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Are you claiming what you are entitled to?


Guest OCD_Est.1982

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Guest OCD_Est.1982

The DWP ( Department for Work & Pensions) don't openly provide this information, but did you know that you can claim for DLA (Disability Living Allowance), which has now become PIPS. OCD is a recognised disability and allows you to claim for whether your working or receiving ESA (Employment & Support Allowance).

One other thing. If a family member is effectively helping to care for you because of your illness they could also claim for a yearly Carers Grant.

Just thought this information might be of use to some.

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Thank you for this OCD_Est,I didn't know until a couple of years ago about DLA,and I have had OCD for about 40 years,and fortunately I received it,but had to appeal,I think that PIPs will be hard though! Do you know if there is any other benefits for over 60's?

Also the carers grant how do you go about claiming it,as my partner is effectively helping to care for me.

Thanks again for this info x

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Guest OCD_Est.1982

Hi Daisy

I'm not sure if there are any additional benefits for the over 60s to be honest. However with regards to the grant, if you check out this website:

https://www.turn2us.org.uk› Carers

and check out the grants section it will explain everything. My wife claims it each year. It's not means tested, but the Carer has to use the grant for something that's a personal treat for them. They tell you to provide receipts, but we've never had to supply any. My wife has received between £200 and £300 a year in a one off payment. She has used the funds to pay subscriptions for a club she attends, buy herself an exercise bike and a Kindle Paperlight, which all meet the criteria.

It can pay for anything as long as it is specifically for the Carer. It's a wonderful scheme that gives every Carer a personal reward and quite rightly to as we would be lost without them and saves the government millions of pounds.

Hope this helps.

Oh and btw your Carer doesn't have to be claiming Carers Allowance to be eligible for a grant.

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If you are going to make a claim for any kind of benefit under this conservative government go to the CAB and also get supporting evidence from your doctor and a mental health advocate

They are a bunch of spineless bullies and are making it very hard for disabled people to get anything at all, they are a disgrace

Crack down on benefits cheats fair enough but put ill people people through these horrific tests ?

Shameful , people have taken their own lives over being denied help and this government have tried to cover it up , they have no morals

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Guest OCD_Est.1982

Hi Daisy

I'm not sure if there are any additional benefits for the over 60s to be honest. However with regards to the grant, if you check out this website:

https://www.turn2us.org.uk› Carers

Sorry my mistake. I spoke to my wife this morning for clarification because obviously she's the one who makes the claim each year. Apparently everyone who is a carer has a right to have their personal needs assessed by their local council. Each councils process may differ slightly, but with Reading Borough Council you can fill out the necessary forms online. They then assess your needs and verify if you qualify and then make a one off Carers Direct Payment.

I got the rest of the information correct lol, so I suggest that all carers contact their local council to find out how they go about getting their needs assessed.

Every care is normally eligible. My parents get a grant each because they care for my disabled brother and my aunt, who lives in Eastbourne also gets one because she cares for my 94-year-old grandmother.

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Guest OCD_Est.1982

If you are going to make a claim for any kind of benefit under this conservative government go to the CAB and also get supporting evidence from your doctor and a mental health advocate

They are a bunch of spineless bullies and are making it very hard for disabled people to get anything at all, they are a disgrace

Crack down on benefits cheats fair enough but put ill people people through these horrific tests ?

Shameful , people have taken their own lives over being denied help and this government have tried to cover it up , they have no morals

I agree totally and the way the forms are written makes it even harder for those with mental health issues because most of the questions are regarding physical disabilities. You have to know how to make the system work for you to get the benefits that you're entitled to, but if you are unsure you need to make contact with someone who does.

Unfortunately in my experience the Citizens Advice Bureau don't have much expertise in this area. My greatest help came from my psychiatric nurse. I appreciate not everyone has access to one of these, but most Health Authorities should have a mental health team to help with these issues. Ask your doctor or psychiatrist or whoever is looking after your medical needs to point you in the right direction.

If you have to go for a medical assessment try to get a mental health professional to go with you. Again speak to your doctor if necessary, but don't go alone. The doctors who carry out the assessments do not understand mental health disabilities. I found out by chance from an inside source that they have targets to meet to effectively 'force people back to work'!

One last thing, if your claim gets refused keep appealing the decision. My nurse told me that in her experience the DWP expects most applicants to 'give up and go away', but if you keep appealing they will eventually 'rollover' because they give up before it goes to an appeals court. They know that in almost all cases they lose and then they will have to pay the court costs as well.

Hope this information will be of help to a few of you when you are going into battle over benefits ?

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This is great advice plus it's another good reason to find and keep a good GP because they will address your concerns and put forward the ailments you suffer in a letter form to whom it may concern. A good GP in a few written words can save you from health assessment hell.

Additionally, it may be good to turn up to the assessment without any sleep and looking awful because the tick the box assessors are not qualified medical staff and will only go by what they see unfortunately. If you look like the swan and be paddling away out of sight, they're only going to see the cool calm collected swan. It's the one time where not hiding the compulsions is a good thing. Let them see into the hell you are suffering daily. Drop the hiding behaviours I'm sure are second nature now.

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Fighting for your benefits is of course important, and I am not at all dismissing the importance or people's rights to do that. But, just to play devils advocate what I am always keen to remind people is that the cause of needing benefits is OCD, so perhaps a better use of time (or at least equal time) is to fight to get access to the best possible OCD treatment.

No OCD and then the possibilities are endless, re-entering education, job opportunities etc. So get rid of the first problem, and the second problem becomes much less of an issue.

Of course I am not suggesting it is so easy to overcome OCD, but hopefully you all see the point I am getting at.

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I get what you are saying Ashley, but people need money to live on and this can take precedence over tackling OCD. Being recognised as being ill by the state was important to me and it was a fight I took on while waiting for therapy.

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Guest OCD_Est.1982

Fighting for your benefits is of course important, and I am not at all dismissing the importance or people's rights to do that. But, just to play devils advocate what I am always keen to remind people is that the cause of needing benefits is OCD, so perhaps a better use of time (or at least equal time) is to fight to get access to the best possible OCD treatment.

No OCD and then the possibilities are endless, re-entering education, job opportunities etc. So get rid of the first problem, and the second problem becomes much less of an issue.

Of course I am not suggesting it is so easy to overcome OCD, but hopefully you all see the point I am getting at.

I agree with what you are saying, but the path to recovery is defeating the depression as well. From my experience the worse my depression is the more my OCD is aggravated and when I have financial worries (like being the cause of my family becoming homeless for instance) no amount of drugs or therapy is going to help my anxiety.

The point I'm trying to raise is getting financial help is an integral part of your recovery. It gives you the breathing space financially to fully focus on getting better. That's why I'm so passionate about this because for me the anxiety from financial difficulties was a complete barrier against therapy and drugs being effective at all.

In my opinion sorting out your financial situation is the first step to recovery, but unfortunately our government is failing to realise this and in the long term the savings they make will be wiped out by the bigger problems they cause. If you push a person over the edge taking away their benefits and cause them to have to be hospitalised that is going to cost more than the savings they are striving to gain.

It's not rocket science. Why are they so blinded? If only our politicians could step into our shoes for a day. Then the penny might finally drop that their policies are taking this country into a colossal crisis.

Anyway that's my rant over lol. Thanks for listening. ?

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I get what you are saying Ashley, but people need money to live on and this can take precedence over tackling OCD. Being recognised as being ill by the state was important to me and it was a fight I took on while waiting for therapy.

I absolutely agree with you Gemma, but like you said, you took on that challenge whilst waiting for therapy, and that is absolutely the right thing to do, you were not ignoring therapy which I think is the point I wanted to get across.

I don't think anyone on this forum is ignoring the recovery fight by the very fact they are on the forum, most if not all are are here because they want to try and get better. But sadly not everyone thinks like you I once had a guy come to my support group many years ago to ask what benefits he can claim, the group advised him the best we could based on our knowledge, then he turned round and said he had no intention of doing anything to fight his OCD he had only come to get benefits.

I also came across something not long ago, a few weeks ago where another mental health organisation had written a letter in support of a person which basically suggested the person would never work again because they have OCD. Now I can not say the person will work again, but I don't think we can say it's not possible to treat OCD and the person will not work again either. I just found it strange that the mental health organisation were focussing on the benefit in such a way.

In my opinion sorting out your financial situation is the first step to recovery

Of course being financially sustainable offers comfort and a foundation to fight OCD but I would not say it is the first step to recovery. Like I said, I accept it is an important step to take, but I just want people to not lose sight of the focus of fighting OCD.

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Guest OCD_Est.1982

Ashley. When you have a wife and two children to consider, is it not selfish to say that focusing on your OCD is more important than dealing with the financial burden you have drawn them all into?

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Ashley. When you have a wife and two children to consider, is it not selfish to say that focusing on your OCD is more important than dealing with the financial burden you have drawn them all into?

No, I don't think it is selfish to focus on fighting your OCD. Not selfish for you and not selfish for your family, because you would all benefit. Like I said above, there is no reason to fight the OCD over fighting for benefits, both can be done simultaneously. I just wanted to emphasise the fact that that one should not be at the expense of the other.

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Guest OCD_Est.1982

I agree with that, but your previous posts gave the impression that fighting OCD is more important, which would be a ridiculous assumption!

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I can see your point Ashley , my view is ocd is so much less on my mind when I know I have water wings in the form of benefits to help me take on ocd wether it be with CBT , erp , medication etc but I guess you are rightly putting a positive slant on it as that's the right way to tackle this dreadful disorder

Best wishes

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The way I look at it is, I needed the money to pay for therapy because I did not trust the NHS and their long waiting lists and **** knowledge of OCD back in 2005 and prior to that and again in 2011-2014. No way was I going to trust that again when so unwell and after being given a host of misdiagnoses. I chanced NHS again when I was more well so less damage would be done in case i happened again to fall into the hands of a **** therapist

I have been on benefits for 4yrs and hopefully it'll be over soon. In that time I have volunteered and taken part time studying on when I was more well. Not a scrounger!

Edited by Orwell1984
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I agree with that, but your previous posts gave the impression that fighting OCD is more important, which would be a ridiculous assumption!

Why would it?

For most of us here OCD is ruining our lives, and for some that leads to depression or other co-morbid problems too. So, fighting OCD is incredibly important and for some people may well be the most important battle we have to face in life.

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But Ashley we need money and time to fight the problem. And if there are dependents, it would be even harder I imagine.

I accept that, I am not suggesting don't fight for benefits. The point I have tried and I am clearly failing to get across is that it is important not to lose sight of the main battle ahead, fighting OCD.

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I know that fighting for benefits had a really detrimental affect on my mental health. Being told I was fit to work when I couldn't leave the house or shower or do many a life basic really was a punch to the stomach. I know that it impacted on my self-worth massively and made fighting OCD even harder. I felt so unworthy not being able to work and often felt like I was a scrounger when I wasn't at all.

I know that getting benefits helps us, our families and helps to keep our independence, I also know that Ashley wants all sufferers to get better and get the best treatment possible. Lets not argue with each other. Nobody thinks anyone is a scrounger nobody wants to look down on anyone, we all just want to be well and to help others be the same.

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