet because of the stigma

To be exact it's not so much work or not working thats the issue to me, it's that with a diagnosis of schoitsoprenia and without a carer my face doesn't fit, i'm worried about some clark putttiing me through some group beurocratical system i don't fit or can't handle

Many years ago i was on the employment training, some person wanted somewhere to put a video so i moved a bag off a chair, this guy started threatening me, then they had the video and in the group discussion the guy was on about been "A spunk and sperm man" my counciler said a lot of ex cons are forced onto those schemes by their probation officers, also the staff can't take any action against the people for their behaviour because the probation officer will get heavy whilst i've got no one to defend me

I have a fear that i'l be forced onto a similar scheme as work orientated activity and that this time if i leave i'll be deemed unwilling to work and have my benefits stopped

 

[rose]

I B

you see hon there are people out there that dont have MH , i spose its the bad back syndrome , its hard to prove , i dont mean in the case of bipo or multiple personality diss , im talking about the lazy gits that walk into a gps office and say im depressd , belive i met someone that did that was put on the sick and used his ib for a trip to spain ,
and i aint talking theraputic sunshine here
so thats my point , and there are thousand of people out there genuinly that need help but wont ask because of stigma , or fear of being pushed from pillar to post within the service , and being asked to prove their condition ,
because hey the liars that have sod all wrong with them what have they got to loose by being taken out of the system , their sanity , me thinks not
blessings to all
rose

 

[ramboghettouk]

I was planing a week in Paris for my 50th birthday, maybe you'd call me a scrounger, nothing wrong with me etc

Looks like it's not going to happen, the women i was going with is in a state and if i invite the women upstairs, she's off meds and needs support i'm not capable of giving

As i said people you don't know the full facts and they're not likely to reveal the full facts due to stigma

I thought certain views were the province of London taxi drivers

 

[afoure27]

hi all, Im a new boy to this forum and have been reading this thread with interest. The back to work interviews are not conducted by a doctor, they are conducted by the Job centre and by an employee who has no or little medical knowledge. Their job is to find you employment. Full Stop. If all you can do is to push a pen or shuffle paper, Then that is what will happen. If you dont like it, TOUGH.