me and my Various benefits story

[EYEBALLS01]

Hello.Really need some advice if possible. I have worked as a Civil Servant (I know) for over 34 years and due to a road accident in 2004 now find that I can no longer work at my job which was very mobile with a lot of driving,walking around and standing.

I was hit by a stolen lorry and am still waiting for the Motor Insurance Bureau through my insurers and their appointed soliicitors to be compensated (if at all).

I carried on working on light duties and was protected by my boss for 4 years and had long periods of sick absence. At the beginning of October I finally called it a day and went long term sick. I go on half pay on 9th March.

I have the usual commitments of mortgage, kids at home etc and a disabled wife who is om long term Incapacity Benefit and DLA.

I am trying to get ill health retirement but don`t hold out much hope. In this day and age they will let me go on to no pay and terminate my employment.

I will probably apply for DLA but need to know at what point and how I apply for other benefits or who I should speak to about this.

Sorry if I seem a bit unwordly given that I did work for the Government but this has turned me from a self assurred breadwinner into a stressed out wreck with very litle confidence,

Cheers

[Conniff]

Are you paid by pppa? if so ask them and they will send you the info.

[EYEBALLS01]

Sorry

Who are PPPA.

Cheers

[EYEBALLS01]

HI

Wonder if any of you have any experiences with Capita.I

 

t`s a long story but I have gone through the process for ill health retirement and having phoned Capita have been told that my case is closed but my HR and Manager have nothing from them yet.

Does anyone know what `closed` means?

Cheers

[EYEBALLS01]

Hope someone can give me some guidance.My wife has been disabled for some years and I now find myself disabled and off work. We both get high rate mobility DLA I get low rate care and my wife gets high rate.

As I`m off work and will not return can I claim carers allowance even though I am in receipt of the above,ESA and have applied for council tax relief.

Cheers

[Maggie_moo]

Yes, unless your ESA is contribution-based, in which case you could still apply but may get carers premium instead, a top-up of your income, instead of carers allowance. However you must be able to show that you help care for your wife for at least 35 hours a week.

Edited June 14, 2009 by maggie1968

[EYEBALLS01]

Thanks for that maggie1968. At the moment my ESA is contrbution based but they said once my pay had stopped which it now has it would become income related.Since my wife became disabled 12 years ago even when I was working full time I looked after her for over 35 week. I had carers come in when I was away.We still have carers paid for by direct paymrnts from the County Council but this is only for 11 hours per week.

[EYEBALLS01]

Hi I`ve worked for 35 years and now find myself on ESA,DLA.

My last pay from my employers was on 31st May although I am still employed by them until they agrre or disagree to give me ill health retirement.( Yes I `m a bloody civil servant)

I phoned the working tax and child tax credit people and when I was on half pay got £300+ working tax credit and £200+ child tax credit.We used to get £40.

Now that I am on no pay but still employed I have lost the working tax credit.

My ESA has stayed the same so I`m a bit bemused why I was getting more when I was being paid.

I know it`s a`working tax credit` but it seems an odd system.

Any views or am I just being dense?!

[EYEBALLS01]

Hi I have an ESA interview next week with Atos and was wondering if there is anything to stop me audio taping it?.

[EYEBALLS01]

I have been turned down for Carers Allowance as I get ESA and this is an `underlying`entitlement

[EYEBALLS01]

Anyone?

[stardust_john]

My mobile is a sony erricson and it has a facitlity under entertainment to opt for sound record. I can pop it in my pocket then and it as long as careful where 'microphone bit' is lying right way, it does its job. I would think there would be no harm in 'accidently' pressing it before you went in discretly.

 

I think you can ask officialy for a copy, but your own is best;)

 

If I am talking poop someone will put me right:eek:But thats what I would do.

[EYEBALLS01]

Thanks SJ my wife has the Nokia 5800 which we tried out and it records for an hour so I`ll do that but if possible I would like them to know I`m recording it

[EYEBALLS01]

Received from Atos Healthcare this morning!

 

Atos Healthcare has clear guidance agreed with the Department for Work

and Pensions (DWP) on audio taping and video taping a medical

examination. This is designed to ensure that a consistent approach is

taken to all such requests and is designed to safeguard the interests of

both the customer and the HCP(health care professional).

The DWP never requires that a medical assessment for the purpose of

advising on entitlement to state sickness or disability benefits be

recorded on audio or videotape.

Any request can only be agreed with the prior consent of the HCP, and

then only if stringent safeguards are in place to ensure that the

recording is complete, accurate and that the facility is available for

simultaneous copies to be made available to all parties present. The

recording must be made by a professional operator, on equipment of a

high standard, properly calibrated by a qualified engineer immediately

prior to the recording being made. The equipment must have facility for

reproduction so that a copy of the tape can be retained by all parties.

The cost of the making the arrangements rests with the customer, as

recording is not a requirement of the DWP.

If Atos Healthcare is unable to grant a request for recording we will

offer you an opportunity to rearrange your appointment so you can

arrange for the examination to take place with a chaperone or other

witness.

 

If you wish to record the examination, taking the requirements above

into consideration, please contact the examination centre that your

husband is due to attend, and enquire whether the examining HCP is

willing to have the assessment recorded.

 

with regards,

 

Customer Relations

[ukbix]

DO NOT TELL THEM YOU ARE

RECORDING THE EXAMINATION UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES

Unless you are actually complying with their over the top rules about pro-calibration, twin deck machines etc.

 

If you try to use your own tape recorder, and do not comply with their rules then if you tell them your going to record the medical they will stop the medical, and your benefits can be stopped.

 

If you are going to record secretly, do it just that way - SECRETLY - you are within your rights to do so, just DONT TELL THEM...

 

 

[Conniff]

What bullpoo. What they are saying is 'we will be telling lies and don't want you to have a copy of those lies'.

When you have a police interview, they have professional equipment, but no engineer come in and does a calibration and the interviewer is not a professional sound engineer.

This is all said to put you off. Yes I agree that a twin and simultaneous recording should be made so they are identical, and each can be given a copy, but that's all.

 

Any secret recording can be for your use only.

[stardust_john]

I agree with coniff, the pupose of me recording one would be for personal use as I have neurological and mental problems, which affect memory, if they were not as sympahthetic and judged me differently than entitled for my conditions, I would refer to it for record of transcript.

 

Now they would only have something to fear from that if they treat me for instance with no medical sympathy or as does happen as a number to force into work prematurely.

 

After all what do they need to hide, they are treating everyone the same as trained, surely?? it would only be a worry to them if the case of he said she said turned out to be in our favour.:grin: Then somebody would be in trouble and it wouldnt be us.

 

Just to add for less stress, I wouldnt tell them I was doing it, they would prob be paranoid then.

[ukbix]

...

Just to add for less stress, I wouldnt tell them I was doing it, they would prob be paranoid then.

 

If you did tell them you were doing it, they would not need to get paranoid, they would simply do as their training dictates, and NOT conduct the examination.

[EYEBALLS01]

Stacked against the public then as usual. I was supposed to have my interview last Wednesday 15th. I sent them a recent 28 page Medical Report from a Harley Street Consultant fully detailing my problem and prognosis.

I sent it Royal Mail Next Day Tracker on the 7th and it was confirmed as delivered to them on the 8th.

My wife phoned them on Tuesday 14th to make sure the medical adviser had it and would have read it and they denied all knowledge!!After being passed around 4 times and speaking to the medical centre I was attending with no luck Atos finally revealed that they are a week behind with opening their post!!!!!!

Mickey Mouse or what. Envelope was plastered URGENT and it cost me £2.80 at the library to photocopy it and £5.40 to post it plus I don`t go out in public unless really important and I decided this was!

They agreed that the interview should be rearranged with no fault on my part and that they would look for the report. I received a new appointment (28th) and my wife phoned them back to confirm they`d found the report. After a lot of umming and Arring they said they had. Wife wasn`t too confident though!

Anyway I`ll go to their interview with my mate who will take notes and my copy of the report.

Also I asked if they had a lift or was the interview on ground level. They said no to both but after much debate agreed to open a ground floor office!

Also asked about disabled psrking. None but multi storey! Hpefully Blue Badge will find me somewhere.

I`ll keep you posted people!!!!!

[Conniff]

If your going in a wheelchair eyeballs, it might be a good idea to check on the access and how easy it is. Any faults or difficulties and you can start the complaints ball rolling.

 

They are quick enough to jump onto shops etc; some of who can't make access without spending thousands they haven't got.

[EYEBALLS01]

Connif

Thanks for that but cannot even sit in wheelchair as too painful. Should be interesting as I normally lie down or have to stand with a stick.

I think I`m turning into an Aborigine as I find it easier just to stand on my left leg!

[antone]

I'm not going to make any comment about secretly recording people as they go about their lawful business, but I would like to make a point about mail sent to the DWP/ATOS.

 

Such mail is generally handled by a secure processing facility, and that's why it can take longer than normal to reach its intended recipient. If sent by a service like Special or Recorded Delivery, the date it was signed for will be the date it was received at the secure depot, not the date it landed on the desk of whoever is responsible for dealing with it. Typically, these depots will handle mail for many different offices.

 

This is done because there have been cases of government employees opening letters containing bombs (real or fake), suspicious white powders and the like.

 

So by all means used "signed for" services like Recorded Delivery, but don't assume it will speed things up. What it does do, though, is provide some evidence if an important document gets lost.

[stardust_john]

I just want to see some evidence that they are acting in interest of us, rather than just processing numbers for profit.

 

You only have to listen to local radio and hear how many genuine people are feeling mistret by atos.

 

They give out less points that entitled when replying to questions and I personally would record my response to their questions to aid appeals.

 

I dont think they are there for us, more a case of looking at how can we prematurely put people back to work who cant physically do it, to make them, look good to the govt.

 

Sorry if thats against the rules, by I protect myself, Ive had to learn not to trust people, niavity got me into trouble trusting toooooo many people. You are perfectly entitled to state atos rules as I am to ignore them.

Edited July 18, 2009 by stardust_john

[antone]

I can't really comment on ATOS.

 

There are genuine political issues involved, I suspect. After all, many people who have problems with ATOS or the DWP would also have problems with those much-demonised "scroungers", "cheats" and "layabouts" receiving unjustified handouts of taxpayers' money. So the issue becomes, well, where the line should be drawn.

 

Any system that is too restrictive will deny benefits to people in genuine need; any system that is too lax will be open to abuse. It seems a balance is very difficult to find, but I wouldn't assume intentional malice. A long term answer to this "Catch 22" situation really needs to come from our elected representatives.

[stardust_john]

Its more a matter of self protection, so what has happened to others does not happen to me.

 

I have concerns how in some cases it seems atos seem to know better than hospital consultants. These cases end in appeal and often in favour of the genuine claimant.

 

I just couldnt cope with the stress of he said she said, so feel the need to be prepared. It shouldnt offend any atos personal as long as they reported responses to asked questions correctly. If not then their guts be garters and thats what they are afraid of being recorded. Tough.