Parkinson's case study on Radio 4's The Report last night
13 August 2010
John Birmingham, 48, from Accrington last night featured on
The Report on BBC
Radio 4, talking about his experiences with the government's
controversial assessments for judging people's fitness to work.
The last thing I want to do is sit at home doing nothing.
You can listen to the programme again on BBC iPlayer and
also read the online news story about the programme on the
BBC
website.
John's story
Diagnosed with Parkinson’s four and
half years ago, John gave up a 26-year career in engineering, due
to his worsening condition.
Determined to continue working, John applied for Employment Support Allowance (ESA) to support
him while he finds another vocation.
John attended a medical assessment as part of his ESA
application. He was surprised by the lack of understanding of his
condition:
"They asked me if I can lift up an empty cardboard box. I might
be able to do that one day, but the next day because Parkinson's a
fluctuating illness, I might not be able to do the same thing. And
I don’t think the assessors took this into consideration.
"The last thing I want to do is sit at home doing nothing. In my
eyes ESA is the support that people want to get into a job."
John has appealed the assessor's decision - but is currently
waiting in a large backlog of similar appeals.
Help improve the system
If you're affected by Parkinson's and have recently been
assessed for ESA, please respond to a Government call for evidence
with your experiences of the Work
Capability Assessment process:
For information and advice on benefits, please call our
helpline on 0808 800 0303.
- email
-
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