The Guardian Are Looking For Your DLA Stories
January 13, 2012
The Guardian want to hear about how your DLA helps you. Full details are here. Please share this everywhere and lets get them a good selection of stories to choose from.
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Same Difference 
Without my car I would become a prisoner in my own home. I know that this may sound a bit trite to most of you in the non-disabled world but to us who have this Benefit it really is a life saver! I live quite a distance from my elderly parents and my children, my choice I know, and without my car I would find it very difficult to use public transport to be able to see them. I know they can come and see me, but, that would mean I would never leave my home and get out and about which is essential for my mental and physcical state. It has given me back my Independance as I can go out on my own and not have to arrange a simple trip to the shops 2 days in advance when my PA is available, Simple things to most of you but incredible important to me.
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My DLA allows me to have the freedom to live in my own home. Without the DLA I would not have access to the care I need to just get through my daily life.
I am no longer able to drive and very rarely leave the house. I am often too ill to make my doctors appointments. I have need of full time care at home. If not for the DLA I would not be able to have this and my husband would have to give up his job to care for me. This would be counter productive, taking him out of the workforce to care for me and us both living on benefits. Where is the sense in that?
Unfortunately it is not a case of removing my DLA and getting me into the workplace. The workplace is just not possible for someone with my symptoms. I wish it were. Nobody wants to live like this. tied to the house for weeks or months on end, having their life dictated by their disability and the constant fear that you will loose all you have.
Where is the humanity in this country, we seem to be breeding a society of hatred and segregation of minority groups, with those most weak at the bottom. I truly despair of how far back we have gone. All I want is a small amount of money to help me receive daily care, I do not think that is too much to ask Unfortunately my husband is not a CEO of a large bank receiving huge bonuses or tax benefits or I would not be asking for this.
The DLA system need a radical change but needs to stay in place and the PIP need a rethink. It is not what we need. Look to our needs not how much you can cut the budget.
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My DLA pays for treatments that the NHS does not cover. I have to have osteopathic treatment and a lot of supplements which are very expensive as i am intolerant to most medicated drugs. Without my DLA my life and symptoms would be significantly worse.
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Both my husband and I are disabled.
My husband is confined to a wheelchair with paraplegia, he has many other health related problems that came with his Spinal Cord Injury and also separate to it.
I have a fluctuating illness called ME. I don’t receive any benefits
My husband receives high rate DLA. It enables him to have a car (driven with hand controls) and allows us both some freedom to leave home. We live very rural and there are no bus services around here, even if there was a bus my husband wouldn’t be able to get on it! We are lucky that we have the car through Motability through my husband’s DLA.
Without this car we would be prisoners in our own home.
My husband’s DLA care component goes towards the very high cost of heating our home.
We get no other provision/help towards heating as we do not get income support because of a small Royal Navy pension my husband receives…yes he has served for this country!
Because of this pension it tips us over the amount we are allowed to bring in by just a few pounds. This stops us getting all the extra benefits that would help massively day to day,
He (and I) is proud of his pension…he served you.. the public of Great Britain for it…but now he is victimised and persecuted by the very people and Government that should admire him!
Therefore no cold weather payments etc for us. We struggle with bills every month and we would be in dire straights if it weren’t for my husband’s DLA.
Being disabled raises the cost of living drastically. My husband needs a lot of equipment to function each day. DLA eases that for us. It’s by no means an easy life.
I hear people who are fit enough to work griping because they pay taxes and work long hours.
I would LOVE to work again, My husband would LOVE to work again.
We would LOVE to pay taxes again(!)
MY husband and I aren’t on some extended vacation! We NEVER have a break or a day off!
We are sick and disabled! It can happen to anyone.
We live day by day! We don’t get to go on holiday! We are discriminated against every single day by the public, the media and the Government!
Please leave DLA as it is.
By all means target the people who are working the system and unjustly receiving benefits. But these people are a small mionority. The vast majority are sick, weak, old, infirm, disabled and under a great deal of stress already never mind because of the Welfare Reform.
Thank you.
carole Carrick.
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i have athritus ,chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromaelgia to name but a few my dla helps cushion the blow to a life that is full of pain and restrictions that these illnesses bestow.
i am worried to death about losing my money and our car, as my heating is on constantly as i can never get warm and the car is my lifeline as i couldnt even walk to the bus stop never mind use it ….my husband is my carer and drives me around without him i couldnt survive.
i appreciate there are people out there milking the system but surely there has to be a better way…..if you have worked before your illness it should prove you are not work shy, i loved my job and i still miss it now 14yrs since athritus in the spine made me incapable of doing it .
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Ive had M.E since the age of 13. My DLA pays my bills as i dont recieve any other benefits. I have to rely on family to help keep the cupboards full. I am not work shy and hate accepting the kindness of my family. I would give anything to pay my own way and live a “normal” life. So i guess DLA keeps me in my home.
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i have been trying for dla for 5 yrs, i have chronic idiopathic urticaria with no trigger, fibromaliagia, spondgilitus, scycopes,infected mastoids, burning tongue syndrome, dyspraxia, deiviticulitus,cysts appearing on body. it has been proven that it is genetic, as my son has the same conditions, my daughter is the only child to get cushings disease from the age of 3 which is so rare . i was working as a student nurse till i got sick and the benefits who were helping me do the course with about 2 pounds extra a week , but this fell through due to the fact that the benefits messed the assessments up and blamed us resulting in a 3 yr tribunal, we won the case but it took 3 yrs, for loss of carrear and stress they gave us 250 pounds. now my conditions are worse but because we have disabled children and there is no one to help and we have to get up and do it , we are not believed by the goverment, but its only the goverment. i have just been passed fully fit by a dla doctor, my doctor will not sign me fit for work he said you are disabled. i have adaptations in the house. why are people getting dla in certain parts of the country for conditions i have , 5yrs of tests and drugs have proven that . why are the goverment accepting medicals done in about twenty minutes , but not your medicals done over 5 yrs. we are prisoners in our own home. the dole tell you to claim for dla and then your knocked back. the doctor who came to the house lied on the report he said i was on my own for the whole of the examination, but my wife and child were present. weve been told we are a brave family , but there are families going through similiar cases all over the country i think its post code lottery, they even said at the tribunal that its not the conditions they look at but your functuality, why hasent all this been investigated properly, because they all work for the goverment,atos healthcare, the tribunals. i would rather top myself than be a burden to the state, but i have a family and as long as i fight it keeps me going. a woman i talked to who had her disability for her disabled son taken away, said this goverment is not far off the nazis, they just havent put badges on us yet and put us in camps, remember the nazis murdered thousands of disabled people, and left the tribunal in tears, god help us all
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