All Change – Part 3

Well hello again, here I am back for another thrilling instalment of my relocation saga (I promise, if anyone is actually following this, it will just be a few more posts)

As a quick recap, when I left you all last time it was the beginning of November and I had just submitted my PIP application form with some help from the DWP (due to shopping trolley induced wrist injury) and was also looking for a new job to get me back into my career and working in Central London.

A few weeks went by after submitting my PIP application, during which I applied for numerous jobs but nothing that really got me excited. I was also trying not to get too stressed about the PIP application (with hindsight I am pretty sure that those closest to me would happily confirm that I wasn’t doing such a great job of that).

I then received a letter from ATOS Healthcare informing me that I was required to attend a PIP Consultation on Thursday 17th December at my local dedicated Consultation centre. This now gave me 3 whole weeks to stress myself into oblivion but thankfully the next week I applied for what sounded like a great job and was offered an interview for the following week so I was able to focus on that and try not to panic about the PIP stuff.

Now without wanting to blow my own trumpet I am pretty good at job interviews mainly as I’m one of those weird people that actually really enjoys them, yes I know I’m a sick and twisted individual, but I find them interesting and whether they go well or not I find the experience very useful.

So, I threw myself into researching for my interview as I had a really good feeling about this job, the location was good and the setup sounded great. The Job Interview was scheduled to take place on Friday 11th December and it went fantastically well, so well that I was invited back to meet the Director of Sales the following Monday. This also went incredibly well and resulted in an afternoon meeting with the team to see if  we all gelled.

After seeing the team a further meeting was arranged for me to meet the general manager. In-between these meetings I had my PIP consultation which was so much more stressful than a multi-stage job interview.

The PIP consultation was arranged for 9am Monday, so, following a sleepless night due to stress and pain. I headed off to the consultation centre. The first thing I realised upon arrival is that everyone appeared to have been given the same appointment time and the place was full of people all waiting patiently to have their fate decided by a stranger. After more than an hour of waiting and watching several people query appointment times at the reception desk it became apparent that they were experiencing  some major delays but as there was no explanation forthcoming there seemed little choice but to just wait patiently (not naturally my strong point).

Eventually at about 11:30am my name was called and I was escorted to the consultation room, the lady who conducted my assessment was not a doctor but instead a paramedic who was quite dismissive and not overly interested in my answers to her many questions. Now for any of you that have been through this process you will be aware of how emotional these things can be, but for those that haven’t the questions they ask are not always based on the physical aspects of your condition (or conditions), they also ask about their emotional impact.

That, combined with the fact that you are having to face your disability in a very clinical and brutal way as well as doing whatever physical tests the assessor deems necessary, means it can be incredibly upsetting. As a result my assessors questions coupled with her seeming indifference and dismissal of my answers proved too much for me and I spent most of the assessment in tears, after all these years I still find it hard to talk about how badly my body has let me down and the day to day limitations this forces me to accept.

The entire process took just over an hour and at the end I was slowly escorted back to the reception area and told that the report would be written up to be sent to the DWP and I should simply await their decision. I then headed back to the car, once I had stopped crying and managed to calm myself down enough to drive I took myself home and collapsed for the rest of the day as I was both emotionally & physically exhausted.

To be continued...

All Change (Part 2)

Firstly please accept my apologies as it’s taken a little longer than planned to get this next post together as to be honest I’ve been struggling, feeling quite isolated and didn’t want that much negativity to show thorough in my writing as let’s be honest that can be hard work to read and the last thing I want to do is bore the pants of anyone that stumbles across this blog.

So now to pick up where I left off in All Change (Part 1) with a quick recap:

In October 2015 I was sent a letter instructing me that I was being transferred from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) but that this would require me to reapply for the new PIP benefit as there was no guarantee that I would get the same award. Now on the old 3 tier DLA system I had been awarded the Higher Rate for Mobility and the lower rate for personal care and with the mobility element I had managed to get myself a car through the Motability Scheme and this had truly allowed me to regain my independence and had meant that I was able to return to my career in the hotel industry which I absolutely adored and after a few hiccups I had now started to look for an opportunity to return to working in Central London and although it was bloody hard work the positive effects on my self esteem and mood made the exhaustion and increased pain well worth the effort and I was starting to feel like a pretty valid member of society again(albeit a very very tired one). 

So having received my letter from the DWP I called them as instructed to begin my new claim and was told they would log my intention to claim and send the forms out for completion. In the week or so that it took for my forms to arrive I managed to reinforce my clumsy klutz status by injuring my right wrist in an unfortunate collision with a shopping trolley while attempting to buy salad, and so by the time the forms arrived I was unable to complete them myself due to the fact that I am right handed and was in a rigid wrist splint, so I called the DWP again to explain and see if there was any other way that I could submit my claim and after about half an hour of being made to feel like a lonely loser for not having anyone local that I could ask to help me they eventually agreed that a local DWP officer would be able to come to the house and complete the form for me. A few days later I received a call from a very helpful man from the local DWP office and we agreed that he would come to my flat the following Tuesday to assist with my form.

When the DWP man, let’s call him Peter because I can’t for the life of me remember his name, arrived the following Tuesday as agreed he was incredible polite & helpful and assisted me in getting my form completed. Now these forms often leave me tearful and feeling quite sorry for myself as they mean I have to confront my disability and be brutally honest about my capabilities and that’s something I spend so much of my life trying to overcome that facing it head on in this way never fails to unravel me. However I tried to hold myself together as I asked Peter what would happen next with my claim and he explained that my form would be sent to the assessment office and they would either make an instant decision on my claim or contact me to arrange a medical consultation to provide further information. He also added that in his personal opinion he hoped they would arrange a consultation as he felt that would be my best opportunity for a successful claim. And so I waved Peter off with a tiny flutter of hope and continued my hunt for the ideal job to get me back into the big city.

To be continued...