Incapacity benefit/income support

[helenm1984]

Hi,
I would just like a bit of advice. I was working in a section of the job centre (dwp) in a call centre, but due to ongoing ill health and disabilities they have ended my contract as I need too much time off for operations, appointments and the like, I have put in a claim for incapacity which was accepted, then stopped and moved to income support, the problem is they keep stopping my benefit, as I have to send in sick notes, my doctor will only write one before the other sick note is about to expire there has never been a break in my sick notes ie if 1 expires on the 31st they have the next one by the 1st, but they say they need it aprx 1/2 weeks in advance, or they stop my benefits, obviously this is getting very annoying, as I have 70k worth of debt and I cant pay them regually, also I keep having to have these 'back to work' interviews, which I understand why, but they fired me so who would want to employ me if they (dwp) wont as my health is continuing to get worse, I would love to go back to work but this is my 4th job now where I have been fired due to my diability (un sustainable abscence) I have had unions involved but nothing can stop me getting my p45, and obviously this is now making me depressed on top of all my other conditions, so to sum it up my questions are:
1) Can the dwp keep stopping my benefits when as I see it there are no breaks or delays in them receiving my sick notes?
2) Do I have to keep doing these all works tests? at the moment 1 a month as its starting to make me ill
3) Do I have any rights as a disabled person?
4) My creditors will have no choice but to go to ccjs soon whats my best course of action, I already have 4 @£1.00 each, shall I do that with the rest, or would bankruptcy be the best option, if so I cant afford the bancruptcy, does any1 know of any help available?
Kind regards Helen

[mooreda]

If I remember correctly, after a period of say six months, you will be issued with an IB50 Work Questionnaire. You complete this and then return it to the DWP/Jobcentre. They will look at it and decide if you need to see the DWP doctor. This is likely. The DWP doctor will go through the Physical/Mental capability test to see if you are unfit for work. If so, you will continue to receive your benefit, normally for a set period without the need to keep sending in medical certificates. See Tips for completing the IB50 Form for more help.

[patrickq1]

i too am having simmallar problems i have now been in touch with the MP for my area i have also begun an action against them for failure to comply with the Freedom of Information Act act,i have had 5 all works tests since 2003,i have just come out of hospital after a major operation,this is one of the reasons i am not getting all my data from the doctors reports ,my specialist has put it in writing that my illness is over six years and should have been known to the doctors who conducted the tests,i have tried to get incapacity since 2003 and as yet not a hope i am also trying to get my stamps backdated to then,so you have my sympathies
patrickq1
dont give up your fight also bring all your debts to the forum leave your name out of all correspondance and also do you have any ppi insurance cover on your debt repayments if so claim these as well,they cant refuse if they do you are entitled to all your payments back
good luck
patrickq1

[adagioofwight]

Originally Posted by helenm1984

4) My creditors will have no choice but to go to ccjs soon whats my best course of action, I already have 4 @£1.00 each, shall I do that with the rest, or would bankruptcy be the best option, if so I cant afford the bancruptcy, does any1 know of any help available?

There are charities who will help with bankruptcy fees. e.g.

The City of Oxford Charity

Contact your local CAB they may be able to help.

[alibobsy]

Your doctor could do an open ended "until further notice" sick note which would cover you until he signed a note stating "fit for work".But if he feels your condition is one which is likely to improve short term he may not be keen on doing this. As to the all work test whilst I appreciate your position, from the governments point of view they are not going to let someone sign for a benefit and pay out week after week without regular checks. From when the new benefit replaces incapacity benefit and IS this year they will be even more of a push to move people from "sick" to work.
I think it is unlikely your debtors will take you to court if you have told them you are on benefits. They know the court will only set a token payment of around £1 when someone is on benefits. Try having a look in the debt and dca sections, might be worth you doing CCA requests on all of these debts to give yourself some breathing space. Also worth looking into claiming refunds of any PPI on cards/loans you have or had in the last few years and settled.
Good Luck
ali x

[patrickq1]

i have just received this letter this morning,does anyone know what this involves or what it means..
dear mr
following on from our recent correspondance about your claim for incapacity benefit from feb 2003 i would like to suggest that we arrange a meeting between yourself and MY MP....and jobcentre manager and correspondance officer during this meeting we will aim to try and resolve your complaint
i would like to offer you the option of:the meeting take place in a private interview room at (.......centre)
the date of the meeting to be on the following dates 17 or 18 january
starting time to be decided by yourself
this will also depend on your MPs availability although we have been in touch with his secretary about this
we will expect the meeting to last about one hour and we will aim to complete a statement with you regarding a consideration of a compensation payment from jobcentre plus about this issue,this will be decided by the independant special payments team in our regional office in cardiff
please get in touch with me to arrange the meeting and then hopefully we can move forward on this issue

if anyone has any thought or knowledge it would be appreciated ,but also what is i think pushing them is that they are now having to explain to the Information Commissioners Office for failure to produce the DWP SIMA DOCTOR REPORTS , the reports that i have managed to obtain one sheet was so full of inacuracies and fabrication that has been proven to be so by my doctor and specialist surgeon (my surgeon incedently has asked in writing)who was the doctor or was and is he a medical practioner,and also they now have to answer to the independant case examiner in liverpool who has also questioned their practice concerning all the missing data and also about their use of the doctor who did the ALL WORKS TEST
help would be appreciated
patrickq1

[sandraroff]

may be a good idea to get your local citizens advice involved. i have nothing but praise for these people in cases such as yours. they helped me through 18 months of DLA tribunals and too-ing and fro-ing. they are brilliant. goodluck and it does as though you have them on the hop.xx

[patrickq1]

thanks sanrda
patrickq1

[emmaf01]

The local council welfare rights officer is also great- mine saw me through an appeal/tribunal for incap benefit and DLA.

[johans]

Patrick, i was going to start my own thread untill i read about your predicament ,as we have experienced similar, " poor service" , from the local job centre!

in a nutshell, my wife has been off work for just on 2 years with suspected RSI, although she is a secretary, she spent most of her working day as a typist and it looks like the lack of adequate health and safety observations by her employer , ie, no work station assesments, no structured breaks, mountains of files to be typed up under constant pressure to meet deadlines etc. has resulted in her being unable to work because of the constant pain and swelling in her wrist, arm and neck.( she has some respite from time to time but is on pain killers every day ) A couple of months ago the job centre informed her that she needed to attend a DWP examination to be assesed as to her suitability for her£55 quid a week sick pay. I did attend with her and basically she responded to a question and answer session and that was it!

We were shocked to discover that, despite being a patient of an NHS, Orthapaedic consultant who had just referred her to a rhuematologist colleague and despite having been seen by her companys own consultant who agreed she was not fit for work and not to mention her own GP`s opinion that she was a legitimate claimant, The DWP`S doctor new better than all the above and decided she was fit for work on the basis of a , " POINT SCORING ", assesment where she scored 14 points, 1 less than the 15 needed.

We received a copy of the DWPS` , " DOCTORS", SCORE SHEET and not only had some of her answers been missed off ( an extra 5 points ) but there was absolutely no acknowledgement of her current NHS, outpatient status!

If the above was`nt bad enough, the attitude of the job centre staff was infuriating- i pity anyone who has to deal with these uncaring arseholes on a regular basis- arrogant , ignorant and unhelpful is the best i can say about them. 4 weeks before christmas they stopped her money and they have washed their hands of it by sending her request to, " look again at the decision" , straight to , " appeals", where one unsympathetic moron gleefully informed us it could now take months!

Apart from the Consultants` secretary informing us ( he furious that someone had questioned his judgement ) he would be willing to write to whoever it concerned and her own GP also disgusted with the outcome, i am wondering if it would be worth requesting our MP, to look at what i consider to be a real abuse of power and a totally wrong decisicion made worse by the DWP`S attitude .

A final point, the last phonecall regarding the time scale of the, " appeal", resulted in the person on the other end advising my wife to apply for, " job seekers allowance", when my wife asked her how would this be possible as she was already employed and was she therefore suggesting she make herself redundant, the line went very quiet. i am wondering if they made a mistake inso far that they thought she was unemployed!

[patrickq1]

hi sorry to hear about your wife and the deplorable treatment,i made a report to the independent case examiner and also the information commissioner,you need to ser in a freedom of information request to the DWP then when you get the DWP DOCTORS REPORT you have your doctor read and make notes alongside your own doctors report then you need your rhumatoligist to look at the report then send both reports to both Information Commissioners Office and ice with official complaints,had i known all this i would have been sorted years ago,as it is the DWP would like me to drop the ICE complaint but ive told them no chance and now they are pleading for it to be dropped as is the same for the Information Commissioners Office because it is highly likely you will not get the report from the DWP doctors you also want to know this doctors qualifications and his expertise in what sort of practice has he worked in beleive me they employ some people who are not practising but are only advisors on not full time doctors but get your own medical reports then begin your complaints it is time the DWP AND SIMA GROUP were brought to book,now they are offering me full comp and backdated till 2003,this i will accept but ive also asked for interest on it as well ime being cheeky with the interest but i feel i deserve it for all the harrassment
patrickq1

[patrickq1]

The Independent Case Examiner Website - Home Page
If you have not given the Agency/business the opportunity to respond to your complaint we will not accept your complaint for investigation.

[patrickq1]

they may also investigate sima in cardiff
patrickq1

[alibobsy]

As someone who has worked at the DWP just wanted to say I do sympathise, we aren't all sat there plotting how to take money off people you know. The reality is like all big companies there are good staff who try their best to help and bad staff who just do the minimum work to get by. Alot of times staff are under a lot of pressure to clear calls and cases quickly. The recent mass reduction of staff levels has meant even fewer staff doing more work. I'm not excusing your treatment or the other poster on here, just pointing out we are ordinary people like you trying to do a job. Unfortunately years of people abusing the benefits system means that the rules to qualify have been tightened and tightened. The small minority who abuse things mean the majority of genuine claimants end up having to jump through hoops just to get what they are entitled to. Regarding the poster who mentioned his partner having a problem with her hands from her work has she also applied for industrial injuries benefit? This is separate to the incapacity benefit, and unfortunately she would have to have another medical for it, but it might be worth a try whilst she awaits her appeal. Unfortunately the docs employed by the dept are lets say not the greatest. I was once told by a manager in medical services that the best docs become well paid consultants, they don't work for the DWP. I personnelly sent many medical papers back to the docs as they hadn't filled in all the sections and even because it was so badly written that we couldn't read it!
Good luck with your appeals, and complaints. We do get feedback on the benefit sections about complaints and certainly in the office I work in complaints are taken seriously. I'm on maternity leave at the moment, not posting in work (wouldn't be allowed). Off to feed the baby.
Good luck
ali x

[patrickq1]

i have two freinds who work in the dwp ali they are superb people and ive no complaints,i am digging my heals in because sima and the management at dwp totally ignored my apeals so much so the paperwork disapeared ......and my freinds who work their explained the closure of their offices was partly to blame ,but this does not excuse mal administration nor does it explain the untruths that were put to paper now we cannot even find the dwp/doctor reports so it begs the question just who do they think they are when a serious complaint was made initially they fobbed it off they even denied that my wife went to see them to complain,so it sticks in your throat when you know someone has lied about someone else who is in desperate need for help and assistance after all it is your last hope for some dignity
patrickq1

[alibobsy]

I think you are absolutely right patrick and if I were you I would definately pursue the complaint. Paperwork disappearing is the bane of all our lives in offices. I was once searching for a customers claim form when I noticed our admin assistants sorting post into our different in trays on a the sorting rack. I noticed they threw the papers in and the fact that the trays were open at the back. I insisted on pulling the table and the rack forward and found my claim form and 5 others! The papers must be somewhere.
Good luck with your complaint
ali x

[alibobsy]

BTW its not on them lying to you especially about a complaint or appeal.
Hope you get things sorted soon.
ali x