75 year old DLA renewal very worried

[Carol D41]

Hope this is the right place to post. I wonder if anyone can give me any advice to help put my elderly neighbour's mind at rest?

Our neighbour (we live in Scotland) has had DLA including High Rate mobility (he has a car) for more than 20 years after a serious accident at work caused severe back problems. He's had a long running dispute with another neighbour (trees) and this man has been telling people he has taken pictures of him carrying a heavy bag of pet food into the pet shop -he visits it often- and has passed the pictures on to the authorities to make sure he loses his benefits.

 

Our disabled friend walks with a stick, has had his front garden tarmacced so he doesn't have to walk far to his car.As well as the back injury has diabetes and is having treatment for malignent melanoma. He takes a cocktail of drugs, is often in horrendous pain and has been prescribed morphine.

 

It does seem unlikely that after a lifetime award the renewal form was coincidence and he's convinced it's not, he would have carried the bag-he always wants to help out and was probably in bed for days after, but surely people with a disability have good and bad days?

 

I wouldn't have thought if he was being investigated they could use photos taken by a member of the public but he beleives they can in Scotland? Any help would be much appreciated he's making himself ill with worry.

 

Many thanks, Carol

[Crazy Diamond]

You missed a bit, I take it that he has since received a renewal form from the DWP?

 

The reality is that yes, the DWP can act on any tip-off to decide to re-evaluate someone's award, if they have a suspicion (no matter how it came about) that the lifetime condition may have improved then it's their absolute right to review the award.

 

Whether it is the neighbour or not is irrelevant, really. Have you not heard of the Sun's oh-so-delightful "shop the scrounger" campaign?

 

The fact is, regardless as to how it came about, these are worrying times for anyone with a disability, the change-over from DLA to PIP for over 16s to under 65s being the main one, the new criteria for mobility of 20 meters, etc... Looks like your neighbour had been caught in the storm and instead of worrying about it came about, he needs to prepare for how he's going to handle it.

[Nystagmite]

He also needs to visit his GP and get as much information as he can about his care and mobility needs.