I can't afford the PIP calls anymore! In tears!

NeilCr

MrsMJ wrote: »

My letter I filled out stated I wanted a MR, however the form they told me to put it on was intact an appeal form for AFTER a MR. Regardless, I stated at the top I requested a MR and although the courts sent it back, the complaints manager at PIP said she could clearly see it was a MR on an appeal form in error and that I had entered it in the recommended time and she would have this assigned and dealt with asap. She told me to call back when I had a date for the car to be returned and they could speed up the MR process, however when I did this the person said there was no mention of this in the notes and that the MR had not even been registered yet....

Every time they 'call back' I feel I am repeatedly told lies just to get me off the phone because what they say is never whats in the notes. I asked if I can record the calls, to which they said no - they will hang up. I have asked if they can record them, they said no. I have asked for letter proof of whats being said, they said they can't do this. I feel like I have absolutely no rights in being treated fairly or to have these things recorded for my own benefit and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it

Okay I do understand all that. What I was trying to get my head around was what CAB suggested that you do/say in the phone call. I imagine that they felt something needed to be done and, given your difficulties in getting to the bureau, that it was best to try and get you to do it to get whatever it was moving

I second the suggestion of contacting the school about transport

MrsMJ

xylophone wrote: »

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/71188869#Comment_71188869

OP, you mention your pregnancy in the above post - the stress and distress of your situation can be doing you no good at all - can your midwife suggest any additional sources of assistance?

This was my friend posting on my account, I am not expecting - sorry for the confusion but thanks for the suggestion :-)

MrsMJ

baldelectrician wrote: »

May I suggest a couple of things
You have kids- they may have an old phone that is better than yours (I would suggest an android phone - then you can get an app that will record the calls and email them to you (or save them to an SD card)
If you go with a sim only deal this will give you lots of minutes
Tesco Mobile do 5000 texts and 5000 mins for less than £18 per month, you can add data as well.

My kids are far too young for mobiles! But thanks so much for the suggestion. I have an iPhone, so might be able to get an application for that - only problem is, they said they will hang up if I tell them they are being recorded.

Unfortunately I am not able to get any mobile contracts, sim only or otherwise - however this would be very beneficial if I could!

Tommo1980

If you are with one of the main networks you should be able to convert your top up into a bundle of mins, texts and data.

I'm on Vodafone and have one of their big value bundles. Whenever I call DWP it is a free call and I don't lose any mins from my allowance.

Tom

April60

Hello MrsMJ
I've been thinking about the medical appointments you have to go to. Most surgeries have a contact number of a voluntary car scheme where you might pay 50p per mile to get picked up and taken to your surgery and taken home again at the end of your visit. I would think there might be a voluntary car scheme driver that could possibly help you get in and out of his or her car. But not sure of this. But if you need hospital transport, you can get that from the hospital itself but it might involve collecting other persons along the way. Some voluntary car schemes also do hospital visits but I know ours does not. Ours also delivers prescriptions to peeps out in sticks. If you have a local village magazine you may find details of your local voluntary car scheme in there.
Any letter you send to any official needs to be photocopied or scanned and sent recorded or better still special delivery if you can.

MrsMJ

April60 wrote: »

Hello MrsMJ
I've been thinking about the medical appointments you have to go to. Most surgeries have a contact number of a voluntary car scheme where you might pay 50p per mile to get picked up and taken to your surgery and taken home again at the end of your visit. I would think there might be a voluntary car scheme driver that could possibly help you get in and out of his or her car. But not sure of this. But if you need hospital transport, you can get that from the hospital itself but it might involve collecting other persons along the way. Some voluntary car schemes also do hospital visits but I know ours does not. Ours also delivers prescriptions to peeps out in sticks. If you have a local village magazine you may find details of your local voluntary car scheme in there.
Any letter you send to any official needs to be photocopied or scanned and sent recorded or better still special delivery if you can.

Thank you so much, unfortunately even at that a doctors trip would then cost me around £12 each way, I don't have an income other than PIP & Child Tax Credit so I would need to rely on my partner to fork out for this as I already use all that money for other things I cannot do without.

We have discussed our options and sadly if SS cannot help any, our only option would be to split up, move into separate homes and for me to rely on benefits as a single parent.

The strain the past year has put our relationship under with him expected to not only finance our lives, but also be my carer or pay for my care, he's being penalised for being a working man in a relationship with a disabled woman. It just isn't working for him and I certainly don't think it's fair on him either.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions, for reading through and for taking the time to reply, It is really appreciated

Bogalot

You say you've got no income other than CTC and PIP, what is your partner doing with his salary? What about the income from the property you let out? You are a family unit, your finances are considered to be joint.

It does feel like we're not getting the full story here.

NeilCr

You should be getting Child Benefit too

missapril75

I suppose there must be many organisations snowed under like CAB.

I know from experience that there will be many individuals who would love to fight your battle. The difficulty is in finding one who may be willing to assist even though technically you are not in their normal client group. They may stretch a point or bend a rule in order to do so.

Potential resources may be on this list.
https://crm.disabilityrightsuk.org/civicrm/profile?reset=1&force=1&gid=49

Your MP may be the best bet right now. When gov departments get an MP's enquiry a manager or two drops everything to get to the bottom of it. Quite often someone is put exclusively on it.

Completely unrelated issue but in DWP I was paid overtime for the Saturday needed to sort something out in one such case.

missapril75

Bogalot wrote: »

You say you've got no income other than CTC and PIP, what is your partner doing with his salary? What about the income from the property you let out? You are a family unit, your finances are considered to be joint.

It does feel like we're not getting the full story here.

The full story appears to be that the OP is suffering because something was not done but one of those somethings was actually done by an officer of the department involved.

The OP has clearly mentioned about the partner's situation. There may be other aspects which are really nobody's business but her own but they are really nothing to do with the subject of the query and that line of questioning really doesn't help.