My mum's an addict. She has been awarded PIP and has got a large lump sum of £3092.88 plus a recurring £103.10 each week. This is going to kill her.
DWP are aware she is an addict. I've warned then that they're just giving money to a woman who is going to be spending it on illegal substances.
They're still doing it anyway.
Her GP and I finally had her in a really good place. She was stable and clean for 8 months, then the DWP gave her £3092.88 in a backdated PIP claim. She's blown through £2,000 of that in a week on various substances before I got suspicious.
One of the main reasons we'd been able to get her off substances was the money. Her Universal Credit was barely enough for rent and food and I helped her manage that. If she needed extra to pay for gas or electric then I'd cover those for her. I also covered everything else she needed. Entertainment, clothes etc. Anything she couldn't afford. Without cash she wasn't able to feed her addicitons.
My issue is that her GP and I have no influence or control over this PIP money. It's not going into the joint account that her UC goes into.
I believe that it is a weekly award that gets paid monthly, so her next one is going to be like £412.40 by my calculations.
I've raised a complaint with the staff at PIP. I've spoken with a manager. They've said there's nothing they can do and that addiction is a valid reason to claim PIP.
At this point I feel like my only real option is to turn my mum into police for buying Class A and Class B substances. It's either that or she's going to die and I don't want that.
Is there anything else I can do here?
Can I get some kind of legal power over her finances to stop her from doing this?
Is there some kind of way I can appeal against her getting cash payments and maybe have her get dedicated nursing/support care instead?
Based on her previous experiences I'm certain that 100% of this money will be used to fuel her addictions.