Medical Assessors - the fix is in!

Been a while since I needed to rant and rave at the stupidity of the world but this was needed.

For many years now i have had to deal with the nightmare of clinical, borderline manic, depression and social anxiety and paranoia that accompanies it. it means that at this juncture, i am simply too emotional, too highly strung, to be safe to work with. As such i have been on Incapacity Benefit for many years. The main reason for my current condition was I suffered a nervous breakdown due to being falsely accused of molesting my child. It devastated me.

Last December, as can sometimes happen, I was called in by the Government and their agents the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for a assessment to prove that i am unwell. I sat with an independant assessor for a 30 minute interview. In that interviw I explained my mental and emotional constraints clearly and moreover, what had been the trigger. When he heard that, the interview changed. He gave me a look of "no smoke without fire" and from that point on, I was swimming against the stream.

I was told I would hear back from them within 2-4 weeks. 9 weeks later I receive the news that my Incapacity Benefit had been stopped due to the assessor stating I was fully fit for work and completely ignoring not only what i had said, but also the notes of my doctor. A 30 minute interview that has changed my life for the worse.

What is worse is the system for appealing. I was distraught and weeping as I called to try and find out why i had been taken off benefits, only to dioscover that there is a points-based system. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am not a human being, merely a name and numbers. It seems that I was merely 3 points short, and I had identified 9 points that the assessor had missed out ( I beleive quite deliberately).

Now comes the highly dodgy part. There is no objective test, no objective guidelines, for the assessor, or anyone looking to my appeal, has to go by or be held to. They cna, for any number of reasons including personal dislike or political pressure, mark against you and worse, you really have no comeback because the only people you can genuinely appeal to are the very people shafting you. Its an in-house system and that can only lead to one thing - wholesale and widespread corruption.

What is truly worrying, is that we are talking about a benefit paid out to those who are at their most vulnerable - the physically, mentally and emotionally infirm - and these people have no real protection as there is no objective code of conduct, no objective standards that must be adhered to. We are at the mercy of subjective opinion based on fleeting interviews and are then unable to truly fend for ourselves and we cannot even contact anyone within that organsiation for clarity as to what objective tests if any there are to protect the vulnerable.

It seems that facts and truth are irrelevant. personal prejudice or political machinations are more likely to decide your fate than whether or not you are a genuine case for help.

I know many take the system for granted, and many abuse it and the Government is right to pursue those people. But it must not, in its zeal to look efective, stomp on the weakest to make itself look tough. These are not the actions of leaders but of tyrants.

I have no idea what will happen to me. The Coatbridge Office that deals with the claims in our area come across as a very incompetent lot (who have consistently given me misleading or inaccurate information) and I also fear are very petty. In a moment of honest frustration, desperation and distress I snapped when given false information after false information and I honestly believe they are petty and vindictive enough to hold that against me.

If they do, and I state this now, then I no longer wish to live in this country. Sadly I cannot and will not be able to afford a passport so it will be the end of me I feel. There are times when I don't want to live, and this is definitely one of those days.