Quote:
Originally Posted by Toy Soldier
Another often overlooked part of it is people who shouldn't be working plugging on because they are so scared of the system... the very people who DO absolutely need it. My first day at work when I moved up to Scotland from England, I was working alongside a lovely lady in her late 50's. The first thing she said to me was "If I start wheezing and struggling for breath don't worry, I sometimes just need to take a wee minute!". She has a degenerative lung condition and was "wheezing and struggling for breath" next to me for 18 months - refusing to leave the job even though every colleague, company supervisors, the HR department, and even at one point the director for the whole of Scotland, was telling her that she was killing herself. Basically, attacks or intense stress can cause degeneration of her lung capacity and once that has happened it can never be recovered... she was getting worse almost on a monthly basis - the job can often be fast-paced and stressful.
She did eventually conceed defeat and left, and was immediately awarded highest level disability without question. And that's under the current regime. I'm unsurprised as you only have to talk to her for 5 minutes to know that she is not fit to be working (although I would also have been unsurprised if they'd told her to crawl back to work and die...). Anyway, the point is, she was VERY clearly unfit to work but she was so scared by the stories that she was willing to work herself to death rather than try to claim. That was about 3 years ago that she left... she still comes in to say hello and isn't much worse than when she left. If she had stayed at work I am pretty much sure that she would be dead or bedridden by now.
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That is both a good example and bad in the other aspect,(thank you for sahring that on here Toy Soldier), that she felt so worried about the system that she likely would have gone on and on.
Really good news to hear she got the due benefit entitlements with little problem,that is how it should be however and no one should be made to feel they have no dignity becasue they are in genuine need of help and benefits.
Despite my moaning, I have found instances, where the DWP have placed a claimant in the wrag group of ESA, then when they have been taken to theri first meeting with the appointed person at the jobcentre,for their work related activity group programme, the interviewer at the jobcentre has said they shouldn't be in the wrag section of ESA but should be in the support group.
Very often, all that jobcentre person does is take it to telephone appointments with them until it is sorted out as to being in the support group.
However,then it still has to go through the lengthy appeals process and if the DWP don't change their mind, then on and on it goes until a good number of times it takes a court to decide who is right.
Trying to be fair a little to jobcentre staff, they are told they have to do this and are literally swamped with people that really should not even be having to go to them at all.
People who are taking time away from them helping someone into work that really needs the help to and wants the help too to do so.
04-03-2015, 09:33 PM
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