‘They treat sick people like criminals’: Woman with MS says benefits assessor insisted she stood up three times despite pain Hannah Smith was told she wasn’t entitled to Personal Independence Payment despite her muscle weakness and mobility struggles

A woman with multiple sclerosis says she was treated like she “wasn’t a human being” during an assessment for disability benefit.

Hannah Smith says the assessor insisted she stand up three times despite her protestations that attempting to was causing her extreme pain.

The 28-year-old suffers with muscle weakness and struggles with her mobility, relying on crutches or a wheelchair to get around. She also has crushing fatigue, brain fog, pins and needles and numbness.

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She was shocked to then found out she had been denied Personal Independence Payment (PIP), a benefit that helps with the extra costs of living with a long-term health condition or disability.

Hannah, from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, told i: “I was made to feel like a liar when I asked for help. I want the Government to know what they’re doing to us, what they’re putting us through. They treat sick people like criminals.”

‘It’s inhumane’

Hannah was diagnosed with the condition, which affects the brain and spinal cord, in 2014 after collapsing and experiencing numbness down her whole left side eight months before.

She has the relapse-remitting type, which means she has attacks or flare-ups of symptoms followed by periods of full or partial recovery.

Hannah, an optical assistant, decided to apply for PIP after she had a particularly tough time last year when she had four relapses and had to reduce her working days to four a week.

She says she needs the benefit to help her afford taxis when she finds commuting by public transport too much of a struggle.

Hannah recalls that during the assessment in August 2017, she broke down when asked about the impact her MS had on her life, as over the previous year she’d “barely left the house”.

“The assessor never really looked at me during the assessment,” she said. “During the physical assessment I was asked to stand up. My partner George passed me my crutches and I just about managed to stand.

“Then she asked me to stand on my left leg and lift my right leg, but I couldn’t do this. She asked me three times, even though I told her it was too painful.

“Then I was asked to put my hands behind my head, which caused me loads of pain. I said that was too much and I couldn’t go on anymore. It’s inhumane that you can’t just tell them you can’t do something because of pain and they try to make you do it anyway.”

Fighting to show others

After a year-long battle to appeal the decision, a tribunal ruled in her favour last month – but she is still waiting for the money which will be back-dated.

She told i: “The magistrates’ court wasn’t accessible and my family had to carry me into the building. I felt like a criminal being there.

“It was a relief to win but the whole process has had a massive mental and physical impact on me. And stress is known to worsen MS. It was a traumatic experience but I wanted to fight – I wanted to show them people with MS deserve all the help they can get.

“They’re not differentiating between benefit scroungers and sick people in their clamp down – we’re hardworking, tax-paying people with a health condition asking for what we’re entitled to.

“I wish the people making these decisions could experience what it’s like to suffer these symptoms and have to fight for help.”

A Department For Work and Pensions spokesperson said: “We’re committed to ensuring that disabled people get the full support that they need, and under PIP a higher proportion of people with MS receive the highest possible award than under DLA [Disability Living Allowance, which was replaced by PIP].

“Assessments work well for the majority of people, and we’re committed to continuously improving the process so that people get the support they need.

“We work closely with organisations such as the MS Society to ensure that PIP is working in the best way possible, and we recently announced that people with the most severe, life-long conditions will no longer have to attend regular reviews for PIP.”

Hannah is supporting the MS Society’s Enough campaign. The charity has launched a petition calling on the government to scrap the 20-metre rule as the measure for the higher rate of mobility support.