It was a revelation that left Nicky Rowlands aghast - the moment she discovered she was being accused of fabricating the illness that had left her daughter in pain. Worse was to come. Her daughter Bethanie had to go to a hospital unit for a psychological disorder which she did not have.
About 4,500 people in Northern Ireland are receiving a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for living with fibromyalgia - but as many as one in 25 people may actually be affected. Fibromyalgia is a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body and it can be difficult to detect.
Staff at a children's special needs service are facing further uncertainty, its boss claims, after a council put on hold until 2020 its plans to pull out. Newport City Council planned to leave the Gwent Sensory and Communication Support Unit (SenCom) to go it alone.
Babies and children learn so much about the world and how to behave in it by watching other people. Long before they can communicate with us they are copying movements and taking cues from those around them. But what if a child can't see us? What if they aren't able to identify their environments or even their own bodies? Their development, personal mobility and independence can be negatively affected.
Changes to the way assessments for disability support will be carried out under Scotland's new social security agency have been announced at Holyrood.
Ministers have set out a full timetable for the rollout of benefits run by Scotland's new social security agency. Holyrood is taking over responsibility for 11 benefits, including disability living allowance, personal independence payments and carers' allowances. Overall responsibility for all of these welfare payments will sit with the Scottish government from April 2020. But opposition MSPs highlighted that the full transfer of cases and payments might not be complete until 2024.
