DWP: No Child Should Manage Their Own Condition
From Change.org. I just signed with pleasure. Could those of you in the UK share far and wide please.
My son Zach has been Diabetic since he was 5 years old. Now, at the age of 12, the DWP have deemed him capable of controlling his own condition and have therefore withdrawn his Disability Allowance.
NO CHILD with a serious medical condition should be expected to manage their own illness. If their health is not looked after now, their futures will look very bleak indeed.
I, like many parents with a child who has a serious condition, has had to give up work at some point (for me it was 3 years) to look after their child and this extra money is desperately needed to provide the additional things that are essential to maintain good health.
This petition is for ALL parents with children in a similar position. It’s a totally unfair system. Why do some people get DLA and not others when they have exactly the same condition?
No child should be burdened with this.
Same Difference 
I can’t believe their getting away with this
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this is disgusting. It’s worse every day.
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THis also happened to my son we have now been left 2 manage his condition for 8mths, we have no help after dla was removed when he got to 14 as they said he is expected to manage his own condition
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This is getting worse, what is going to happen next ,and why are we not standing up to this uncaring horrific government,where has our backbone gone
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I’m sorry but I am going go disagree. My daughter was diagnosed at 9 yrs old with type 1. It was essential that she learned to manage her condition as soon as possible and in fact I have only had to give her her insulin 3 times and she has just turned 16. I have hardly incurred any extra costs because of her diabetes other than transporting her to clinic appointments and never even considered applying for DLA for her despite being in receipt of it myself.
Molly coddling your child with regards to their diabetes is doing them no favours the sooner you treat is as just something they have to get on with the sooner they will too.
I don’t understand people ‘giving up work’ to help manage their child’s condition when that child school during the day and if the child is too young for school then child care nurseries are well equipped to deal with diabetes if the parent provides a check list of do’s and don’ts. Yes, there may be occasional times when it is necessary to collect the child in cases of bad hypo’s but if this is becoming a regular occurrence then re-education of both parent and child is needed and readily available from their diabetic practitioners.
Understand, people who genuinely are in need of DLA are dying as they cannot afford the extra care that they need to survive, they cannot afford to both eat AND heat their homes, the sheer stress of wondering when this government is going to take away their benefits is leading to vast numbers of suicides.
Diabetes is NOT a condition that requires the extra support of DLA.
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I agree, My son was diagnosed with Epilepsy aged 6yrs, which was triggered my the trauma of losing his Dad, he is now 9. He has learning difficulties, and has suffered bullying at his previous school because he is an easy target. His DLA has been stopped because they say he doesn’t need any more help than a regular 9yr old. He has nocturnal seizures, absence seizures, and Tonic-Clonic seizures, which haven’t yet been controlled by his medication. His Neurologist has said that they probably wont be properly under control till he is an adult, as medication is worked out by weight, and my son is growing, so his medication works for a while, but as he grows it starts to become unaffective. He would not remember to take his medication by himself. When he has a nocturnal seizure, he wets himself, and vomits, and is very disorientated. His absence seizures happen anytime and often, which makes it unsafe to let him go anywhere by himself. He once stopped in the middle of a busy carpark, and was nearly hit by a reversing car. He has very poor concentration, and has a very poor memory. I would never leave him alone in the bath. I think that anyone that is diagnosed with an illness should be entitled to DLA without question. I don’t think that this new system to find out if a person is entitled to DLA is very fair at all.
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Really sorry to hear about all of this Tessa. Sounds to me like you’ve got your hands full in so many ways. I do hope that your situation improves and that your son’s medication can be sorted out properly. I hope you keep fighting for the DLA. I’m doing my very best to make as many people aware of this huge failing on the governments part.
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Hello Tessa,
I am so angry about your story/situation. It is just unbelievable. Even worse than the case the petition was started for, in my opinion.
Would you give me permission to publish your comment as a blog post and send it around on social media?
Very best wishes
Samedifference1
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I understand what Jillian is saying and I think I’ve done a great job of encouraging my son to be an independent and sensible boy where his diabetes management goes. He is far from mollycoddled. However, I do NOT expect him to take overall responsibility for it at 12. In every other walk of life he is not deemed an adult until he is at least 16.
I chose to get a job around his care so i could be at home when necessary so I didn’t have to keep asking for time off work. I didn’t want someone else to have to take on the responsibility of his care when I felt it should be me.
My argument with the DWP is that some children are awarded DLA, whilst others are not. If the government take the stance that no child with Diabetes got it, then that to would be fine but I object to not being eligible purely on the say so of how a form was filled in.
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Reblogged this on Social Awareness.
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