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Originally Posted by greencreeper
The way the system works, for the disabled, is that initially after claiming you're pretty much left alone. Then the hassling starts. First off, you get a form called the "All work test". Takes about 2 hrs to complete and asks questions such as, "Can you put a hat on". If you tick the right boxes, and enough of them, you're left alone - for a while. If you're unlucky - e.g. the woman who checked your form had PMT - then you will be called for a medical, where a doctor who wouldn't be out of place in a Nazi concentration camp, sets out to prove that you can work and that there's nothing wrong with you. They have quotas - so if your medical is at the wrong time of the month, you've had it. The doctor is there to refuse benefits to as many people as possible. The theory is that those people who are entitled to benefits will appeal against the decision and most likely win. The reality is that an awful lot of sick people give up the fight and return to work - or try to - and make themselves worse.
My dad has been through the system more times than I can remember, and the forms, battles and visits to (D)SS offices were a constant feature of my childhood. He's always fought the Government and has always won. That doesn't mean that when a (D)SS envelope arrives he doesn't become depressed. His lumber spine broke and healed displaced because he didn't seek medical treatment - you didn't when he was young and in the industry he worked in. Pain is a constant feature of his life and he deals with it. He's now in his 50s and has arthritis and high blood pressure - he is still hassled by the (D)SS.
It's the system and the people who staff it that are sickest though.
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My father has been called in a few times, they look at his medical report and then leave him alone when they realise his condition is only going to get worse.
He was very annoyed a few years ago, because the next door neighbour is also very ill with Parkinsons disease. My father was worried because the neighbour was using a big lawn mower and is not a very well guy, my father went over and they both struggled to mow the large lawn.
He was reported to the DSS for doing paid gardening work, since that he now has to refuse help to the ill neighbour.