Not unrelated to the DLA review. Many also claim Incapacity Benefit. This raised other issues. The emails I get are mentioning this subject also. Here is what I understand. Please feel free to email or comment if I have any issue wrong or with your experience.
Disability Living Allowance \ other benefits.
If you receive other benefits where the amount you recieve is dependant on the level of DLA you get. I can only assume that these benefits levels may be lost or reduced depending on the level of DLA you will get post your review. You have a legal duty to declare on forms sent to you to ensure your information is up to date. Check with your solicitor/welfare advisor/ social worker for clarity.
Incapacity Benefit.
The Welfare Reform Act 2007 comes into force later this year. They are replacing Incapacity Benefit, Jobseekers Allowance & Income Support with the “Employment & Support Allowance”. As far as I can gather. I have just started reading the explanatory notes before tackling the act. Those applying will get a basic allowance. Following an assessment period (13 Weeks max.). You are then awarded either a work supplement which will require you to engage in activity towards finding a job. Or you will be awarded the support supplement. The support supplement will not place a duty on you to engage in the "seeking work conditions" of the work component. Though the support supplement will be reviewed yearly.
Many I know are being called in to reassess their Incapacity Benefit. They get the forms fill them in. Have an interview at the job centre & may have to undergo a medical examination by a DWP medic. This assessment I gather is so that when the new benefit package comes online. All existing claimants have been assessed and then transferred to the relevant core benefit & appropriate supplement. Clearly to assess 1.2 million claims within the first 13 weeks of the new benefit going live would result in chaos.
Also, the Benefit Integrity project is looking at Incapacity Benefit to ensure it is going to the right people.
Job Centre interview.
When you get the letter this can cause anxiety. However the interview is mainly to introduce you to the services that the Job Centre can offer IF you decide in the future to try and get back into work.
It is not as daunting it seems. They really are just trying to be supportive and will not (in my experience) place you under any pressure. They are just offering you help.
Interviews are often held in the "open plan" office. You can ask to been seen in a less public space if you need to discuss your HIV. In my experience they are only to happy to do this. In the last case where I accompanied someone. When I mentioned that if the conversation required a discussion of medical issues it would have to be in private. The case officer said he was aware of the medical condition & there was no need to further discuss it.
Medical.
You maybe asked to go to a medical. Just be very frank with the medic. Remember the fact you may be having a "good day" and thus there. Is not indicitive of what a "bad day" is. They will understand this. They will usually talk about the information you have written on the form. In my experience they are very sympathetic.
If you are worried & need advice please seek professional advice from your Solicitor/Welfare worker/Social Services/Citizen Advice Bureau.
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2 comments:
I've been doing my sums with regard to HIV benefits as they stand for me.
Monthly payments: benefit income
DLA (less cost of car) £258.00
Incapacity £393.80
Income Support £186.80
total £838.60
Monthly Essential bills: Out goings
Mortgage + utility bills
£600.00+
(This amount constantly changes with gas, electric & water, building, contents & car insurance, telephone, council taxes annual increases.
That leaves £238.60 PM
(or £ 59.65 A WEEK)
Food & vitimens +/-£50.00 PW
That leaves............£ 9.65 PW to LIVE on.
I am FORCED to depend on a credit card for anything else that I may need as I have been in the RED with my over draft since the mid
90's. I CAN ONLY EVER AFFORD THE MINIMUM PAYMENTS ON THE CREDIT CARD by paying with my overdraft, it never goes above -£600 every month. I have to rely on my partner to supply anything else that I may need. I'M VERY LUCKY TO HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING NEGATIVE PARTNER!
I must stress though that my partner barely earns enough himself to pay his half of the bills.
WITH THE LOSS OF THE DLA WILL I BE BELOW THE POVERTY LINE?......
I know going back to work would be IDEAL just to get out of the house for a start. BUT that takes a lot of effort due to the medication side effects listed below.
At my age & with much more than a decade of NO work experience, suffer medication side effects, who would want to employ me & pay me enough to get me out of this trap. God knows I have tried.
To be blunt, how do you explain to an employer why you are spending so much time running back & forth to the toilet every five minutes suffering acute stomach cramps, diarrhoea, tiredness & sickness that occur about an hour to two hours after medication is taken.
I take all my six tablets in the morning (only with cereal as anything else makes the side effects UNBEARABLE!) If I take them at night I certainly don't want to have to suffer the effects in time for bed which means horrible 'accidents', horrendous nights of nightmares, restless sleep & resulting in a very bad nights sleep SO OBVIOUSLY not able to function the next morning very well as the medication starts to wear off during the course of 12 hours NOT a very good place to be in an employment situation.
If you had a choice of two applications for a job in front of you one me & another less capable & younger but healthy, who would you choose?
Thanks for this. I try and explain the situation on the 1st page of the website.
However you cannot beat real experience.
Ta,
John.
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