Opinions please folks?

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Government_needs_reform

Victoriad said:

Yes unfortunately, this damned system is designed to make us jump through hoops.

I tried for ESA and felt like I was begging for a sick note, after my GP refused to give me a clean bill of health, after I was given a job offer, that was swiftly withdrawn as a result.p of the GP not giving me a clean bill of health.

I felt humiliated, as if I was begging, a scrounger despite having been in full time work for 30 off years......I have made the conscious choice after that NOT to apply for other benefits as my  standard rate PiP had been awarded just the year prior.

...... I have made the conscious decision not to reapply, appeal or do anything else and so I do have a lot less money than I would like and have restricted my expenditures accordingly.......my choice solely, because my mental health and well being,is far more important to me,than having to get dragged into the cycle of applying for benefits and jumping through the hoops involved.

I read of other posters mental health suffering by the sheer stress of of applying.

I live a very basic life with no frills and I’m lucky I have friends and the support of my family and I don’t intend to be tipped over the edge, with the stress...I will do without it thanks.....my choice again to live on not a lot of money but I feel calm and in a better place and that’s where I intend to stay.

@victoriad great answer I suffer severe MH too and I have just had my ESA forms through and gonna fill them in and see what happens if it all goes wrong I will also just manage on my PIP as mine awards last year and claim under nil income to keep the roof over my head as I can't handle all the stress either I just want a quite life now. I certainly will not sign on to JSA that's for sure.

whistles

If you don't get ESA, what else is there? 
I didn't realise Income Support still existed. I thought it was abolished when ESA came in. But it wasn't.

Waylay

@Victoriad and others, I'm so glad that you guys can survive on PIP alone! I can't. I have no choice but to keep on playing their evil little games.

Government_needs_reform

Waylay said:

@Victoriad and others, I'm so glad that you guys can survive on PIP alone! I can't. I have no choice but to keep on playing their evil little games.

@Waylay We can't really one has to just live on the basics I'm hoping my PIP will carry on as mine was awarded in Oct 17 ongoing. I just can't cope with this process. Why on earth now send me an esa form again when they had clearly stated (deterioration in function noted) and I'm already in the support group.

I do know some esa claimants in the support group should be exempt on their next WCA if iam then fair enough, but if I'm told fit for work when I have sent much more further information relating to function and I can't work then I will have to live off my PIP for as long as I can and claim my housing under nil income from my local LA.

This process is just disgusting.

Government_needs_reform

whistles said:

If you don't get ESA, what else is there? 
I didn't realise Income Support still existed. I thought it was abolished when ESA came in. But it wasn't.

@whistles nil income does not state income support..
It means I will have no other money coming in apart from my PIP as I won't claim JSA, Universal credit. Hope this helps. My housing is under £80 a week which LA means local authority and will help me keep my home.

whistles

Waylay said:

@Victoriad and others, I'm so glad that you guys can survive on PIP alone! I can't. I have no choice but to keep on playing their evil little games.

It shouldn't be like that though. 
ESA should in theory be enough.
We know its not.
Living within my means shouldn't be choosing whether I can afford to heat the house or not.

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Waylay

@Governments_A_Joke and @whistles

Trigger: mention of suicide at end of third paragraph

Yeah, if I lived somewhere different it might be enough, but unfortunately I settled in an area which is very expensive (almost London prices) - I had money then, so it wasn't as much of a problem. Rent here is insane. I managed to get a place in a housing Co-operative*, where rent for one bedroom (in a 6-person house), with shared facilities and living room/kitchen/garden is ~315/month. That's insanely cheap here - people don't believe me when I tell them - but you do live with many other people in your house, and ~85 other people in the Co-op.

After rent and bills, I have 105GBP/month to spend on food, toiletries, transport, my therapy, etc. I can stay within that limit some months, but other months I can't -  it depends a lot on how my mental health, chronic pain and allergies are doing. Sometimes I need to buy more over-the-counter meds, sometimes I need to take taxis in order to get to medical / therapy appointments, my dietary limitations make food more expensive, and sometimes I can't even get out to get groceries, so I have to pay those pesky fees to have groceries delivered. I have no social life, I don't buy anything that I don't need, I rarely leave the house, I can't send any gifts to anyone (including partners, my Mum, and my nephews), and sometimes I can't afford to eat. Once every two weeks the Co-op has a meeting and provides food -  I tend to wait around until the end and grab the leftovers that nobody else wants. I've had to go to food banks, which I never envisioned doing (but then, I never envisioned being disabled, unable to work or homeless either). If I want to visit my partner, I have to ask them to pay or borrow money to do it. If I start to lose weight, one of my friends forces me to take money to buy food, or just drops off food anonymously. When my shoes fell apart my partner threatened to buy me random shoes unless I accepted a loan and went shoe-shopping for myself.

My one unnecessary expense is my kitties - I'd rather feed them than myself, and I cannot give them up - they're incredibly important to my mental health. My partner is currently paying all their costs, as they know that the kitties are basically the only things that stop me from killing myself sometimes. (People would suffer if I died, but they'd move on eventually. Young cats who depend on me for sustenance, love, etc. wouldn't understand, and I couldn't do that to them. Crazy, I know, but it works.)

I could move to a cheaper area, but this is the only place I've ever lived in the UK as an adult, for 12 years now. All my friends are here, my therapist, GP, therapy group, NHS consultants, NHS Community Mental Health Team, and one of my partners are here. If I moved away I think I'd destabilise very quickly without any of my support network nearby. (My other partner lives in Zone 2 in London, in the tiniest flat EVER, so there's no way I can move there.) Basically, I have no choice but to stay where I am and fight for my benefits, but it's slowly grinding me into dust.

*The Co-op houses people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness as a priority, as well as people with mental health problems, disabled / chronically ill people, LGBTQIA* people, alternative-identified people, etc. - basically all the people who don't really fit into the "normal" world. I was homeless and a member of all of the above groups when I applied, so I was lucky and got a place within 3 months.

Waylay

I'm very grateful for the benefits I get, but the constant fighting to keep them, the slow decrease in my purchasing power, the way my life has been contracting into smaller and smaller circles around my bedroom, are seriously messing with me.

Government_needs_reform

@Waylay Thanks for that I'm so sorry to Here your also going through the **** heap I can't believe we have to live like this, I really feel for you and I wish I could change it for you for the better. God bless.

This is some of what My Physicatrist has put in his report.

He suffers from both physical and psychiatric problems of a chronic and disabling nature. There is in my opinion no realistic prospect of recovery for these reasons below.

will not improve and unfortunately progressively deteriate with age. These are the of a life-long nature and he will not be able to return to employment at anytime in the future , as there would be further substantial risk to his health if he was put under any work conditions.

He the goes into all my problems detailing everything through trying to take my life my physical and psychiatric diagnosis.

Plus I have much other functional paperwork from HP to add, so hoping it won't be an issue.  And my ESA85 I have from last assessment states clearly  deterioration in function noted.

So here's hoping I will be ok.

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