[Flick]

I am receiving disability benefits (DLA and Incapacity) in the UK for some ten years now and am thinking of emigrating soon.

My husband is a qualified IT programmer so I hope to get in as his spouse.

Will it affect our application?

I read somewhere that because of an agreement between GB and NZ, benefits can be paid without having to wait for the normal two years if youu have been receiving them for the past six months, is this true?

How easy/hard is it to get benefits? I have a recognized condition that makes working impossible but it does not require treatment/medication.

Does anyone know if my benefits from the uk stop immediately?

[dusk]

Hello,

If applying as a spouse you will still be required to submit a medical, so it depends on your particular circumstance, but I owuld think you would be referred to a Medical Assessor, this will add some time to your application processing 9and possibly soem expense if extra specialists reports are required)

I have no idea about the benefits I'm afraid.

[Silverwing86]

Hi Flick and welcome to the forum.

I too was on a disability pension (in The Netherlands though) when we went for our medicals. Be prepared for a struggle, the Medical Assessors seem to have become very eager to cover their backs since the changes to the medical requirements in November 2005 and can make things difficult.

In our case it took all of fourteen months and four rounds of extra information requested before our Case Officer decided she'd had enough and gave us a Medical Waiver. The reason for this was that the MA's kept coming back with ambiguous conclusions (ie; "we think..., but we cannot be sure" kind of thing) on which basis it was totally impossible for her to make a decision.

It was also very obvious, especially from the final communications the MA's made, that they hadn't read/analysed the information provided properly at all and the conclusions they were coming to were so blatantly incorrect that the CO felt she had no choice but to either refuse us, or go the way of a Medical Waiver.

She concluded from all the information we provided (reports from a specialist, letters from my GP and other Medical experts involved in my treatment when I was being treated, which I wasn't anymore when we applied for Residency, and finally a letter from me because I was so disgusted with the wrong conclusions the MA's were coming to) that there was no reason to refuse us.

My advice would be to make sure you send in extra information preemptively with your medicals. Best to get a/some reports from a/various specialist(s), preferably stating outright that you're fine and they don't feel you would be a burden to the NZ Health System.

I'm pretty sure that had I been working at the time, my condition (Fibromyalgia) wouldn't have posed much of a problem at all, but the fact that I wasn't made them wary. It took a lot of explaining that the reason I wasn't working had more to do with the effects of having suffered from this condition for more than 20 years without knowing it (having been told by various GP's that I couldn't be feeling any pain because there was nothing wrong with me), than with the condition itself.

Don't be disheartened though, just be well prepared. Knowing ahead of time that it was going to be a tough battle would certainly have helped me a lot. Be steadfast (yet always polite, even when what they're saying is totally unreasonable :roll) and have patience, we got through it and have now been in NZ with PR for 19 months. It was sooooo worth all the hassle !

If you make sure that you provide irrefutable evidence from specialists (they take GP's opinions fairly lightly in my experience, specialist opinions are far more preferable) with your application and medicals, that you're not likely to be a burden to the NZ Health System, you should be fine. In my case it was extra difficult because so little is yet known about the condition I have that no specialist is willing to state unequivocally what the future will hold for someone suffering from it, hopefully that is not the case for you.

Good luck with the process. Definitely don't let this put you off in any way and let me know (either here or by way of the Private Messaging system on this forum once you have made enough posts, 5 are needed I think before you can send PM's) if I can help out in any way, okay ?

Cheers,
Silver

PS Sorry, I don't know anything about the agreement between GB and NZ, but due to the agreement between The Netherlands and NZ, I'm still receiving my disability pension from there.

I have found some information on the Work and Income site that may answer your questions, you can find it here (http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/individuals/travelling-or-migrating/getting-a-nz-benefit-or-pension-when-moving-to-nz.html) and here (http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/documents/united-kingdom-gate-brochure.pdf). Perusing the pages on the Work and Income site is sure to help you gain a better understanding of the situation.

[Flick]

Thankyou for your replies - it will help me to be prepared and to have the documentation ready (if/when we apply) it is seeming very positive at the moment and so that is another part of the ever-expanding jigsaw in place.

Thanks again :nice1

[nippa&pippa]

Disability allowance in UK will stop when you leave the country for good. You need to inform the dept before you leave.

Disability allowance in NZ is hard to get as well as UK's (I never get it in UK because they felt I am too independent to cope with my disability:roll:D)

However in NZ, despite on very low wages level at approx $50K a year and I am SAHM. I am not qualify for disability allowance because my husband earn "too much money"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (it will go against your husband's wage if you not working or joint wages if you do work) sorry...
If you want to see more about NZ's disability, look in WINZ
http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/manuals-and-procedures/income_support/extra_help/disability_allowance/disability_allowance-01.htm
This tell you what is your income-tested, if your OH earn more than what it is stated on the chart per week, then you won't get it...
http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/manuals-and-procedures/deskfile/extra_help_information/disability_allowance_tables/disability_allowance_rates-21.htm

[Flick]

Mmmmm .... that's interesting. At the moment my hubby is working full-time and I can manage to look after myself (with help of the money I have coming in - paying for mobility scooters, etc) but it looks as though I will loss some of that :uhoh

It does sound, from previous posts that I could apply for something though, food for thought.