Yes, surprisingly, MS has been cured for a third of us!
Surely we should be dancing and/or shuffling/stumbling in the street?
Well, no. MS is, and always has been, incurable. Degenerative. Progressive.
So far. Who knows what the future holds? And I pray for a cure.
Until then, we get on with our lives. Or so I thought.
We bring up our kids, we go to work, we engage in society. We may have to fight the odd unfair dismissal from work tribunal, but we still pick ourselves up and continue on. We live lives that slowly encroach upon what is ‘normal’ for our age-group. We give up stuff. We manage.
For me, one of the advantages of DLA was that I was able to access higher rates of Housing Benefit and Working Tax Credit. If I lose PIP, I will lose those also.
DLA basically pays for me to go to work. As it stands, I am already living well below the poverty line. To lose DLA will effectively render me homeless, as no-one can live on minus £75 a month, after the standard bills have been paid.
I’ve heard stories, from friends of friends, of people who don’t work as it’s not worth it. Yet we don’t all have work-place pensions or critical illness cover. For me, as long as I can, I will always choose work over the alternative. I don’t care if I earn the same or less than staying at home – work is banter, it’s real world and it’s choosing to live, as long as am I able to.
I have until Christmas Eve (lol) to send my PIP forms back, and then I think I will have a decision within 12-16 weeks.
Not a long time to plan for any alternative?
MS is cured? Yippee! Bring on life!
Wouldn’t that be amazing!! X
You have my sympathy. I have a bad case of Brown Envelope Neurosis and living in fear of being administratively cured. I claim nothing but DLA as i have half an NHS pension and do some work as an illustrator. When they stop my DLA (as it seems they inevitably will) i will lose my Motability car, bus pass, rail card and blue badge. I wont be able to get to my studio OR heat my home. I will be forced to register as unemployed. And so it goes.
Its ironic that DLA was bought in by a Conservative government because, as John Major said, it was “the right thing to do.” How times change.
Terrible, just terrible. So many of my friends have lost their DLA and are facing the same, like you and me.
I spoke to my MS nurse about this yesterday and she’s shocked by it all. Apart from anything else, the stress of it all is making us more ill. All my symptoms have flared up and I feel utterly miserable, after years of trying to live positively.
The only option I have is to work more hours, which would be extremely difficult.
I know I said I’m better than this, but these days, I’m struggling to keep a lid on the worry. X
The entire benefits system is broken, nothing illustrates the problem better than PIP. Eventually the buff brown envelop from Belfast containing the PIP assessment will flop through the letter box. :-((
I am shivering with dread already. Whole thing is broken and should be consigned to the bin. Tell David Davis it is part of Brexit, if we leave they get it and that includes a cure of MS :-o. What could possibly be fairer?
Whole thing is a total effing shambles
Completely agree with you – it’s broken, and probably beyond repair.
I keep hearing horror stories and it makes me despair 🙁 x