System ‘made me feel guilty for being sick’
A MUM with multiple sclerosis says she was made to ‘feel guilty for having an illness’ as she fought to have her disability benefits reinstated.
Dawn Lancaster, 50, was diagnosed with MS 23 years ago and received Disability Living Allowance (DLA) after having to stop work.
The mum-of-three was granted a lifetime award of the higher rate mobility component and middle rate care. But in May 2017, Dawn, who lives in Macclesfield, faced a reassessment to be moved onto the new benefit, Personal Independence Payment (PIP). This resulted in her support being cut to the lower mobility rate and no care component.
She appealed this decision and won when, in December, a tribunal reinstated the benefit to the level she was originally entitled to.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) insist they’re ‘committed to ensuring that disabled people get the full support that they need.’
But Dawn said: “Going through this made me feel the lowest of the low. I felt so guilty for having an illness through no fault of my own. The stress of appealing put me in a right state, the fatigue and depression paralysed me.
“I think PIP would be a much fairer system if the assessors understood how unpredictable MS is. You can look fine one day, then the next you’re so ill you can’t leave your bed.”
Dawn’s plight comes as new analysis by the MS Society says the vast majority of people with the condition who appeal their PIP decision after moving from the old benefit go on to win.
The MS Society says the government has unnecessarily spent almost £1m of taxpayers’ money on this process. In response, a DWP spokesman said: “We’re committed to ensuring that disabled people get the full support that they need and, under PIP, 52 per cent of people with MS receive the highest possible award, compared with 39 per cent under the previous benefit, DLA.”