IBS And The DWP/WRAG.

kirkcaldy

kirkcaldy

kirkcaldy

Associate
Joined
9 Sep 2011
Posts
17
Location
Fife.
I have suffered from IBS for some years now and only my family and medical staff are aware as I find it quite embarrassing to tell anyone.

However I am claiming Employment Support Allowance and on the 28th of June 2011 I had my ATOS medical and was placed on a Work Related Activity Group which I am appealing ( Not Related ).

Anyway I attended my appointment on the 8th of September 2011 at Job Center Plus Kirkcaldy for my Work Focused Interview and when I asked to use a toilet I was told there are no public or disabled toilets for me to use, and I was told by my Customer Adviser Mr Mike Woods to go to the local TESCO store and use their toilets which I did.

After I complained I was told I should go home and was given a new appointment as I was in some state and because of this I asked for a home interview as it was an undue Inconvenience to make a person with IBS to attend without a toilet being available I was told I could use the staff toilet but only in a emergency, which is really, really too kind of them I must say that goes way beyond the call of duty, to ask someone with the condition of IBS to be able to use the staff toilet in an emergency only.

I find it strange when it was the DWP who placed me in the Work Related Activity Group knowing my condition to demand me to attend and not having a toilet available for me or anyone in the same position,
well I will ask to use the toilet as many times as I feel I need it and as people who suffer from IBS will know you sometimes need to go basically after you have just gone be it just mucus, gas or Cramps.

I then found out that the local office do not hold all up to date medical information only truncated information about all my conditions and I was told that even if they did my adviser could see over 10 people plus a day and cannot read every persons notes in detail.

So I have been given another appointment for the 21st of September 2011 with a promise of a staff toilet ( Emergency Only ) and I will see what happens then, I have also contacted TESCO about the DWP directing me and who knows how many other people to their store to use their toilet and resources.

( All the information I have typed here is true and factual and I can be contacted to validate any of the information I have provided. )

Many Thanks,

R.
 
Fellow IBS suffer here, I can kind of control it with Diet though. Although I have days where it just rears its ugly head for no reason!

Very shocked by them not letting you use their Toilet though :(
 
While I have no idea what a Work Related Activity Group entails, if you are required to spend any length of time there then surely they are legally required to have accessible toilet facilities for you to use.

Technically I suppose it could be considered a workplace and as such they are breaking the law by not having adequate facilities available.

I guess, anyway.
 
I suffer quite badly with IBS, I'm currently taking 120mg of codeine phosphate and 8 mg of loperamide a day to combat it and I still get days that are from hell, I know exactly how you feel,

It is a horrible condition that I think people who don't suffer can't really understand
 
I get this sometimes, generally bought on by stress. I seem to be having a good few months at the minute where it hasn't been affecting me, but I do tend to find that certain stresfull situations will bring it on. Especially when in a new unfimiliar place.

Although I can't comment on the situation, there are 2 things I would suggest to any sufferers. Psyllum and peppermint tea. I used to take Psyllium when i was having a paticuarely bad run (it was a rather stressfull few months in my life) and although it can make you feel quite bloated it seemed to get rid of most of the other symptoms.

Now I seem to be able to control the smaller bouts simply by drinking peppermint tea, apparently the peppermint oil has a calming effect on the muscles within the bowel.

Certainly worth a try, though whether it will work for people who have it as a more permenant condition than myself I cant say.
 
I suffer from diverticular disease which often flares into diverticulitis so I know how you feel OP. Since this is GD however, I do feel obliged to point out that you've joined a computer forum to moan about IBS and the DWP. Lulz were had. :D
 
Some of the terms you used I wasn't familiar with so had to look on the DWP site.

So Employment Support Allowance is the new name for Incapacity Benefit. I guess you had your ATOS medical and you didn't get enough points from that interview to carry on claiming it. Hence they shifted you off on to Jobseeker's Allowance.

The Work Related Activity Group is a series of six interviews with people at the Jobcentre to help you back in to work.

Sounds a nightmare. I went through the same thing except the WRAG didn't exist a few years ago and I wasn't aware of the appeals process so I got shifted on to JSA. I always managed to scrape through Jobcentre Plus appointments by taking Imodium beforehand. I told the interviewers there about IBS and they didn't have a clue what life was like for me. If I didn't do what I was told, I wouldn't get my benefit. Simple as that.

Luckily, I joined a local temp agency with a very nice lady who helps me find contracts I can manage. It all turned out OK in the end. Workwise at least. :D
 
SuBsTaNcE said:
I suffer quite badly with IBS, I'm currently taking 120mg of codeine phosphate and 8 mg of loperamide a day to combat it and I still get days that are from hell, I know exactly how you feel,

It is a horrible condition that I think people who don't suffer can't really understand
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If it is anything like when I went to Egypt (pain in lower abdomen and ****ing like a baby 5+ times a day, even decimating the toilet during the flight many times) then I feel for you - It made it difficult to enjoy the holiday.

I used to have the opposite of the trots - I would **** bricks. Would get so sore sometimes it feels like someone had rammed a handfull of razorblades up my backside I was doing a number two.

I understand your pain as it is present yet nobody can see it. If you had a broken leg at least people could see the cast and understand. I used to have horrific heartburn (operation fixed it:)) and people wouldn't believe me and where quite rude about it.
 
Hello Rainmaker,

Thank you for your kind words and I do know it is mainly a computer forum,
and I am a techno geek and now suffer from IBS so I thought other users may have the same problem as well as something in common.

And do honestly mean thank you for keeping me right.

R.
 
I have Stress related IBS so I know what you're going through. I had a similar thing with the Job Centre when I was out of work. I asked to use a toilet and they said it was only for staff. I told them that I had IBS and MS and I really need to go. They said no so I advised them that I would be doing it right there on the chair I was sitting it.
Needless to say, they allowed me to use the staff toilets. I also wrote a letter of complaint. It would appear that nothing has been done if you are having the same issue now.
 
My brother was diagnosed with IBS earlier this year and i thought i'd cheer him up with the Simpsons trading card game.

He loved it and has almost got them all but still needs Apu. :(

/gets coat
 
If you email me (details in Trust) I can send you a couple of PDF's to help with your appeal process. I have sent them to a few other people on here and they have helped them get through cases successfully. You didn't get them from me though!
 
I'm not sure if I have IBS. But I do have internal piles. which bring on a very sudden urge to go. I find that if I take an Imodium in the morning then that eleviates some of the sudden urges but I'm also suffering with bad wind. But again dont know what it is before sitting on the loo. Its debilitating.

I have been diagnosed with the piles but they still haven't cleared up and I'm making another Dr's appointment
 
kirkcaldy said:
I have also contacted TESCO about the DWP directing me and who knows how many other people to their store to use their toilet and resources.
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They pull the same stunt at my local JobCentre - kept sending people over the road to a pub that I drink in. Took the landlord a few weeks to work out what was going on. When someone slipped up and told him the JC had sent her over as "it was alright" he went mental at them. They fobbed him off so he set the council on them. They tried to justify it as a staff security measure. Bunch of clowns...
 
No I am on ESA however there is WRAG and the Support Group,
and I am on prescription tablets so I have too watch what non issued tablets I take,
And why should I muck up my tablets because the DWP decide that I can't use their toilet.

I am ill and there is no disagreement about this from the DWP so then seeing that going to the WFI is mandatory then they have due care and support to meet my needs not the other way around.

And I tell people this if I need the toilet and I am refused then I think we all know what will happen without going into details and then they will have a very bad public relations incident on their hands because for one thing I am not meek or dumb.
 
Slightly OT but the job centre/driving test centre/benefits office in Bridlington also has NO toilets available for their customers or whatever they wish to call them.

It's absolutely unbelievable that in the 21st Century, government agencies in a supposedly advanced country, still can't provide toilets for members of the public who are obliged to visit their premises.
 
Aye, it can be a bitch. I guess it depends on what it is that causes it to flare up (if you can even work it out) and how easy it is to avoid. My wife is affected by milk and so forth, which is fairly easy to avoid if you're careful. Some things aren't so easy.
 
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