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To: Rt Hon Chloe Smith MP Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

No more PIP reassessments for people with Lifelong Disabilities & Terminal Illness

When a disabled person has a lifelong disability, or condition that will not change or diminish, they should not have to go through Light Touch Reviews at 10 years. If someone cannot self-advocate, they can be taken advantage of and can be manipulated. Medical Consultants give enough evidence through their reports that 10 year Light Touch Reviews are un-necessary. Our daughter Holly is Certified Sight Impaired, On the DeafBlind Register, cannot use phones or fill in forms, yet we are still being told she will need a Light Touch Review at the 10-year mark, HOW? Terminally ill people need to be fast tracked & the current system is too slow, people are dying before they are in receipt of benefits!

Why is this important?

Young people and Adults with special educational needs and a lifelong disability cannot self-advocate, nor can we rely upon the system to protect them. Advocates and social workers come & go, we need to address the shortage of social workers in the SEND system. These genuinely disabled and terminally ill people are not
work shy, they are being told that despite evidence to the contrary they must work, or that they don't qualify. They cannot defend themselves and quite frankly, our government should be doing its level best to protect them, instead poorly qualified assessors employed by US companies, who’s aims are profit driven are in charge of assessment. Assuming everyone is a criminal & treating genuinely disabled & terminally ill people like this is unacceptable! Terminally ill people need to be fast tracked as soon as they are diagnosed!

Category

Updates

2019-02-15 22:15:18 +0000

Couldn't believe this when I read it, because it's simply believe beggaring, but the DWP have been asked under a Freedom of Information request to publish secret reports on ATOS and Capita PIP Failings

https://www.accessable.co.uk/articles/watchdog-orders-dwp-to-publish-secret-reports-on-atos-and-capita-pip-failings?fbclid=IwAR1feRGOehqsw7OQ9IHy5K_AwzuAWiSEDm3C8C5XhkTYD3LOiboZPXOsJZ8#.XGc1CgrIePY.facebook

2019-02-15 22:13:06 +0000

68,473 Signatures, not long until we break into 70K guys, please remember you can sign the petition, share it with your friends, family, in groups via Facebook and Twitter as well as email your contacts, also, we have our own group on Facebook now too - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2357083207689767/members/ Thank you everyone and finally, you can send the petition to your MP too. MB :-)

2019-02-14 13:16:14 +0000

Hi guys, sharing a link with you, first, we're at 65,102 Signatures <3 Whoop whoop and I've started a group on Facebook, specifically for this petition.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2357083207689767/members/ Hopefully this link will work lol. Keep signing and sharing guys, our numbers are increasing day by day, now we have a place to get even bigger.

2019-02-13 09:24:35 +0000

60,115 (if I could somersault, I would) as I can't and would find dancing incredibly hard also, a hand dance will have to do lol. Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU guys, you are awesomely AWESOME!!!

2019-02-12 21:15:03 +0000

Guys, I am so happy, I've just refreshed our Campaign page to see what the rolling count is, it just broke 58,000!!!! Whoop, whoop de dooo, Oh and Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is coming back for another series of Star Trek lol :-) Colour me happy :-) hehe That just made my day! Oh and The Boy Who would be King is set in Glastonbury and Stonehenge! I LOVE these places :-) happy happy happy. lol

2019-02-12 19:12:31 +0000

I forgot to say, 57,123 Signatures guys!!!! Whoop whoop lol <3

2019-02-12 19:11:23 +0000

Please comment guys, tell us your stories too! We want the PM to know just how bad things are out there!

2019-02-12 11:20:54 +0000

I just wanted to say that I'm amazed and astounded by your support. the signatures are literally flying in! If I could hug each and every single one of you, I would! Thank you guys! From the bottom of my heart! We are at 54,014 Signatures! Whoop, whoop de doooh!

2019-02-12 09:47:31 +0000

53, 317 Signatures <3 We are in awe, we believe that someone with a Lifelong disability or condition should not have to prove OVER and OVER that they STILL have that condition, if medical professionals have already proven it by diagnosing, by supplying supporting evidence in the way of reports, why is our government still asking unqualified assessors to assess, why are they asking an American company to employ people? I can only imagine that they are attempting to grind people down until they lose the will to fight and give up. I never give up and I never give in EVER. Holly knows this, we show her how much we care by fighting for her. She wants you guys to know how much she cares too. This is so important to us.

2019-02-12 07:43:17 +0000

52,519 guys, whoop whoop, so many more signatures. We are thrilled beyond measure guys. Keep it up, keep signing and sharing on either Facebook, Twitter or even share via email, this is a very important message that we're sending to our government. People who are disabled for Life, do not need reassessing over and over again. That's more about our government than us. Too many people too often are turned down for PIP when they are genuinely disabled or have a Lifelong debilitating condition. Thank you guys!!

2019-02-11 20:07:29 +0000

50,000 signatures reached

2019-02-11 09:41:45 +0000

45,512 Signatures <3 <3 <3 Received this email from a person who has signed Holly's petition.
People are being treated so badly, losing money for no reason at all, the only ones who win are the government.
I firmly believe the government is getting richer by conning people on Universal credit. We loose money each time our finances overlap in a month we lost £997 in benefits, because of this , They said it was due to the feed. The system is a disgrace and when I reported this to my MP he did nothing... He's meant to be my representative. This system is not fit for purpose. I'm assuming that this person meant 'fees' but if so, why should we have to foot the fees for anything?

2019-02-11 03:05:25 +0000

44,034 Signatures! Absolutely phenomenal guys! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, it's 3 am, I couldn't sleep, I have a condition called symphysis pubis dysfunction, which basically means the ligaments that are supposed to support my pelvis are long, straggly and weak instead of fat, short and strong. (at any other time in my life, I'd wish the opposite for my body lol) but this means that my pelvis is unsupported, so the bones move around a lot, mega painful. Then if you add osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia to that mix too, well you guys who know the pain of these conditions will understand, my wonky hips woke me, too painful to lie down, too painful to sit etc. but as I'd already woken hubby several times. I'm downstairs now so that he can get some sleep without me bothering him :-) Wow, you guys are so awesome. Thank you. We're going into day five and I predict we'll be at 50,000 before we know it. <3

2019-02-10 00:39:41 +0000

31,857!!! Whoop, whoop de do!! Did you know that you can request an assessor of the same gender as the person being assessed and they cannot refuse? I didn't, this is new information to me and valuable. Had I known, I would have insisted that our daughter was seen by a female assessor, not the overbearing, obnoxious, Dickensian guy we were sent instead. There are some people that this type of assessment is not suited to, this guy was in the wrong job!

2019-02-09 13:20:40 +0000

When our daughter was assessed, there was more than enough documentation in the way of evidence, i.e. reports from medical professionals. The PIP assessor didn't even bother to contact our doctors, so word of warning guys, get reports printed off by your GP, have them ready and make copies so that you have them for the future. You may have to pay for these, but it should only cost a few pounds.