Tag Archives: DLA
Woman denied sickness benefit despite life-threatening condition
Last updated at 14:02, Friday, 07 February 2014
A Workington woman with a life-threatening heart condition is being denied sickness benefits because of Government assessment changes.
The case of Jeanette Johnston, 29, has been taken up by Workington MP Sir Tony Cunningham.
He has pledged to write to the Government to get her benefits reinstated.
Miss Johnston will ultimately need a heart and lung transplant and has already had a kidney removed.
Despite her health problems, she has received no disability benefits since August of last year.
Protecting older people with a disability from living in poverty
New research on attendance allowance says more should be done to support those receiving the benefit
Attendance allowance (AA) is a weekly cash payment to older people with disabilities by the Department for Work and Pensions, worth between £59 and £73. It is a contribution to the extra costs of living with a disability and rarely, if ever, receives any discussion in policy debate. This is odd given the scale of the AA – it is paid to around 1.5 million older people in the UK at a cost of around £5bn each year.
To bolster the evidence base on AA and explore how we can make better use of it, the Strategic Society Centre and Independent Age recently published some new research and policy analysis.
Analysing data from the government-funded English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, we found that most people receiving AA are female and aged over 80. The most common difficulties with activities of daily living experienced by recipients are dressing (including putting on socks and shoes) and bathing or showering. Over half are unable to do work around the home and more than 40% have difficulty shopping for groceries.
New PIP report form for GPs
GPs to be paid £33 per patient to assess eligibility for new disability benefit
GPs will be paid £33 to fill out a new form determining whether patients are eligible for the Government’s new personal independence payment (PIP), a scheme the GPC has warned may ‘harass’ patients with a health condition or disability.
The PIP replaced the disability living allowance this week and GPs will be required to give details of the diagnosis, history, variability, treatment and the impact of the condition on the patients’ life, for which they will be paid £33.50 per form.
But the GPC has voiced concern that patients with long term conditions might be periodically ‘harrassed’ under the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) under the new PIP assessment.
