Clifford

Clifford is 51 and lives in West Yorkshire, he shares his experience of navigating disability benefits before and after his diagnosis with MS. I was diagnosed with primary progressive MS in June 2018. For a couple of years I’d had severe back pain and was struggling to walk. I later found out this was related to MS. I'd heard of it but thought it only affected young women. I know now that's not true at all.

The year I was diagnosed with progressive MS was the darkest year of my life. To make it even worse, I had to deal with the DWP and the anxiety and stress only got worse. Last month I went to launch of the Disability Benefit Consortium’s report - ‘Has Welfare Become Unfair’.