A claimant who was getting the higher rates of DLA has been refused any award of PIP, in spite of being partially paralysed after contracting swine flu eight years ago.
Anna Yellop, 48, has scarring of the brain, takes up to 200mg of morphine a day and is almost completely unable to stand or walk. Her husband is her full-time carer.
She has an adapted Motability vehicle which her husband has to use to drive her to accident and emergency whenever she has a neurological attack, which happens frequently.
Yellop was on the higher rates of DLA care and mobility, but was assessed as not being eligible for any award of PIP.
Not only will Yellop have to return her Motability car if her appeal is unsuccessful, but her husband will also lose his carers allowance.
Yellop had thought the move from DLA to PIP would be straightforward and had not expected to lose out:
“When I read the letter, I burst into tears straight away. I felt completely as if my head had been bashed in.”
“I felt as if someone had just come and totally robbed me of everything – it isn’t just your money, it’s your life.
“It’s your life. It’s everything I’ve gone and lost.
“The assessor came into my home and robbed me of my life.”
Yellop has now requested a mandatory reconsideration.
You can read the full story in the Cumberland News and Star
