We did not have a choice! I was earning pennies over the earnings limit by the time we got through to actually being able to put the claim in - as in I had just started work after leaving uni I had received one wage, which wasn't even a full wage because I had started half way through a month (but my yearly salary was over the limit) and we had nothing, not one single penny (no sick pay for him at all which was also part of the claim) coming into our household for three months prior as he went on the sick three months before I started my job (I work in a profession where you need to be registered, that takes time I couldn't start work any earlier legally) we were up to our eyes in credit card debt and had borrowed from everyone possible simply to pay our rent as we were entitled to no benefits while all this was going on. we did not choose to spend our money on other things we literally did not have it to spend, my months wage wouldn't have even covered it to allow for us to claim it back so we absolutely 100% went without because of this scheme. However there is nothing we can do about it now so I guess there is no point in worrying about it.

We couldn't go to tribunal when my partner was unfairly dismissed because of the fees involved. Because he had been dismissed, we had no money whatsoever to pay them! There should be some recourse for people like us, there must be millions like us. We had as close to a 100% chance of success as you could get but just couldn't afford the fees

This is my biggest worry, because his mental health has improved a reasonable amount. although his physical health is still the same. I worry that we will lose everything which is fine once things are up and running properly but in the short term we couldn't afford it. I have read that there is supposed to be support for people on esa going into self employment but I'm too scared to contact them in case they just stop his claim then and there. I don't think its possible not to contradict what was originally said because things have honestly improved a bit and he was starting to think about maybe trying part time work then this came along and it is just so perfect for him and we do expect him to come off esa in the near future I'm just hoping for some way we can replace at least some of that money before his esa stops completely.

At first probably not, I will read more about permitted work. thanks

My partner had been on ESA and PIP for a little over a year now and has just been offered the opportunity to become self employed. This would allow him to return to work in a way that he would be able to manage with his illness and we are both very keen to try and get this off the ground. He would be forming his own company rather than being a self-employed contractor so money obviously wont start coming in right away. My understanding is that PIP is unaffected by either working or self-employment, is that correct? If so its only ESA to worry about, obviously his ESA stops because he is going to be able to work (I am assuming this all goes well of course) So what do we do? Do we talk to ESA and tell them the plan, and what we hope will happen with regards to the business taking off and becoming profitable? I assume at that point he would lose his benefit? But that's a lot of money to us and if we lose it before he starts bringing money in we might have a problem. He wont be doing many hours and obviously wont make a lot of money to start with but my earnings take us over the tax credits threshold so there wouldn't be anything else we could claim. I guess what I want to know is what the steps are to coming off ESA to become self-employed and when we take each step.

All trusts will probably be slightly different, but similar I would think. The board I work for its only your concurrent service that counts. You should be able to bring the sickness absence policy up on google, ours comes up anyway and have a read through that then decide where to go from there. Literally just google the name of the trust and sickness absence policy and it should come up

It's a specific machine for bladder scanning, but its similar technology to an ultrasound - you literally point and click and it gives an estimate of urine volume takes less than a minute there is no need to interpret the results or anything the way there is with an actual ultrasound because it just tells you the number. The machines are not always easy to come by in a hospital though as they don't tend to have many of them and they get borrowed and not returned all the time so its not a 100% thing that they would have done one, but had the machine been available they would have.

I highly doubt they would have done an ultrasound, though they may have done a bladder scan which takes less than a minute to do if you have a machine available (although that is a big if). That's why i was wondering where the figures came from because it's interesting that there is a massive discrepancy in the nunbers and that seems to be what is important to the lawyer. It would be extremely bad practice for them not to note the residual volume in any circumstance when someone is catheterised but even more so when in acute retention

It should be very easy to find out how much urine was actually in the bladder. At first they would have done a bladder scan which gives an estimate, any machine I have ever used for this the maximum reading they give is +999 it does not have the ability to estimate any higher than that so would have been impossible to get a figure of 3.2 litres that way so the question is where did that figure come from? did he have an ultrasound? and what was the actual residual volume when he was catheterised? The residual volume is all that really matters because that is the actual amount that was there. If the 3.2 litres was the residual volume then I don't see how the person doing the medical report could say it was less than that. If however the 3.2 litres was the estimate, but the residual was only one litre then what the urologist said would make sense at least on paper. I guess what I am saying is that you need to see what he seen, what is actually on the medical notes because that's the only way I think you can get to the bottom of it.

I don't have much advice I am afraid but I think ticking no to them contacting your gp might not be the best idea. If you don't let them get the information they need for themselves they will 100% need to assess you because they cant get the information any other way, perhaps there is a slim chance if you tick yes that they might get all the information they need on their own? We never had a phonecall so I am afraid I cant help there. With the form just remember that they want to know how you are affected, not just whats wrong. So say you have problems with your knees, they don't want to know how sore your knees are or anything like that, they want to know that your knee pain prevents you bending and limits the amount of walking you can do - give examples if you can (i.e I can walk to the bathroom but then I would have to rest a while before walking back). I don't think you will get in any trouble if you don't fill in the form, but your pip will stop. I don't think it will affect your esa because the two are pretty separate but if you are entitled to both then you shouldn't miss out. We had a really hard time getting to the assessment process but were able to get a home visit (with the help of our gp) and it actually wasn't too bad.

I am glad you got it sorted, they do seem to make a lot of mistakes hopefully they fix this for you soon

Maybe its just a mistake, I would definitely clarify it with them

I would maybe get that clarified because 12 points should be enhanced rate should it not?

Did it say he wasn't awarded a mobility component? I would need to double check exactly what he got but I'm sure my partner got much less than that and gets standard rate mobility

So I was nightshift last night and woke up this afternoon to a letter from scott and co telling me that a summary warrant has been granted against me for unpaid council tax, thing is I don't have any unpaid council tax. I did have a small amount last year but that was paid off months ago. I called the council in a rage who told me there was no one available to speak to me but that my account was showing as up to date and they couldn't understand how this had happened, i could wait 45 mins (!) on hold or call back later. So I called back later and they have recalled it from the sheriff officers but are refusing to take the 10% court fee off it. The council are claiming there have been two late payments on the account and this is why this has happened, the first in April which I accept as I went on holiday and forgot to pay it before i left (i pay with a swipe card) so the payment was a week late, they claim a second late payment in june which i dispute but cannot prove, they say it was paid on the 4th rather than the 1st, surely even if that is true it falls within the seven days they give you to catch up with a late payment? I dont understand why if this allegedly happened in june am I just hearing about it now? Why didn't I get my second reminder letter from the council? How can a summary warrant be granted against someone whose account is up to date? and is there anything I can do about it? I am not happy about paying the extra 10% at all but at least they have recalled it from Scott and Co so I wont need to deal with them. Is it even worth fighting them on it or should I just pay the 10% extra and forget about it. Also they assure me this will not affect the mortgage I am hoping to get in the next few months, the bank have already told me I can have the mortgage I am just saving the deposit, please tell me they are right?

in our case they just asked questions and carried out a few very basic tests, partner is asthmatic so they did a peak flow test, he also has problems with his back so they asked him to do things like bend down and try to touch his toes, nothing too invasive. It was nowhere near as bad as we were expecting actually, although it was a little intimidating having someone sitting on our sofa asking loads of questions and writing (or typing, she brought a laptop) loads of things down.

Yeah the charges are ridiculous. I would just offer them the tenner and make it clear you cant afford anything else and they should accept it

They have ways of finding things out, i have no idea how. If both your accounts are with the same bank i dont know if that would work. I have moved out of the council area i owe money too and they didnt forget about me. I would honestly just offer what you can because they dont tend to go away

My wages arrestment saved me 20 quid a month on what i was paying before it

It could be on day 15 if they have given you 14 days to sort it out yourself because they may already have the courts permission to do so. Have you had any arrestment before? If so its almost automatic, the second time it happened to me it was literally day 15

Cant you just defer your student loan? I did it every year for about ten years because i was earning under the threshold with no problem

They will almost certainly go after your bank account and probably pretty quickly since you are self employed and therefore dont have wages to arrest. I am not sure if they can or would go after your tax credits

If you hadnt answered the door they would have just written "hand delivered" on it and posted it through. Unfortunately you might not be as far away from wages/account arrestment as you think. They were very quick with mine. I got the summary warrant and the next thing i heard was my boss telling me they had arrested my wages. I would call and offer something, i have been paying a fiver a week for years on an older council tax account and as long as i have kept up payments i have never heard another thing about it save my annual statement

I know what company you are talking about because i got a quote with them last month when my insurance was due for renewal, i didnt take it because i found one cheaper but from what i was told at the time you just plug it in to the lighter and leave it for three months, it monitors your driving and they MAY discount your policy after three months. Like i say i didnt take it so i dont know if it works or not. When i passed my test i had a more traditional telemetry box fitted to my car (the type that someone actually physically had to install) and although my driving was good (you can check it online to see how you are doing) my renewal was still ridiculous. It never caused me any problems though and I would do it again if it meant a cheaper price for the year i had it fitted i saved about 150 pounds on the next quote and it caused me no problems what so ever

I am glad you got the right result in the end. I am still to do my complaint too, life keeps getting in the way but I am now about to start the whole thing over again as my mum is being transitioned from DLA to PIP and she is in such a state about the whole thing. I had a similar experience to you, most people I spoke to just read off their script and werent really that helpful but i got one person (who would you believe i spoke to twice randomly when i called) who was really willing to help, told me exactly what i needed to do and made sure the notes on the file reflected what was happening.