Claiming Benefits

Click here for Organisations that offer advice or case work in welfare benefits.

How to appeal against a DLA decision
http://tinyurl.com/6ukoqfv

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) from 2013.
Click here for a detailed free PIP factsheet that sets out its proposed descriptors that will measure someone's ability to carry out 'daily living activities' or 'mobility activities' that will determine whether they have a 'limited ability' or 'severely limited ability' to carry out those activities.

Fibromyalgia - Guidelines for the Disability Analyst.
Document released under the freedom of information act.
This is the training and development manual for the people carrying out the medical assessments for people claiming ESA. This is the specific chapter dealing with fibromyalgia. It has been produced by the Office of the Chief Medical Adviser. Click here to read the document.

Cornwall Help
Cornwall now has people who are really interested in the rights of the disabled people. You don't need to have a specific illness or be in a wheelchair to qualify for their help either. You don't even need to look sick which is a refreshing change for us Fibromyalgia sufferers.

I first heard about Bufferzone through our local Fibro Facebook page, one of whom had used the service for support at an Atos Assessment. Unfortunately sometimes it isn't to your advantage to take a loved one with you so the lady found Bufferzone. I haven't got that far on my journey to getting any benefits yet so I needed help to fill in my DLA forms, having learned from others that a properly worded form has a much higher chance of getting through the system. I left a message on the Bufferzone website and got a prompt reply.

Tony Ley is the founder of the organisation and agreed to meet me in a location suitable to both of us, which happens to do a smashing cooked breakfast.

He arrived promptly and was soon whizzing through my forms. (I had attempted writing down suitable things on a piece of paper but they disappeared into fibrofog before I got them on the paper.)

He explained that at the moment they take around 11 weeks to get through but to notify him if he could help in the mean time.

I asked how he finances the organisation and he said that there are suggested donations for different services and they also had received grants/donations from several sources. He explained that he could go to tribunals, assessments and help with appeals.

His wife is disabled and he has also been through the system himself so he knows how the system works -at the moment he is looking for more volunteers so he can help more people find their way to help in Cornwall.

Cheryl Risden

Click here for help in other parts of the UK: