Disability and gas bill :(

mealone

krisskross wrote: »

I do appreciate what you say about the married woman's stamp but if your HR department had not spelled it out for you would you have known? I changed in 1961 so by the time I was aware in the 1980's it was far too late to improve my pension prospects by changing back. It has not been possible to opt out of paying the full stamp for a couple of decades now.

I thought we were talking about disabled people getting DLA not just newly sick people on the lowest rate of ESA. I assume those people would get help with their housing costs and council tax. My husband and I get no help with those costs.

I am actually a bit sad that you appear to begrudge us our pensions, especially my £230 a month. When I retired i was paying over £130 a month NI as well as £700 a month income tax and that was 7 years ago. So the married womans' stamp wasn't exactly peanuts was it? We worked for nearly 90 years between us. I never claimed any sort of benefits except for child benefit, although we never got anything for our first child. Industrial related illness caused my husband to take early retirement at 60 but until then he had never claimed any benefits either.

You can have my £125 a year WFA if you feel that mealymouthed about it.

I am on IVB and have been since 1992 and I get £105 a week and the care element of DLA (I have a mobility car, so my HRMC goes on that) and child benefit for my son and not a penny more, not even tax credits. My home is paid for and I dont recieve ctb, ESA work related group is where most disabled people are going and its a lot less per week and since I am struggeling on the highest allowance for not working due to illness/disability I cant see how anyone can live on it and you cant assume that people within that group get extra help, I wouldnt get any more than ESA and I know dozens of people like me.

I didnt say that married womans stamp was peanuts but that by opting out it has reduced your pension and you wouldnt have had sick pay if you were ill so its a very short sighted choice that you made alongside most other married women of your age made, probably without knowing the full story I assume in many cases.

I dont begrudge you your WFA or your pension, I was pointing out that you have more help than we do and many of us need to spend more on fuel due to disability and thats unfair when many who do get the WFA are not in fuel poverty, to the government our DLA is elastic but in reality half is taken for your care package and the rest dosnt come close to paying for all the things I need, my stairlift cost a fortune, I had to pay for a new bathroom, the house had to be ramped, I need an auto car which costs more and hand controls to drive it, special bed, speacial chair, wheelchairs and the list gos on and on but the DLA dosnt.

krisskross

mealone wrote: »

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I dont begrudge you your WFA or your pension, I was pointing out that you have more help than we do and many of us need to spend more on fuel due to disability and thats unfair when many who do get the WFA are not in fuel poverty, to the government our DLA is elastic but in reality half is taken for your care package and the rest dosnt come close to paying for all the things I need, my stairlift cost a fortune, I had to pay for a new bathroom, the house had to be ramped, I need an auto car which costs more and hand controls to drive it, special bed, speacial chair, wheelchairs and the list gos on and on but the DLA dosnt.

We don't get any State help as such. Our pensions are simply our entitlements based on many years contributions to the Welfare state.

BTW I have a pretty sick husband. He has had 3 heart attacks and a triple bypass. He has what the consultant describes as a very aggressive rheumatoid arthritis, he has insulin dependent diabetes, he has Menieres disease, COPD and extremely poor circulation in one leg from where the vein was taken for his bypass, so needs a compression stocking about 20 hours a day. He is also very deaf and wears 2 hearing aids.

He just missed the age deadline for claiming DLA, Attendance allowance is based purely on care needs, his very poor mobility is not counted. So because he can shower himself in our walk-in shower albeit very slowly and he needs to rest for ages afterwards he can meet his own needs.He is very immobile and has had the heating on today, a gloriously hot one, because he felt cold. We moved from a 3 bedroomed house to a flat as he can't cope with stairs.

I honestly believe that disabled people are for the most part given reasonably generous allowances these days to help with the extras they need. It would be totally impossible to fund everyone to the level they think they deserve. The taxpayers money is not a bottomless pit, in fact I think future government will have to make some very unpopular decisions about Welfare benefits in order to balance the books.

And about me not getting any sick pay. My job provided me with 6 months full pay, followed by 6 months half pay, then presumably retirement on medical grounds if i still couldn't return. No government scheme would have matched that.

mealone

krisskross wrote: »

We don't get any State help as such. Our pensions are simply our entitlements based on many years contributions to the Welfare state.

BTW I have a pretty sick husband. He has had 3 heart attacks and a triple bypass. He has what the consultant describes as a very aggressive rheumatoid arthritis, he has insulin dependent diabetes, he has Menieres disease, COPD and extremely poor circulation in one leg from where the vein was taken for his bypass, so needs a compression stocking about 20 hours a day. He is also very deaf and wears 2 hearing aids.

He just missed the age deadline for claiming DLA, Attendance allowance is based purely on care needs, his very poor mobility is not counted. So because he can shower himself in our walk-in shower albeit very slowly and he needs to rest for ages afterwards he can meet his own needs.He is very immobile and has had the heating on today, a gloriously hot one, because he felt cold. We moved from a 3 bedroomed house to a flat as he can't cope with stairs.

I honestly believe that disabled people are for the most part given reasonably generous allowances these days to help with the extras they need. It would be totally impossible to fund everyone to the level they think they deserve. The taxpayers money is not a bottomless pit, in fact I think future government will have to make some very unpopular decisions about Welfare benefits in order to balance the books.

And about me not getting any sick pay. My job provided me with 6 months full pay, followed by 6 months half pay, then presumably retirement on medical grounds if i still couldn't return. No government scheme would have matched that.

AA is state help, as is DLA they are the same benefit but with age you are expected to lose ability where as someone of 23 isnt.

You are barking if you think that disabled people "are given generous allowances", maybe someone who dosnt need very expensive equiptment and care have some money left over but the seriously disabled certainly dont! If your husband is as ill as you say you would know how expensive being disabled is but since you believe being disabled costs less than half high AA which is the same as high rate care you dont have a clue, half pays for your care needs so there is little left for adaptions and equiptment

Your sick pay scheme is the same as mine but what after a year? zilch, they dont pension you off in your 20s even when you are serverly disabled without a very long fight, a bit diffrent from your husband retireing at 60.

My OHs best friend is 67 and he is still working with the same
health problems as your husband apart from the meneries but he has also got spinal damage but he works 6 months then holidays 6 months.

seven-day-weekend

mealone wrote: »

I have always payed full stamp, even when I married so I will have a full state pension, you chose to reliey on your husbands contributions, what if you had been to ill to work? No IB because you payed a married womans stamp, you saved money then and now you reaping the rewards, I always advised people to continue paying full stamp which is a small price to pay to be equal. I dont know if you can opt out today, its over 20 years since I got married and HR asked me if I wanted to pay the married womans contributions but any woman getting married think before you make a choice about your stamp.

Your and your husbands pension + £250 WFA is much more than disabled people get to live on which is at a maximum £105 a week, with most people on under £90 a week or £60 a week on the new ESA and we all have the same bills to pay but pensioners get much more money to pay them with.

But don't you also get your Council Tax paid (and rent if you are a tenant) if you are on this small an income? So the total amounts are not actually as small as you say are they?

FYI, people have not been able to opt for married women's stamp since 1978 thank goodness.

pipkin71

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

But don't you also get your Council Tax paid (and rent if you are a tenant) if you are on this small an income? So the total amounts are not actually as small as you say are they?

If they're claiming IB instead of IS, then they don't get 100% of their HB or CTB paid I believe.

krisskross

I still think it is extremely counter productive to be comparing who gets what and saying s'not fair. Pensioners have had a poor deal since the link between average earnings and pensions was stopped. Far too many old people have had to choose between food and warmth. I honestly do not understand mealone saying she gets no council tax help though if she only has £105 a week.

As I said Attendance Allowance is extremely hard to get and he doesn't, so no state help.

It hadn't occurred to be that I could still have him working even with all his problems. I'll send him to the job centre on Monday. Lazy so and so must be putting it on when he says he needs to stop 3 times to get to the bus stop 50 yards away.

dawnsong

shopaholic2 wrote: »

Hi, I have been in tears today as i got my gas bill and its £745:eek:. This is for several reasons,.....
1, My daughter has ulcerative colitis, was diagnosed in Feb, but is and was permanently cold, so i had the heating on alot thru the winter,(she became ill in november), and I still have to have it on.

hi shopaholic2

slightly off topic,
i can't suggest anything further, re: help with your fuel bill, but some water companies have a water assist scheme ( as I recently discovered due to a very helpful post here).
Ulcerative colitis is one of the conditions mentioned, that possibly qualifies you for help with water costs.

re: your daughter feeling the cold badly, I don't have the same condition, but I can't regulate my temperature as needed, and no amount of clothing or duvets will get me warm quickly, when chilled. I have found microwave slippers , as mentioned here, and also a rapid heat-up electric blanket to be a godsend.

all the best.

mealone

krisskross wrote: »

I still think it is extremely counter productive to be comparing who gets what and saying s'not fair. Pensioners have had a poor deal since the link between average earnings and pensions was stopped. Far too many old people have had to choose between food and warmth. I honestly do not understand mealone saying she gets no council tax help though if she only has £105 a week.

As I said Attendance Allowance is extremely hard to get and he doesn't, so no state help.

It hadn't occurred to be that I could still have him working even with all his problems. I'll send him to the job centre on Monday. Lazy so and so must be putting it on when he says he needs to stop 3 times to get to the bus stop 50 yards away.

I get no help because I have a small amount saved to do up my home and my OH works, but if I wasnt disabled I would still have been working earning ove £30k a year and £105 week is a pittance compared to wages and I have to use the money saved for the house to survive on. Pensioner have never had it so good with the pension garrente, pension credit and WFA and unlike disabled people pensioners worked and could save towards there old age.

AA isnt hard to get at all, I have done 4 sets of forms for disabled reletives and they all got the higher rate AA without any problems at all and its so much easier than DLA to qualify for help when you are older, my FIL never had as money in his whole life as his final few years after his heart attacks/strokes.

krisskross

mealone wrote: »

I get no help because I have a small amount saved to do up my home and my OH works, but if I wasnt disabled I would still have been working earning ove £30k a year and £105 week is a pittance compared to wages and I have to use the money saved for the house to survive on. Pensioner have never had it so good with the pension garrente, pension credit and WFA and unlike disabled people pensioners worked and could save towards there old age.
.

Perhaps you get no further help financially because you have a working husband. For goodness sake how much more do you expect to get? Your husband presumably promised to look after you in sickness and in health, and to share all his wordly goods with you. High rate IB plus DLA is no small sum a week now is it? It is certainly more than our combined state pensions. Still you are the one complaining not me. I repeat you are very welcome to my £2.50 a week WFA if you are in that desperate need. You don't hear me complaing that s'not fair that we don't get pension credit or whatever because we have saved during our working life. That is the way it should be. Have you heard the expression 'To each according to his need'?

However you really come across as very greedy. Still you will be a pensioner one day and will then be able to decide for yourself just how much of a bed of roses it is.

mealone

We are not married and he has a low paid job, I was the big bread winner and if you think under £150 a week is a fortune you are sadly mistaken.

You could work and save, people disabled at a young age havnt had that luxury and the government are reducing IB starting this year so my income will go down by £1000 a year when the age allowance stops completely which makes a mockery of the transitional protection.

We will be much better off in when my OH retires which isnt unsual, we have private pensions and that with the state pension is much more than we get now and we will have less out goings.

Some people with the same level of disability as me do get much, much more money, LHA, CTB, IS with the DP, SDP and EDP added which takes care of the housing costs and gives them an extra @£100 a week in there pockets and people assume all disabled people have this extra money but we dont. Look at this thread, it was assumed I would get CTB because its expected.

SDW I opted not to pay a married womans stamp in 1988 so it went on till then atleased.