Hi, hope you are all as well as can be. I’m so worried and don’t know what to do. I get a letter this morning saying that i’m not entitled to help with health costs anymore. I don’t know what i’m going to do, cos i can’t afford my medication or catheters, but i can’t wee on my own anymore, so don’t know what i’m going to do. I can’t afford a pre-payment certificate. I have made as many cut backs as i can, heating has been turned off, even though I’m freeezing, lights are kept off in the evenings and some days i go without dinner, so can’t cut back aymore. So stressed and upset, hate having to live like this, love Bex xxx
Hi Bex, are you claiming everything that you are entitled to? DLA, ESA if you are not working.
yeah, i gel DLA until july, but then i won’t get it anymore cos i won’t qualify under the new pip criteria. I get incapacity benefit as well, but once I have paid the bills, there is hardly anythig left, sometimes not even enough to buy food. I usually only have dinner once or twice a week, cos i just can’t afford it. I am really hungry sometimes and i am always freezing cos of not being able to afford to put my heating on. Wish I didn’t have to live like this xxx
I think you can pay monthly by direct debit for a pre-payment certificate if that helps.
Bex, Pat is right - you should not be living like this. l never had to pay for my prescriptions - l asked my GP for an exemption form and together we filled it in. MS is a progressive illness - and thats what l put and l got it. Even though my OH was still working at the time. Now l am over 60 so exempt anyway.
l often cook cheaper cuts of meat/chicken/pheasant in my slow-cooker - a meal like that would last you a few days. Pasta is another cheap dish. You only need onions/garlic/cheap bacon/ tin tomatoes for a tasty sauce.
So let your GP know the position you are in
Local Councillor- and a letter to your local paper.
MP
MS Society
Any local charity like the Rotary or Lions - even the Salvation Army/Red Cross - they are there for local folk as well as overseas.
Your local council might provide meals on wheels - and l am sure they must have arrangement for folk who can not afford them.
You also need advice on what benefits you should be getting - including help with heating/power. Citizens Advice Bureau /Benefitsandwork - directgov .
Keep us informed - and l hope many more come forward with some better practical advice.
Your post has really upset me - here l am -having just made a pot of soup - wood burner blazing away [ three large dogs asleep in front of it] l wish l could just knock on your door and put everything right.
FX
Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, my docter hates me and is useless, so there is no point in going to her about it, she would just tell me to pay like everyone else. I wish i could find a nice doctor, who will listen, but there doesn’t seem to be any round here, i have been left to struggle on with no help or support from any medical professionals. I wrote to my MP about PIP, but got no reply. will contact some charities to see if they will help fund a pre-payment certificate. I’m just so sick of having to fight, it’s so draining and i’m worn out as it is. Aww, please don’t get upset champion, it’s not your place to worry about me, was just having a moan xxx
Hi
I have to pay for my prescriptions. But catheters are delivered to me and I don’t pay for them. No idea how this works!
Speak to where ever you get them from, I have a company I call when Iam getting low and they deliver them to my door.
Hope this helps a little
Twist
Hi Bex, Your post is upsetting because a lot of people could be in your situation so easily. Even without paying for meds your life sounds difficult financially which is a stress in itself. I do understand how you feel…I went from being very well off through my own hard work to having no heating or hot water before xmas for me n my daughter because I couldn’t afford the oil. My own fault as I supported my eldest daughter through uni in London and for 2 years after. She promised to pay me back so much a month and she has been unable to do this until now. Ive been so worried for the last year as my savings disappeared and struggling to buy food etc. I hope so much there are people out there to help you and change your g.p if you can. You have a moan as much as you like!
Just an idea, but have you had your Thyroid Function Tested, you can insist on having a blood test performed, If you have low thyroid you never have to pay for any prescriptions again…might be worth looking into.
Bex, Hi, I do hope something will be sorted for you, but why wouldn’t you qualify for DLA, even when it becomes PIP? You sure sound like you would qualify, and rightly so, there will be a solution out there, it’s just a matter of emailing, phoning around xxxxx
You really need to change your GP, have a look around for other surgeries or even see if there is another gp you could see in your current practice. As campion has said you should enable to get a medical exemption, enabling you free prescriptions.
Do you have to see the same GP?
Our doctor’s surgery has a few doctors and I saw a few before I ‘stuck’ with the one I ‘connected’ with. It doesn’t matter who you are officially registered with, just that you are registered at that practice. It is essential that we can talk to and trust our GP, even without the added difficulties having a medical condition like MS to live with.
I usually see one GP, especially if it’s for any of my long-term conditions. But I don’t care which one I see for other things, especially in an emergency. For example when I had a series of UTIs last year.
I would check whether you are entitled to free prescriptions, especially as you are in receipt of benefits. I don’t know, but I have a feeling that automatically entitles you to free prescriptions.
take care,
Ellen
Are you in a practice to see your gp? If you are you can see any doctor, you don’t have to see the one you dont get on with,
In this day and age no one has to suffer like this especially with your medications.
Make an appointment with a local CAB and ask them to make sure you are claiming everything you are entitled to they will help you with claiming the things you need to make your life easier.
Al x
As mentiioned write to your MP, mine is interested in my sons ESA situation and insists I give him all details of our problems and he will sort it all out.
Also have you thought of applying for HC2? I got one for P as he gets ESA contributory but couldnt afford prescriptions, dental care, nor sight test. He got one a few months ago.
You need to ask about free insulation from your council. Some are doing it for free, not the utilities, although worth asking, as it saves a lot of money on utilities and try using candles during the evening, less leccy.
We use a gas primas for hot water during the day instead of electric kettle and buy gas in summer when there is more money available. Saves us loads of money doing it that way. Some may laugh but we are laughing at the end of the day.
You must not have to do without food, its very important. Do you have a local foodbank? Id ring the social services and ask them for a self referral of one for help with your predicament, also ask them about foodbank local and state your dilema, you need food parcels until your situation is resolved.
Dont sit there, be proactive and get the help, its there for the asking.
take care,
bren
x
Hi, This sounds terrible for you. Someone has already said they think you should be having free prescriptions. I do know if you are on income support or income related esa you have free full entitlement. The rules are usually printed on the back of the prescriptions and this should cover catheters etc. Good luck with this- as others said also it is worth getting all round benefit advice. Sian x
Hi Bex, If you qualified before, what exactly changed, that meant you no longer do? Has there been a change to the rules, or have they judged a change in your circumstances disqualifies you? Although MS doesn’t automatically qualify for free prescriptions, you should be getting them if you can’t get out of the house unaccompanied. Some classes of means-tested benefit also automatically qualify for free prescriptions, but I can’t remember offhand which ones. Tina
hi guys, thanks for all of your comments and advice. Just to clarify, the last 2 years i had a hc2 certificate, but i applied to get it renewed last month, but yesterday, i got a letter saying that I don’t qualify anymore because I get £6 per week more than the minimum the government say you need to live on. This is really stupid cos they don’t take into account any of your bills, apart from rent and council tax, so in actual fact i’m - £20 a week! I am still on incapacity benefit, which doesn’t count cos it’s not a income related benefit, even though it’s my only income (they don’t count DLA) Also, it’s cos of my age (i’m only 24) For some stupid reason, the government think you need less money if you are are under 25, even though you have to pay the same bills as people over 25!
At the moment, i get 16 items per month on my perscription, so there is no way i can afford that. It looks like my only option is to get a pre payment certificate, just don’t know where i will get the money for it. xxx
Bex,
I can’t help but feel there must be a benefit you could be receiving, but aren’t. Are you on income support for those with very low/no income? If not, could you be?
I suggest a trip to the CAB, and ask them to do a benefits check. They will work out whether you could be better off by claiming additional/different benefits to whatever you are on.
Are you getting housing benefit, and council tax benefit, and all of those?
Tina
It’s not too expensive for the pre-payment (£10.40/mo) both my wife and I have one (she has Fibromyalgia). If we had to pay full price for our prescriptions we’d be broke in no time.
I do get council tax benefit and housing benefit, but not full cos you can’t get fulll housing and council tax benefit when you are under 25, it’s Cornwall council thing I think. I did a benefits check online and it said i am getting everything i should xxx