Am I eligible for DLA benefit as a heroin addict on methadone treatment?

[jonleeds]

Greetings folks

This is an issue that has bugged me for years now and one that when I think I could have lost out on claiming a lot of money almost sends a shiver down my spine! Last summer there was a scandal in the media as some MP suggested that the benefits agency was paying out more money in DLA to drug / alcohol abusers than it was paying to blind people. It turned out not to be true as the MP had lumped together people who were addicted to drugs / alcohol AS WELL as having other health problems. But there was still over 30.000 people in England who were making a DLA claim on the basis of being addicted to drugs / alcohol.

Now what I would like to know is how I go about making a successful claim for DLA as I have been addicted to heroin for over ten years. I currently receive ESA  - previously Incapacity Benefit. Ironically a few years ago when I was been investigated for alleged benefit fraud, which turned out to be untrue, the benefits fraud investigator asked me why I wasnt claiming DLA as I would be entitled to. I have just always felt intimidated about claiming for DLA as I'm inclined to believe that DLA is just a benefit for people in wheelchairs.

 Also I feel paranoid that if I made a claim for DLA that failed it might somehow affect my existing benefits claim. Now I know there are other people in Leeds who are claiming DLA for drug addiction but I just dont know how they do it. I've never had any help from my local CDTS / drug services with making claims for benefit, but then again I've never really asked them. Do any of the drug workers on this forum know if they can help their clients make claims for DLA?

I'm really worried as this week the government has announced some major reformation of DLA and now I think I definetely wont get it, but maybe I ought to try before these changes take effect. Please can someone help me with this, I know its not strictly regarding drug treatment, but I dont know who to ask for advice on this, the benefits agency are useless when it comes to letting you know what you are eligible for. I really am at my wits end with it. my email address is: johnnyleedsuk@yahoo.co.uk.

kind regards

Johnny

[froude]

The answer to your question is NO,they dont give DLA to addicts unless you have had your leg off or something.Plus you dont have to declare DLA as it is to help you in your disability.If you think Heroin gives you the right to get Disability Living Allowance,im sorry you are on the wrong planet,Heroin abuse is not a Disabilty,All the best Froude

[froude]

Sorry ,If you have existing medical problems you can go for it ,and it wont fuck your benefits up as you dont have to declare DLA,and its not used to work your benefits out ,you dont have to mention it if you dont want to .,All the best good luck ,it is getting harder to get it ,Froude

[sapphire]

Are you kidding??? I've got so many (very serious) things fucking wrong with me, and it's a nightmare for me to even get DLA, so to get it for being on methadone, forget it.

You may get it if you're on meth but have many.many, many other physical and mental health problems, but just for being on methadone?! No way.

I have always worked on methadone, there's no reason you can't.

[usandthem]

I wish it was so easy. The question is this Are you employable. If no then are you physically disabled. Suffering a non curable disease i.e. Cancer or are morbidly sick, Or are you missing limbs or are deaf and or blind, mentally handicapped or 100% death. If the answer is yes you will end up on the new DLA or PIP I think they are calling it. The rest will go into 2 sections of ESA ESA Support 10% of unemployed that can't work & the rest the other 90% will go on either JSA or ESA normal or will go onto a ESA rehabilitation into work for addicts and alcoholics and the such.. Mentally and psycho-mentally challenged people and those with habits will still get challenged to prove your case if you hear from JC+ to review your benefit status. If you do not hear from ESA which is unlikely, then you will be one of the lucky ones that have been already awarded ESA Support. What makes me laugh they want every1 off sick into work and there is no work out there because they have killed our industry right back as far as Thatcher to wanker Blair and wanker Brown. I hope they can get everyone into full-time work from Income Support. This should be a laugh!! I mean come on. Welcome to right wing think tank Center for Politics Studies UK and how they fuck up welfare reform.  Get me a job quick FFS!! lol!

[usandthem]

Sapphire.

There is a reason why he maybe can't work on or off methadone. If he is suffering from a mental disorder or a severe form of bi-polar or psychosis its not wise to throw someone in the work-place with this condition. On methadone or not.

You know Sapphire that gets to sounding like the type of ignorant attitude we are all fighting against with some of these keys and purple gang. "Well Jack can reduce so there is no reason why Jill can't." Mmmm...

JonLeeds probably has plenty of reasons why he wants to be on DLA  or he may not feel right for the work place as an unstable or recovering addict. We are all different.

Some people cope others do not.

That's Life

John

[jonleeds]

Hmm, thats quite an interesting response I got there! See this is partly the reason that for years I've never mentioned it as it can provoke such a negative reaction from people. But its true there are tens of thousands of drug and alcohol addicts who are in receipt of DLA largely because of their addiction and its resulting problems.

 I have been claiming Incapacity Benefit and now ESA on and off for nearly 10 years and like I said I was told by a DWP employee who was investigating me for alleged benefit fraud that I should be claiming DLA, so I am very confused. I mean the whole DLA application form has some very ambiguous questions but I've heard from other people I know who claim DLA that they were helped to apply for this benefit by their local drug services and that their doctors / drug workers provided supporting statements / letters which meant they were awarded DLA on the first application.

Its just I've never been offered assistance to apply for DLA by my local drug services and I've never asked them, but I am considering that maybe I should do. I mean I'm currently on a 60ml methadone prescription which is daily supervised pick-up, I attend a community rehab centre several days of the week and I see my drug worker at the CDTS service once per month as well as the prescribing doctor for my methadone prescription. I also see my own GP every few weeks as I take venlafaxine anti-depressants as I suffer from depression, paranoia, anxiety and agoraphobia to some extent. All this would make applying for a 9-5 job totally impractical and from what I can gather that is what DLA is there for. If you manage to work while on a methadone 'script thats good for you Sapphire, but not everyone is the same.

I dont plan on staying on these benefits forever, but for years I've been in and out of treatment and I've got clean for periods of a few months but then relapsed for whatever reason. I just need to have a proper period of sticking to my treatment and attending my community rehab centre while I get stable on methadone and then start to reduce it down to 0mls per day. I see other people getting DLA for drug / alcohol addiction who arent even in any treatment programme and they've been receiving it for decades!

All I wanted to know is I was eligible to receive this benefit as obviously it would be a great help to my standard of living. And if, as some people have suggested I am eligible but havent been claiming it then I've been missing out. I wanted to know if any drug workers who use this forum have ever assisted their clients in making claims for DLA based on drug / alcohol problems and how they go about making the claim etc. If anyone has done this in the past please could you contact me.

many thanks!

Johnny

[derek d j]

Sapphire.

There is a reason why he maybe can't work on or off methadone. If he is suffering from a mental disorder or a severe form of bi-polar or psychosis its not wise to throw someone in the work-place with this condition. On methadone or not.

You know Sapphire that gets to sounding like the type of ignorant attitude we are all fighting against with some of these keys and purple gang. "Well Jack can reduce so there is no reason why Jill can't." Mmmm...

JonLeeds probably has plenty of reasons why he wants to be on DLA  or he may not feel right for the work place as an unstable or recovering addict. We are all different.

Some people cope others do not.

That's Life

John

But isn't that exactly what Sapph is saying? Jon from Leeds may need, deserve and qualify for dla if he's pi-polar or psychotic. But not, exclusively,because he's on methadone. To say the methadone maintained ought to have dla is to say methadone disables you, which, clearly, it doesn't.

[usandthem]

Jon mate. I sympathize with you mate and by all means give it a crack.

I am sure your key-worker and doctor will give your claim some credence. My last post explains how much more difficult it has become to claim DLA now PIP as the welfare reform climate is upon us. I would say now is probably the worse time to put a claim in for DLA as they are debating its existence and want to change it to Personal Independence Payment which by the sound of it John you fit that category. I say go for it mate. Go to your doctor first. Then your DSP service manager. Get supporting letters. Then get your housing & allowance CAB through your DSP to fill out your form - and then its just a case of handing it in and waiting.

Fingers Crossed Jon

John

[jonleeds]

Well, if anyone has any more advice on the subject I would be very grateful to hear it. Otherwise I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and put in a claim for DLA before they do scrap it for this new PIP thing.  I heard something been mentioned on the telly that there are companies who will - for a price, tell you everything you need to put to virtually guarantee you will make a successful claim first time!

However I'm not looking to defraud the benefits agency, I just wanted to know if I was eligible for DLA and if I am then I'd like to apply for it. I'm going to see my own GP next week so I will raise the issue with her and see what suggestions she has and if she can provide me with a letter of support etc, then get something similar from my drug services worker and as Usandthem has suggested take the forms to the CAB and ask them to assist me complete them.

If I do have a successful claim then I'll be a little better off, if I get nothing then at least I will know for sure that I wasnt eligible. You know they make such a fuss about benefits fraud, yet the amount of benefits that are fraudulently claimed pale into insignificance compared to the unclaimed benefits that people are entitled to yet dont claim out of ignorance / pride etc.

Cheers!

Johnny

[usandthem]

But isn't that exactly what Sapph is saying? Jon from Leeds may need, deserve and qualify for dla if he's pi-polar or psychotic. But not, exclusively,because he's on methadone. To say the methadone maintained ought to have dla is to say methadone disables you, which, clearly, it doesn't.

I agree Derek, Of course it can help you when on methadone if you are striving to your goals. But that doesn't mean that you and everyone else can be fit for the work place. Depending on the individual and their motivation. I agree with Sapphire it was just the last sentence " I can do it you can do it" Well, not always. Assuming methadone affects everybody's physiology the same. Yes she may have a point. But individuals re-act differently and always will.

[derek d j]

I heard something been mentioned on the telly that there are companies who will - for a price, tell you everything you need to put to virtually guarantee you will make a successful claim first time!

However I'm not looking to defraud the benefits agtc.

You may not but thousands, possibly millions, will. How popular are these 'advisory' companies? Where do they advertise? How can they guarantee a favourable result?

I suspect instead their market is the many of thousands of eligible claimants who find the forms beyond them. If so, it means only sharks again take advantage of bureaucratic ineptitude to cream money off people who can ill afford it.

[jonleeds]

Yes Derek D J, its shocking I know, but the way these companies try and explain it is that they are finding money for you that you wouldnt have otherwise have claimed. I heard that with one of them you had to sign a contract that legally entitled them to 50% of whatever extra benefits they found for you! Surely that shouldnt be allowed! I know a lot of them advertise on the internet, one of them is called benefits and work dot co dot uk and they charge a set fee to access information that will greatly improve your chances of making a successful claim. These people arent the worst though, I know there are ones who just see it as a business opportunity for them to make profits, nothing to do with helping people improve their standard of living. I have felt tempted to go down this route, but I dont think its right so I havent.

[froude]

Get on and do it ,you never know you might get a result,if you do fill the DLA  form, ask your DSP or CAB to help you fill it in,GOOD LUCK Froude

[sapphire]

Sapphire.

There is a reason why he maybe can't work on or off methadone. If he is suffering from a mental disorder or a severe form of bi-polar or psychosis its not wise to throw someone in the work-place with this condition. On methadone or not.

You know Sapphire that gets to sounding like the type of ignorant attitude we are all fighting against with some of these keys and purple gang. "Well Jack can reduce so there is no reason why Jill can't." Mmmm...

JonLeeds probably has plenty of reasons why he wants to be on DLA  or he may not feel right for the work place as an unstable or recovering addict. We are all different.

Some people cope others do not.

That's Life
\;ZL>m FL?\/
John

That may be the case, but he did not mention any other longstanding illness's or disabilities in his original post, he said he wanted DLA for drug addiction, if he had other illness's, I would have said, go for DLA all the way.
Please don't accuse and patronise  me of being anything like the purple chubbers, all I'm saying is, being on methadone alone (with no other conditions) is no reason not to work.
I'm actually quite insulted you compare me to the purple chubbers.