#benefits

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 part of household spending but aren’t generally thought of when doing ‘could I live on £73 per week’ thought experiments. Further down is my current day-to-day spending to show how the kind of spending everyone would ideally be doing for the sake of the environment – using sustainable foods and businesses – quickly takes us to £73. There is n

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 panel repeatedly referred to the fact that I have learnt to manage my condition through careful planning and pacing, and that I can’t manage more than I currently do when queried on how I could manage to sit in the tribunal room, I said that it was only with exacerbation of symptoms: nausea, flu-like symptoms, poor temperature control, brain s

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 phonecall. There was no missed call on either my mobile or landline, however, although either could have been missed whilst I took my dog out for a walk. I remembered that I had been put into the LCWRA group, and hoped that that was why I had had no phonecall, although in fact I would have appreciated the opportunity to ask what the decision re

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 for work and work-related activity. What I don’t know is whether this refers to the fact that I should have been treated as such since the start of my UC claim, on account of being in the ESA Support Group prior to having to claim UC; or whether it relates to my reassessment of capability for work because I have been transferred onto UC. Eit

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 letter saying that my ESA has ended, a second saying that contributory ESA is taxable (not that I ever received cESA), and a third that was my P45 from HMRC. I have also received, online, a letter telling me that I need to repay the ESA overpayments, which have reached over £1000. The letter says that I have to make arrangements to pay it back

Sep 20, 2018
3 min

UC update

My telephone appointment last week went fine. All the Work Coach wanted was to ask if I had received, completed and sent off the form for my WCA will which be coming up in the next few weeks. I wanted to check that someone was on top of sorting out exactly what UC I should be getting. My new appointments are added quietly to the UC journal without my receiving any notification. When I logged in, I found I had been scheduled an appointment for 2:40pm. Due to my illnesses, I ha

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 that I’m now in receipt of UC. ESA kindly keep paying me until they get said form, so that I’m not left without any money. Which is fine, except that it means I’ve basically been given a compulsory advance loan (in fact, three of them so far) which UC will have to recoup by reducing my future payments. And given that ESA is worth almost twi

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 breakdown. I’m on the basic rate, less than £75/week, and I had over £100 taken off the month’s payment because of my earnings. As an added complication, my housing association seems to change its service charge on a frequent basis – it went up between when I first moved in and asked them to write a letter to pass on to UC with my rent and service ch

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 want proof that my lodger is a student. They too would quite like to see all of this in person. The problem arises when they ask for evidence of my Universal Credit award – because such evidence does not exist until at least four weeks into the claim, after submitting one’s first monthly earnings. But Council Tax want evidence of Universal Cred

Jul 26, 2018
5 min

What they don’t tell you about the JobCentre

Yesterday I had three (!) JobCentre meetings. • One to show my housing details – the one that in my last blog I’d had to ask my housing association to specifically write and post to me a letter for; • One because I’d entered into the system that I do some self-employed work, and they wanted to find out if I were gainfully self-employed or not (I’m not); • And one which was the actual first Work Coach Commitment meeting. I didn’t know that the JobCentre didn’t open until 10

May 25, 2018
3 min

Work is not a health outcome

A couple of days ago I saw this tweet on Twitter: “Work as a health outcome is a fundamental principle for us. There must be a shared approach within the health and social care system” Jenny Osbourne from @GM_HSC #ERSAMBW #disabilityconfident #nooneleftbehind pic.twitter.com/13KRhqnyEf — Pluss (@PlussInspires) May 23, 2018 This phrase creates a visceral reaction in me every time I see it; it immediately makes me feel sick. And my healthy friends to whom I mention it react wit

Dec 30, 2017
3 min

Back in the benefits cycle

I got a brown envelope today, except it was white. The ‘Personal Independence Payment’ just showing in the address window gave the game away. I’ve been expecting a brown envelope since 24th October, when I was told my PIP was being reassessed (51 weeks after being given a two year award). I got two brown envelopes before Christmas, one announcing the £10 I get because I’m disabled and it’s Christmas, and the other announcing… the £10 I get because I’m disabled and it’s Christ

Mar 10, 2017
2 min

Chronically sick people don’t matter to the Conservative party

I’m exhausted. I’m exhausted by six years of chronic illness and seven years of Tory rule. It seems like every time I go on Twitter – and most days I don’t go on at all – there are multiple new items of the harm this political party is causing to my friends. I don’t feel I can carry on. This is why I often avoid any news outlet. But I’m also a disability researcher, and I can’t remain ignorant of what’s going on. I have to keep abreast of the major changes. So I check the BBC

Feb 27, 2017
4 min

Governments have no right to be ignorant

The government still doesn’t know what its talking about. But this time it’s almost seven years on from when it gained power, and its politicians no longer have the right to plead ignorance. They do not have the right to remain ignorant on matters of great importance over which they hold the power. A spokesperson for the government said that mental illness is not a disability. Leaving aside his personal knowledge of mental illness – which appears to be restricted to non-disab

Aug 19, 2013
2 min

Conflicting Policies

Just as nature takes millions of years to regain diversity after a mass extinction, so neighbourhoods take years, even decades, to build up informal support networks broken by forced removal. Just as DLA is the means that allows people to work, so informal support is what allows people to work. The government isn’t even identifying the problems, let alone finding solutions. Forcing people to move to other areas means making them join another waiting list after spending years

Aug 17, 2013
4 min

Conservatives have ignored their history on disability benefit reform

A new disability benefit should reflect the policy intent that the important factor is not the medical condition but the effect that it has on people’s care and mobility needs. The best that an examining medical practitioner can do is to take a snapshot of the person’s condition on the day on which he sees that disabled person. Many conditions relapse or progress at different times. One exam on one day cannot accurately capture the long-term disability. It is much better to r

Dec 12, 2012
2 min

Benefits and the Budget

George Osborne has decided that benefits will be up-rated at 1% for the next three years. Previously, they would have been uprated in line with the CPI. This is itself a Coalition-introduced decrease from uprating in line with the RPI. Uprating in line with the CPI has no merit or justification, other than that it saves the government some money. Osborne’s justification for the 1% is that without it, benefits increase at a higher rate than wages. It is therefore ‘unfair’ t