I was recently recommended Mez McConnell’s latest book, The Least, The Last and The Lost (I think that’s the right order!). Church Action...

It used to be that I was part of a team of people with chronic illness who researched and wrote about the government’s actions on social...

I love gardening. I love sitting on the ground in the sun removing weeds, dead-heading flowers or re-training a clematis. I love pruning...

It is, when I get down to it, fear. Fear because the people who need to care don’t care. Fear because I can’t get them to care. I can’t...

Historically, women suffering from multiple sclerosis were told that it was all in their heads. Then researchers discovered that people...

PIP isn’t supposed to be about diagnoses. But even with my diagnoses, I have major difficulties getting benefits assessors from a range...

Recently I failed a PIP appeal. I get standard rate mobility - which at one point the Tribunal were minded to take away - but was...

The point of extra-costs disability benefits is to meet some of the costs experienced by people with disability, in order to raise them...

I haven’t blogged in a while, though I’ve been meaning to. I’ve been meaning to write about the unexpected expenditures that make a big...

I logged in to my UC journal today to see where DWP-UC is up to with paying me the right amount of money. They’ve made one correction –...

I had a PIP appeal today. I’ve been waiting for it for ten months. I don’t think it went well. There are some points in my favour: the...

Some moments of sick apprehension today. I remembered, some time after the appointment time, that today was the day for my monthly UC...

I’ve received some good news. My UC journal today had an letter added to it saying that they have decided that I have limited capability...

Naturally, when I’ve just got in from visiting my church’s office to ask for help because I can’t manage without paying someone to do...

DWP-UC has apparently now told DWP-ESA to stop paying me. I have received, in three separate envelopes that arrived on the same day, a...

Having phoned ESA a couple of days ago, today I phoned UC to tell them that ESA had told me that they needed to send a form to ESA to say...

Phoning ESA again. It has a long spiel followed by ‘please press 1 to continue’. Why not just carry on without having to press 1? After...

I started my claim for UC on 16th July. I told ESA on the same day, or possibly a day or two before, that I had moved house, no longer...

After getting a letter from ESA last week, this week I logged on to my UC journal and found that I had – at last – got an award...

Applying for council tax support is nearly as much hassle as Universal Credit. They too want my most recent bank statements, and they...