Well today is interesting, seems if you choose one of there new Saturday Court sittings for appeals you actually move quicker. My Appeal hearing is the 11th of August, 2012. So this will all be sorted by the end of August, I hope. So to all you out there waiting for your appeals, if they offer you a Saturday option My Advice is take it, I have only had to wait 3 weeks for a response and less than 10 weeks from the decision maker finding me fit for work again and my actual appeal hearing.

Well there is a surprise, the Video has been removed AGAIN!
Last time I checked it was over 8,000 views, so definitely the HMRC's biggest viewing figures.
 I guess Chris Grayling didn't like the Video.

On the up side, my local MP sent me a rather scathing letter he sent to wonderful Mr Grayling, asking how the DWP managed to loose my ESA 50, and how did I score 0 Points when a Spinal Expert (Medico Legal to boot) says I am 60% disabled.

Oh well, we await an appeal date, were I will be attending :)

Well now lets see, Since I am going to appeal I thought this video might help others who are appealing for the 1st time. (this is my 3rd appeal in 4 years, so getting use to being ignored by the DWP)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L8EPHDjeqU
This link was prepared by HMCS to help with appeals, it also embarrass the government and Chris Grayling specifically.
Please view the video even if it's just to make the numbers grow and make it a popular YouTube video.

One of the best pictures I have ever seen for how I feel when someone asks, "How Are You"

1st and most importantly - R.I.P Karen Sherlock, you fought well!

Yesterday I was informed by the DWP and ATOS health care that the opinions of my Medical team, the specialists who operated on me and the Two Medico Legal Experts that prepared reports on my Health and possibility for recovery for the High Court are NOT used to determine my fitness to work.

The only things Used are the ESA50 which I filled in and they Lost, and the report by an ATOS health care professional. (Who is not a spinal doctor)
The decision then rests with a person with NO MEDICAL TRAINING called a "decision maker" employed by the DWP.

It is statistically impossible for a person to score 0 Twice but I have managed it.

I didn't ask for this to happen to me, it just did.

All I have ever asked for is to be treated with respect and compassion, something I have not received on either count.

I have been treated like a liar, told so to my face by the DWP and with no compassion for mine or any other disabled persons views or feelings.

I set out to sort out my own situation, not anyone else's, but this government has now turned me into a disability rights campaigner, against this governments crass attitude to the disabled in our community.

The conservatives are using disabled people and trying to show that we are fakers and there party is cleaning up the disability black hole. When there own study found we are not fakers!

They designed a questionnaire that is impossible to answer as the questions make no sense and are designed specifically to score 0 Points.

The way I have been treated by the DWP and ATOS is disgusting!

I am so disappointed in the conservative party I have supported for 25 years, now I will vote for anyone but them!

A Single Voice Can Be Larger Than A Crowd!

My 1st ever Blog, needs must sometimes

Well as they say "needs must" I never thought I would ever create a blog but times change and so have my circumstances.
I will post the whole story later but the reason for creating this was I received the second decision makers decision on Saturday.

So now I have read it!

This is how I have ended up creating my own blogg, admitting that "I am a Benefit Faker!"

According to the DWP I Am - 


"Although the claimant has indicated problems with a significant amount of the activities they have not provided any evidence either from a specialist or a consultant to corroborate this and therefore it it is inherently improbable and unlikely that his conditions cause him the significant functional impairment as indicated by him on the ESA 50 (that they lost) and at the assessment!" 

So A Medico Legal Expert and Consultant Spinal Surgeon is not a specialist or a consultant, funny that, when my Solicitors paid for the report they sent me to the best expert in the UK, who stated that I was 60% disabled for life and that it was highly doubtful that I would ever return to any meaningful employment. In the best case I may, at some point in the future be able to return to some sort of work but it would have to be sedentary at best.

Oh and I have the Medico Legal Report from the other side (my employers) which is from a Consultant Neurosurgeon which says exactly the same thing! I Guess he doesn't fit ATOS and the DWP's description of a Consultant either.

I now have to wait up to another six or more months to go to appeal as I have been found fit for work, Again!

They lost my ESA 50 form so faked one up and then said they did. HUH!

I Manage my pain and have managed to smile, joke and laugh my way through the very slow recovery from Major spinal surgery, that went wrong.
I Have two failed pieces of titanium at c5-c6 and c6-c7, my head turns right but not left.
I have severe damage to the Ulna nerve and a Brachial Complex.
My left shoulder does not rotate at all, my left arm bends at the elbow but not at the wrist.
I have limited use of all but my index finger and thumb on my left hand.
My shoulder and neck pain is chronic and jumps on my scale from a brilliant 2 (only had 1 day so far, but if we have had 1 we can have another) to a totally debilitating 10.
The daily average is between 3 and 5, all day, every day!
As I write this my pain is at around 6.5, it has climbed there while I type this.
I take enough codeine to sink a battle ship and I don't sleep, I take some pills and comatose for awhile.

I am having trouble smiling today, because I am to angry that a crazy system, designed for you to fail their questions, has been created and continues to be used.
I didn't ask to be in this position, it just happened, I loved my Job (lucky me).

What I do ask for is to be treated with Respect and asked questions that relate to my disability, not you all fit in this box mentality. I do ask that the opinions and diagnoses by my consultants and specialists be listened to, not some person ticking boxes and making observations over 40 minutes. 
Most of all I expect to be treated fairly, that what I am telling you is the truth, because in the vast majority of cases it is the truth. The Governments own report said so.

I am NOT a Benefit Faker, I am just a person with a disability and chronic pain, trying to live my life with dignity, self respect and the ability to pay my bills on time.