The Least, the Last and the Lost should include the long-term unemployed
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...
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- Jan 17
- 2 min
Ramblings following loss
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...
- Apr 26, 2021
- 4 min
Reflections on gardening: sin and relationship
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...
- May 11, 2020
- 3 min
Your life or my luxury?
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...
- Feb 1, 2020
- 2 min
Sometimes science is frighteningly wrong: the history of autoimmune disease
Historically, women suffering from multiple sclerosis were told that it was all in their heads. Then researchers discovered that people...
- Dec 11, 2019
- 4 min
PIP: locking chronically ill people out of disabled benefits
PIP isn’t supposed to be about diagnoses. But even with my diagnoses, I have major difficulties getting benefits assessors from a range...
- Dec 11, 2019
- 5 min
Learning to live with chronic illness without independence
Recently I failed a PIP appeal. I get standard rate mobility - which at one point the Tribunal were minded to take away - but was...
- Dec 11, 2019
- 4 min
PIP: maintaining poverty, removing choice
The point of extra-costs disability benefits is to meet some of the costs experienced by people with disability, in order to raise them...
- Mar 18, 2019
- 5 min
Where does all the money go?
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...
- Nov 22, 2018
- 2 min
UC budgeting nightmares
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 –...
- Nov 12, 2018
- 6 min
PIP appeal – overprepared fraud?
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...
- Oct 23, 2018
- 3 min
Missed telephone appointment – might I be sanctioned?
Some moments of sick apprehension today. I remembered, some time after the appointment time, that today was the day for my monthly UC...
- Oct 18, 2018
- 2 min
Some good news – I think
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...
- Oct 15, 2018
- 3 min
The Tories have messed up my council tax
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...
- Sep 27, 2018
- 2 min
Money matters
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...
- Aug 31, 2018
- 3 min
Why am I the mediator for ESA and UC?
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...
- Aug 28, 2018
- 3 min
ESA and UC aren’t talking
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...
- Aug 27, 2018
- 3 min
Universal Credit and ESA transfer
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...
- Aug 20, 2018
- 3 min
Universal Credit standard shenanigans
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...
- Aug 15, 2018
- 2 min
What they don’t tell you about council tax
Applying for council tax support is nearly as much hassle as Universal Credit. They too want my most recent bank statements, and they...