by
Boggle » Tue Jun 22, 2010 9:32 pm
Vicky - sadly children are sometimes taught to swing the lead by parents!
When daughter went for her mobility assessment (aged 5 back then) we were summoned to a surgery that was not our own. We waited in the waiting area and patients were called in over the tannoy system - when it was our turn the doctor came out to get us - as I began to push her chair out of the waiting room he smiled and said 'oh it's alright you can let her walk in' - I understand that he did this to try and catch us out if we were swinging the lead - though to be honest he only needed to take one look at her to realise that she couldn't walk at all! At the time I was a bit offended but I was also naive enough not to realise that people really did make false dis claims!!!
The whole problem with the re-assessment thing is that it would not be needed if false claims did not exist - these are the people we should be angry with. I had a job recently to persuade a friend that he should not report his up and coming surgery as a change of circumstances as it would be some time after the surgery before things began to improve - he was convinced that he would be better immeditely and back to work within weeks! I was right - immediately after the surgery he was worse!!! His recovery will be slow but he was actually going to tell the benefits agency before the op that he intended to be better by X date - bless him!!!!!
The stress of the re-assessments is a major problem - I don't think any government will ever adaquately address this issue - and we should remember that previous governments encouraged people to make false claims in order to keep unemployment figures down - the whole issue needs to be sensitively addressed and I believe that anyone being refused DLA following reassessment should not actually lose the benefit until after they lose an appeal - if you see what I mean.
