WHEN I WAS ILL I DISCOVERED I COULD HAVE NO LEGAL INCOME SOURCE

WHEN I WAS ILL I DISCOVERED I COULD HAVE NO LEGAL INCOME SOURCE

A story of being on INCAPACITY BENEFIT and EMPLOYMENT AND SUPPORT ALLOWANCE

I have had an extensive period when I was ill in my life.

Part of that time (although it should have been all) was spent on incapacity benefit.

During this time my benefit was stopped after a DWP medical assessment and then after a successful appeal several months later it was reinstated and backdated. Over those few months when I had no income the stress considerably exacerbated my illness and extended the period which I was ill. Indeed so did having to go through the appeal process as I felt my honesty and integrity were on trial.

However over this period of no income I discovered I could not legally claim or earn anything.

1. I could not claim incapacity benefit as the DWP said I was not ill, although my GP stated I was.

2. I could not claim either job seekers allowance or indeed income support as I was not available for work as I was still signed off and my GP would not sign me back on.

3. I could not work as I was ill, signed off, and indeed working would have voided the employers liability insurance so therefore it would have been illegal for me to be working on their premises and for them to employ me.

Fortunately I had some savings which I could use to fund the gap but without these I would have had only 2 options.

1.       I could have applied for a crisis loan which has to be redone on a weekly basis (or so I understand) and really at that stage I could not have coped with the hassle, or,

2.       Go hungry, freeze, sit in the dark and ultimately become homeless.

At the time I thought this was an isolated incident but have discovered this seemed to be regular occurrence. I know two people to whom this happened, indeed for one of them it has occurred more than once.

I realise there are some people on sickness benefits who should not be, but there seem to be increasing number of people who are not on it who should be.

I hope the new Emplowment and Support Allowance will be better, although initial investigations indicate it is worse – many charities are taking the Government to court over the changes to the benefit system which is not a good start.

I paid into a system when I was working so it would be there to help when I needed it. I found that was a naïve hope. If you become ill you are doomed because the Government and society in general does not seem to care. If it does it has a very odd way of showing it.