Stopping SDP

OverlyAnxious

Can I stop SDP without causing issues for any other benefits?  What do I have to write to do so without shooting myself in the foot or triggering any more assessments?

I can't use all of the income I get due to being trapped in a small studio flat, unable to go anywhere or do anything.  I haven't been able to use my PIP backpay in the past 9 months, unlikely that I'll be able to in the next 3 so that will add to my savings at that point.  And the upcoming LHA increase will add another £50 a month to my income as well.

For those that don't know. I am totally unable to use telephones.  The only way I can contact ESA (DWP) is through mailing written letters, when I am well enough to walk to the local postbox.  I cannot commit to doing that every two weeks once my savings pass £6k in the next few months.

I would rather just stop some of this income instead.  Can't stop ESA or Housing Benefit for obvious reasons.  But if SDP is just an 'add-on', I'm hoping I can stop that?

66Mustang

Apologies if this is a crass thing to say, @OverlyAnxious, but I am taking a risk saying so as I know you share my dark sense of humour…this is actually quite a fun conundrum. How to use up superfluous money? Because the DWP clearly consider saving money to be a despicable thing to do.

In addition to @woodbine’s suggestions…

What about buying a backup for anything that you depend upon that might conceivably go wrong? Smart phone, laptop.

If not doing so already, donate a little each month to various charities.

I know a family member gets your shopping for you - apologies if I am breaking confidence by saying this - but can you transfer them extra money each time to pay for petrol?

I am aware you find food hard at the best of times but is having takeaways a possibility instead of cooking your own food?

Amazon Prime, even if you only use Amazon once a year.

NetFlix, YouTube premium (remove adverts from YouTube) and other similar services.

Will try to think of others.

poppy123456

You can just write to ESA to ask them to cancel it but whether they will action that from a letter is another matter.

I agree with others suggestions about making donations to charities, rather than stop money you're entitled to. There's so many people out there struggling with the cost of living at the moment and every little helps.

I'm a big believer in the saying "you pay for what you get" do you need any old furniture that needs to be replaced? I love solid wood furniture but it's so expensive but worth every penny.  

If you have mobility issues how about a recliner chair or even a sofa? The electric recliners are really lovely to sit on because you can recline them to any position you want, rather than all the way, if it was a manual recliner. Maybe a new bed or a nicer mattress?

OverlyAnxious

Thanks for the replies.  I appreciate the ideas but I've already been through all this trying to find suitable ways to use the money.  If I had been able to move when I needed to, I would not have all this excess income now.

I can't cope with anyone at all in my property now after several traumatic events over the past 3 years.  That rules out buying anything larger than I could lift in from outside myself.  

I also have vision issues which have prevented me adapting to any new screen device in the past 5 years.  I have tried several phones, laptops and a new TV which were all unsuitable and had to be returned or sold on.  I do not have the storage space to keep backup items for anything.

Takeaways haven't been an option for me since 2007 - when I realised that the oil/grease used in them triggered immediate 'digestive' issues.  I can't eat much now anyway, basically just toast and potato waffles.  My cooker has been broken for over 12 months but I couldn't cope with having anyone in to repair or replace it.

I don't use Amazon Prime or Netflix or anything like that.  Just basic Freeview is enough for me.

When I first got PIP I tried to use it for private healthcare, dental and mental health treatment and a private autism assessment.  Only to find that all of those services were still completely inaccessible to someone with my limitations.  I am now unable to cope with even email contact with HCP's so that rules out private treatment of any sort.

The sad irony is that I do need to replace several large items which have been faulty for some time now, but cannot manage the physical & practical reality of doing that.  And I do need physical treatment for some treatable issues, but have no way to manage that either.  I needed to move to a more suitable property before my health declined to this point.  But that was not possible, and I cannot see it ever being possible now.  As a single male with no dependents I am at the bottom of the housing association list, and private landlords don't want people like me in their properties.

I know some people are still able to live a good life with health conditions & benefits.  Sadly I am not one of those people.  I am just trying to reach the end now without causing any more unnecessary extra stress.

I do give small amounts to a few charities, and would still be able to do that without the SDP.  I don't think DWP would accept large amounts being given to charity as anything other than deprivation of capital. 

I know most on here don't want to see negative posts which is why I rarely post now.  But unfortunately I don't see any way for my situation to improve.  There are some unavoidable events coming up that will make it even worse within the next few months.

Adrian_Scope

What sort of events are in the offing, if you don't mind me asking @OverlyAnxious?

I know you've tried a whole bunch of options over the years, so I don't want to just suggest the same things and I personally am glad that you still talk about things here, regardless of how negative you might think they are. Would you be able to give us a rough idea of what sort of support you think you would benefit from at this point, knowing what would be feasible for you?

OverlyAnxious

Adrian_Scope said:

What sort of events are in the offing, if you don't mind me asking @OverlyAnxious?

I know you've tried a whole bunch of options over the years, so I don't want to just suggest the same things and I personally am glad that you still talk about things here, regardless of how negative you might think they are. Would you be able to give us a rough idea of what sort of support you think you would benefit from at this point, knowing what would be feasible for you?

The worst one is major property maintenance, several days worth of work, likely spread over weeks/months.  I can't cope with anyone in at all.  I can't go anywhere else.  The agents have previously forced me through similar events for up to 2 hours in the past 2 years which caused more damage to my physical and mental health than they will ever know.  The first time they eventually allowed me a reasonable adjustment, the second time they did not.  I am completely powerless against them.

What I need is a safe & secure base to live in, where basic fixtures & fittings work reliably, where I am not constantly bombarded by external influences of noise and smell and motion from every angle, and where I am not under constant threat of agents gaining entry for assessments and maintenance.  That is the only way I would gain enough 'spare capacity' to start trying to deal with one person at a time again.  There is no support that would be suitable in my current situation as there is no solid foundation to be building upon.

Lou67

@OverlyAnxious
Hi I just wanted to pop on and say I’m so sorry you are dealing with all of this on a daily basis it must be exhausting for you.

Take care ❤️

Jimm_Alumni

It would unfortunately require some money... but would it be possible to get a cheap airbnb where there is no personal contact (for example, the keys are left in a key safe outside the property) while work is done to fix and improve your current home?

I'm sorry if this is something you've already considered or is out of the question due to finances. I wish there was some way I could help more directly.

OverlyAnxious

Jimm_Scope said:

It would unfortunately require some money... but would it be possible to get a cheap airbnb where there is no personal contact (for example, the keys are left in a key safe outside the property) while work is done to fix and improve your current home?

I'm sorry if this is something you've already considered or is out of the question due to finances. I wish there was some way I could help more directly.

This thread is specifically about trying to reduce excess income.  Finances are not the limiting factor in my case.

(If income is not reduced soon, having to deal with DWP for regular savings increase declaration and/or potential spend investigation is another of the negative events approaching rapidly.)

My current property is unsuitable due to the property type, location and management.  The maintenance required would not actually improve my situation at all.

Airbnb isn't a bad idea though, and would probably work for other people in a similar situation.  I did consider it myself last week.  However, I have not slept anywhere other than my own bed in the past 15 years, and with the issues I have around food and bathroom facilities, I am not sure I could manage even basic tasks in any other property now.  I also haven't been able to travel in any sort of vehicle for the past 2.5 years, and can only walk short distances on a good day (suspect trying to leave my property for maintenance would not be a good day!).  There aren't any places close enough on the airbnb website.  So that seems like a no-go as well unfortunately.  As I say, not a bad idea though, that is the closest I've come to finding some way of getting through the maintenance event so far.

Jimm_Alumni

Ah, so you had already considered it! I'll keep thinking on it though, hopefully we can come up with something that will work for you 

sd100

sorry to hear you are stressing and the first thing that came to my head was why not just treat yourself to a few pieces of designer clothing, I was flabbergasted by the price of some of these places, for example if you go to the Gucci website their simple polo t shirts cost £800 each.
I’m sure will burn through money in no time on those kind of things. Maybe not the best answer but seems the easiest way to spend lots on very little.

OverlyAnxious

sd100 said:

sorry to hear you are stressing and the first thing that came to my head was why not just treat yourself to a few pieces of designer clothing, I was flabbergasted by the price of some of these places, for example if you go to the Gucci website their simple polo t shirts cost £800 each.
I’m sure will burn through money in no time on those kind of things. Maybe not the best answer but seems the easiest way to spend lots on very little.

Thank you for the idea but I wouldn't want to go down that route myself.  I am expecting a savings investigation in the near future and believe something like that would be very difficult to justify as anything other than deprivation of capital.

Woodbine is entitled to their opinion, but I'm afraid I disagree with them in this instance.  My savings are technically already over £6k when including the COL payments and the backpay.  While they are both technically disregarded at the moment, I believe the new bank account checks are likely to flag up my accounts and trigger an investigation into them.  I do not have the spare capacity to cope with that type of investigation myself (even though I am hopefully doing nothing wrong) let alone trying to justify a large unnecessary spend like that.

With regards to clothes, I've never liked my body enough to have any desire for designer gear.  I do need a new pair of sunglasses though.  So may look at premium brands for those this time.  Although that's not going to make much of a dent in my savings.

sd100

OverlyAnxious said:

sd100 said:

sorry to hear you are stressing and the first thing that came to my head was why not just treat yourself to a few pieces of designer clothing, I was flabbergasted by the price of some of these places, for example if you go to the Gucci website their simple polo t shirts cost £800 each.
I’m sure will burn through money in no time on those kind of things. Maybe not the best answer but seems the easiest way to spend lots on very little.

Thank you for the idea but I wouldn't want to go down that route myself.  I am expecting a savings investigation in the near future and believe something like that would be very difficult to justify as anything other than deprivation of capital.

Woodbine is entitled to their opinion, but I'm afraid I disagree with them in this instance.  My savings are technically already over £6k when including the COL payments and the backpay.  While they are both technically disregarded at the moment, I believe the new bank account checks are likely to flag up my accounts and trigger an investigation into them.  I do not have the spare capacity to cope with that type of investigation myself (even though I am hopefully doing nothing wrong) let alone trying to justify a large unnecessary spend like that.

With regards to clothes, I've never liked my body enough to have any desire for designer gear.  I do need a new pair of sunglasses though.  So may look at premium brands for those this time.  Although that's not going to make much of a dent in my savings.

OverlyAnxious said:

sd100 said:

sorry to hear you are stressing and the first thing that came to my head was why not just treat yourself to a few pieces of designer clothing, I was flabbergasted by the price of some of these places, for example if you go to the Gucci website their simple polo t shirts cost £800 each.
I’m sure will burn through money in no time on those kind of things. Maybe not the best answer but seems the easiest way to spend lots on very little.

Thank you for the idea but I wouldn't want to go down that route myself.  I am expecting a savings investigation in the near future and believe something like that would be very difficult to justify as anything other than deprivation of capital.

Woodbine is entitled to their opinion, but I'm afraid I disagree with them in this instance.  My savings are technically already over £6k when including the COL payments and the backpay.  While they are both technically disregarded at the moment, I believe the new bank account checks are likely to flag up my accounts and trigger an investigation into them.  I do not have the spare capacity to cope with that type of investigation myself (even though I am hopefully doing nothing wrong) let alone trying to justify a large unnecessary spend like that.

With regards to clothes, I've never liked my body enough to have any desire for designer gear.  I do need a new pair of sunglasses though.  So may look at premium brands for those this time.  Although that's not going to make much of a dent in my savings.

I understand, but in all honest I very much doubt even if such an investigation was taking place they have no right to tell anybody how much they can spend on an item of clothing, if it were jewellery or high value watch that would be a different story as they could appreciate in value and might cause suspicion.

The sunglasses are a good idea and there is absolutely nothing wrong with buying a few designer outfits to match your new glasses, I think you might be over worrying about what you can spend on, this money you are given is your money remember that. 

Do you not have any family like children,neices and nephews that you could treat as again nobody can tell you nothing on what you can spend on loved ones. I’m sure they would be greatful too to recieve gifts.

my final words will be try not to worry too much as the money is yours and if you decide you want to buy something nice you shouldn’t feel guilty or scared about it.

be well.