Isn't staying in the UK wonderful when you are ill? I am being sarcastic of course.

I have finally been able to complete an online application for Council Tax benefit this evening having been advised to do it online. This benefit was taken away from me at the time when my income related Employment and Support Allowance was taken away from me last year in April (2017).

I have therefore had to pay full council tax since then even although I had an even lower income (i.e. about £200 per month and the council tax was £130).

My Employment and Support Allowance was reinstated and upgraded on appeal in late January 2018. I mistakenly believed the council tax benefit would be reinstated without me needing to do anything, as Glasgow City stopped it without any word from me although I subsequently advised them of my change in circumstances. This is what had occurred on previous occasions.

However I became aware that they were still taking payments.

I finally had the energy to go into their office on 16th April 2018 where I was advised to make the application online. With ME I only get small windows when I can deal with things like this so I have finally done it this evening.

I have discovered the council tax benefit can only be backdated 6 months. Therefore I have lost money due to this, as my appeal was not heard until January, and also the delay due to my own illness for which I am receiving ESA in the first place.

This adds to the money I have lost because I was unable to apply for Warm Home Discount this year due to being taken off ESA. So all in all the UK Government and DWP have screwed me out of £300 or more due to me being taken off ESA through no fault of my own and certainly not due to an improvement in my health. Great isn't it. Isn't staying in the UK wonderful when you are ill?

You wouldn't need to be desperate for benefits advice with GEMAP

On 6th March 2018 I called GEMAP originally to request an appointment to discuss my DWP benefits, who have successfully represented me in my Employment and Support Allowance appeal in January and discovered that I now had to be referred by my GP somewhat oddly, thus needlessly adding to the GPs workload.

On 19th March 2018 I attended my GP who was happy to refer me.

I phoned GEMAP on 06.04.2018 to make an appointment for a benefit check after they had called me and left a message after the referral made by my GP at Bridgeton Health Centre.

I was allocated an appointment on Thursday 3rd May 2018 at 1130am, and the call would be made to my home telephone number.

When it became apparent to me that I would not be home on the above date and time I called GEMAP again on Monday 30th April 2018 around noon to ask the advisor to call me on my mobile number. I was told that most appointments are made to peoples mobile numbers so this would not be a problem.

I was available on my mobile number at the required time and received no call.

On returning home I discovered that the call had been made to my landline home number as originally arranged and not to my mobile number as per the revised instructions.

I called the office immediately and was advised that the only thing that could be done was to arrange for another appointment on Friday 25th May.

This new date is now 81 days or 2 months and 20 days since I originally needed and wanted the advice. I am most annoyed given that the recent delay is entirely due to their mistake and not mine. You wouldn't need to be desperately needing this advice would you?

That's me just back from being at the Glasgow Lourdes, also known as the disability assessment centre.

That's me just back from being at the Glasgow Lourdes, also known as the disability assessment centre. According to the UK Government you go in ill or disabled and come out miraculously cured. If that was actually the case I would have no complaint whatsoever. What usually happens however is you remain ill, and probably more so, as you have had the income you need to exist taken away for no reason other than they require to remove half the attendees from benefits so that the company contracted to do the assessments can get its bonus. And then you require to go to tribunal to get the money you are actually entitled to back and in the meantime have to live on air and water alone. I have yet to see what positive this actually achieves apart from a big needless bureaucratic jungle (jobs for the boys) which results in the weakest and most vulnerable in society ending up in misery and on the breadline. Perhaps Ruth Davidson and Theresa May can actually tell me (as Nicola Sturgeon asked Ruth to do on Sunday). #FreeScotland #Dignity #Lourdes #Bonus #UKGovt #TheYESmovement #MAYhem #NicolaSturgeon

Minefields and Crystal Balls. Och its the DWP/ATOS again. Argh!!!!

I don't often speak about my current personal circumstances but on this occasion it just has to be done.

I have a long term illness called ME or CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) with fybromyalgia, with the added complications of some other issues too which I shall not go into for brevity.

Minefield

Realising I was ill in 2011 I was loathed to get into to the minefield of the UK Benefits system again having been ill all ready between 2005 to 2008. I therefore stayed on Job Seekers Allowance hoping I would get better in the meantime but couldn't cope with the constant harassment of attending unexpected appointments and applying for jobs that I knew that because of my illness I would not be able to do anyway.

Crystal Balls

I was just thinking that today's issue with the ‪#‎DWP‬ is similar to the time my ‪#‎JSA‬ (Job Seekers Allowance) payments were sanctioned for not attending an appointment with my advisor at Parkhead Job Centre. The only issue on that occasion was the fact the letter advising me of aforesaid appointment arrived after aforesaid appointment. So in order to have kept my JSA I would've needed a crystal ball or multiple crystal balls, and the ability to read it/them too of course!

 This is not my experience and nor anyone elses experience who actually lives in the real world.

So currently due to illness I have to suffer the UK sickness benefits system once again, which is enough to make you feel worse before you start, if you or any of the people you know have actually been involved in it. I don't know what world some politicians stay in, or the one constantly portrayed by the mainstream broadcasters i.e. that there are millions of people on these benefits who are actually not ill at all, and are therefore diddling the system. This is not my experience and nor anyone elses experience who actually lives in the real world.

Being on ESA isn't a lifestyle choice anyone with half a brain would chose if they were able to avoid it.

Being on Employment and Support Allowance is not a lifestyle choice anyone with half a brain would chose if they were able to avoid it. Every single year I have been refused it, except oddly this one, and then had to go to tribunal always getting it once the evidence was actually considered and not just dismissed.

This was despite having a long term condition, which caused me additional expenses, which the benefit is actually for.

Therefore with severely limited energy I avoided applying for #DLA or #DisabilityLivingAllowance after my first abortive attempt when despite my evidence being credible my application was refused. This was despite having a long term condition, which caused me additional expenses, which the benefit is actually for.

So this year I decided I would tackle PIP (Personal Independence Payment) the new replacement to DLA which I applied for in March. I am still waiting to be assessed.

Firstly ATOS contacted me to tell me to be patient (well I should have gotten this benefit about 8 years ago so I am that!).

I was contacted in October. After properly looking up where I was exactly to go to be assessed for ‪#‎PIP‬ - I thought it was a ‪#‎Falkirk‬ postcode but it was actually a Business Park outside ‪#‎Stirling‬. How do ‪#‎ATOS‬ expect someone with a disability or long term illness to get there? Is this a cynical ploy to stop folk from ‪#‎Glasgow‬ getting PIP?

However on contacting ATOS, despite this being standard procedure to send people from Glasgow to Stirling for assessments, they stated that in my case they would arrange for one actually in the city I lived.

In my case they would arrange for one actually in the city I lived.

I then waited with bated breath and was not disappointed when a letter from them popped through my letterbox when I was asleep again. Well no surprise there?

A letter arrived from the ‪#‎DWP‬ today advising my ‪#‎PIP‬ (Personal Independence Payment, the new replacement to ‪#‎DLA‬ or ‪#‎DisabilityLivingAllowance‬) application has been unsuccessful. Why? Because the reason I gave for my lack of attendence at my assessment on 31st October 2014 with ‪#‎ATOS‬ at Salus in ‪#‎Glasgow‬ was unsatisfactory. Yet I gave no reason as ATOS themselves cancelled the appointment! You could not make it up!!!!
 
I have to wait for months and months for this crap! You wouldn't need to need the money (which I most definitely do). To think I paid my taxes diligently for years and years when I was working (unlike Gideon and his rich pals) expecting that the Welfare State would be there when I needed it and this is what I end up with!

stop the government from taking disabilty benefit people

Responsible department: Department for Work and Pensions

This petition is to ask the government to stop its current work on changing and removing disability benefits from disabled peoples lives before it gets able-bodied unemployed people and people it put on the disabled list to massage figures from 1980's-present day and to leave disability benefit for those that deserve it and re-instate it for those that deserve it and have lost it. Possibly they could change tactics and chase bankers with huge pensions, tax dodgers and thieves that stole tax payer money to recover the money they are trying to take from disabled people during a time that the cost of living is rising to an all time high in the middle of a recession.

 http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/36522

PANORAMA: Disabled or Faking It

A thoroughly shocking programme shown on Monday 30th July 2012 on BBC2 showing that people on disability and sickness benefits are being systematically victimised by the UK Government to try to get them back into work with in many cases disastrous or even fatal consequences.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01lldrc/

THE CURSE OF BEING ILL IN THE UK TODAY – APPLYING FOR DLA

I recently discovered after being treated for something for 12 years that the diagnosis was wrong. No wonder the medication made no difference, something that I had been telling my ex GP for years (he is no longer my GP!).

Disability Living Allowance or DLA

I was advised that I should make a claim for Disability Living Allowance as my condition is long term, because my expenses are higher because of my illness and I cannot work full time even if I could get a paid job.

I made my application for DLA in January and in March much to my surprise (not!) this was refused (as I am not clinically dead – you think I am joking!?). I returned in late March and placed an application for an appeal.

Waiting time for appeals 13 months

Imagine my surprise(!?) to discover that the waiting time for appeals is currently 13 months!

It is not possible to make a claim for DSA for the first 6 months of your disablement. Add this to the 2 months it took to process the application followed by 13 months to process the appeal one wonders what the purpose of DSA actually is.

The purpose of DSA certainly cannot be to provide the disabled with money if it is requirement to wait a minimum of 21 months before (provided your appeal is successful) the applicant actually receives any. If the disabled actually needed the money then they would have starved as I am yet to hear of anyone who can live 21 months without food or water.

That is ofcourse if they live that long...

It certainly cannot be there to help the disabled either. The fact that new applicants are being systematically refused benefit actually makes those applicants feel worse and also worthless.

And once the applicants get to the promised land of receiving DSA they may only receive £20.55 per week, up to a maximum of £131.50 per week. That is of course if they live that long….

HOW DO YOU LIVE ON £71 PER WEEK JSA?

After being made redundant 5 years ago I have applied for many hundreds of jobs and had one unsuccessful interview.

£71 per week JSA 

Given my extended period of unemployment I went first to college (for the second time in my life) and each summer having not successfully gained employment I went first back to college and then onto university. There I achieved an Honours Degree in a Computing related discipline. This I didn’t necessarily want but I thought it better to do something positive.

I have therefore now got over £20000 of student debt to add to my mortgage. I am fortunate that when I was working I was careful with my money, was able to save and have no other outstanding debts.

Without savings meaning I could buy food I would have starved to death

Currently on Job Seekers Allowance I am expected to live on £71.00 per week (increased in April 2012 from £67.50, an increase which the UK Government would have loved to renege on).

Thank goodness I saved some money when I was working as without my savings I would not have had money to buy food since May 2011 and would have starved to death. 

There is no money for ‘luxuries’ like food, clothing and soap to wash myself.

My £71 covers all but £1.75 worth of my housing, television license, phone, dental, minimum travel costs and electricity (and I am freezing cold in the winter to save money on heating costs). There is no money for ‘luxuries’ like food, clothing and soap to wash myself.

In addition the popular media dubs me a layabout and the Government says benefits are too generous. What planet do they live on?

Next year I estimate my savings will run out. How will I live on £71 per week?

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.