When I asked for luck I didn't mean the bad variety!!!

*Robin*

grannyx2 wrote: »

Yey to losing lb and gaining £s, very mse

Seconded!

Sounds like you had a lovely time watching your lads' xmas plays, Lucky - well done for not giving in to the emotion of it all and bawling! :T

please-let-me-be-lucky

Evening all .

Another busy day here! DS2's second nativity performance this am followed by a mad dash to Mr A's before going back to pick him up. Blinds arrived after lunch and were promptly installed by DH :T. Makes a huge difference in all 3 rooms :j.
DS1 had his second performance this evening so he needed to be returned to school and DH and MiL went to watch him while I had my Mum over for tea! Haven't seen her since before her hols so it was good to catch up. My sister cancelled on us as she was busy at work and had to stay behind.
When Mum left DH's friend arrived and has not long left. Bless him though he came to say he can get the things he needs to service our car at a discount from work so that was £42. Hopefully he can do it on Sunday.

Got an email to say we qualify for the Warm Homes discount and they will apply £135 to our energy account by end of March :j.

DH got a text tonight at 9.07pm saying he has an appointment tomorrow at 9.30am. First we've heard of it :eek:. It's the company that the government employ to 'help' people back to work and is a real waste of time in DH's situation. Nevertheless we will go as thankfully we have no other appointments tomorrow and we are lucky to receive the benefits we do. DH is not happy that we will miss the gym again though. Think that's more to do with his guilt over his doughnut consumption than anything else!

Sun_Addict

Hi Lucky - just catching up with your diary. You've been very busy/productive just lately. You are doing amazing with the weight/debt loss considering everything that's going on in your life. It's great to hear you sounding so positive at the moment.

please-let-me-be-lucky

Hi SA nice to 'see' you. I'm afraid I feel anything BUT positive after today's fiasco :mad:.

So we got the text last night 'reminding' us about DH's appointment despite not receiving a letter. A couple of weeks ago we were sent an appointment for Friday 6th Dec that clashed with nursery pick up time. I tried to organise someone else to collect DS2 so we could attend, but failed as MiL had a lunch date with friends, my Mum was on holiday and other friends were also busy. When I called to ask if we could change the time the advisor was very rude and couldn't understand why I couldn't get DS2 while DH attended the appointment on his own. Eventually she agreed to rearrange the appointment and said she would send out confirmation in the post. The letter never arrived.
Anyway, mad dash into town after school drop off, parked and walked to the place, getting there by the skin of our teeth - only to find they had moved!!! There wasn't even a forwarding address on the hand written notice on the window! Thankfully DH still had the text on his phone so we rang the number and the receptionist explained where they had moved to - 15 minutes walk away!! We were therefore very late by the time we got there.
The advisor was new to DH's story and by the time I'd finished explaining everything she apologised that the notes on her computer by his (several!) previous advisors had not explained things at all. She then admitted she didn't know why DH has been placed in the group he is in (Work Related Activity Group) as he is more suited to the support group and she gave me the phone number to call and ask for him to be moved.
Got home from the appointment and there is a snotty letter waiting saying that DH's benefit may be stopped because he failed to attend the original appointment without a valid excuse. The advisor had reported us and sat this morning saying nothing about it. I then had to call another department and explain EVERYTHING again for them to make notes for the 'decision maker'. The guy I spoke to said he couldn't say what the decision maker's outcome would be but he didn't think we should have been reported in the first place. I'm absolutely LIVID :mad:. It's all a mindless money wasting exercise and we are being treated as scum because they don't know their @rse from their elbow. I really feel like making a complaint, but it feels wrong when we receive benefits that we would be stuffed without.

HeadAboveWater

:eek::mad: Oh that's seriously unprofessional!!! I'd be livid too!!

I do tend to think though that just because you're entitled to money from them, doesn't give them the right to treat you like scum! Would you refrain from putting in a grievance at work just because they pay you?

grannyx2

What total idiots, seriously some people just cannot think for themselves can they and have to class everyone as though they're in the wrong

Just because you get money from the benefits system, doesn't give them the right to treat you this way. Get that complaint in

Granny x

please-let-me-be-lucky

Thanks both. I'm leaning towards waiting to see what decision they make and then making my complaint. After posting earlier I decided to phone the advisor we saw this morning and ask her if she could retract her reasons for reporting. She said that all she had done was let the job centre know we hadn't attended an appointment because we needed to collect our child from nursery because that is protocol, and then DWP were the ones that decided to persue it. Asking to change the time of an inconvenient appointment is hardly the same as cancelling or failing/refusing to attend though is it?! I told her I was really angry at how it had all unfolded and she said if worst case they do stop DH's money then to let her know and she will speak to them. Worringly, she also said that if sanctions are imposed for people on job seekers allowance it's only for a couple of weeks, but with sickness benefits it can be months :eek:. Wish she hadn't said that!!

So, moving on before I explode, I got some new shoes for work today for £7.99 . They are actually mens shoes but I don't care for that price and as I'll be wearing them for just a few hours per week. We then spent £10 in P0undl@nd and got boxes of milk tray for DS2's teacher/nursery assistants for Christmas, and selection boxes for Beavers which were 3 for £2.

And just to make things even more fun I've hurt my back . For the last few nights I've woken up in pain and I find it hard to get comfy again. I'm in a lot of pain in the morning until I have a hot shower and get moving and it usually goes unnoticed for the rest of the day until bed time again. Today though it has bothered me during the day too. Why can't I just be well?

grannyx2

Hugs

Happy new shoes

I'm sorry it's people like her, jobs worths, that give us Civil Servants who see what we do as a service to help rather than make things difficult, a bad name

Granny x

please-let-me-be-lucky

Thanks Granny. I did a year long contract with the civil service too so I know they aren't all bad!! I don't know where we'd be without the service, it just hurts that we are being treated as if we've done wrong or tried to cheat or something. If the original appointment had been an hour earlier or later we would have gone no problem and none of this would be happening. Xx

*Robin*

Hi Lucky, :hello:

(((Hugs))) It is frustrating, trying to negotiate an unnecessarily complicated, disjointed system.
Suggest you write a bullet-point list giving date/time of each letter, 'phone-call, outcome etc.
Be prepared..

But fingers crossed they'll sort it out themselves and move DH to the correct group, without further action from you or any blip in his payments.