This applies to all people with mental health conditions not just my OCD. Anyone who cannot work due to their mental health is entitled to benefits in the UK.
They make it as difficult as possible to get though. It is standard practice that if you have a condition that they can't physically see then they will turn down your benefits claim the first time and make you appeal thheir decision at least once.
It's like it doesn't matter if a doctor and psychologist/ psychiatrist has declared you unfit for work till you recieve treatment. If they can't see it then you are making it up and you should be treated like you are till you prove it over and over and over again.
I've had my payments stopped yet again because they have decided that I am fit for work despite the medical certificates from my doctor. I'm not in a wheel chair so I'm fit for work.
It's simply not the case. It actually makes my OCD and anxiety 100x worse every time they do this but they don't care. They think they are whittling out liars and they think I am one automatically. Because everyone makes up mental illness to the point they are given psychiatric help. Like a professional psychologist would be so easy to dupe.
I find this endlessly tiresome and stressful. I now have to phone them on Monday which will stress me out more all over again. I just wish they would take mental health as seriously as physical health. It is as, if not sometimes more, distressing and life changing
Showing posts with label Employment and Support Allowance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Employment and Support Allowance. Show all posts
Saturday, 16 February 2013
Friday, 1 February 2013
Day 23 - Benefits Office Medical Assessment
Today was the day of my medical assessment by the benefits office. They have to decide whether I am worth giving benefits to by putting me through a pointless interview.
I was not impressed by the process at all. The woman who conducted the assessment was fine. The benefits office contract it out to a healthcare company called Atos Healthcare. They sent a psychiatric nurse to assess me.
However, the benefits office set the questions she asks. So while she is a medical professional who knew all about mental health issues the form she is working from is not. They ask very targeted questions that I don't feel accurately represent people.
They are supposed to be judging how able to cope with work I am since I am claiming that I cannot cope with it at the present time. And I can't, I had a complete meltdown and couldn't leave the house last time I was supposed to go to work. It was my first day and I just couldn't make it out my room. I had to quit. Which is why I'm in this position. But despite that, the assessment questions never once asked about my feelings and reactions to a work environment. The only thing that they ask about is how I cope at home.
The problem with my OCD anyway is that I can cope to an extent at home. I don't have trouble taking care of myself in the house. I just go the long way about doing things and I get stopped by panics and intrusive thoughts. I find it difficult to be out the house without either drowning out thoughts with music or having a friend of family member there with me. But I can walk around the area I live by myself. I can cope to an extent but not enough to work.
I feel like the questions they ask are designed not to ask about work. So that anyone who doesn't need someone to dress them and stuff sounds like they are perfectly fit for a working environment. I feel let down by the system.
I was not impressed by the process at all. The woman who conducted the assessment was fine. The benefits office contract it out to a healthcare company called Atos Healthcare. They sent a psychiatric nurse to assess me.
However, the benefits office set the questions she asks. So while she is a medical professional who knew all about mental health issues the form she is working from is not. They ask very targeted questions that I don't feel accurately represent people.
They are supposed to be judging how able to cope with work I am since I am claiming that I cannot cope with it at the present time. And I can't, I had a complete meltdown and couldn't leave the house last time I was supposed to go to work. It was my first day and I just couldn't make it out my room. I had to quit. Which is why I'm in this position. But despite that, the assessment questions never once asked about my feelings and reactions to a work environment. The only thing that they ask about is how I cope at home.
The problem with my OCD anyway is that I can cope to an extent at home. I don't have trouble taking care of myself in the house. I just go the long way about doing things and I get stopped by panics and intrusive thoughts. I find it difficult to be out the house without either drowning out thoughts with music or having a friend of family member there with me. But I can walk around the area I live by myself. I can cope to an extent but not enough to work.
I feel like the questions they ask are designed not to ask about work. So that anyone who doesn't need someone to dress them and stuff sounds like they are perfectly fit for a working environment. I feel let down by the system.
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Day 10 - Benefit office trouble
Well today I introduce a new kind of stress and anxiety. Trying to deal with the benefits office.
I am entitled to £56.25 a week of Employment and Support Allowance just now until my assessment goes through. In theory this should be fine. It makes me relatively penniless but not living in a cardboard box. If only they would pay it when they are supposed to. It is supposed to mean that I don't need to go into an office and they will pay me that till I am well enough to start looking for work again. It is "supposed" to lower the stress of that side of things. Instead it increases it.
My payments are supposed to go in every second Friday. My last payment went in on a Saturday and I was supposed to have my latest payment in on the Friday just past. It is now just turned Sunday and the automated payment still hasn't gone in. This is causing me no end of stress. I owe people money and rent and have bills to pay. Why is it so hard for them to pay when they're meant to? Now that it is late I don't know if it's going to go in at all. I don't know why it wouldn't either but the benefits office are able to stop it without telling me for weeks or telling me why at all.
This doesn't seem right to me. Why should I be subject to this sort of treatment just because I am too ill to work? What gives the british Government the right to treat me like some sort of scrounging criminal? Like I'm scum. They make my OCD, stress and paranoia go off the charts. They make life difficult for people on purpose to cut costs for themselves at the expense of the people they are supposed to be helping. They assume that everyone is a liar and treat you like a common criminal whenever you have to speak to them. I feel a sense of deep depression every time I have to phone or go into the office and I leave feeling like I'm completely worthless.
I am entitled to £56.25 a week of Employment and Support Allowance just now until my assessment goes through. In theory this should be fine. It makes me relatively penniless but not living in a cardboard box. If only they would pay it when they are supposed to. It is supposed to mean that I don't need to go into an office and they will pay me that till I am well enough to start looking for work again. It is "supposed" to lower the stress of that side of things. Instead it increases it.
My payments are supposed to go in every second Friday. My last payment went in on a Saturday and I was supposed to have my latest payment in on the Friday just past. It is now just turned Sunday and the automated payment still hasn't gone in. This is causing me no end of stress. I owe people money and rent and have bills to pay. Why is it so hard for them to pay when they're meant to? Now that it is late I don't know if it's going to go in at all. I don't know why it wouldn't either but the benefits office are able to stop it without telling me for weeks or telling me why at all.
This doesn't seem right to me. Why should I be subject to this sort of treatment just because I am too ill to work? What gives the british Government the right to treat me like some sort of scrounging criminal? Like I'm scum. They make my OCD, stress and paranoia go off the charts. They make life difficult for people on purpose to cut costs for themselves at the expense of the people they are supposed to be helping. They assume that everyone is a liar and treat you like a common criminal whenever you have to speak to them. I feel a sense of deep depression every time I have to phone or go into the office and I leave feeling like I'm completely worthless.
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