Incapacity Studying Question

OriginalIssue

I am on incapacity/income support for bipolar disorder which I take medication for and I also suffer depressive anxiety disorder and panic attacks, currently I cannot work due to my medication not been correct for me although my psychiatrist is brilliant so hoping it to be sorted within the next few months. I've also been referred to another two specialists to help me build confidence ready to go back to work.

Because of my illnesses I am often too afraid to go out and so spend days in the house alone, I was wondering if I would be allowed to do a short at home course to see how I got on with concentration and motivation which I lack at the moment.

Would this affect my benefits though? I was thinking something like Open University.

kazzah

Original Issue
if you are going to do a short course and pay for it yourself - who would know? you could discuss it with your psychiatrist and i am sure they would give it their seal of approval and claim it was therapeutic to you.
My DH was on IB for 5 years following a medical discharge from his job due to clinical depression after an accident.
He has just graduated from the OU with a degree in psychology and no-one ever asked him anything about it.
it is only PAID work you are unable to do ( and actually in certain circumstances that may even be allowed) - i would encourage you to carry on - my husabnd went back to work after 5 years and has continued his degree whilst re-training in his career and also undertaking 3 long evening courses to do with his work.
I am VERY proud of him and his self esteem has risen 10 fold by doing the courses- and the ability to pick them up and then put them down has been a great help too.
Good Luck

cydney65

I'm on IB and study with the OU. From what I understand you can study part-time (i.e under 16hrs a week) and this does not affect IB. If you study full-time you would need to inform the powers that be as it's a change in circumstances. I don't think studying FT automatically affects your eligibility to IB but the benefit people would need to assess what the studying invloves and make a decision from there. I keep my study with the OU to 60points at a time partly because of IB (study time works out at roughly 16 hrs per week) but mostly because any more would affect my arthritis.
I'm no expert so if anyone knows different it would be good to know.

tenacioust123

cydney65 wrote: »

I'm on IB and study with the OU. From what I understand you can study part-time (i.e under 16hrs a week) and this does not affect IB. If you study full-time you would need to inform the powers that be as it's a change in circumstances. I don't think studying FT automatically affects your eligibility to IB but the benefit people would need to assess what the studying invloves and make a decision from there. I keep my study with the OU to 60points at a time partly because of IB (study time works out at roughly 16 hrs per week) but mostly because any more would affect my arthritis.
I'm no expert so if anyone knows different it would be good to know.

Sorry A bit off-topic, cydney65 do you get any help towards the cost of studying with OU as it's something i've been thinking of doing.

cydney65

Hi Tenacioust, There are several different types of funding with the OU. I don't qualify for the general financial support-combined benefits of self and OH takes us over the limit + I have a degree already. I could get the disabled students allowance, in fact I was thinking of doing it this year to help me get hold of Dragon speech recognition software which is blooming expensive, but I have discovered that Vista has a speech recognition application so will use that instead. If you go to the OU website and click on 'study with OU' there is a section called 'support for your study', have a look at that. BTW I have found the OU pretty cool regarding it's support for disabilities (apart from a right mess it made last year regarding Dragon software, but that's another story) and the forums are a great community.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do

tenacioust123

I'll probably be the same with my OH and my income. However I need to keep the grey matter active even if the body is not willing!!!

I'll go and have a look at the OU website.

Thanks and all the best

Tina

kazzah

cydney65 wrote: »

Hi Tenacioust, There are several different types of funding with the OU. I don't qualify for the general financial support-combined benefits of self and OH takes us over the limit + I have a degree already. I could get the disabled students allowance, in fact I was thinking of doing it this year to help me get hold of Dragon speech recognition software which is blooming expensive, but I have discovered that Vista has a speech recognition application so will use that instead. If you go to the OU website and click on 'study with OU' there is a section called 'support for your study', have a look at that. BTW I have found the OU pretty cool regarding it's support for disabilities (apart from a right mess it made last year regarding Dragon software, but that's another story) and the forums are a great community.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do

Before you spend a lot on Dragon speech recognition it might be worth your while contacting AbilityNet - this is a charity who specialise in helping people with disabilites access the RIGHT computer soft and hardware for their needs
funilly enough - the 1st job myDh took after studying with the Ou and coming off IB was with this charity !
here is their link
http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/

he is not a huge fan of dragon as in his experience it is very time consuming to set up and may not be the best for your individual needs
hth
Kazzah

allydowd

I have worked for the OU> A word to the wise: choose your course very carefully! Even some of the short courses can be deceptively demanding in terms of time and effort. When you have chosen a course ask to speak to a lecturer from that course to be sure that it is really the sort of course you are looking for. The OU has a big drop-out rate; that's a lot of money going down the drain. Many courses also expect you to have good computing skills before you start.