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ME/CFS South Australia Inc supports the needs of sufferers of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and related illnesses. We do this by providing services and information to members.
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ME/CFS South Australia Inc aims to keep members informed of various research projects, diets, medications, therapies, news items, etc. All communication, both verbal and written, is merely to disseminate information and not to make recommendations or directives.
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UK Woman In Wheelchair Stripped Of Disability Benefits Because She Can Walk Four Steps In Assessment
Sunday 2 February 2020
From UK newspaper the Independent:
 Michelle Wyatt, 45, who was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME) 23 years ago, was told last month that her Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was to stop. |
Woman in wheelchair stripped of disability benefits because she can walk four steps in assessment
Exclusive: Severely disabled woman told moving from mobility chair to sofa suggested she could walk 200 metres unaided
A woman in a wheelchair was stripped of her disability benefits on the basis that she was able to walk four steps during an assessment.
Michelle Wyatt, 45, who had been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME) 23 years ago, was forced to survive on £1 ready meals and without heating after her Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was stopped.
The York resident said the withdrawal of her disability benefit – which amounted to £75 a week and which she had been receiving since 1998 – had left her feeling suicidal.
The decision to stop her support came after a benefit assessor visited her home in December and concluded that she was no longer eligible for PIP – a disability benefit that replaced Disability Living Allowance (DLA) in 2013 – because she was able to walk “four steps” from her wheelchair to her sofa.
The assessment report stated that Ms Wyatt was “able to rise unaided from the electric chair and transfer unaided to the sofa” and went on to conclude that it was “therefore reasonable to suggest she is able to rise and walk more than 200 metres unaided”.
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Registered Charity 3104
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