A ClusterHead's Life

Right now I am being screwed over once again disability. As of right now, I have no source income, no medical or prescription coverage. In addition, make matters worse, my so-called caseworker refuses to return calls or messages. The whole point of having to obtain the designation of disability status or 'Persons With Disability' PWD is to help individuals who could not otherwise hold down a steady job or support themselves. Basically, to make life somewhat 'normal' and to be treated with the respect one would give someone without a life altering disorder or ailment. Moreover, without this program in place the odds of me ending up starving and without a roof over my head are quite high... for a second time.

Last time I had major issue with the PWD program was when I first applied. As with most government sponsored programs the criteria is black and white. Either you qualify completely or you are own your own. To start things off I should mention that I had, and still do all the prerequisites for a PWD and was unable to be properly diagnosed because I cannot afford ANY medication that may aid me other than the semi-frequent ER visits. I am sad to say that I was on social assistance because repeated attempts at work failed for obvious reasons.

My doctor and I filled out the multiple page form together and sent it off the same day in October. 5 weeks the government decided to change the way people should apply for disability by having them and their doctors fill out an even lengthier, more detail set of forms. So the original form was sent back, voided, and we went ahead to fill out this new set out of forms. This not only happened to me but to EVERYONE who was on PWD in British Columbia at the same time. The people who were already established had a bit more flexibility when the time came to filling out the forms but not by much. As you can guess a landslide of letters, forms, reports, complaints, hit the workers receiving the reports and so on. For some reason the government was surprised this happened.

My doctor and I once again sat down to fill out the new form; to be on the safe side we included reports from quite a number of different type of doctors and specialists all saying this will be a long term medical issue that greatly impacts my everyday to the point of needing assistance. The forms were sent the same day in the last week in November. According to the PWD, I should have a response in 4-6 weeks. Fair enough. I mean, there is a lot of medial information to go over and people verify with. That was all fine by me.

January came and went without a peep of a response to say I was accepted or denied. Even if I was denied I could appeal through various channels and likely have more success but the thing is I need to and have the right to be told whether my application successful or not. Therefore, I called and was told something should be known by the end of the week. Then I phoned at the end of the week and was told early next week a decision should be made. Can you sense the runaround? I could. So began to call ever other day, sometimes twice a day just to be a pain. The same script was repeated back to me over and over, 'There is nothing on my computer that says a decision has been made but it was received at the beginning of December and you should know something by the end (or beginning, depending when I called) of the week.

To be continued...

I will finish up tomorrow I am just too tired right now. Sorry

Paul
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