Benefits, Who Decides?

[brucemyster 75]

just finished mowing the grass and doing some glossing, not both at the same time I have to add! now going to start striping the front room walls in between studying for my BA degree in IT which i'm doing through the Open University. So where does all this spare time come from? At the moment I can't work, why after you've just done all that I hear you say? At the moment I have a fistula which is a permanent hole in my stomach from my bowel, for ease of description like a small arse hole!! and yes blood, puss a other nasty's leak out, not nice and a bit smelly at times this needs dressing twice a day at least and I can't get out of the shower let alone the house if I get the runs (to much information perhaps)I also suffer from chronic sleep apnoea meaning I stop breathing 68 times per hour when I sleep and have to wear a respirator. I have also had 3/4 of my stomach removed and am due to have part of my bowel removed in July, not to mention the arthritis, god i'm only 48!! Still with all this i'd love to go back to work as I've worked all my life and have found the last 4 years a strain on my sanity. I spent so much time in hospital it's unbelievable and even look through the job section to apply for jobs even though I know I'm not A. well enough and B. no employer in their right mind would touch me at the moment with a barge pole.

So why am I harping on? because even though I've got all these medical problems I don't qualify for benefits, all I receive is £2 what ever it is to pay for my insurance stamp and for this until recently I had to attend an interview at the job centre every month. I have had a medical now and they have written me off for the next two years, I did receive temporary disability but that was withdrawn nearly a year ago as they said I no longer qualified. I do receive the low rate care allowance as my wife has to change my dressings and help me shower to ensure my wound is clean and control my drugs as i'm so forgetful, 4 years on morphine does that for you.

The reason they say I can't get any benefits is because I was self employed for two years, 2 years before I became ill!! so in 96/97 I was self employed, employed in 98/99 got ill in 99 and that disqualifies me, what happened to all the payments I made from 1981? how come all the druggies piss heads and don't want to works get benefits and are valued more than me when I actually want to work but some days can't even walk or get out of bed.

BENEFITS< WHO DECIDES?

[Kay 3,709]

just finished mowing the grass and doing some glossing, not both at the same time I have to add! now going to start striping the front room walls in between studying for my BA degree in IT which i'm doing through the Open University. So where does all this spare time come from? At the moment I can't work, why after you've just done all that I hear you say? At the moment I have a fistula which is a permanent hole in my stomach from my bowel, for ease of description like a small arse hole!! and yes blood, puss a other nasty's leak out, not nice and a bit smelly at times this needs dressing twice a day at least and I can't get out of the shower let alone the house if I get the runs (to much information perhaps)I also suffer from chronic sleep apnoea meaning I stop breathing 68 times per hour when I sleep and have to wear a respirator. I have also had 3/4 of my stomach removed and am due to have part of my bowel removed in July, not to mention the arthritis, god i'm only 48!! Still with all this i'd love to go back to work as I've worked all my life and have found the last 4 years a strain on my sanity. I spent so much time in hospital it's unbelievable and even look through the job section to apply for jobs even though I know I'm not A. well enough and B. no employer in their right mind would touch me at the moment with a barge pole.

So why am I harping on? because even though I've got all these medical problems I don't qualify for benefits, all I receive is £2 what ever it is to pay for my insurance stamp and for this until recently I had to attend an interview at the job centre every month. I have had a medical now and they have written me off for the next two years, I did receive temporary disability but that was withdrawn nearly a year ago as they said I no longer qualified. I do receive the low rate care allowance as my wife has to change my dressings and help me shower to ensure my wound is clean and control my drugs as i'm so forgetful, 4 years on morphine does that for you.

The reason they say I can't get any benefits is because I was self employed for two years, 2 years before I became ill!! so in 96/97 I was self employed, employed in 98/99 got ill in 99 and that disqualifies me, what happened to all the payments I made from 1981? how come all the druggies piss heads and don't want to works get benefits and are valued more than me when I actually want to work but some days can't even walk or get out of bed.

BENEFITS< WHO DECIDES?

I assume if your wife works she would have been getting some top up on her wages , i had a year when my wages were the main income my ex had a car crash , & he was self employed before the accident . he got a tiny amount of help but because i was working it was reduced as to what he could claim

[mushroom 13,049]

Self employed aka fuuck'em they don't get nowt

 

If you work/worked and paid your dues etc forget it you are what's known as a provider for the dregs of the world

 

I had a broken leg, had my job to go back to, had my savings etc was off work for just over 9 months (was told by the doc's at least 8months) went to the job centre with all my bank details wages etc as I realised I was going to be short and wanted a loan to help see me through the last month/s (bearing in mind I was paying out just over a grand a month). The woman pulled up my details and took great pleasure in telling me I was all uptodate with my dues (even told me the figures I had paid under tax and NI) then proceeded to tell me I was entitled to nothing because I had a job to go back too told her straight if I had boot polish on my face with my tribe in tow straight off a banana boat she'd of given me a 5 bedroom house...... I was asked to leave :laugh:

 

Ended up having to take a loan from family to help see me back to health

 

UK is great if your a fuuckin immigrant at least here is Spain you pay, your entitled, you don't and you can fec off

[Milwr Jr. 99]

BENEFITS< WHO DECIDES?

Your local payment office usually.

They take all the details in the Jobcentre/Over the phone, then they send it onto the office that issues the payments and so on...

They have a team of people who decide (based on info given/obtained) if you are entitled to benefits of any kind.

[spade 224]

Can citizens advice not help. When one of my kids was diagnosed we were told if you didn't fill in the forms exactly how they wanted to read them you would get nowt and got help to fill them in.

[pip1968 2,490]

i have only just started to claim sickness benifit as i thought i wasnt entitled to it as we were receiving family credit,but with a bit of digging and visits to the doctors and hostpital i have now been put on it,but for how long i dont know as everyone gets kicked off at some time

[Milwr Jr. 99]

i have only just started to claim sickness benifit as i thought i wasnt entitled to it as we were receiving family credit,but with a bit of digging and visits to the doctors and hostpital i have now been put on it,but for how long i dont know as everyone gets kicked off at some time

Usually you're allowed up to three medical papers (sick notes) for up to a few months each, at that point they invite you for an assessment and they then determine if they put you on the non-med paper E.S.A, which is essentially being on sick for however long you need to, pending regular reviews and assessments of capability to work.