4 kidney transplants and dialysis 3 times a week - but dying Derek was STILL 'not disabled enough'

Derek McInally was turned down for Disability Living Allowance despite being sicker than his previous appeal 10 months earlier

Ordeal: Derek McInally and his carer and twin brother Ian

The last time Derek McInally was turned down for part of his disability benefits he waited 13 months for a tribunal.

By the time the date arrived, he was in the early stages of recovery from a double kidney transplant.

At his tribunal hearing, the judge looked over the top of his glasses at the lawyer for the Department for Work and Pensions.

“He’s dying of kidney disease,” the judge said. “How much more ­disabled do you want?”

So in February 2012, Derek’s Disability Living Allowance was reinstated in full.

Since then, his health has deteriorated ­dramatically. In June that year, his kidney transplant failed, and he had to restart dialysis.

He now had four failed kidneys inside him, and was ­seriously ill. Dialysis was three times a week for four hours. He was frequently laid out by infections.

Yet, incredibly, in December 2012, Derek, 48, was told he had to re-apply again for ­Disability Living Allowance.

Even more ­unbelievably, given he was even sicker than at the previous tribunal, he was turned down again – this time not just for part of his benefit, but for the full allowance.

“The people assessing me haven’t even spoken to my consultant,” Derek told me.

"They spoke to my GP who I’ve only met once to ask for an asthma inhaler.”

His twin brother Ian was deeply worried.

"Derek was so depressed when he was turned down again that he didn’t want to carry on with dialysis,” he said.

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“He can’t understand why they keep turning him down.

"He has four practically dead kidneys in him but he doesn’t need disability benefits? It’s like they are calling him a liar.”

On Tuesday morning, I emailed the Department for Work and Pensions to ask them what possible reason they had for stopping Derek’s Disability Living Allowance.

At 1pm, he contacted me to say he had had a call from the DWP to say his benefit had been reinstated.

Derek was delighted that he no longer has to worry about his benefits. But the toll on his mental and physical health over the past few months has been immense.

Derek used to work fitting cavity wall insulation and Ian in retail. Now Ian is Derek’s carer and they live in a two-bedroom council flat in Durham.

“I’ve been told if I stop my dialysis I would be dead within a month,” Derek says.

Until yesterday, the brothers stood not only to lose DLA, but also Ian’s Carer’s Allowance.

“We could also have lost the roof over our heads,” Ian says. “We’re already ­struggling as it is. I do a good job taking care of him, but have to do it on very limited money. There is a lot of personal care involved. One of Derek’s kidneys has ­calcified and he’s developed a hernia.

“Yet the original letter from the DWP said he doesn’t require any assistance.

"A man who has dialysis three times a week. I do all the shopping, cooking and cleaning for him.”

Incredibly, even when disabled people’s benefits are reinstated there is no redress built into the system – and no regulator.

The General Medical Council says it is not the regulator for ATOS Healthcare and attempts by the Work Test ­whistleblower Dr Greg Wood to ask the Care Quality Commission to investigate have been refused.
Derek has no one to complain to except the DWP.

Yet, while they have been awaiting various appeals and tribunals, the McInally brothers have been struggling to heat their flat, to eat well or to buy the cleaning products that will keep Derek’s home free from infection.

Architect: Ian Duncan Smith

“The cleaner our home, the better Derek’s chances are,” Ian says. “But cleaning products are so expensive. The cost of stuff just keeps going up.

"Our fuel bills are high because Derek is always cold because of his illness. We had to take loans out to pay our old suppliers.

"Now we can’t afford to put the gas on. Does David Cameron sit there freezing to death?”

DLA – worth between £21 and £134.40 a week – is available to disabled people who have difficulty walking or need help to look after themselves.

It is the benefit that is supposed to be changing to PIP – Personal Independence Payments – but at the weekend the Government announced massive delays to the new system.

Now disabled people like Derek are living in complete confusion as to what system will assess them in the future – even while they are facing an uphill struggle to claim under the current rules.

The DWP said that Derek McInally’s case highlighted some of the problems with DLA that they hope to resolve under PIP.

“Under PIP, claimants will have a face-to-face assessment and systematic reviews – something missing in the current system,” a spokesperson said. “And these reforms will ensure the billions we spend give more targeted support to those who need it most.”

But disability groups say PIP has been designed to remove 500,000 DLA ­claimants from the welfare system. There will be even less money available to help.

It is a fortnight since Dennis Skinner, MP for Bolsover, tore into “cruel, ­heartless ATOS” at Prime Minister’s Questions, offering a flash of hope to millions.

But, in the end, ATOS is only one ­administrator for a welfare system so fundamentally flawed it is no longer fit for purpose.

The heartless organ-grinder is Iain Duncan Smith.

Read more Real Britain columns from Ros Wynne-Jones here

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