Introduction

Good evening, I hope I can join this forum. I have known about this site for years but I am not a forum type of person so have never joined before. I have had MS for twenty years or thereabouts and am quite disabled by it. I just got a work capability assessment for to fill in which has frightened me into signing up for a group. My name is Anne not Florence, Florence is my cats name but I couldn’t get the site to accept any proper name because they were all taken.

hi anne

welcome to our community!

i totally understand the feeling of despair when you have to fill in a form for the DWP.

  • your disability benefit depends on it

  • your ESA also

above all it is so flipping depressing writing about your worse days.

i call in on the site every day just to keep an eye on things.

cheers and good health (sadly toasting with decaff coffee)

carole x

Hello Anne and welcome, I joined about a year and half ago when I stopped working.

Have you seen previous threads giving tips on how to fill forms in or advising where to go to get them filled in for you? I went to Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) they filled mine in for me. There is a site that charges £20.00 yearly that gives excellent advice on how to fill forms in, hopefully someone will be along to say what it’s called because I can’t remember at the moment.

Everyone is very nice and welcoming, you’ll like it here, we all do that’s why we keep coming back.

Jan x

The site Jan talks about is benefitsandwork.co.uk It’s excellent and well worth the £20. I wouldn’t try and fill inthe forms without their help.

Welcome and Good Luck!

Sarah x

Jan,

Our local CAB wasn’t helpful a few years ago when I first asked them to help. We don’t fill in forms I was sharply told.

I phoned DIAL on Thursday and left a message but they haven’t phoned back yet.

Thank you Carole and have a decaf for me!

Hi Anne,

Welcome to the site. Can’t help with form filling, except blue badge one I have to do shortly…

Hope you find the site supportive and informative/

Keep well,

Jen x

Hi Florence (very attractive cat, she looks Burmese?)

Welcome (with obvious reservations) to the site and community. Re benefit form filling, get help if you possibly can. If you don’t get any joy with DIAL, is there any other local welfare rights service, local council perhaps? The web address for the site Jan and Sarah mentioned is http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/ they have excellent guides that are correct, up to date and they also have advice for reconsideration and appeal should that be necessary.

Good luck with the form filling. It’s a nightmare and takes ages. Don’t forget to keep a copy of the completed forms as well as copies of any evidence you have that will support what you say.

Sue

I have to say, there seems to be a variety of animals on this thread, cats, dogs and a rat!!!

Sorry, I should have addressed you, not your cat Anne. Apologies. Sue x

Florence is a moggy. We got her last June. She was a stray in the village. She was being looked after by a few households in a road she was wandering about in. They looked for a home for her so we took her in. She is about three but not too sure as she was a stray. She must have been somebody’s cat because she was so well kept and very friendly. Nobody can find her real owner so the theory is she got left when somebody moved or died.

Florence is fine !

1 Like