One down, two to go

The world is hidden behind a curtain of mist today. As the morning has gone on, little by little, the garden on one side, the street on the other, have slowly emerged. Everything still remains in soft focus.

I’ve spent the last couple of days trying to get to grips with this benefit form. I’ve finally completed a draft I’m fairly content with. Now, I wait to see if the Fox thinks I’ve done a reasonably good job of it before pen is actually put to paper.

I’ve come to the conclusion my next jobs are:

1.    To write a my medical history

2.    To continue to read up on the law concerning Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

One of the things that struck me at the last medical for ESA, is how impossible it is to remember exact dates of diagnoses etc when some of them were made 20 years ago. Somehow I was expected to remember when every op took place, every overdose happened. I’ve come to the conclusion that in future I’ll make a list which I can then easily update as matters change. I can then do a print out before the medical & have something to refer to, instead of trying to rack my brains.

Similarly I suspect I will get the same result from this application for ESA as I did for the last one. I feel it is important to get myself as conversant with the law, ready for an appeal.

I’m even contemplating writing a letter of complaint to my MP. As far as I can see the process seems unfair. I know I am unfit for any work yet I still suspect they will decide I should be in the Work-related Activity Group which would mean my benefit will be means tested within 12 months. I also can’t get away from the cynical feeling that this second form was sent as a means of overturning any tribunal decision in my favour that the appeal may have resulted in. If they continue to do this every few months, the year will have passed with me in the Work-related Activity Group, unable to get an appeal in & for any decision on the appeal to have any duration, with the result I will end up being means tested.

Although we do have some capital behind us, which we use for luxuries such as holidays & good quality food, and to cover emergencies such as buying a new fridge when the old one died, the money we receive from state benefits is more or less our sole income. We know that once you start spending capital on everyday living expenses, it can quickly disappear. We also know, short of winning the National Lottery or Euromillions, we will probably not have the opportunity to re-build up any capital.

We had hoped to keep that capital for the future, as we can already see we will probably have to pay a high price for the care we will need as we become increasingly decrepit with age. If we have to go into a home, which is also probable as we have no children or other family living near us who can look after us, we would like to have the option of choosing a place we think we could be happy in rather than the cheapest place the council can find.

It certainly makes you wonder what the point of saving is. We wondered this when the Fox’s parents had to go into a care home. They had spent their lives working every hour they could, doing without so many things, in order to own their home and have something to leave their children, but now that home had to be sold to cover the fees of this not-very-nice care home, while others who had spent their money in riotous living, having cars, frequent holidays, the latest fashions & technology, were paid for by the state. It just seems so iniquitous.