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Heckler

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Heckler last won the day on August 20 2016

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  1. I don't want to get into specifics regarding the procedures on a public forum.... So I'll try to explain as best I can. I have a specific medical issue that is causing me significant physical problems as well as the severe mental ones, In terms of Maslows heirachy of basic needs... It leaves me unable to get out of the bottom rung. I was referred to a specialist who then passed to another in a different area... who then confirmed that I may need surgery to correct the problem... But there is a secondary issue getting in the way of that... and until that issue is resolved he cannot do anything about the other. This secondary issue (Which is being looked at as a 'cosmetic one, even though it's stopping an essential medical one being done) isn't something he can deal with, so I was originally referred to the correct consultant in the same area... who said they wouldn't get funding because I am not living in that area. So I was referred back to a similar consultant in my area who said it's not something he can do because they don't have the right facilities for such an operation (after care and all that, they're more of a minor cosmetics place)... So he then referred me back to my GP to apply for funding for this procedure. They immediately denied the funding... and their reasoning for doing so is based upon information that makes no sense, disregards ALL of the 3 consultants recommendations and lays out some demands to qualify for it that are literally impossible for me to meet. The least of which is a demand that I meet a specific BMI criteria that is some 8-10kg below what everyone (surgeons, dieticians) say my idea weight range should be, however... because I have lost in excess of 75kg, according to the surgeon and dieticians, I have been left with between 20-25kg of excess skin hanging around... So that added to the weight range I have been told is my 'IDEAL' weight... I am anywhere between 30-35kg above what they claim I need to be... and am only between 5-12kg (depending on which figures you use) away from meeting that target set by the surgeon and dieticians who have treated me for the last 3yrs. I have lost some 80% or more of my excess weight and it is physically impossible for me to lose 'skin'. I am not asking for all of this excess skin to be removed, I am asking that they remove only that which is causing me physical impairment and pain and denying me the ability to lead/live a normal life... I am asking that they listen to the recommendations of the consultants instead of looking at a spreadsheet and simply refusing it based on the inaccurate guidelines they stick to and not use impossible to achieve restrictions to justify it. I am quite litterally living on a knife edge here... This has been on going now for 2yrs and I've been passed around from consultant to consultant, each one saying I need this.. and then passing it off to some one else. No one is willing to take any responsibility for it and are simply denying me any chance of having a normal life... They are effectively telling me that my life is worthless and I am not worthy of being allowed to live a normal one. I have put all of this into a letter to appeal the decision... but I fully expect them to refuse the appeal because that's what they do... they don't care about the people their decisions impact, they only care about blindly following some rules that make it impossible for people to get the help they need... they have made me feel that my life is no longer worth living if it has to be lived like this... because this isn't life... it's torture.
  2. It's not just the over 65's that qualify for this, other people with some medical conditions can also get it... I'm in my 40's and since I ahd 2/3 of my stomach removed a few years ago... I am on full supplements and B12 shots for life, as well as getting the flu shot. I had mine last week because my body cannot absorb enough vitamins and minerals through normal means and that weakens my immune system. It's always worth checking.
  3. I've had loads from these clowns and have never paid a penny... I was one of the people who were placed in the wrong ESA group for over 4yrs... I had them send me something like 3 or 4 of these last year, each one for a different script and each one for 2 or 3 items and each one with a separate penalty charge, they were informed that the DWP were looking into the incorrect claim and I wouldn't be responding to anything until that had been resolved... they were asking for something like £300 in total. Like you I offered to pay for 2 items on a scripts just to get them to shut the hell up. So it was resolved on Dec 21st last year and they were informed of this and that it had been backdated 3yrs, but the claim was valid from a further 15 months. They ignored it, they ignored further letters and proof of my claim... and continued to send threats and claim charges were being added on top. In the end the community law service who helped with my claims had to write to them and tell them to stop harassing me and to sort their crap out. I'd also written to them asking them to repay the money they had received under duress and harassment from me. They eventually wrote back telling me I was right and I didn't owe anything... But they still have never sent me my money back... perhaps I should start sending them threatening letters demanding it be paid and adding a penalty charge for non payment.
  4. If going private was an option, I'd happily take it.. But I'm partially disabled and simply don't have the means to even consider it. I can appeal apparently... because the reasoning they're using to deny it doesn't factor in some very simple things... like the impact it's having on my mental health and the fact that it's partly due to a side effect of surgery I had a few years ago that makes my life unbearable and impossible to do certain physical things... Things that could be resolved with surgery. But if as I expect... they refuse the appeal... I need to know what avenues I can pursue. I cannot go on living like this when it could be resolved and they're simply trying to deny it based on saving money... Yet the longer term effect of this is far costlier to the NHS.
  5. For the last 2yrs I have been kept going in circles by the NHS, I've seen 4 consultants, been passed through 3 different districts and all of them have said the same thing... I need surgery. I have a problem that needs correcting, but there is another problem getting in the way of them being able to do that surgery. They CANNOT carry out the needed procedure until the secondary issue is resolved... I have been repeatedly fobbed off and passed around without anyone taking responsibility for it. Then after almost 2yrs it got bumped back to my doctors to apply for funding for the secondary procedure. That has now been refused. To put it as bluntly as possible... I am barely hanging on by a thread here...I have zero chance of a normal life ever again... and it's not an overly complicated or expensive procedure. My doctors have letters from all of these consultants spelling out what needs doing, and the effect it is having on my mental health... I have asked for copies of all letters sent/received regarding this funding and have nothing. This was my last hope... and they're saying my life isn't worth anything, that I don't deserve any possibility of a normal life... let alone a fulfilling one. I don't know where to turn.... I have no one, and no idea what to do... I'm scared of what may happen to me.
  6. I had never heard about the SDP top up to ESA until after I was awarded PIP in Feb, the very helpful solicitor with the local welfare service suggested I apply for it. I There's no form to fill in, I just had to call the DWP and ask about it, they then ask a few questions about your case.. IE, if you live alone, if you have anyone to help you with things and so forth... and it was sorted within a few days. I got it backdated to when pip was awarded (Feb 2018). But refused to backdate it to the previous Aug which was when I applied for pip, and they backdated pip payments to then... It took the local community law services intervention to get them to do that and that happened in May. So don't expect the DWP to actually tell you there are other benefits you may be entitled to... Speak to a welfare rights service if you have one locally... They are a great source of help and advice.
  7. Council tax varies from area to area... In some even taking into account a person getting full benefit... district to district can vary between 10-25%.. So in town A with equal council tax rates.. one person will pay say £20 a month and another on identical benefits will have to pay £35. There doesn't appear to be a set rule with each council being allowed to set what that contributory rate is. Where I live, one year it was 8% and the next it was 15% whilst the next town over it was 22%. What bugs me is that with all of my benefits, I can get CT relief whilst my mum who has less coming in each month and has been retired for 9yrs... doesn't get any at all because her income is 'too high and she owns her home'... we're in different councils.
  8. It's only the difference between CESA and irESA that's backdated, so if you were on cESA + the support group to top it up to the same as you were getting on Incap Ben, then for 2017 it's roughly £13 a week, and the gap gets smaller with each year you go back, and because they're limiting it to 3yrs at the moment.. that works out to around £2200. Current rates are £73.10 for ESA in work related activity group £110.75 for support group. Then if you're in the support group and qualify for the enhanced disability premium, it's another £16.40 ... Which is £127.15. So if you should have been on irESA but were on cESA and were placed in the work group instead of the support group... that's a difference of roughly £54 @ 3yrs = £8424 Most of the people were placed in the support group and denied being correctly placed on irESA... this meant that their benefits stayed static for over 4yrs if they were getting the same rate as they got on IB. In my cases I was on £112 a week for over 4yrs and it never changed from late 2013 until Dec 2017 Each case will be different of course depending on what you should have been getting and what you were... But the min should be £2000... and if they lose their case regarding them limiting it to 3yrs, then that changes again... I'd be entitled to another 15 months which is another £500-600 or so. and that's before factoring if you were entitled to the severe disability premium, which if you are on PIP and live alone and have no carer, entitles you to another £64.30 a week if on the first rate of pip (inc mobility) or£128.60 if on the higher rate for both. So there could be another £10030 to £20060 on top of that... and that's just over the limited 3yr period.... if they lose and have to backdate it further... it's roughly £3340 to £6680 for each year. For those who have been denied everything... it could prove to be very good... but does it make up for making them suffer all those years, for leaving them in poverty and struggling to get by... as I was for over 4yrs. Mine came at a fortunate time... as not long after I got all mine (it was between £5-6000 in total).. I discovered a serious issue with the roof that wasn't covered by the insurance, and required a brand new roof and extra rafters fitting.... that cost £5500, and if not for that backdated money... there was no way to do those repairs and the roof wouldn't have lasted another winter. I just hope that every gets back the money they were denied for so many years.
  9. The govt are trying to reduce what this screw up is costing them by limiting backdated claims to 3yrs. I had exactly the same thing even though my claim goes back just a little over 4yrs. I only got mine backdated to Dec 2014 when it was awarded in Jan/Feb of this year. As I understand it, there's a judicial review going on regarding the way the govt are trying to use the rules... they're designed for 'new' claims and not screw ups of existing and ongoing ones. Once that's gone through the courts I expect the govt will have to backdate it for the entirety of the claims. What was originally reported as up to 75,000 people last summer... is now apparently over 200,000 people and has so far cost the govt some 500 million and could double by the time it's done. I was lucky, I got my claim in around Oct/Nov last year as soon as I found out what they'd done, and had help from a local community law service. I was switched to IRESA in late Dec and had it backdated to Dec 2014, but they still owe me another 15 months... Some people have been getting their backdated as far as 2010... but then as they realised what it was going to cost them, they started applying the 'new claims' rule on backdating to reduce the cost to govt... which is what they did in the first place to causes it... It wasn't an error, it was a deliberate policy to save the govt money, and it's now coming back to haunt them. I also got awarded the PiP at the same time and because of my circumstances I was eligible for the SDP too. They tried to limit the SDP to the Dec when I was finally switched to IRESA, instead of the date that the PIP was awarded from (Aug) and kept denying me that extra £1000... Until the local community law service stepped in on my behalf and they paid up.
  10. Well, well, well... after being ignored for the last couple of weeks... they actually respond after I submit a complaint. Asked me to send in proof of benefits (ESA & PIP) which I have now done. So hopefully I'll be placed on the list, they sent me a new link to the WHD that now shows my account has been made eligible to apply, but they still want copies of the ESA & PIP award letters. They've made a note that the account is for a disabled person.
  11. By the time I've switched and applied for the WHD.. it will most likely be too late to get it... it takes the better part of a month to complete a switch in my experience... which takes us to the end of Nov or start of Dec, and I've always had to apply for it before the end of Oct to stand any chance of getting it. Bulb have just about the worst CS of any energy company I've used in the last 30yrs... and I've been a customer of most of them over the years... I'd rate them as bad as Vodafone and Virgin for being useless.
  12. Hi folks I switched to Bulb earlier this year because they offered the best deal at the time and were a part of the warm home discount scheme. I've been trying for weeks to sign up for it, but their website keeps throwing up an error when I try to sign up, I've tried it with more than one system and more than one browser. So I know it's not a problem my end. I did what the website told me too and emailed them...I've given them all the info and even sent them a screen shot of the error I was getting. That was weeks ago and they have simply ignored it... I'm disabled... I cannot afford my winter bills without that WHD money... and without being able to use my heating, it will have a significant effect on my health. I've tried to email a complaint and I've given them 48hrs to respond.. . To be honest... I'm sick and tired of being ignored and wish I'd never switched... especially as they're telling me they've raised their prices another 11% from Nov 11th. I no longer even know if they offer good value for money, or if they're just another bunch of greedy [problem]mers who jack up prices right before winter to maximise profits when people need more energy. The chances of me now being able to switch and get on the WHD with another provider are exceedingly remote.. . Without it.. I'm in serious trouble and won't be able to use my heating, and my house isn't very well insulated and I'm not very mobile, so can't keep warm without it. That extra £140 would cover my Dec-Feb gas bills, I'm already paying £70 a month for just me in a small house with only 6 radiators in it.. . and I don't keep the heat on high, with the average temp during the day being between 19º and overnight it's off between midnight and 8am unless it falls below 15º inside the house... and when I'm away for a few days it gets put into frost mode. I literally cannot do any more to reduce usage aside from turning it off entirely... and hoping the cold doesn't get me.
  13. I had a bit of a back and forth with VM after putting in a complaint... I have now had my service ended due to 'utilisation' issues... which basically means they can't provide the service at a speed close to what they claim and cannot charge me a termination fee. Sadly.. new ding dong now with vodafone who have caused me even more hassle and I've had to cancel with them after less than 30 days... looks like I'll end up with no broadband service at all for a while... but at least my current number is still with VM because Vodafone are to incompetent to do something as simple as transfer it over to them. Can't sign up to a new service either because vodafone muppets have a different number attached to that line and are being feckwits about terminating my service because they breached the contract... whole other thread about that fiasco.
  14. I will email [email protected] The oter email [email protected] is one I have used before and I had a reply saying the he's no longer in that dept, but they did pass it onto the relevant complaints team all the same.
  15. I'm hopeful that virgin will refuse to transfer my number now, as they've been informed in writing that they are not authorised to do so... and as vodafone have never even bothered to attempt this... fingers crossed that it will remain with virgin until such a time as my vodafone line is terminated and I can get a new service elsewhere. Sadly no... I've never been able to afford a device to record them, I tried to put my cordless phone on speaker and record on my phone... but all I got was muffled/static recordings. It appears that if I have the phone on charge there's some interference with the mic... So lesson learned and I will try again. But I don't have a dedicated device for recording them at this time. I have repeatedly told vodafone to put everything in writing in my written complaints (4 of them)... but so far they have ignored all complaints.
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