pip-pip

And my PIP form is in! After a couple of weeks of pretty intense activity. To be honest it went in the post last week. But y'know. REAL LIFE.

In the first instance we relied on the same sources as previously - the Benefit Advice Essentials Facebook group and our contact from our local Unemployed Workers Centre. All signs seemed to point towards approaching the form as if it was an entirely new application.

Yes, I've gone through the application process before. And yes I can do it again. But it's no one's idea of a good time, especially when you have to fit it in with your workload, hospital appointments, etc. And the thought of the amount of time it would take was beginning to stress me out.

Now several months ago I had to fill in a Work Capability Assessment form for Universal Credit. Around this time, I was chatting to a young woman in the infusion ward about the many hoops that we had to jump through to get the support we were entitled to. She mentioned that there was someone based at the Nottingham Citizens Advice Bureau whose time was paid for (at least part of the week) by the MS Society.

I never contacted him at the time and it turned out that I got the result I needed off my own back.

But for some reason I never deleted his contact details from my phone. So I arranged to go in and see him to talk about my PIP application.

Although I was outside of his geographical area, he said that he could use his own judgment. And the MS Society would prefer him to use his time to support people with MS wherever possible.

He also said that I should bring my form with the evidence I'd gathered so we could fill it in together.

In our meeting he talked for the first hour about everything from council tax reductions to Universal Credit to aids and adaptations, before we even got onto the subject of PIP.

Same as we did for my last application, he approached the form by looking towards a tribunal, getting it as watertight as possible at this early stage.

I should say that he has had a lot of experience filling in (and appealing) PIP applications. He even said that he was involved with the design of the PIP form. The thing about the reapplication form, the boxes are pretty small. So this guy basically scored through the questions that I wouldn't be answering and used the available space to get as much information down as possible.

I mean, who would even think to do that if they were filling in the form on their own?!

He also advised against the prevailing wisdom that this form should be filled in as if you're writing about your worst days. His argument was that, if you fill a form in saying that [for example] you can't get out of bed due to back pain, and then you turn up a tribunal, it immediately puts the rest of your form under scrutiny.

As well as all of this, he said that the fact I was in a relapse during my first assessment (and I then referenced it in my second application) probably wasn't as helpful as we first assumed. The assessor would judge it on a 3 months back, 8 months forwards basis. By that logic they can assume that I'll make a complete recovery and make a judgement accordingly. Interesting!

After going through all the sections and double checking that I was happy with what he'd written, he said that I could take the form home to send it when I got the last bit of evidence I was waiting for. Or he could send it for me as it stood, with additional evidence (a letter from my neuro) to follow.

Obviously I bit his hand off! And the relief was unbelievable.

So now we wait. Again.

Good luck as always to anybody else going through similar trials and tribulations.

careful what you wish for

Oof. Crazy busy!

1. I - bizarrely - have a nice and growing number of clients for my podcast business. And I'm getting paid!
2. I'm still not used to talking about my "clients". or my "business". Weirdness.
3. Most of these are just editing jobs so far but I also launched a whole podcast and got it onto Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher...
4. I'm actually really good at this!
5. Even though I'm LOVING doing the podcast work, I recently applied for another job. I didn't get it but it was nice to go for an interview and not have EVERYTHING riding on it.

All of this is despite the fact that I officially "have limited capability for work and work-related activity". This is from my recent Work Capability Assessment (WCA), something which I probably should've had for my Universal Credit claim way before now.

The first part of this involved filling out... ANOTHER FORM!

Well, it has been a while.

This one was pretty intense. But once again I used the Benefit Advice Essentials Facebook Group for some advice. And as before it was really helpful.

At first glance I thought I could take a good run at the form. But looking at one of their information sheets, it pointed out two things:

• Parts of the WCA form are directly related to parts of the PIP form.
• The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) could use the information from a WCA form to make decisions on PIP applications.

After reading this, I made sure that anything I wrote on the WCA form didn't contradict anything I'd put in my last PIP application.

I got it done and submitted, then spent a couple of weeks stressing about having to have another face-to-face assessment.

And then I got a letter through the post, saying, as above, that I have limited capability for work. With no need for an assessment.

Which at first seemed like a bit of a result - woo-hoo, etc.

At first.

But then I realised. I hadn't lied on this form. And thinking back, I didn't so much as bend the truth at all on my PIP form.

And then I thought - so maybe I really am that disabled.

Don't get me wrong, it's great that I should get the support I need, especially as I try to establish my new of working.

But nevertheless, it's a bit crap, innit?

(It's that kind of penetrating insight which you keep coming back for, right?)

the power of The Smiths

I went for a UC (Universal Credit) "commitment" appointment the other day, due to starting my job.

This is because, even though this job is still classed as Freelance / Self Employed, it affects some of our other benefits. And because Derby is now a Universal Credit area it’s all change for us.

We’ve all read about the shitshow that is UC. But last year, when I was repeatedly answering the same questions when applying for JSA, ESA and Housing Benefit (all while battling the evil PIP beast), we talked about how much simpler it would be to input our info once and it be automatically farmed out to the relevant agencies.

So in theory we’re all for it.

The meeting was fine and we were well prepared. Although it was another case of a meeting where the person we were talking to said, "I don’t actually think you need to be here..."

Part way through, the chap asked if he could answer his phone as his car was at the garage. We said fine but as he walked off we were puzzled by his familiar sounding ringtone.

So when he came back I asked him what it was. It turns out it was Spent The Day In Bed by Morrissey, which we'd heard on 6 Music.

He asked if I was a fan - I said no, but The Smiths were a different story. I repeated my party line that, although I don't listen to them very often, there will never be another band who means as much to me as The Smiths did when I was a callow 13-14 year old.

(and yes, I do repeat this line a lot)

The chap we were talking to said he got goosebumps when I said that - thankfully Mrs D didn't burst out laughing at that or suggest we get a room.

We had a brief chat about the music, Morrissey's recent wrong-headed pronouncements and got back to the job at hand.

At the end of the meeting he said, "I just have one final, very important question to ask you - what's your favourite Smiths song?"

That's quite an ask! (no pun intended) Mrs D helpfully reminded me that my favourite lyric is the opening line of This Charming Man (for the economy - SIX WORDS! - which sets up the world of the rest of the song).

But the song which immediately sprang to mind - and which I still stand by - was The Queen Is Dead.

He said that he was more melancholic so his favourite is Well I Wonder, possibly one of the most hilariously downbeat and self-pitying songs in their whole catalogue.

Gasping, dying, but somehow still alive
This is the final stand of all I am

Maybe this bloke's in the wrong job?

Over the last couple of years, I've had to deal with local government benefits agencies alongside the Department of Work & Pensions on numerous occasions. And the bureaucracy is staggering at time.

But whenever I finally get through to talk to a real person, they are almost without fail incredibly helpful and understanding. And they're the people at the sharp end of carrying out the sticky manoeuvres of some fairly unpopular policy.

Maybe I've been lucky. But the next time you get through 55minutes of call waiting messages soundtracked by Vivaldi's bloody Four Seasons, spare a thought for the person who eventually answers your call.