Dla Decision due to doctor

arthrituscarerto2
arthrituscarerto2 Member Posts: 8
edited 30. Jul 2011, 07:04 in Living with Arthritis archive
Hi all I ma new to the forum but in my family there are two sufferers of Arthritus in the family my wifes son/mystep son who has a genetic condition and extremley bad learning difficulties along with severe arthritus and my wife who has rhumatoid arthritus. We recently renewed both there Dla forms and were astonished when theycut my wifes from high on both counts to just low rate care. When even on her good days i have to do most things for her. and on bad days basically feed and cloth and bath her.

We have been going through the appeal process since april and have had great help from the cab. We were shocked to learn that the reason my wifes application was turned down was down to what her gp had put in the form they sent to him. Not alot (basically) We are now attemppting to get letters from both her physio consultant and the doctor along with the OT. When we asked her gp about the form he said he could not remember what my wife suffers from and only put down the last thing she complained about which was not being able to pick anything up.

He has since said he will look at her records and do a proper letter detailing her condition. In the meantime we wait for a tribunal date which we have been told will probably be in december at the earliest. In the meantime we are in limbo and we do not know what to do about the disability vehicle tax that we have for her. we have not had a letter stating to send it back or anything like that and motability could not help us does anybody nknow what we could do.

This is an extremley distressing time and my wife is constantly upset because she feels she i sa burden to both me and her eldest son who has given up college to help me care for her.

Comments

  • tkachev
    tkachev Member Posts: 8,332
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    You have a lot on your plate. The DWP will cut DLA at the slightest chance. So the GP's report was the 'achilles heel' I'm afraid. However the GP does acknowledge he doesn't know much about her condition and is going to write a new report so that is good news. It will be a matter of appealing now to get it reinstated. Hope it won't take too long.
    Sorry to read about your wife and son. I have R.A and my son has learning difficulties but to have both must be awful. My heart goes out to you all.
    Please pop on the forum for support when you hve a moment. We also have a chitchat zone for other topics.
    Elizabeth
    Never be bullied into silence.
    Never allow yourself to be made a victim.
    Accept no ones definition of your life

    Define yourself........

    Harvey Fierstein
  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,832
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    How awful :???:

    GPs have made this sort of mistake before.....sometimes l think if you are up for reveiw it is a good idea to make sure the GP knows hwo thinsg are by a visit.

    As Elizabeth rightly says at the moment they are looking for any chance at all to cut disability benefits and it makes me very cross.

    Glad you are seeing CAB l would ask them about the vehicle to be on the safe side.

    I think all of us who suffer thsi at the hands of the DWP should tell their MP so it gets brought up in the house of commons and they realise what they are doing to the voters!! Problem is 'we' are the least likley to complain :sad:

    Love

    Toni xx
  • arthrituscarerto2
    arthrituscarerto2 Member Posts: 8
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I totally agree my wife does not like going to the doctors even though shes been with the same one for years she sees it as bugging him and would rather just put up with it. The CAb and all the profefesionals have been excellent and they are in the process of doing the reports.

    What makes it worse is we know someone who can build brick walls errect fencing and is on both high rate care and high rate motability for life. He has been reported several times by different people. but always somehow gets away with it . people who are genuine sufffer while the ones who know how to play the system get away with it. which is the sickening part.

    I am quite lucky due to the fact i knew what to expect whenmy wife started hwith her RA as her son had had it for quite a few years. And his is sort of undercontrol with flareups from time to time even on methotrexate dichlofenic and co codamol.

    I am glad i actually found this forum and will be on as much as possiblke
  • elnafinn
    elnafinn Member Posts: 7,412
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Hi there

    Welcome to the forum. I am so sorry to read your thread. I cannot get over the fact that the gp who your wife has been seeing for years, could not be bothered to do the paperwork for her. OK, a gp cannot remember the facts about all his patients but to not bother to read back on her notes is abysmal.Hopefully he will now bend over backwards to put a good case together for her. You wife should not feel that she cannot see her gp as often as she would perhaps like. It is their job and we, as patients, keep the medical profession in work.

    It is so annoying to know of someone who is getting away with it and claiming all and sundry, when you know that you all deserve as much help as possible.

    It is good to talk and we shall try to help you as much as possible. You can also call the helplines if you wish to chat to someone at the other end of a phone. Many people on here have been helped greatly by this dedicated team.

    I do hope that things turn around for the better for you all soon,

    Elna x
    The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.

    If you can lay down at night knowing in your heart that you made someone's day just a little bit better, you know you had a good day.
  • arthrituscarerto2
    arthrituscarerto2 Member Posts: 8
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Well my wifes up and about and wanting to do some things to help around the house having to hold her back as its been so long since she has done any housework. the docs have put her meds up and have given her another steroid injection which seems to have perked her upo a bit the doctor has been so good since we explained to him and is in the process of doing a letter as he had to come and visit her in bed to give her teh steroid

    hopefully progress can now be made the doc has also requested another appointment with consultant to see what else can be done. all i can say is i am glad the house has had all the adaption it can.

    thank you all for the support and i will keep ypou updated re the appeal
  • weejean
    weejean Member Posts: 346
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Hi there

    How awful for you and your family, it is hard enough getting from day to day without having to fight for benefits which you are most definately entitled to.I suffer from Osteoarthritis in all my joints and like your wife I often feel like a burden to my Husband and Teenage son as they do so much for me both physically and emotionally. Your wife is very lucky to have you caring for her and I am sure she appreciates everything you do for her. This forum is a great place to get advice and support and I often use it just to have a good moan and gets things off my chest. I wish you all the luck in the world with your DLA appeal and am apalled by what happened with your GP report. I cant understand why the GP did not look back on your wifes records but at least you have him on board now and it should make a huge impact on your appeal. I look forward to chatting with you and hope you and your wife have a good day.
    Big Hugs
    Jean xx
  • lavenderlady
    lavenderlady Member Posts: 409
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    this is getting so common now and like you say there is always some one who can get it for life and yet climb on roofs to put xmas lights up keep an enormous going alone etc its not right or fair, I get my DLA for life for my numerous health problems inc OA which my DR and Rhumy has gone to great pains to make sure i understood it was only going to get worse the older i get and certainly not going to change for the better EVER numerous ops has only helped a little for that one joint when you have it in every joint it either means lots of ops or pain for ever, if you get it indefinatly do they still need to review it does anyone know>> my mums who got alpheimers just did her first claim for DLA and has got to be assesed shes also got OA etc now dont tell me her demntia is going to get better , I would certainly take it to our MP if shes refused, I understand getting rid of false claims but when you take so many pills have so many ops and are restricted in so many things surely thats classed as disabled as in Disabily living allowance, not maybe DLA , these maybes or refusals is causing so many problems for people its only going to make their health worse, totally out of order, hope it works out for you all who are going through this fiasco Michelle