MAJOR gripe - our old friend, the DWP! Got a call from my advocate this morning that the DWP is bringing my contributions ESA to an end (no surprise there then), and that they had already assessed me as not eligible to receive Income related ESA. Well, this is news to me as I haven't seen or been assessed by ANYONE! She's given them a blasting stating I will NOT be attending any ATOS medicals due to their incompetence as well as it would be too traumatic. Either they do a home assessment or scrap the idea all together! She's waiting for a call back. BTW, the advocate is a friend and is helping me as a favour NOT because I am so loaded I could afford to pay for one!*
But my biggest gripe is with the tax office on why it is they've decided to drop my tax allowance down to 436T (T meaning they're not sure of my 'status') from the personal allowance of £8105 to £4360! I receive a works related pension on the grounds of ill health, but am not sure if they would also deduct the tax payable on my ESA, which I thought would have been taken at source. Either way, I'll be stuffed by about £400 a month. We'll still have our house as my pension pays the mortgage, and we can have running water. But that's about it. Looks like we'll have to forgo little luxuries such as lighting, heat, food etc. Hubby earns less than £5000 a year which also helps to pay the bills such as insurances etc but between us we'll be barely able to scrape through I think. 32 years full time hard graft then the loss of a career through no fault of my own and now this. I wonder if they are taking my pension as being an 'employment wage'? Did try to get through this morning but of course everyone is either on strike or going slow due to the public sector row over yes you've guessed it, pensions!
...anyone out there want to employ a doddery old thing with vertigo, chronic fatigue, seizures and mobility problems and an actively (albeit slowly) growing tumour?
Let me know....!
*Since this was written I have my ESA still at contributions as I know have a small NHS pension, but in the support group until 2015. Now having to apply again for DLA of which I was getting low rate with both mobility and care.
funny enough I was just about to go on my blog to gripe about DWP in relation to ESA too! After a mix up with my case and sick notes they have finally paid me for the first time in 4 weeks! Apparently there was a gap of two weeks between sick notes, but as I pointed out; nobody sent me a letter to tell me my note was expiring, plus I have a brain tumour- it's not like it went away for those two weeks and came back again! Thankfully it's been sorted as I also had the "lovely" ATOS assessment 2 weeks ago; spend my life battling DWP grrrr!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment :)
DeleteI had that problem last year, when they failed to let me know about the gap between medical certificates. The problem was their postal system! >:( Anyway, we'll see how things pan out. You're quite right though, at the time in your life when you need support and rest, you end up fighting battles that should never be there in the first place! Good luck with your application. X