A recent discussion on Twitter has made me think about the above.

I am unusual in that I used to work on fraud cases, hold taped interviews with claimants and make decisions on such matters. Now I am a claimant.

My time doing the above was last century (sounds years ago). Even then, the system ethos was not to believe the claimant. Every single little thing had to be proved, and judgement decisions were always difficult; whether it was a genuine mistake or deliberate fraud for example. How there can be a quota for decisions is beyond me.

Nowadays, as a claimant it seems even worse. The forms for PIP and ESA are even more horrendous, but at least I realised that you have to be very negative and put down yourself on your worst day; very soul searching. As for the assessments; the assessor should be allowed to stop asking the rote questions (they are rote, you can see the assessor reading down the computer screen), if it is obvious the claimant is genuine. My ESA interview went on for 45 minutes although I was out of it after 5 minutes.

Society has been conditioned to accept that all claimants of disability benefits are on the fiddle. Especially, those of us with hidden disabilities.

That’s enough ranting..

God, there are times when I hate this disease. Tiredness is a massive problem at the moment; not true fogginess, but fatigue.

I try to stay positive with all my campaigning and socialising, but doing too much tires me out and the time to slow down is ever changing, sometimes allows more, mostly less. So, I never know when I have crossed the line as the adrenaline kicks in until I stop.

Stopping altogether is not an option!