To advise DWP or not ?

harleyquin

Hi I haven't posted for ages but do read the forum regularly.
I am wondering if anyone receiving Disability Benefits ( DLA / ESA ) has advised the DWP of a change in their circumstances?

I had to go to a Tribunal in order to be awarded DLA, at that time I had other health problems but had been diagnosed with OA in my right knee.
It spread alarmingly quickly to both hips, hands, shoulders and now neck and lower spine and I struggle to walk even to the kitchen some days and am in a lot of pain.

Due to the new rules and stuff that have come in I am afraid of contacting the DWP to say my condition has got worse as I am worried they will take me off my benefits altogether ( I am currently on Incapacity Benefit as I haven't been moved over to ESA yet )

I am also at the stage where I am suffering incontinence at times as I can't get to the toilet quickly enough which has resulted in my 3rd UTI in the last 6 weeks, due to a bout of gastroenteritis.

I'm not sure whether to bite the bullet and phone them or wait until 2015 when I will be re-assessed for PIP.
I was widowed in 2010 so if they stop my benefits while re-assessing me I will be in big trouble financially.
I receive a small monthly pension from my late husbands company so I am in fact a tax payer and I don't claim Housing or Co Tax Benefit as my son lives at home and he works full time so pays for his keep ( my daughter receives Carers Allowance for me ).

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thank you and best wishes to you all
Harley

PollySid

If you are already getting DLA I wouldn't think that it matters to let them know if you have got worse, unless you are on the lower type and think you should be able to go up. Even then I think, with how they assess nowadays I personally (and this is only my opinion) would leave well alone if you can manage on what you are getting. With how strict they are being now you could end up worse off.

trepolpen

hi , at some point soon they will transfer you from Incapacity Benefit to ESA & within couple years DLA to PIP so would not worry to much , & leave it till then , make sure you get help with the forms when you do change ,

sailrib

If you let them know then you will be asked to apply for PIP now. That's what my letter says and they will stop your DLA.

Personally I would hold off telling them as they say PIP will be a lot harder to get.

My 10 year claim finishes next year and when I first got DLA, I didn't have my feet problems but I've held of telling them as they look at the whole claim again as a new claim.

harleyquin

Thank you SO much for your replies.
It is the response that I expected, as I also thought that if I contacted them
it would end up becoming a new claim and it could be rejected under the new rules, even though I can barely get up from the sofa some days.
I have to say that the judge, doctor and benefit worker who I saw at the tribunal were very nice, they even accepted that I had gone abroad to celebrate what would have been my late husbands 50th birthday, 8 months before ( which incidentally was when my right knee started to hurt ).

I will stay put for now and wait for the PIP assessment in 2015.

Thank you again for taking the trouble to respond.

Harley

tkachev

It does seem a shame people have to worry about making a claim when their health deteriorates incase they lose what they have already been awarded.


I remember when first awarded DLA I was angry that I did not get high rate care as I was in dreadful pain day and night and I felt I fitted the criteria but I was advised that I risked losing anything I had already been awarded (middle rate care and high mob). It sounded like scare tactics to me to put people off getting what they feel is the correct award.

I hope you are coping okay.

Elizabeth x

Airwave!

Although arther is worse I certainly won't tell DWP and will wait until 2015 to be reassessed for DLA, which we were told is not a benefit but an 'allowance'. I do not trust the system not to pull the rug from under arther sufferers feet.

I hope everyone will vote accordingly at the next general election, the two main parties are defining everyone by the benefit they receive and not by their illness, this forum will be full of such cases as those who get unfair treatment over the next few years.