Council taking all my DLA in care costs leaving me with nothing.

GwylimT wrote: »

Now, I will be changing our recipes as we wont need to avoid dairy etc. I will write our meals, then ingredients then cost.

Breakfasts
Porrdige. Now, this can be a little boring, but you can add things to it such as fruit, nuts, jam, even coffee granules (sounds weird, tastes nice). A huge advantage is that it is easy to cook on the stove or microwave.

Lunch
These will be a range of cold and hot lunches.
Cream cheese and salmon pasta
Salmon and salad sandwiches/wraps
Omlette and any left overs that are suitable, or scrambled egg on toast
Chicken and tomato sandwiches
Soup x3 tinned is fine as you can get reasonably priced ones now that aren't salt and sugar fest. They're also good for days when you're tired, and best used on days where dinner is a bit more effort

Dinner
Pasta bolognese with mince
Chicken and veg bake
Mince in gravy with veg
Salmon and veg bake
Pasta bolognese with veg
Sardines in tomato sauce on toast with egg/salad on the side
Jacket potato with cottage cheese

Now, if you have a freezer where you can buy frozen if its cheaper, so chicken, salmon, veg etc. It also means nothing will go off and it will be easier to prepare as you don't have to chop as much veg etc.

GwylimT wrote: »

Now, the shopping list.

Apples x 15 at least £3.18
Bananas x 5 99p
Baking potatoes x 4 70p
Whole slices loaf 36p
Tinned sardines x2 68p
Wholewheat pasta 500g 61p
Chicken soup 24p
Tinned tomatoes 31p
Gravy granules 20p
Bolognese sauce 28p
Tomato soup 24p
Veg soup 24p
General potatoes 1kg £1
Mixed salad 90p ( cheaper to buy a whole lettuce but depends on what you like)
Brocolli whole head 38p, frozen 1kg £1.20 so frozen is cheaper in the long run
Carrots 500g 43p
Tomatoes 450g 91p
Six free range eggs 85p
Parsnips 500g 73p
French beans 57p (optional but nice with gravy)
Cottage cheese 300g 64p
Soft cheese 200g 52p
Salmon fillets x4 £3 (frozen)
Chicken fillets 1kg £3.83 (frozen)
Peas 500g 78p
Meat free mince 400g £1.57 or 300g fresh turkey mince £3
Porridge 1kg 75p

The total is £24.74, this is morrisons, tesco was 27p cheaper, sainsburys was £1.23 more.

Now, somethings will last more than a week on the menu I posted, those are bread, jacket tates, peas and the mince probably the porridge as well and of course gravy, I haven't posted anything that doesn't have a low fat content. If you get someone to take you out, or get someone to go out in the mobility car you could make it cheaper as I found a lot of value ranges aren't available online, plus any local lidl or aldi could be taken advantage of.

venison wrote: »

sorry but where in gods name would you shop for those prices? a skip?

What helpful lists from GwylimT, and what a rude reply from venison! Gwylim stated these were Morrison's prices, and even gave comparisons with other supermarkets.


Going back to the OP, it is a postcode lottery regarding help and costs, as LAs are autonomous, but I do agree that you'd be better off using the Mobility component of your DLA to cover taxis for outings etc, rather than have a car just sitting on the drive.


The way you were treated by the Financial Official is disgraceful. I would send an email to the head of SS, detailing your complaint, as you did in your first post, and ask that you have another assessment.


And when you do, make sure you have someone with you, your son, or a friend, who can speak on your behalf if you find anything too embarrassing, and be of support just sitting there. When my late husband was assessed (he had Alzheimer's), I was able to claim £8 a week towards laundry costs, as the washing machine was on the go at least twice a day, due to incontinence problems.


Things may have changed, and as I said, all LAs are different, but it would be worth you Googling the allowed costs for your LA. I wish you well.


xx

When I had wall mounted storage heaters I ended up almost nocturnal. As I said before, the heat ran out by about 4pm and in Winter I was in bed by 6pm some nights as it was too cold to stay up. I'd then be awake at 4am and far too hot.

Horrible, horrible things.

We also have storage heaters, fairly decent rated ones but they're not great and getting the settings right is a nightmare.

Do you have coeliacs disease? If you do you should get your pasta on prescription. I can sympathise with the specialist diet, I'm on high salt and fluid which isn't supported by the NHS at all even though it's life threatening if I don't comply so we pay a small fortune to get the stuff from the states every month (plus the cost of the private prescription because of course it's Rx only).

Assessment wise they wouldn't take either of the above into account, they did allow delivery charges from the supermarkets but only because at the time I was living 5 floors up in a building with a temperamental lift and I'm in a wheelchair.

They didn't allow deductions for continence related items but I used the assessment to pressure the NHS into changing the pads they gave me which helped a lot. I also got a discount on the water bill by contacting the water board directly.

The financial assessment was more than my DLA for carers that turned up late, left early and didn't do much in the time they were here. When I moved in with OH and went back to work I decided to employ carers on my own terms and pay hourly for what I actually want rather than what I was told I would get. Expect to pay about £10 for 30 mins and £15 for an hour, I've hired the same company but now that I'm not a council account my complaints are taken much more seriously. I've recently lost my DLA and I'm trying everything to not have to go back to being council funded as they will no doubt want to send people in when I'm at work like they did at the last assessment.

I'd start with working out what help you actually need and work from there.

There's nothing wrong with an electric space heater as an extra supplementary focused and localised heat heater oil filled or otherwise, but it does cost 3 times the price of NSCH.

Electric resistive heating is identical it gives out the same amount of heat per kW as a 1kW light bulb-36pphph, 1 kW iron-36ppkW, 1kW oil filled-27pph, 1kW fan heater-36pph, 1kW electric blanket-36ppkW, 1kW two bar fire-36pph, 1kW convector-36pph, they are all the same. The cost is obvious a 1kW costs 1 x the price per kW etc. A halogen or infra red person heater is much more efficient per £1 quid spend than other types of supplementary space heating because it heats the person not the space.

99% of the population dislike NSCH, most of the population are unable to change it as is the case with the O/P, its not an option. Focus on offering achievable help and suggestions or even emotional support, banging on about what s/he can not change is pointless. Given the 2 overriding needs x8 cheap warm washable onesies or an electric thermostatic over-safety-blanket are two suggestions that work and are achievable.

Oh and disagreeing with Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton & Albert Einstein is a folly, physics is physics, all electric day rate heating costs the same. The O/P claims to be unable to afford food, and people are suggesting turning off cheap heat and running an expensive supplementary heater instead.

GlasweJen wrote: »

We also have storage heaters, fairly decent rated ones but they're not great and getting the settings right is a nightmare..

Posted some long time ago Jen, but holds true even with the escalating prices and the fact that most can't afford full central heating in all rooms these days. In times of need, keep the living area heated with the cheap stuff. You take care !