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

WELFARE BILL currently going through the UK Houses of Parliament

I have caught some of today's debate on the welfare bill in the House of Commons debate. I am one of the people who will be adversely affected by the proposed changes as I receive Employment and Support Allowance and am in the work related activity group. I receive approximately £5000 per year ESA. Under the UK Government's proposals this will be reduced by £1500 per year. This is scary as all ready I cannot balance the books and frequently my house is cold and saving money is always on my mind with every decision. I did not ask to be long term sick and never wanted to claim this benefit. Thank goodness the SNP MPs including my own MP in Glasgow North East, Anne McLaughlin are fighting this bill as I am in quite a good position in comparison to many who will be affected even although it will put me in more financial strife that I don't know how I am going to stand long term.

Change power supplier? What if you can’t without incurring a charge for several hundred pounds?

A favourite line of UK politicians in particular the Conservative and Liberal Democrat ones is that you can change supplier to save on your energy bills. This is backed up by ‘experts’ on the BBC, ITV and other main stream media outlets who always state that it is easy to change suppliers and should involve no charge. The latest of these ‘experts’ appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning (28.03.2014) and didn’t have a clue what she was talking about when faced with this problem.

The latest of these ‘experts’ appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning (28.03.2014) and didn’t have a clue what she was talking about when faced with this problem.

Due to the UK energy market not being a real market there are many people in my situation who cannot do this without incurring charges of hundreds of pounds. I was also told that there is no guarantee I would actually be able to get cheaper prices from another supplier anyway. 

there are many people in my situation who cannot do this without incurring charges of hundreds of pounds

This is due to the type of electric heating I have i.e. Scottish Power Comfort Plus White Meter where Scottish Power decide how much heating I get, although I can alter the settings additionally in each individual heater. Many people have Scottish Power White Meter (or Economy 7 in other areas) but this is different being operated using a time clock instead of the energy company, and therefore does not incur the same problem when changing supplier.

In reality I can have any power supplier I like as long as it is Scottish Power

Thus in reality I can have any power supplier I like as long as it is Scottish Power. I wrote to my MP about this and he told me I was making up my situation and of-course I could change supplier with no resultant charges (although the paperwork I sent to him from the 2 energy suppliers in question said different). 

My MP told me I was making up my situation and of-course I could change supplier with no resultant charges

My MP at that stage is now Lord Martin of Springburn and sits in the UK House of Lords, so he was well rewarded by being utterly incompetent at his job as speaker and MP too. I thought naively that Labour was meant to be the political party that tried to help, and also protect the most ill and most vulnerable. How wrong was I?

I have a long term illness which means I must live on benefits of £100 per week.

I have a long term illness which means I must live on benefits of £100 per week. How precisely am I meant to adequately heat my home on that meagre figure when I cannot benefit from the ability that I am told I have (but in reality I do not) of being able to shop around amongst energy suppliers for the cheapest tariff and therefore lower prices? My house is frequently cold from autumn right through to late spring which does nothing for my illness.

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

CHANNEL 4: BRITAIN ON THE SICK

Using undercover filming, reporter Jackie Long investigates the controversial processes used to assess whether sickness and disability benefit claimants should be declared fit for work by the UK Government contractor company ATOS Healthcare. If you are not a cynic beforehand you will be after!

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od

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/

Three out of four people applying for sickness benefits are being found fit to work or are abandoning their claims, according to Government figures.

Of the 686,500 applicants assessed for the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) between October 2008 and November 2009, 39% were judged able to work, while 37% stopped their claims before their assessments were completed.

A further 14% were put into a "work-related activity group" to prepare them for future employment.

Only 6% of ESA claimants were exempted from work-related schemes after being judged too sick or disabled to do a job.

From October, the Department for Work and Pensions said it plans to re-test millions of existing claimants to check whether they are fit for work.

Minister for Employment Chris Grayling said: "The vast majority of people who are applying for these benefits are being found fit for work or have stopped their claim.

"These are people who under the old system would have been abandoned on incapacity benefits. It's a clear indication of why reform is so urgently needed.

This is excellent news (not!!!) given that the trials have resulted in a complete shambles.

What of the woman who was diagnosed as fit for work with 0 points under this new scheme but was dead in 5 months? What of the woman who was signed off as unfit for work by the company who does these 'medicals' one week as she worked for the civil service, and then the exact opposite happened as she got 0 points in her claim for ESA the following week. This was on the BBC last week.

The latter happened to me under the old system of incapacity benefit meaning that...
1. I could not legally work as my GP had signed me off and I therefore would not be covered by an employers insurance.
2. I could not claim JSA or any other benefit as I was not seeking work.
3. I could not claim incapacity benefit as they judged me fit for work.
Therefore I was left without any way of legally having any income whilst still ill!!!! The incapacity benefit 'medicals' were a farce and were nothing to do with whether you were ill or not. The ESA 'medicals' are harder to pass and therefore will only serve to force more ill people to suffer.

As for the ridiculous system of appeals. Having gone through this process when ill and won my appeal (although it took 3 months to occur leaving me with no income for this time) which greatly exacerbated my illness due to the stress and feeling my honesty was on trial, I refused to go through with it the second time since I could not cope with the experience again again leaving me ill without any income.

The benefits system is meant to look after people who were ill. Having paid taxes for years this is what I expected but most definitely did not get. The Government's new system merely makes a bad problem worse.

http://www.christophercrawford.110mb.com