I didn’t get a penny in Invalidity Benefit as I’d taken a short time out of work to care for my late father. This involved moving 450 miles from London where I’d lived for nearly 20 years. I didn’t get a Disabled Carers Allowance until about 6 weeks before dad went into care as the local Jobcentre kept telling me I had to try and claim JSA which I knew I wouldn’t get as I’d given my job up in London of my own accord). It was eventually sorted out by somebody who had been at the Jobcentre for 30 years, she knew more than the rest of the staff put together. Unfortunately this left me with a 3 month gap in NI which the then DWP wrongly told me I could pay to get Incapacity. Prior to this I had worked since 1977, no breaks for maternity leave or anything. Both of us were higher rate tax payers when we lived in London.
The DWP then didn’t bother to tell us my OH could get Working Tax Credit as we had a start up business, we found this out by chance through Macmillan when I was enquiring about something else. To cut a long story short we missed out on 8 months money at £96 a week. It just makes me really angry when I see people in my area who have never done a days work, yet they are being kept very nicely by the state. The entire system disgusts me and I will vote for anyone who gets tough and reforms it so the deserving get fair treatment and the lazy get cut adrift to fend for themselves.
It’s horrible isn’t it cherub?
If I pop to the post office, past the pub I see all the single ladies with the children in pushchairs soaking up the sun. Lager and lime on board unsupervising their fat little nappies waddling about, and sleep soundly that night knowing my husband is paying for that. Happy days eh?
Happy days indeed. I see them in my High Street all the time, hanging around smoking outside Greggs with their toddlers in tow. Sadly they are not much more than kids themselves.
Disability Living Allowance is available for anyone who ‘has been ill for at least 3 months’ AND ‘Is expected to continue to be ill for at least 6 more months’.
I’m thinking that should apply to ALL of us, as Herceptin can be at least a year on after the Chemo.
Have been told I will only be entitled to the lowest amount, but at least that’s £20 in my back pocket :0)
“Disability Living Allowance is available for anyone who ‘has been ill for at least 3 months’ AND ‘Is expected to continue to be ill for at least 6 more months’.”
It’s not quite that simple. I have two serious and incurable disabling conditions (not including the BC) and I have been turned down for this in the past. One reason was because I could carefully get up and down stairs by myself, even though I have fallen down stairs at times due to my dodgy balance brought on by one of the conditions.
It’s not for “illness” alone, that’s what Statutory Sick Pay is for.
I got turned down for DLA because the DWP contacted a GP at my practice who said in his opinion I wasn’t sick enough. When my OH asked the surgery about this he was told to get DLA you had to have lost the use of all of your limbs. He was absolutely furious with the surgery and gave them the whole spiel about how we’ve paid our taxes etc. I was advised to apply for DLA by the local Jobcentre as I couldn’t get Incapacity. Believe it or not, the woman I dealt with at the Jobcentre was in her 30s, about 20 odd stone and she was packing her job in to go on benefits as her knees were giving out under her. She sat at her desk eating chocolates all the way through talking to me.
Breast care nurses can usually help you apply for the grant. We couldn’t get it as back in 2007 you had to have under 8.5k in savings in the bank and we had more than this. We used the savings up when I couldn’t get any benefits.
Isn’t it crazy how everyone’s claims are treated differently. I recently took ill health retirement after nursing for 33 yrs due to bone, lung and now liver secondaries. Although i am grateful for my pension it is half the amount i was earning as a salary. I went to the Maggies centre and spoke to the benefits advisor and the nippy cow told me just because i had secondaries didnt mean i was entitled to benefits, so i left with my tail between my legs. However i sent of for a form for DLA and filled it in but was knocked back because i could walk the length of a football pitch. The breast nurse put me in touch with the MacMillan advisor, a lovely girl who came to my house and filled in the forms for me and my claim was successful so obviously its the way your application is worded that counts. I also now get contribution based ESA as i am about to start more chemo, just finished a course in June so am going to give this stuff a bash but if it makes me feel as crap as the last lot i dont think i will complete the course.
So good luck to everyone who is waiting on decisions for their claims, i hope you are all successful. Funnily enough i still feel a bit guilty about receiving benefits as my husband and i have always worked so it is alien to us but we would be finding it very tight financially if i didnt get these benefits.
Trish, the Maggies advisor sounds a bit like the conversation I had with a DWP call centre guy in Edinburgh when I was trying to chase up my IB claim 5 years ago. He actually said to me “breast cancer is no excuse for trying to access the benefits system”. Believe me had he been on the other side of a desk from me I probably would have slapped him. The claim I made which was rejected was sent to 5 different offices around the north of England and Scotland, including my 2 local offices because nobody wanted to make a decision on my claim. About 4 months later I traced it to Glasgow. The office there told me I had been turned down for benefits 2 weeks earlier, but they had forgotten to send a letter out! No wonder people end up really stressed out with it all.
hi ladies,
I’m a regular visitor to the website mainly for information but today I need a rant! I’ was diagnosed last July with
bc and have recently had my last chemo wahey!! now waiting for info regarding rads and tamoxifen, I can’t say it’s been easy but I’m getting there thanks to friends, family and a sense of humour, my rant is this- I’m 42, I’m a single parent and I have worked full time since I was 16, obviously I’ve taken lots of time off over the past few months but I’ve worked the odd day when I felt ok, in January I applied for all the relevant benefits( having never done this before I was clueless! ) I received a letter yesterday to inform me I’m not entitled to anything, oh sorry I get £6.24 towards council tax! my question is this- I personally know people of my age, able bodied, who choose not to work as they get by quite happily on tax credits, housing benefit bla bla bla, why then should I now be put in a position whereby I have no choice but to return to work early because I cannot afford to live on my ssp, ps the law states we are able to live on £67.50 a week! am I the only person who thinks this is wrong!!! pss I don’t have a plasma screen tv, fancy car etc!!!
any advice welcome x
Hi ladies i was lucky enough to get full pay for 6 months then half for 3 months then went back to work but am also claiming esa and have been placed in the support group which means i work 9 hours per week and earn about £90 then esa pay me about £117 per week. I can do this until nov 2012 then i have to come off esa because the government will only allow people with a cancer diagnosis to claim for 12 months ha ha bloody ridiculous isn’t it. But i think that if you have recd esa or ssp for 26 weeks you can claim tax credit with disability element so long as you work 16 hours per week. i have finished my chemo and rads and have 1 more herceptin then i just have the tamoxifen for another 4 and a half years. I also have rheumotoid arthritis and applied for dla but was turned down as they said i could walk and it was probably my treatment that had made my joints worse so to maybe apply again in a few years time. I remember struggling to pay for travel when i was having rads every day sometimes it was 2 buses each way other days i had to get a taxi and it cost me a fortune and couldn’t claim for travel because i wasnt on benefits so i was penalised for having working since i was 16 i am now 45. i agree with you antheap it is wrong.
It’s an absolute nightmare isn’t it!?
I have worked since age 17, unfortunately due to a break in service where I currently work I was only entitled to 61 days full pay, 43 days half pay and then ssp after that. My husband is self employed but has had to spend a lot of time looking after me chemo has been just awful, our income is minimal!!! We too are not entitled to anything except £25 month housing benefit! I had my last chemo on Monday 6 feb and am going back to work on 20 feb as otherwise we’ll be in a terrible pickle financially.
We don’t have a flash tv, sold our car for a cheap 2nd hand one, cancelled sky.
What I will say is that thanks to some advice from my cousin who works for British gas, we asked out gas/elec company about their vulnerable people policy - they’ve reduced our gas and electric bill by £25 per month too. It’s not great, coz lets face it I’ve been at home all day every day with the lights and hearing on as it’s winter!! However, it’s better than nothing
I don’t feel well enough or ready to go back to work, but have to face it as we have no other choice.
Rant, rant, rant, rant!!!
Am I entitled to this employment support allowance? Got turned down for DLA which didn’t surprise me, but applied for it out of desperation.
Aaagh
Hi Kiwi Coxy have a look at direct.gov re the esa. you can still claim it when you go back to work as well. Also give the benefits number a call 0800 055 6688 they are open 8am-6pm and ask them to explain what you need to do. The first 13 weeks are at £65 per week while they assess your application then you can get put into the support group which allows you to go back to work and keep your esa for 12 months. Good luck
Thanks Dixons, I’m talking to the chemo units social worker today and will see if we can sort out an application for employment support allowance xx
The benefits system is a minefield and totally bamboozles me. Nobody sits you down when you have your diagnosis and tells you what you may or may not be entitled to, everything we’ve looked into seems to have been as a result of coming across posts in this forum, then following up with phone calls and generally being told NO.
Thanks again
If I win Euro Lottery I’ll treat you all!!, (not that we can afford to gamble LOL)
Sharon :-))
I have been off work for the past 3 weeks following a lumpectomy - I have always worked full time etc etc never claimed before but my employers are SSP only - so I thought I would see if there is anything I can claim to make up my wages and have now been told that because my husband works full time I will get nothing ! I get really angry because we have a mortgage and the usual debts etc etc and to lose my wages is a massive blow and because of it I am so stressed out that the BC seems secondary ! I really thought that in this situation there would be some kind of assistance but no ! It just makes me sick that we would be better off jacking our jobs in - al we need is a bit of help at this hard time ! Sorry to rant !
I’m retired with SP and a small occupational pension, so most of your difficulties have passed me by…
However one problem I have had is cost of transport, 80 mile trip to breast clinic, 160 miles for radiotherapy - I live in the lake district. I estimated how much this would cost me for my whole course of treatment - OUCH. I was not eligible for any state aid cos I have some (small - credit crunch and all that) savings, and couldn’t easily access hosp transport because I don’t have a medical need!!
In total transport has cost me nearly £2000 over 12 months, out of an income of £13k - one sixth of my annual income. Spending £120 per wk for radiotherapy trips, from a housekeeping budget of £140 per week just wasn’t manageable.
Fortunately I was able to sell my house and downsize, reducing my mortgage in order to free up cash to pay for petrol etc.
So I have been able to avoid the peril of financial stress, and now I have lovely neigbours, a smaller house, and a little garden for the dogs.
How all you ladies can be expected to manage, when you don’t have the option I had, I cannot think, and my heart goes out to you.
I rang the MacMillan national helpline number - they were FANTASTIC about advising me on what benefits to apply for when my Sick Pay was about to run out.
Ninja - thank you for reminding people that anyone with a cancer diagnosis comes under the Equality Act as regards employment rights etc. - I personally think it’s very important that people realise this, especially if planning a return to work or applying for jobs.
Puffywhitecloud - you seem to be one of the luckier ones with Macmillan. I did think that someone would pop round and complete the forms and advise and not send me lots of useless leaflets. I am going to try the Maggie’s adviser in London next
I did get the Macmillan grant of £300 as I needed help to pay for my gas bill.
I’m on statutory sick pay totalling £85.85 at the moment. This is taxable but I will be making a tax refund claim once I get my employers P60 (May 31st is the cut off day for providing staff with P60s) so anyone’s who has been off work rfemember to do the same.
Hi you can claim free prescriptions for all your medicine, not just cancer drugs, you can get a from your local pharmacy, i got mine from boots, but you need to get it signed by your doctor or the hospital your attending and stamped then just post it to the address on printed on the form , hope this helps, not sure abt the disability part you mention but will try to look into it.linda.tiffany01