off work with sickness,can i get any help

shellyruby

hi all,
Ive been off sick from work[supervisor in a large retail company]
for the last 10 weeks..i have a very painful condition called trigeminal neuralgia..im taking anti convulsant drugs which are the only thing that deaden the nerves in the face to stop the nerves stinging..i am not a malingerer and have never had more than a week of work in the 15 years i have worked for them.
this condition makes it painful for anything to touch my face or even just the breeze blowing will send shockwaves,,this disorder has been known as the most painful condition in medicene known to man or another name they call it is the suicide disease.i had to keep raising the dose and then sleeping all the time as they are so strong.

anyway it was undiagnosed for the first month with the dr thinking it was sinus problems and the ear nose and throat consultant diagnosed it and started me off with the anti convulsant pills and has re referred me to the neurolgy dept within his hospital..
i have had a sick note certificate from the dr every 2 weeks since the middle of jan..i got the disorder in decemeber and tried to work for the first 2 weeks in jan but it was so painful i was crying it at work..
the last 3 months i have been paid normally from jan,feb and march.my company sick pay is 12 weeks..
i was hoping to go back to work this friday but am still in a lot of pain,i went back to the drs today to get more pills and she wanted to sign me off for a month but i said 2 weeks and hope i ill be a lot more pain free by then as i will be on a higher dose and the sedative effect hopefully will have worn off a bit.

so im thinking in april my wages would have gne down considerabley.is there anywhere i can claim from im still on compamy pay at the moment and a small amount of smp..i want to get back to work asap but may have a month or 2 without money.i havnt got a clue where i go from here..i just give my sick note into work every couple of weeks.my work has been really good about it,i will have to go to a standard interview with them to see how im getting on and if theres anything they can do to help etc.anyone who has had this disorder will know how debiliting it as and how painful..you can go in remission from it but ultimalty surgery in the trigeminal nerve which is located by the brain stem is the only cure as it will always come back.at the moment im scared that i will never get back to work because of the pain and the vile side effects from the drugs ,but im also scared that i will have problems paying my rent and bills etc.
sorry its a long essay..thanks for reading and if anyone has any advice id be grateful thank you
shelly.

sammyjammy

Sorry to hear about your illness, it sounds very painful.

I appreciate you're in pain and it's quite difficult but your post is not clear. You talk about SMP, this is statutory maternity pay,I assume you mean SSP?

Will you receive any pay from your company in April?

Do you rent or own your own home?
You might want to ask a moderator to move your post to the Benefits board, it will get more answers there.

shellyruby

sammyjammy wrote: »

Sorry to hear about your illness, it sounds very painful.

I appreciate you're in pain and it's quite difficult but your post is not clear. You talk about SMP, this is statutory maternity pay,I assume you mean SSP?

Will you receive any pay from your company in April?

Do you rent or own your own home?
You might want to ask a moderator to move your post to the Benefits board, it will get more answers there.

hi
thanks for your reply..yes i did mean ssp lol.drugs are making me stupid.im not sure what i will recieve in april..i have to ring in once a week with the sick note but felt bad asking them about money.i dont own my own home..i will have a look at my contract and ask the moderator to move the post.
thank you very much for your help..much appreciated.

sammyjammy

You should put in a claim for housing benefit and council tax support. You should ask work about your pay, its not bad its just so that you know what to expect. The council will ask anyway.

You really need some expert help and hopefully someone better than me will come along and help, you may be able to claim ESA as well.

Thomas_Hardy

SSP may be claimed for the first 26 weeks of sickness (your employer will pay this), after that you would need to claim ESA (they cannot be claimed at the same time). As mentioned, you should also claim for HB and CTB.

Note that council tax benefit is changed next month - it becomes council tax support (CTS). Under CTS, the local authority decides how much you are entitled to, and it may be less than under the CTB scheme.

alba7

Hi shellyruby

I don't have any practical help regarding benefits but I do understand what you're going through - I've had trigeminal neuralgia for the last 10 years. Have you made contact with the trigeminal neuralgia association?
www.tna.org.uk

I found them really helpful when I was first diagnosed and I had a support worker on email to discuss things with. They might be able to suggest things to help reduce the attacks.

I'm sending you all my best wishes!

Regards

alba 7

shellyruby

sorry for very late reply,
thank you very much for all your advice.i still havnt managed to get back to work yet..hoping to get back in the middle of may..luckily work are still paying me,as as soon as the next tax year started the new sick for the year clicked in so so far so good and havnt had to claim anything,thank you very much for your ideas,i appreciate it,
Alba.10 years..i feel for you,i looked on the tna site and got some good info thank you for that.i also joined a closed facebook group to chat to others with the same thing,at least work and money is ok for the moment,one less thing to think about.

alba7

I'm glad to hear that you're still getting company sick pay shellyruby - at least that's one less thing to worry about.

Try not to get too stressed (I know that's easy to say!) but it really does make the neuralgia worse. The medications will generally help but it can take time to find the right dosage and the right med! I found gabapentin didn't help but had revolting side effects. Carbamazapine worked really well for me with fewer side effects, but my doctor wasn't keen to prescribe it. In the end, the neurologist insisted.

It's a horrible condition but, believe me, things will improve.

Take care

alba7