I hate that genuine caring people like you, ruby and you luckygirl are put under so much pressure that they leave their professions and only the hard-skinned mini-dictators survive to claim their full pensions. I do feel for the professionals who're required to lie and bend the rules to save money and meet targets. It's not what they signed up for and I think the vast majority of people who claim are honest.
On the occasions I had empathic SWs the forms mum needed to complete weren't been nearly so much of a problem. I still didn't get anywhere and with our last big hassle (continuing care) it took help from certain people on GN to give me the knowledge and courage to fight on when I was being sent round in circles - and a letter from nice Mr Bacon MP. (We still didn't get the full entitlement but mum was running out of time)
Our Welfare State. Is it broken?