Disbelief

I can’t believe it!

The post has brought me yet another Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) form to be filled in before the end of the month.

Staggered, I rang the given number to check if I really had to fill it in again.

I explained I only posted the appeal to the decision made at the end of November yesterday. Surely I don’t have to fill the same form in again.

I was re-directed to another department. They suspect it’s been sent out as I have notified them I am going to appeal so they need to see the form. I couldn’t help thinking why not just copy the form they already had. It won’t be up to date enough they reckon. I’ll have to fill in the form again.

Thank goodness I kept a copy of the previous form. Most of it I can just write in again, though I might make a few tweaks now I have a clearer understanding of the legal requirements for entitlement for this benefit. I will also update on my medical condition as now I have a diagnosis of pancreatitis & there’s also the breast bleeding to add.

And to think we had been beginning to relax a bit, thinking we wouldn’t hear anything more for a few weeks! We even popped into the travel agents for a few holiday brochures, thinking we would try & escape to the sun once we’d got the MRI scan results – as if we will be able to go away with these forms coming every few weeks and needing to be returned promptly or risk losing the benefit!

Is it never to end? Life doesn’t seem worth living if this is what it’s going to be for the next 8+ years, until I reach retirement age. There certainly won’t be much quality about it. Holidays of more than a couple of days will be out of the question. No chance to really relax which I need to do for both my physical & mental well-being. The Fox, too, needs a relax. Being a full-time carer is no easy task. He’s already had one stroke. I don’t want him to have another. Despair is already setting in, only partly offset by my anger over the situation.