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hi

ive recieved a letter this morning from housing benefit and i miss the good old days where you had one letter and it said it simply instead of todays 12 pages of repeating the same things

it says :

The Weekly benefit award is : £75.30

Net bebefit payable : 75.30

Weekly Gross Rent : £84.09

The First Payment Will Be : £291

 

So it looks like now they will be paying my rent and i have to say that is one thing i dont have to over worry about,

 

I been told that my husband who was violent and removed from my house after he assualted me was at the council offices shouting and screaming that he should have the right to live here and demanding keys ,he had to be taken into a side room (they have discharged him from the psychriatric ward

My friends cousin was at the council herself when she rang my friend for her to tell me , the polices advice "make sure you have your mobile phone charged and with you at all times" i cant tell you how much safer i felt .........geez honestly)

she said he was screaming "im highly medicated" what people dont realise is that means hes taken every med he has been given from the ward ! and that means he goes into a temper

 

I Cant say how scared i am living here all i want to do is move ,ive been a council tenant on this house for 10 years but someone said you cant swap with anyone if you owe arrears on your rent ,ive even considered moving into pricate accomadation ,had a look online and they want nearly £1000 before you even move in !

 

Thank You All Again i really do appreciate the help you have given

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hi

i was on womans aid website to see if i can get any help and i ended up on a site called

community legal advice here is what they say :

"This website offers free, confidential and independent legal advice for residents of England and Wales"

and they had a phone number to ring i thought i was going to talk to someone like CAB but she said "we,ll access if you are entitled to legal aid for financial help

im confused anyone else had advice of these people

thanks

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I don't know them but your experience doesn't really signal a good start

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I don't know them but your experience doesn't really signal a good start

 

Depends on what their criteria is now? Legal Aid rules have or are to change from £6000 saving limit to £1000.

 

They may also be conducting a survey to find out who's using it. Remember they are a Govt agency (their website is about/is being moved to yougov) so will have all that survey gubbins going on.

 

To access any funded service you have to provide proof that you qualify for the help.

 

I had to provide 3 months bank statements, evidence of my benefits and sign a declaration before my local welfare rights place would take my case.

 

I'm afraid if you want free help you have to jump through the hoops.

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You could go into a womens aid shelter if you feel that unsafe at home. Housing benefit Will still be paid based on temporary absence on your council property until it's safe to return as long as you make it clear you have an intention to return and you are fleeing cause of violence.

 

Hb can be paid for 52 weeks in these circumstances and housing benefit can be paid on two homes

 

Or maybe stay at a relatives?

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I used to work for a community legal advice centre. They are a very good advice centre, but each centre is different. If they are looking to offer an appointment they need to find out if you're entitled to legal aid or not - this is because some centres have limited or no funding for non legal aid work. National insurance numbers are asked of any client the advice centre is giving benefit help to, as these are required in order to correspond on your behalf and as individual indentifiers on a computer system. Most people won't know their case number but will know their national insurance number. Sexual orientation is usually asked for equalities stats, but the centre I worked for wouldn't ask for this on a telephone enquiry.

 

If you're getting benefit advice from a centre that provides legal aid to do so, they have to provide quality work in order to keep their contract and regularly have to be subjected to audits. Our centre was considered the best advice centre in the county - even superior to the local CAB - they used to refer clients to us when a case was too complex for them.

 

Edit to add: be careful of solicitors who have legal aid benefit contracts - they are often not specialists in this area and quickly lose their contract. Though I am sure there are some solicitors who specialise in benefits, it is not a lucrative field unless you close as many cases as you can as quickly as possible - meaning the quality of work can be poor if profit is the end goal.

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hi

thanks all the woman did the questions for legal aid and said i would qualify but when my house cut out and she rang me back i was worried i was talking to the wrong people and didnt pick it up , but now that i know they are okay , i will ring them in the morning

thanks again you been a great help

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thank you all

i would stay at a relatives but my husband is unpredictable he could come here in a day to a month to 3 months before now , i never talked about how he made me feel with his violence and the bruises i hid but i ave to admit it that i am a living wreck and i am determind that he wont "talk" me round this time

thanks again

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Don't be too sure about them. I dealt with them regarding redundancy, benefits and DCA's who were chasing me for cc's i could no longer afford.

 

I distinctly remember being told 'Don't worry about anything, we'll sort everything out for you'. And then after five or six calls without reaching my 'debt caseworker', she finally called me back and said there was nothing more they could do as the creditors would not acknowledge her letters.

 

I feel certain she filed a nice legal aid pay cheque though. I'll dig out the paperwork and post it up in my debt collection industry post - these issues are still ongoing and Community Legal Advice 'dealt' with it - and washed their hands of it - in May 2010.

 

Wish I had better news for you. My advice - read up on CAG and look after yourself. There are enough of us on here who actually give a damn and will actually try to help you out. And we won't ask for a penny either - not even from the government (on your behalf).

 

I see no harm in dealing with them though. And if you do then good luck. Maybe I just got a rotten apple?

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Each centre is different and there are good and bad. Some get a legal aid contract but lose it as soon as they have their first peer review. Some are under so much financial pressure at the moment that they are starting to close down. The way in which legal aid pays them has changed the emphasis from quality of work to cases closed - they used to be paid on time spent on a case and now they're only paid once a case file is closed. The unbelievable and overwhelming stress of trying to provide quality work for clients while having bosses shouting at me for not having closed enough cases and made enough money that month by meeting targets, has led in part to my current health problems - certainly the mental health side. The adviser you see may well want to do a good job and be thorough, but are under pressure to close cases or the centre goes under. This is the fault of the change in legal aid regs and very little to do with individual advisers. Saying that, as with any job, there are great advisers, and crappy advisers.

 

If you do have a problem with service received, its best to make use of the complaints procedure of the service involved and escalate to the legal services commission if necessary.

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i had my medical today so i rang the DWP up and asked "i was told i could not recieve any payment until i had a medical i was just wondering what would happen if i failed the medical" he replied "we wouldnt be able to make any payment to you ,you would have to claim another benefit"

im now so worried that my fears are going to come true ! , i was always fearful that if i failed my medical i wouldnt be put on assesment rate of ESA because i was not on it when i had the medical

 

they always said "as long as you have a medical we can pay you"

im confused and the ordeal i had today was for nothing ,i kept thinking i have to do it to get out of debt now im worried its for nothing

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Today i had my medical and thought id put word for word how it was for those wanting to know what to expect it various with every person some have medicals with tidy decent people and some dont i just wanted to help others by giving my experiance i apoligise how long it is :

 

my friend who came with me who knows me the best she went into the building and said about how i suffer with anxiety and the lady told her that she could come and get me and put us into a private room ,

when i entered the building i first saw "Lift Out Of Order" ..(mmmm very practical i would say and they would put the offices on the top floor ! )

 

when i walked in no-one was waiting in the waiting room and there was no private room !

we waited 10mins before being called (i had to summen every bit of strength not to freak out)

 

Now i will say the Best thing you can ever do is record the medical yourself or have the person with you record it (like i did) you,d be suprised at the things they do to assume things

 

the lady i seen said she was a practiceing nurse

 

she started with :

"Your arms and legs are okay yeah"

"You dont suffer with any incotienance"

"Your main problem is ........" (waiting my reply)

 

"Your Anxiety was triggered by what ?" (i said it started when i lost my partner her reply when hearing it of the recording sends chills through me)

"What he died did he?"

"When Was That" ?

"Have u Seen a Psychiatrist"

"oh you just had an assesement and that was it is it" (i made sure to corrrect her and said i was told to go to grieving councilling and they sent my doctor a note to say to put me on medication)

 

"Have u Been Admitted into hospital"

"What Symptoms Panicky sweaty is it" "At certain times in the day is it" (make sure you correct the Atos person you see i made sure i told her everything i could on mine)

 

[b"]How Often Do You Get a Panic attack"[/b]

"When Did You last have to leave somewhere because of the panic attack" ?

 

 

"How Does The IBS Affect You" when i told her my symptons and what it is like she said (oh so its not bad then) i then interupted her and said "YES it is bad ive just said how bad it is !!"

 

"Do u get breathless now and again yeah" (asthma)

again i had to stop her from typing and tell her no i get breathless a LOT and explained what it is like

 

"you just have the one inhaler yeah"

(again !! i had to stop her from typing and tell her NO i have 3 inhalers)

 

"How did you get here today"

 

"You live alone in a house do you"

 

"Are you sleeping" ? i said no

"Why is that ?"

"What time do you get up"

my friend stopped her from overtalking and explained properly

 

"Would you get up and have a bath or shower" ?

"How often do you wash when u do wash"

"Do you wash once a day yeah" (this was rudely put she was very rude and started slamming the computer keys)

"Do you get yourself water"

she cut me off EVERY single thing she asked me

 

"What you saying to me doesnt make sense because you dont tell your GP what your day is like"

as i told her there isnt one single person who goes to the doctor and says how there day is he doesnt have the time i also find it VERY hard to talk about how i feel and was not able to when growing up

 

she jumped from that to

 

"So you walk okay" i had to say then no i dont i get breathless really bad

 

"How are you filling in forms?" (i said i do some one day and the rest another day)

 

 

"Do you Cook"

"Can you do a meal"

"Do You Drink Alcohol"

 

cos i answered her in a snappy tone she then said :

"How is your temper"

"Do you go out by yourself"

"When was the last time you went out alone"

"Ever Wanted to harm yourself"

by this time i was sweating so bad it was dripping off me and my temper was going so she said

 

"If you want to go shall i not examine you? i said no

 

She asked did i tell my gp how i felt i said no she then said

"look you should tell your gp he may be able to help you"

 

luckily i remembered that the medical would go back as imcomplete or refusal to have a psychical examination so i said i wanted to have it she then said :

"Are you sure You said you didnt want to cos you werent feeling right" ?

 

i Asked her Will the medical be incomplete if i dont have the examination?"

she replied :

"No i will put you are feeling anxious and you wanted to leave i wont say you refused"

i said "Yeah but will they say its incomplete"

 

she replied "No No ......Not Nessasarily" !!

 

so i asked again "Is That a deffo no"

she said

"No ill just say you wanted to leave Look you have been telling me here how u want to leave"

when i said id have it done she got up off her chair and then i said one last time:

 

"Will it come back as incomplete?" This time she replied with

"No not if you let me examine you....!!!"

(shocking at how she tried to trick me) ! its a LOT different to "no ill just put you were anxious"

 

So whatever you do Dont refuse to have the pysical examination because it will come back as incomplete or refusal to participate in the medical

 

The psycical included me blowing into a peak flow meter

then she asked me to bend down and touch a knee and then lay on the bed and lift each leg one at a time it was just a min or 2 and it was over

 

then me and my friend were quite shocked at what she said next :

 

"Can ii ...Look im not here to give advice next time you go and see your Gp perhaps next time"

 

(then looked at my friend and said)

"you should go in with her"

(because my friend told her that i dont tell my GP what i really feel cos i feel like im putting my problems onto him) she continued to say

 

"Maybe tell your GP what is happening He can help you Do You think you could do that ? The thing is of your not going anywhere and doing all the things you should be doing and your GP doesnt know then he wont be able to give you the help"

 

i said i would and thanked her she then continued saying

"Maybe he will be able to get you into a support group that doesnt have groups of people maybe one to one"

 

 

i then started crying (much to my annoyance) and i apoligised for my attitude and thanked her for her help she said :

 

"Look its fine it wouldnt have been incomplete i would have put that you were anxious and it would have been fine"

 

(she said it in a much gentler tone too) then she said

 

"Look dont worry you have done well"

then

"if you can get through these its for the full assesment then"

 

i apoligised again and she said

"its okay when are you going to see your GP next"

i said you have to ring up on the day she then said

 

"Do you think you can go and see him and your friend take you in with her Cos you need to tell him exactly what has been going on"

 

 

then out of the blue she says

"Do you suffer from halluccinations?"[/b]

i said no and then she said

"Right thats all over now what happens is i write the report to the DWP they will then write to you with the decision"

 

33 minutes and 52seconds and its over

What i have done is type out what ive heard from the audio i recorded sorry for the "She said , i Said" hopefully ive put it in a way that people can understand

i Want to thank EVERYONE because if it were not for your advice i would not have known to stop the nurse when she tried typing her own answers in and it would have been worse than it was

i cannot put into words the help you give people it DOES change peoples lives

THANK YOU

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Well done for sticking with it. I would've been tempted to walk out and complain about how I was treated.

 

Her comments about IBS really annoy me. I have it too and it can and does get bad. Oh, how I wish (as people seem to think) that it was just an icky tummy.

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Good piece of work, banks. Well done for going through with it. I hope you get the points you need. Nice to see she was caring in the end. But don't let that sway you too much. My last ATOSH 'medical' was with a really nice doctor. Very helpfull, patient, caring. Even went to get me water when I had a coughing fit trying to recover from the peak flow test. Still got a stinking null points ... :razz:

Rae

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My partner claimed ESA back in 2008/09. I wish I had of recorded the "assessment" as she got no points and the report said she could hear perfectly! She's been deaf since birth and wears 2 hearing aids, figure that one out. Also the hearing test she was made to do was an absolute joke. The medical unprofoessional made her stand at the bottom of the room with her hearing aids out facing the window and started talking to her, and that was her hearing test.

Be good to yourself, when nobody else will

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

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Well done for sticking with it. I would've been tempted to walk out and complain about how I was treated.

 

Her comments about IBS really annoy me. I have it too and it can and does get bad. Oh, how I wish (as people seem to think) that it was just an icky tummy.

 

Too true on the IBS. I have it severely and before I found a medication that helps (mebeverine), every single thing I ate went through me with cramping and nausea - try working with diarrhea all day every day, now its only 2-3 days a week - but there's no way to score on it on the ESA descriptors. Unluckily I have other problems that scored points, but IBS is no 'icky tummy'.

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Did you record it sneakily, or were they aware of it? I recorded one of mine, so I had proof they lied. The last one, they knew I intended to record it and stopped me from recording...

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Yeah, I didn't realise you weren't meant to, so for my last medical I made it pretty blatant that I intended to record, in an attempt to keep them honest. They stopped me recording, then, I assume, took the initiative to lie even more than the last time, since whatever they wrote down earned me nil points!

 

Definitely a good idea to record it on the fly like I did the first time. :( I'll know the next time to take the espionage path.

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