Invalid pension

Both Invalidity Pension & Disability Allowance are very difficult to get and they would require a diagnosed illness and medical reports.

You appear as yet to have a diagnosis & an unhelpful GP.

Disability Allowance, whilst means tested may be a better option but as explained the more medical info you have the better & your GP has to fill in a section. It would have been better to apply before your illness benefit ran out but the fact you are still submitting sick certs may help your application. Allow a minimum of 2 months for a decision.

It's 8 weeks for DA decisions, IP can be many months

The applications have to be fully vetted. It is unbelievable the number of people who have no entitlement whatsoever that apply and this causes delays for the genuine applications.

So if you want to be annoyed with someone, get annoyed with the scammers. (And mostly the type of person who has never worked in their lives)

Totally agree. There's a FB page dedicated to Disability and the amount of queries asking would they qualify for all sorts of ailments is unbelievable.

A little Harsh & infact nothing whatsoever to do with delays.

Along with evidence that a illness or disability will preclude a person being able to work again, a claimant must have worked & paid contributions to be considered or eligible for IP.

Disability Allowance is Means Tested & contributions are not relevant but like IP substantial medical evidence & reports are required. GP's are not easily persuaded to sign off a patient as being entitled to DA.

It may have been the case historically DA was awarded without medical evidence or a thouragh check of that evidence but not over the past 10 years with a very high percentage of refusal for both DA & IP.

Waiting times for decisions have actually decreased substantially over the past few years.

Let's park the having to have paid contributions aside (worked to Qualify) for IP, it is a known fact waiting times for a decision have reduced drastically, at one stage it was up to 26 weeks for both DA & IP applications.

I've known people to get a refusal within 4 weeks, mainly because the medical evidence doesn't support their claim. Refusals/Declines are infact very quick. Appeals /Reviews are the main reason why applications take so long as they go to an appeals process independent of those who initially process applications, some appeals require oral hearings.

To start with GP'S have to support the application & if their initial reports lean towards any Doubt, the application refused almost immediately. It is easy to define a physical disability, say loss of a limb, not so easy with mental health or neurological issues.

Another reason for delays is not filling out forms correctly or supplying relevant documentation, medical or otherwise.

I seriously doubt many chancers would apply for either DA or IP & if they did, they are weeded out pretty quickly & not the reason for waiting times which as I've explained have reduced drastically.

My own application was approved in 7 weeks in 2023. Admittedly, I ticked all the boxes & submitted reams of Medical evidence, insuring anything asked for was attached with application.

it’s important to remember that not everyone has an aptitude for form filling or has the resourcefulness to find out where to get help with filling in their application. People may not be aware of the extent of information they need to supply and have just filled in basic information themselves on the back of a gp or public health nurse advising them to apply. It’s important that these people get a fair hearing. I know a family where the daughter is on DA and her father has extensive care needs. The public health nurse made a grave error by telling her to fill in that she looked after her dad 17.5 hours a week. The nurse wrongly thought she had to fill in half the hours as she was entitled to half rate carers only. In reality she provides 24-7 care to her dad. I tried to convince her to follow it up but they are saying they can stick their carers allowance and they will continue to manage as they have been without it. I know it’s a different payment but it’s important that people in genuine need don’t fall through the cracks.

Did you set up an account just to post this nonsense 🙄