PIP And DLA Claimants To Get 65p Increase, Hunt For 75,000 ESA Claimants Owed Thousands Each

In this update we highlight the 2018 benefits uprating figures, which will see personal independence payment (PIP) and disability living allowance (DLA) claimants get as little as 65p a week extra, whilst many working age benefits are frozen altogether for another year.

We also reveal that the DWP are trying to identify 75,000 employment and support allowance (ESA) claimants who are owed thousands of pounds each.

We warn that claimants are being pushed into claiming universal credit (UC) instead of ESA, even though they will be worse off.

And we flag up the increasing number of presenting officers appearing at PIP and ESA tribunals.

PIP And DLA Claimants To Get 65p Increase, Hunt For 75,000 ESA Claimants Owed Thousands Each

Ways to Improve Orthostatic intolerance

Orthostatic intolerance (OI) is a term used for illnesses which are characterized by inability to maintain the upright posture or, bend, stoop, stand, etc without feeling faint or dizzy. Of course, when this decrease of blood pressure occurs, it can also be followed by weakness, nausea, abdominal pain, and sweating.

It is a group of illnesses that overlaps with ME/CFS and Fibro. Most anyone with Fibro or ME/CFS have one or more of these conditions.

Some with these type of conditions may need blood pressure meds or meds designed to slow speeding heart rate. Many times, they can be helped by doing some simple things. Mine has been helped by doing the following :

• When sitting up in bed, never get right up afterward. Count slowly to 10 before rising to stand.
• If bending, stooping, getting down into a tub, etc - try to keep your head above your heart as you position yourself.
  (This helps prevent the blood pressure drop)
• It can drop quickly and then comes back up, as to not be able to detect, if you take your blood pressure afterward.
• If you have to get down to do something under a counter, rise up part of the way and sit on a chair stool, etc - then count to 10 before standing.
• Staying well hydrated helps us to keep our blood volume to a good place which also helps diminish this issue with blood pressure drops. 

There is a test called the tilt table test to check for one of these conditions. However, its not an easy test and designed to see if and when you'll pass out.

A simple test that any Dr. can do is to have you lie on the table, rest for a few minutes - check your blood pressure - then have you sit up with the cuff on, quickly check the blood pressure - have you stand quickly, check the blood pressure.

Here is the list of the different types. However, they are so similar in nature, we may be diagnosed with the best one which the Dr feels fits us. I was checked by a cardiologist and told I have NMH but he also said it may be POTS - due to the two being so similar in nature.

1. Orthostatic Systolic Hypotension Where the upper number (systolic) blood pressure drops.
2. POTS - Stands for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome A healthy person will not change their heart rate standing up for an hour. In a person with POTS, this heart rate increases around 26 beats per minute.
3. Orthostatic Narrowing of the Pulse Pressure The pulse pressure is the difference between the upper number of the BP and the lower number. For example, a normal person with a BP of 100/60 would have a pulse pressure of 40. When standing still people with this condition have a drop in their pulse pressure.
4. Orthostatic Diastolic Hypertension This condition will raise the lower BP number in [the body's] attempt to push blood up to the brain.
5. Orthostatic Diastolic Hypotension - also called Neurally Mediated Hypotension This represents a fall in the lower number of the BP.

Shared with permission.

Clarissa Shepherd is author of Find Your Way: A Guide to Healing While Living With Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome and Fibromyalgia

Rail-Ex Taunton 2017

October 22nd, we ventured to Rail-Ex Taunton 2017 Somerset Railway Modellers Club's 27th Annual Model Railway Show. Stand out for us at this show was Gweek North Quay by Helston & Falmouth MRC, which was awarded the Chairman's Shield.

CVMRC 9th Annual Model Railway Exhibition

Our third outing to model railway exhibitions this year was to the local Culm Valley Model Railway Club 9th Annual Model Railway Exhibition on 16th September 2017.

Barnstaple District Model Railway Club Exhibition

And so to the Barnstaple District Model Railway Club Exhibition on 29th July 2107.

Exe Model Railway Society Exhibition

Long overdue, but a few images from the Exe Model Railway Society Exhibition on 2 July 2017, after which we visited the real railway alongside the Exe Estuary at Starcross.

DWP Starts Search For PIP Claimants Entitled To More, But 1 In 5 DLA to PIP Claimants Get No Award

In this update we have the extraordinary news that the DWP is searching for claimants to whom they can award a higher rate of personal independence payment (PIP). Though we also reveal that they are going to be doing their best to find as few as possible. We also learn that 1 in 5 DLA to PIP claimants gets no award at all. And we hear from the most senior tribunal judge in the country that 6 out of 10 social security appeals are ‘no-brainers’ that the DWP has no hope whatsoever of winning.

DWP Starts Search For PIP Claimants Entitled To More, But 1 In 5 DLA to PIP Claimants Get No Award

Huge Increase In PIP Complaints, Online Appeals Coming Soon, All DWP Phone Lines To Be Free

In our last newsletter we highlighted the case of a PIP claimant who had used a secret recording of his PIP assessment to win his appeal tribunal.

A number of readers subsequently got in touch via comments and email to describe your own experience of covertly recording medicals and other meetings.

The information being collected by John Pring’s Disability News Service (DNS) reinforces the idea that this might be a sensible precaution.

Because DNS have published figures showing that the number of complaints about PIP assessments has rocketed in the course of a year, from 142 in 2015-16 to 1,391 in 2016-17.

Not only that, but DNS have heard from 250 claimants who say that their assessment reports were not just inaccurate, they were plain dishonest.

Given this level of doubt about the trustworthiness of assessments, and given the difficulties the DWP place in the way of claimants wanting to openly record their medicals, covert recording seems more and more reasonable.

Huge Increase In PIP Complaints, Online Appeals Coming Soon, All DWP Phone Lines To Be Free