Ooh, that was helpful

[denny]

Yesterday I set out on a mission to try and catch up with some of the practical stuff I've let slide for the last six months... most particularly, my finances have now officially crashed and burned, with this month being the one I default on every single credit card and loan payment, including my mortgage. This seemed like a good time to get motivated and go find out what benefits I'm entitled to.

So I trekked off around the centre of MK, to the council benefits office (yes, you should be entitled to council tax benefit, no you're not entitled to anything else we deal with, go to the job centre), and thence to the job centre which is conveniently located as far as it's possible to get from the council offices and still be in the same postcode area.

In between these two I stopped at my bank, who basically said all they could do was cancel all my direct debits and standing orders so that I don't incur any more fines than I already have. I also popped into the bank I have my mortgage with and got put on the phone to their mortgage centre, who explained to me very politely just how much trouble I would be in when they didn't get their money. Oh, they did extend the due date for the payment until the last day of the month, giving me a couple of weeks to pull a miracle out of my arse, so that's something, I guess.

The job centre put me on the phone to some national benefits hotline, where (after listening to a lengthy recorded message) I spoke to a nice woman who listened attentitively to my story, then said "Hello, can you hear me?" and when I replied 'yes' said "Oh good" and then hung up on me. I guess she's still learning how to work her phone. A second call got me a much less sympathetic operator who said that I needed to find out when I was signed off work until before they could help me (my last sick note ran to the week I got made redundant, at which point I more or less gave up on the world and therefore didn't bother getting any more written).

So, that was yesterday. Not a wonderful day, but it laid some ground-work. Today I made a doctor's appointment and got a lift there with my dad. The doctor was one I haven't seen before, but he was very sympathetic and exceptionally helpful - he offered me a variety of interesting drugs (according to him, anti-depressants come in 'sedative' and 'perky' flavours, and I might be better off with the 'perky' ones, rather than the sedative type I'd had last time). I turned down the ADs for now, but left an option open to get some if things get to feeling even more pear-shaped than they currently are... I observed that I felt my problems were largely situational at present, which made him laugh. I did take a prescription for some more Tramadol (opiate type of painkiller) because my ankle is really getting very painful between the increased amount of moving around I do now, and the cold weather. The actual broken bone doesn't hurt much at all, but my tendons/muscles are really bitching a lot lately, enough to stop me getting to sleep (it hurts most when I rest it - go figure).

Then we moved onto the matter of the paperwork... and the guy pretty much immediately wrote me a sick-note from the date of the accident through to today. Then he wrote me a second one, lasting from today for another 13 weeks! This has made matters quite a bit simpler than I thought they were going to be. I can now claim invalidity benefits for the whole period since I was made redundant (which unlike unemployment benefits, are usually backdateable), and I can use the sick-notes as evidence in my insurance claim too, as part of the 'loss of potential earnings' thing, to show that I'm not yet fit for work so I'm losing money primarily because of the accident, not because of the job market. I feel a lot happier for having those bits of paper.

I got my dad to run me back to the job centre and used their phone to talk to the hotline people again... this time a fairly competent sounding young guy who has sent me a wedge of forms (bleurgh) out in the post, and arranged an interview with one of their advisors next week.

So... I think the final score there is Denny: 1, Tedious Shit: 0. That was unexpected. Still a big bucket-load of financial chaos to deal with, but I feel better about it all now, which is the main thing as far as I'm currently concerned.

Comments

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

I am (unfortunately) the bearer of bad news in that YES benefits are backdateable, but they take FOREVER to process your forms so it may be a couple of months (6 in my friends case during which time he saw no money and was expected to survive on air) before you get that money in.
Good luck with it though and I am a dab hand at benefits form (which usually consists of making you right 10 page essays on why you are unable to work) if you need help.

[velvetfox.livejournal.com]

Sometimes you can ask them for an interim payment whilst they backdate.

[daemongirl.livejournal.com]

good luck.
It's good that you are optomistic about things... that always helps!

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

*hugs* That does sound positive. If you can't sort anything out to cover the mortgage, my bank probably like me more than yours like you, so I could probably get enough credit to cover it for a couple of months, which would give you more breathing space.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

/AOL. As it were. But you'd really have to convince me you'd give it back, as in sign stuff.

[duranorak.livejournal.com]

~hugs~ Well done, you. You feeling better probably means you'll be in a better state to deal with the upcoming tedious shit; go you.
I love you, also, not that it helps where financial benefits are concerned. :)

E.
x

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how easy it is to shove it all away to deal with later when you're mired in it all. Consciously you worry about it, but also subconsciously. A negative spiral ensues which you have to be careful of, but you seem to have broken it and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I would guess you're not out of the woods just yet, but I'm very glad you have some positive progress. *hugs*

My thoughts are with you.

[nevla.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear things are starting to go well.