Disability Benefit for Migraine?

I know a girl who has a 1st class degree and a masters but who doesn't work, she has in the past but she is now too ill with migraine and she is in the Support Group of ESA which is the highest rate of care.

I am shocked someone can get ESA at all for migraine, after all doesn't everyone get headaches? Also I really thought they were cracking down on who could and could not get these benefits. It is true that she is ill quite a few days a month with bad migraines, she is on various medications and sees a neurologist every few months but she is also often out and about, she goes to the local council gym which she gets her membership of very cheaply, she takes an evening class, goes to art galleries, the cinema, even the odd gig although she cannot drink.

Other than that she is at home, reading and taking it easy so she doesn't get a migraine.

Surely this is a sign that opposed to all the bad press in the media about ATOS and the DWP being to hard on claiments that they should in fact be doing much more to make people who could be working, work!

Maybe she can do these things but working would cause her to have more migraines or for them to be worse. Or maybe working would mean she wasn't well enough to do anything else she needs to do to function. You can't judge another person's illness because you can't know how it affects them.

Do you know what a migraine is?

A migraine is basically a bad headache, yes it is classed as a neurological issue but really it boild down to a worse than usual sore head, which we all get at times.

If you've never been in a situation where a normal day-to-day life wears you out to an unhealthy degree you won't understand. I've been in a similar situation and noone really understood and I got a lot of stick for it.

The fact that she clearly likes to be active get ends up sitting at home and reading a lot indicates that she actually does have a problem.

A migraine is basically a bad headache, yes it is classed as a neurological issue but really it boild down to a worse than usual sore head, which we all get at times.

Why is it any of your business?

The thing about ESA is that it isn't supposed to take into account any of that, the whole point of the benefit is that if you can work at all, even if that working might make your illness worse or even less so that it would stop you being able to do anything else you might like to do isn't really taken into consideration, only under extreme circumstances. I'm not saying I think that is right or especially kind of the government but cut backs do need to be made. The point of ESA is that if you can do any sort of work at all you should be doing it, if she is well enough to go to an evening class or to the gym then surely she could do some kind of work?

Because as tax payers I and my family are paying for her to have her time off. My father had cancer and under went chemotherapy and he still went to work the day after, how would it be if everyone just refused to work the second they had anything wrong with them?

Well yes, all the more reason for her to do some kind of work when she can. My mum gets migraines and when they got bod our GP put her on beta blockers for a while and they cleared up, so I do know about migraine and know that there are very effective preventative medications.

Drugs work differently for everyone so while it's great that beta blockers worked for your mum, it seems they are not effective in this lady's case. You said that she is already on various medications and sees a neurologist - does this not indicate to you that there is clearly a serious problem?

I agree that benefits are not always spent wisely and that she could perhaps do a little bit of work, but i'm not sure what kind of work she would be useful for. If she got a migraine on a day she was expected to work she'd cause a lot of trouble with people trying to find someone to replace her.

ESA isn't disability benefit...that is DLA. People can get ESA for a number of reasons (of not being fit to work)- depression, social anxiety, family problems etc. Have you maybe thought she is having other complications and she doesn't wish to divulge the information to her peers? Just a thought.

A migraine is basically a bad headache, yes it is classed as a neurological issue but really it boild down to a worse than usual sore head, which we all get at times.

Well I think she also has some bowel issues etc due to migraine she isn't depressed or neurotic she is always keen to point that out. She gets top level ESA for migraine and migraine alone. So many people get these headaches but most people suck it up. I have heard of even people in wheelchairs, or with other serious disabilites failing the ESA assesment so it just stuns me she can get it for such a common complaint.