Stressful times with DWP…….

Update 14th November 2016

@raspberrytalk status from Saturday

Brown envelope just dropped through my letterbox from DWP. Been drea...ding this since my home assessment 25/10/16. Hands were shaking as I opened it ...... 35 points for care and 22 for mobilty!!!! OMFG! I am stunned. Enhanced rate for both. What a great early xmas present. And all it took was my wife screaming and stressing for a home visit with constant phone calls to the DWP and Atos (I can't use the phone!), getting our MP involved and having a massive panic/anxiety attack on the day and self harming that left blood pouring down my arms! I would go out an celebrate if it wasn't for the fact I can't go out much and being around people terrifies me!

Update 5th October 2016

Update on ATOS and DWP for anyone that is interested, wrote to our MP had nothing from her at all. She obvisouly does not give a hoot anymore she's got what she... wants now. thanks @patel4witham

Spoke to the PIP Customer Relations guy and he informed me that there is nothing coming back from the specilsts and anything that is coming back is just saying not been treated here since 2012. Nothing from Dr Castle, so much for his surport, G.P has only sent letter of surport of a home visist. DWP are now passing the blame back to ATOS by saying it's because of one of there Healthcare Proffessionals that hubby has a caution on him and this is why they will not do a home visit.
Writen back to DWP about this, waiting for response, the guy from ATOS was very suprised when I told him what DWP have said.
I'm really concerned that we are going to have to attend the Re-arranged assessement for hubby next week, I just know it's going to end up with a trip to A&E.............stressed

Update 16th August:

PIP form has arrived today and giving hubby untill 10th september to return them.


Any regular readers of my blog know about the problems both me and @raspberrytalk have had dealing with the DWP. We had a 2 year long battle with them and even had to go to a tribunal so @raspberrytalk could even get his DLA - being treated like a common criminal, basically branded a liar - this also ment I could not recieve Carers Allowance! When I did finally recieve it they did not give me any back pay, so again we had to write to them argue the fact that it should of been back dated like the DLA. This did get sorted but all this stress took its toll on both myself and @raspberrytalk.
I do also think all this stress has been a contribtunting factor in causing mine and @raspberrytalk relationship to become so fragile and broken.

For those of you that are not regular readers it would be worth you reading this post (The Day my husband became a child) as it will help you understand how much stress the DWP cause and how that stress affected my husband's mental state.

So now fast forward to present day and, as some of you may or may not know, DLA is being changed to a new allowance called PIP. We received a letter asking if my husband would like to claim PIP on 23rd July (letter dated 19th July) - I really don’t understand why we get these letters so late…
Anyway, because this letter had arrived on a Saturday there was not much we could do because the claim line is only open Monday - Friday.
The letter says you HAVE to phone them to start the claim. I was not happy about this because @raspberrytalk does not use the phone due to severe anxiety and other mental health problems. I also have mental health problems that make it difficult for me to use a phone. So as you can imagine my stress and anxiety levels went very high because I knew I would have to phone the claim line … I’m not confident using a phone either because I do avoid using it, but if I really have to I do.
@raspberrytalk could see the state I was getting in because I would have to use the phone. It’s not an easy thing to explain how and why I get in such a state about using a phone, so I’m not even going to try. I've always been like it since I was a kid.
To cut a long story short @raspberrytalk went on the DWP website and found out that you can send in a written request for the PIP claim forms. Fantstic! So we sent the letter which was signed for on 26th July. It was now just a case of playing the waiting game…
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…

1 week went by and not recieved anything.

...
...

Week 2 went by and still not recieved anything.


Meanwhile, as we were waiting, my anxiety and stress levels were steadily increasing to breaking point. I have been so stressed it caused me to have a spell of IBS and feeling sick. It has also caused @raspberrytalk to have a bad spell of IBD. It has also caused strain on mine and @raspberrytalk relationship.

Then we received another letter on 6th August (dated 2nd August) saying that they had not yet recieved a request from us to start a PIP claim.
As you can imagine this caused myself and @raspberrytalk even MORE stress! As a lot of you know @raspberrytalk has a lot of mental health problems and all this stress is making him worse. It is also taking it’s toll on me and having to take care of @raspberrytalk is becoming more and more difficult for me to deal with … sad but true.

So I caved. I had been throwing up because I was getting so stressed waiting and on 10th August I phoned because we still had not recieved anything, except for the letter saying they had not receved a request for PIP.
Even though I was calling on @raspberrytalk behalf, they still demanded to talk to him saying they couldn't complete the process otherwise. I managed to coax him into saying yes when needed, although he was in a right state ..... how do they process claims for people that are unable to talk?

So anyway, after weeks of stress and anxiety it was finally sorted ... or so we thought.

Guess what arrived today (13th August)? The response to our original written request! The request forms needed to request the PIP claim forms (dated 7th August). Yes, you have to complete a claim for in order to get the PIP claim form!

So it only took them 3 weeks to send the request form, which is basically the exact same thing that the lady on the claims line went through with me … word for word. Well at least the claim process has now been started ... but why on earth do the letters arrive so late and why are all other benefits going online, but not PIP? When hubby first claimed for DLA it was an online form, then a downloadable pdf .... and now they pigs ear of a joke. Apparently the actual claim form is 40 PAGES of questions and there is no downloadable version of the form, so all answers have to be hand written! Let's hope all these sick and disabled people don't make any mistakes! How long would it take to get another copy of the form!!

I really want to write a letter of complaint, but I know this would be pointless to do because the @DWP really are not there to help people and they just don’t care - because they are told and paid to not care. Because it is run by the goverment and they pull all the strings and are killing people because of the stress they're causing people. And people are commiting suicide because of what the @DWP put them through - and I know the @DWP will deny this, even though it was proven in court!
@DWP have caused so much stress in this house which caused me and @raspberrytalk to have a massive argument yesterday. It resulted in @raspberrytalk cutting himself with a carving knife (thankfully just a scratch as he could barely hold the blade), becoming aggressive with me and when the aggression passed by he ordered me to leave so he could kill himself. This is something he struggles with everyday, like his Rage Control outbursts - which are scary, but he would never hurt me - but each time this happens it damages our relationship.
So thank you @DWP for coming so very close to making us split up and making me so ill this last 3 weeks and making @raspberrytalk even more ill than he is already ……