When claimant Daniel Marshall arrived for his Personal Independence Payment assessment he was already stressed and anxious. This isn’t unusual.
Disability assessments are at best stressful stressful, and, more often than not, extremely
traumatic experiences for many disabled people.
Thanks to decades of despicably anti-working class ‘scrounger’ rhetoric within the media and political establishment, many disabled claimants have been made to feel like they have to ‘prove’ they’re not lying about their conditions.
Most shockingly, however, is that when he did suffer a series of severe epileptic fits during his disability assessment, Marshall’s wife claims the assessor simply
continued asking questions whilst her husband lay fitting on the floor.
The seizures were so severe that it is
claimed they ’caused violent convulsions and led the father-of-two to bite his tongue and begin to bleed from his mouth.’
According to Mr Marshall’s wife Sinitta, once the convulsions had subsided, the assessor stepped outside the room, called her boss for advice, and then asked if she could continue the assessment. At the same time the assessor is also alleged to have reminded Sinitta that her husband would receive no PIP if he was unable to complete the assessment.
As Sinitta described it;
We feel like she may as well have prodded his twitching body with her foot while still taking notes.
During his first set of seizures, Mr Marshall is said to have lost control of his bladder and wet himself – a common symptom in grand mal seizures. After the second series had finished, the assessor is alleged to have continued asking questions. A third series of fits after the assessment saw Mr Marshall taken to hospital.
Incredibly, despite having witnessed these seizures, the government-employed assessor, according to Mr Marshall, didn’t think to include them in the report she sent to the DWP.
The DWP disputes the Marshall’s account, stating;
Following a review of this case we do not recognize the account that has been provided and no complaint has been received.
