The government still thinks I'm not disabled

[kaberett]

I just got my application for DLA rejected. Again.

This fucking week.

Comments

[hilarita]

Ah, what fun. And now the govt. gets to spend more in dealing with your appeal etc. before working out that in fact, you need the DLA. Which wastes money for them, and is stressful for you.

[alexseanchai]

Gotta love red tape.

So I DuckDuckGoed the acronym to figure out exactly what I'm sympathizing with you for lack of, and, uh, think I found why you got rejected. Have you heard they're phasing out DLA in favor of a Personal Independence Payment? Maybe they're just not taking new DLA people.

[kaberett]

Actually the system is even more byzantine than that. Because I was already on DLA, I'm not going to get shifted over to PIP until sometime in 2015, probably; it's not that they think I applied for the wrong benefit, it's that I've got a two-page letter explaining why they think I'm not disabled. Only... this is the 100%-standard first-stage response: they're supposed to summon me to a medical assessment with one of their assessors, and they didn't even do that. This is the rejection by which they hope they'll get me to crawl off and die in a ditch instead of actually pursuing the claim for aid to which I am entitled under their own damn rules.

[alexseanchai]

Oooooh. Ouch.

[shehasathree]

W.T.F. >:(

[untonuggan]

That sounds like what the US Social Security System likes to do to people! D'you think it's a scheme Reagan and Thatcher hatched up together in one of their Evil-Lair meetings, or was it in place before then? I would like to think that, as initially conceptualized, Social Security and other social safety systems did not include "make people lose all hope and self-implode so we do not have to deal with them and their paperwork anymore."

[untonuggan]

Also also, in case this previous response did not make clear: What. The. Fuck. and I am sorry you have to deal with this bullshit on top of everything else.

[milkymoon]

I was thinking exactly the same thing! I honestly do think the right wings of the UK and US government do sit together and try and plot all the different ways they can try and marginalise their poor and disabled citizens more and more. I wish they'd realise Thatcher and Reagan AREN'T the sorts of people they want to emulate! D:

[untonuggan]

I think with the addition of Abbott in Australia, there will probably be more from that government as well unfortunately. Blech. I am going to avoid going on an anti-right-wing-government-and-their-economic-policies-in-particular rant at the moment, as I think we all know what kinds of things I would say, and just [insert grumblings here].

[calissa]

Yep. The report from the Commission of Auditors in Australia came out just the other day and wow.

[shewhostaples]

Your icon. And mine.

Hugs, if helpful.

[kaberett]

Thank you. <3 I will get through this, just... it was not what I needed this week.

[littlebutfierce]

WHAT. I'm so sorry.

[emperor]

Bah :-(

[sylvaine]

AUGH. :(((( <33333

[vass]

Shit. That is... well, the dalek in your icon expresses it nicely.

[frith_in_thorns]

I don't dare apply at all, because I don't think I can deal with being turned down (I have a high-anxiety relationship with my own legitimacy re "disabled", "disabled enough" and so on). I massively admire you for all the fighting you do.

[kaberett]

<333

If there are things I can do to support you, etc etc (and not just in applying).

[frith_in_thorns]

I... may take you up on that offer sometime. ♥

[milkymoon]

*kicks the government* It is completely ridiculous how governments try and put people off getting the help they need.

[worlds_of_smoke]

Fucking idiots. -.-

[silveradept]

Whaaaaat? That's [expletive deleted.]

[cxcvi]

Deleted or depleted? I could argue for either, at this point.

[silveradept]

Both, I think. This must be tiring to have to keep hopping through the hoops and being told no, only for it to turn out that no, really, it should have been yes.

[kaberett]

Indeed.

[cxcvi]

Sounds like it's time for that sign, again. The one you (and most sensible people) hoped you'd never have to use again.

[kaberett]

Quite!

[barrelofrain]

ughhhhh dislike.

[kaberett]

Gonna post the appeal letter on my way out of work today!

[shanaqui]

Fucking morons. *sends good thoughts*

[raze]

Fucking hell. Too many people I know are being rejected for coverage by their various governments' agencies. Glad you are fighting it and terribly sorry you have to.

[elialshadowpine]

Fuck. :( *hugs offered*