Oops I Did It Again

WinterWarrior

That’s great progress.

Naomim

Brilliant on the interest reduction and getting it onto a 0%  deal.  It's lovely to see it coming down isn't it.

CRANKY40

@Naomim yes, it is good to see it reducing. Hopefully a bit faster now that I won't be paying £48 p/mth interest. 

So far this morning I've stripped my bed and put all the bedding in the wash and I've cleaned the kitchen. This afternoon's plan is to weed the back garden and to repot some of the stuff that I've grown indoors so it can go outside - only petunias, nigella and calendula left indoors  think. 

CRANKY40

Small planned spend today - a haircut for the HT. The person that he prefers to cut his hair was there so all good.

The HT and I both have hypermobile joints. He is much worse than me though as my joints didn't hurt much until I was in my 30s whereas he has been in pain for most of his life. He's due to start college in September and has already been referred for learning support as he also has dyscalculia so this morning we've completed the first ever PIP form. It's quite hard being forced to gather all the "can't do" and struggles with" into one small booklet. I'm pleased that college have been in touch already though - it bodes well for the future and for a positive outcome if he has to take his maths GCSE again. If he's given PIP it means that he can start to become more independant of me and hopefully enjoy college life. 

In the meantime we have everything crossed for GCSE results day (August 12th) and a grade 4 in maths which means that he'll never have to open a maths textbook ever again. I've been at war with his school ever since one of his maths teachers called him lazy 2 years ago. It was beyond their comprehension that a student who was in the top band for everything else could struggle with maths. No compassion or understanding whatsoever! From what I've read this can be a common reaction to dycalculia and dyslexia. Luckily the maths teacher that he had for the last year has been brilliant with him. If he'd had her as a teacher for the whole of secondary school I think he would have been more confident even though it wouldn't have changed his ability. 

Hazelnutty

Based on long, upsetting and bitter experience with DWP, I'd suggest always having a bad day in mind when filling out the assessment forms, even if it's mentally tough to have to gather all those thoughts together. If you go with an average day, they'll assess you as if that's the norm, whereas you'll know how bad a bad day is and what effect it has...  Good luck with HT's PIP assessment

CRANKY40

Thanks @Hazelnutty. To be fair, he's in pain from the minute he opens his eyes so there's not much to choose from. It'll be another in the list of skirmishes since the GP first said it was growing pains 🙄

Hazelnutty

I'm sorry you've been going through this. It's a brutal system (and designed that way). We've found NHS staff willing to help but DWP wasn't interested, even in the judgement of a top brain surgeon I wish you all the very best

WinterWarrior

That sounds tough, I hope you are very successful with the pip. 

beanielou

Great reductions 
Currently a big PIP backlog.

CRANKY40

beanielou said:

Great reductions 
Currently a big PIP backlog.

@beanielou. It's not really the money that we're after, it's help to negotiate his college course and recognition of the things that he struggles with for when he comes to look for a job. We've put off applying to see if he became better able to deal with some problems as he got older but the answer is no so we've finally had to face up to it.