I’m sorry this is anon, I am a regular user of the board. I’ve been put in the work group for ESA, I’ve claimed IB since 2001,been diagnosed since 2000…anyway I am trying with help from social services to appeal the ESA, my ms nurse isn’t being helpful really but she has managed to sent me a short letter ( after 3 weeks of leaving messages) which states I can walk 250 metres, but isn’t this too far for dla as I get thew higher rate and even though it’s indefinate they’ll take that from me as soon as they can. I’m seeing the nurse next week for a tysabri infusion and some things in the letter are wrong anyway like the meds I’m on and the dosage and despite relapsing constantly for over a year last year and 2010, more disabling relapses before then, she just mention the relapse last year and lots of other info she’s not put down
This is really damaging my mental health and my GP is helping, but I think the nurse thinks I’m a benefite scrounger. I’m not lying, I’ve never lied on a benefir form, right now I can only stagger/shuffle around the house because of the stress, so I can only walk 250 mteres on a really good day,maybe once a month and only once or twice at most with rests in between.
I’ve tried to find out on line but I can’t find anything about the number of meteres.Please could could someone tell me? Thankyou for your help,please don’t mind if I don’t reply for a while because I can’t stop crying and mentally things are really hard. Thanks if you can help.
I think you will find the question is ‘How far can you walk before feeling pain/stress.’ If you feel pain after 1 foot but you can struggle to walk 250 yards the answer is 1 foot.
Thankyou for your quick reply and help. I’m going to join benefits and work to help with the esa, I’ve never hasd any problems before with ib or dla.Thanks again.
DLA also takes into consideration how fast you walk, e.g. I can walk quite far, but I am dead slow and have to rest regularly so I get high rate mobility. (I added an example on my form of how long it had taken me to walk around the block - I got the distance from google maps.) So make sure and add how long it takes you to walk a certain distance. I think they count anything less than 40 metres per minute as high rate, but check on benefitsandwork to be sure as I could be wrong.
yeah, like the others have said, it’s not just about how far you can walk, but about how far you can walk before experiencing servere pain or discomfort. For example, i can walk half a mile if i have to, but it’s agony. I can only walk a few steps before i’m experiencing servere pain. So, on the dla form, you write how far you can walk until you experience servere pain of discomfort.
Also, it’s important to write about what aids you need to use for walking, and if they are asking you how far you can walk unaided, make sure you answer that. Remember, answer all the questions as if it were a bad day, this is really important!
Thankyou so much everyone for your very reasuring replies. My hubby has read the letter and says it’s fine and I’m being paraniod, which is true if I think about. I’m a bit calmer now. I don’t even know how far 250m is, I remember walking up and down a corridor with my stick slowly last year, it was when I was being re-assessed for Tysabri and I can remember pushing myself a lot and being in a great deal of pain because I thought I had to be able to walk a certin lengh to be eligable for the Ty, which is not true. It’s the …not being believed that’s got to me,I’ll join benefits and work.Thanks again.
I agree entirely with the other posters. I think 250m is roughly about quarter of a mile as when I first applied for DLA I put that I could walk 500m (I had no idea how far 500m) was at the time. I was awarded low rate mobility at that time. It was only in 2009 when my MS nurse was surprised that I was only on low rate mobility, that she phoned DLA to re-apply, and they said it was because I had put that I could walk 500 m - they told me that 500m was about half a mile. I had to laugh cos I had no idea and there is no way I can walk that far even with pain and discomfort. Anyway, it was amended and I am now on high rate mobility, thanks to my MS nurse.
So, yes, as the others have said, make sure it is how far you can walk before experiencing pain and discomfort. I think they use about 50 m as a guide.