Housing benefit advice for a friend.
Comments
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Thomas_The_Tank_Top wrote: »He can get to his Bank Statements via online Banking. My Bank gives me access to 6 years worth.
I think it depends, mine only gives me a couple of months.
Rather than asking for replacement bank statements though you can do a Subject Access Request which is a tenner, so much cheaper.Unless I say otherwise 'you' means the general you not you specifically.0 -
It doesnt even have to be all that healthy, at least mine doesn't.Lanzarote1938 wrote: »No 'special' food needed for those with diabetes. Just a healthy diet.
Still if it makes the OP happy..................0 -
I think it depends, mine only gives me a couple of months.
Rather than asking for replacement bank statements though you can do a Subject Access Request which is a tenner, so much cheaper.
Hes with Natwest, but the council I know from my own experience has a formal and informal process, I have taken in copies of statementsd before but if you ask on phone they tell you it must be originals, not sure how far back his online banking goes but the SAR seems better.Who says if he applies for ESA he won't get the pension? Is it a private pension? How old is he?
When you said about his employer backpaying nine years of pension I assumed it meant into a pension pot, are you saying that he could have been drawing money from a pension?
See, this is what I mean by second hand information without all the facts being confusing and making it hard to give advice.
Not sure, all I know is its a works pension that he paid into for 9 years, which has been promised to be given to friend (its a supermarket chain) hes only 32.
And yes as you say second hand information is hard which is why at times I was agitated at responses as they were making judgement on scraps, ESA I have been telling him for months about applying for but his employer says if he leaves they won't support any DWP contact i.e them contacting the employer for information just telling them he walked out, which to me sounds like a threat, they promise if he goes through employers system they will give him documentation to support his claim, but also he won't get this backdated promised money from employer and lose pension
Its mostly getting dealt with by another friend who has a lot of high up contacts and works in a union himself, if not for him friend wouldn't of got as far as he had.latest_flame wrote: »It doesnt even have to be all that healthy, at least mine doesn't.
Still if it makes the OP happy..................
Nice try baiting.deannatrois wrote: »As a type one diabetic for 50 years (and brittle one at that) I really do have to repeat that no special diet is needed. The only thing I have to be careful of is keeping some carbohydrate type foods around for when my blood sugars drop. Otherwise I eat the same food as anyone else, just different amounts - more veg, less carbs.
Get as irritated as you like, it won't change my experience or my post.
When I was a student, I had £15 a week for food. I managed. I could get away with a tenner on food nowadays.
I think your friend needs to go to the CAB for some debt advice, and also a benefit checkup. From your post, I can't be sure but the judgements as to whether your friend could apply for other benefits may need to be checked with a professional benefit advisor.
Won't get irritated as your arent insulting, that being said I was trying to imply diabetes was the base problem and he had issues due to that which caused him to have a few strokes and he collapsed at the wheel of his car 2 years ago and crashed, only after he was sectioned was he told he was on the wrong kind of insulin for years I don't know much about it though, all I know is doctor prescibed him quite a few gluten free things, I also know his diet is healthy and he exercises a lot (hes muscular even though has health issues as works out a lot)
He also for a few months had morning seizures when his blood sugar dropped which the doctors don't know why.
So its all guesses but his health isn't that great and thats before we bring in mental health which is a seperate issue
And to let you know in my student days I lived off £5 a week though I had no extra health needs.
I did think about CAB but even with him there we won't have all the documentation there and if they asked him anything he would get confused, I asked about benefit check which locally is done by social work but different branches told us different things so no idea how to continue, and friend has gone away to his brothers funeral so his mental health is even worse at moment and its going to be a struggle to get him to even come back thats how bad he gets.
Thats not making excuses for anyone but mentioning barriers that make simple things hard, and of course as hes not here right now its even harder as I can't go with him to council for support.0 -
Just phoned up and they said they won't even consider a claim unless he gets ESA, and they would reject bank statements showing his £100 a month as thats not enough to live on so they would see it as suspicious.
They then went on to say in that case they would close his claim and its up to him to find money to pay rent!!
Is it normal they want people on sick pay to claim ESA to be assessed?0 -
ESA don't contact employers in the way that JSA does, if that's what he's worried about. A supermarket chain shouldn't be making threats in that way, I think something's got lost in the telling, Chinese Whispers style.Unless I say otherwise 'you' means the general you not you specifically.0
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the OP mentions special food due to diabetes and then gluten free food - those with coeliac disease can get gluten free food prescribed (though many places have been stopping it) - I know when I was first diagnosed I did.
Maybe the friend has both, once you have one autoimmune disease you are at higher risk of another0 -
As another with diabetes, I have to agree with those above.ie there is no special diet needed;just a good one.
Aldi and other supermarkets have
weekly deals on fruit and veg, with many items being in the under 50p category.
Expensive foods are meats and ready meals,but the former is not needed in large quantities and ready meals often have the wrong ingredients, such as unnecessary added sugar.
Very expensive foods are the marketed 'diabetic' foods, which Diabetes UK discourages people from using, because they have no special benefits, but are costly and can cause bowel and other problems.0 -
I do not understand any of this.
Why don't his employers want him to claim ESA? Is it because they are still paying him sickness pay?
As for the Housing Benefit people, I would imagine that they want him to claim everything he is entitled to, so that they can do a proper assessment of what they have to pay him.(AKA HRH_MUngo)
Member #10 of £2 savers club
Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology: Terry Eagleton0 -
Natwest don't charge to print statements.
People receiving sick pay receive payslips.
You cannot run out of fit notes from the Dr, there is also no such thing as a file being up, if he has been sectioned he will have been issued with a fit note that he can have re-issued regularly by calling his mental health teams PA.0 -
As another with diabetes, I have to agree with those above.ie there is no special diet needed;just a good one.
Aldi and other supermarkets have
weekly deals on fruit and veg, with many items being in the under 50p category.
Expensive foods are meats and ready meals,but the former is not needed in large quantities and ready meals often have the wrong ingredients, such as unnecessary added sugar.
Very expensive foods are the marketed 'diabetic' foods, which Diabetes UK discourages people from using, because they have no special benefits, but are costly and can cause bowel and other problems.
He already has a good diet, he loves fruit and veg but lowered his intake of fruit due to sugars after he was diagnosed, though I don't think his diet is perfect, he eats things like museli, porridge. proper cereal bars not the breakfast ones, potatoes and a lot of other veg, when he was at his dads he was limited to Asda shopping as he lived around 20 miles from nearest town (well small village town 15 miles away but no supermarkets there) another reason for him moving up here.
Im not sure health myself but so often since he was diagnosed you can witness him eat a good meal then see him suddenly get lethargic and eyes go red and he looks physically weak at which point he tests his blood and the blood sugar is either too low or barely normal it was assumed about 2 years ago this was down to wrong insulin as after he had the stroke they told him he was on the wrong stuff for years and gave him different which seemed to help for a while now back to his normal problems.
And I have never witnessed it but seizures are common in morning for him related to low blood sugar.Natwest don't charge to print statements.
People receiving sick pay receive payslips.
You cannot run out of fit notes from the Dr, there is also no such thing as a file being up, if he has been sectioned he will have been issued with a fit note that he can have re-issued regularly by calling his mental health teams PA.
Its not that though, as some previous treads on friend the situation is strange, his GP can't issue him a sick note as he recently changed to new GP in new town who won't issue one till his file has been transferred which takes at least 4 weeks he was told, then was told he would have to get seen by doctor to assess if he needs one.
After he was sectioned he moved in unnoficially with his father who has serious health issues (or at least the dad claims he does) which was middle of nowhere, he never got mental health support as his nearest main hospital is 25 miles away which may not sound a lot but being in middle of nowhere public transport would take about 3 hours each way, and about £20 for one journey, thats before we bring in the fact he was put on waiting list for support these are reasons why he wanted to live in same town as me near Glasgow so he had friends nearby, many hospitals, access to social work etc.
And no he has had zero payslips, well actually thats partly true when he was getting normal sick pay for first 6 months they issued them but send to a address he hasn't lived at for 3 years then when normal sick pay ran out they stopped issuing, as its third hand information its unclear about the £100 a month from speaking to the friend dealing with his union issues he seems to hint its out of his own pocket and hes just telling the friend its coming from employer and that makes the most sense really.
If he just phoned Natwest would they issue statements? Theres no branches around here its all RBS instead.
So yes second/third hand information isn't the best but the person dealing with the employer did forward me on emails from the manager at friends former store who confirms things like he hasn't worked for a year and gets no sick pay.
I did say to him before he moved here to claim ESA but the person dealing with his work problems said wait until the pension is sorted as its about £900 (spoke to him again today) as if he leaves it will be lost, and that the employer will have him down as voluntarily leaving if he leaves of own free will but if he does it through employer they will provide documents to say he was laid off due to health problems, and the employer doesn't actually want him anyway its a confusing situation.
Got friend a Welfare Rights appointment which I can attend with him its just I panic a little for him knowing the issues he has.0
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