Fit to work? After I snapped my spine, I’m barely fit to walk
FURY AFTER CRASH MUM TOLD TO LOOK FOR A JOB Patient How can DWP overrule GP and hospital?
A mum whose spine was severely damaged in a road accident was told she is fit for work despite being barely able to walk.
Irene Hamilton claims doctors advised her against surgery and warned she may eventually be confined to a wheelchair because of her injury- permanent condition called broad-based disc.
The 53-year-old was ruled fit to work by a Department for Work and Pensions capability assessment earlier this month – even though she struggles to leave the house on her own.
She said: “I was told by a neurosurgeon at the Southern General in Glasgow that an operation could cause more damage to my spine.
“There’s nothing they can do and it will get to the point I may end up in a wheelchair within a few years.”
Irene, of Kilbirnie, Ayrshire, was initiallyly able totoworkwork for a period after the accident in 2013.
Her car was run off the road in a collision and she was later awarded £10,000 compensation for her injuries, which included her spine being snapped in three places.
But her broad-based disc condition affects nerves and causes neck and back pain, resulting in a decline in mobility.
Irene added: “I worked as a carer but after the accident I couldn’t lift people so I had to switch to working with people with autism.
“But my back injuries became so bad that I could hardly walk and I had to give up work completely last year. I’m on medications and can’t be far from a toilet.”
The mum of two started to receive £ 73.10 in employment and support allowance. But last October, after Irene was sent for one of the DWP’s controversial Work Capability Assessments, she was declared fit for work and the benefit was stopped.
She was advised to go to a Jobcentre and be put on Jobseeker’s Allowance instead. Irene said: “I’m not fit to work so I refused to do it.”
Irene says her claims assessor even commented on how she was able to zip her jacket up.
She added: “It’s disgraceful. I want to know why some boy in his 20s overruled my doctor and neurosurgeon.”
Her GP advised she was not fit for work an and says she will appeal the decision. Irene’ s MSP Kenneth Gibson has taken up her case and has written to the DWP.
He said: “To pretend people like Irene are fit to work only makes one feel their circumstances are not being taken into account and they are merely the subject of a target-driven, box-ticking exercise.”
The DWP’s assessments are carried out by private US firm Maximus.
The DWP said: “The decision on whether someone is well enough to work is taken following a thorough independent assessment and after consideration of supporting evidence from the claimant’s GP or medical specialist. Anyone who disagrees can ask for it to be reviewed.”
I had to give up my job because I was in agony