The Difficulties Of The British Benefits System.

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First I need to explain the situation that I am in.

Over the last 10 to 12 years I habe been in a bit of a mess. I have signed on twice around 9 to 11 years ago (The first time I signed on bit signed off straight away as I had to sign two blank sheets of paper by staff who I later discovered where not even employed by the jobcentre but were employed by a training agency)... The second time I was able to sign on to look for work... But as I am a people pleaser, after finding no work, and going on a course for self employment, I set up a business but only had six customers for the whole year as I was too nurvous to get customers. So I paid my nat insurance by selling my personal things until the tax man asked me why I wasn't doing anything and he said to close the business. I only really opened rhe business as though I would have liked to in theory, I was trying to please the jobcentee staff who were trying to get me to find something to do.
But From those days until recently I have just been more and more anxious and therefore had more and more shutdowns or partial shutdowns whenever I work, or try to deal with anything official. So I have taken part time work on and off (Often with a few years of no work but no signing on either as I couldn't face the stress of dealing with the jobcentre..)
Now I never knew what I was having could be shutdowns or anxiety. Sure, I knew I was feeling anxiety but I never knew what it was. As anxiety starts first and seamlessly flows into a partial shutdown and then into a shutdown if I don't remove myself from the stress etc... (I need to lie down with no stress etc)... I assumed it was all due to some sort of allergy because around 30 years ago a doctor told me it was... But though I asked and asked and asked for allergy testing, it was never available to me on the NHS even though officially it was. After changing doctors at least about a year ago I actually had a six point allergy test so I now know six things I am not alergict to! But there again, I had not known that they were shutdowns. I was following years of false leads...

But over the last few ears I have been in such a decline that I could only take on temporary part time jobs which were low hours and had days off between the working shifts... E.g. 4 hours work, a day off, 4 hours work, a day off etc.
But even with these shifts on a job I could do back to front with my eyes closed (Well, not quite but I have been doing it on and off since I was 17) I found that I was almost in continual shutdowns and I could not sleep more then about 4 hours a night, and I had to go into work so early as I was trapped unable to move in the carpark waiting for the anxiety to calm so I could physically get up to walk... I was in such a mess that I would be easily suicidal to end the daily stresses of trying to work... (I was as stressed on days off as I was in work!)

Now when the job ended, I knew even though they had a permanent part time job available I could not take it. I coud have had the job just like that. ButI was in such an internal mess. They want me back for Christmas, but I know that is the most stressful time in the year and I know I am such a people pleaser that I will put myself through sheer hell to do the work where I will appear from the outside to be ok, but internally I will be constantly SCREAMING!

So when I finised the temporary work, I found out the day after (I had already been on rhe list for assessment foe three months) that the autism people had a once a month drop in centre open day thingie in an afternoon... So even though I was in such a mess I went, and for the first time ever, I was able to open up.

I told them how most of the year I was slowly selling personal posessions (Special interest = trains..A lifelong collection = scaling down the collection = paying to keep car on the road), and they were concerned.
Though it took a month, they sent a letter to my doctor (I was given a copy) so my doctor then gaveme this piece of paper so I can claim benefits.

Now I asked the doctor what I need to do with it. She said at first I could send it off, but then looked at the form which said either I phone the number to claim, or I go online.
I know through a horrendous experience in the past where I had around 45 minutes of a very angry woman who was screaming at me down the phone on occasions when I once tried to apply to sign on for work, (It started off as I can't answer yes or no to questions. I have to explain... So this lady HATED me from the start and was in a temper with me down the phone).
So I won't phone. I know what its like... I can't cope with that.

But online is just as bad. First of all, there is nothingto tell you what I should be claiming. But after asking my brother, and also I had it confirmed by a friend of my Mums who happens to work for a charity where she goes round helping people deal with applying for benefits... That the system has changed and it is the "Universal Credit" I need to claim. The website still says to claim ESA, but I was told that if I did, my claim would be rejected (And according to the site once I had tried to claim I would have to wait 12 weeks before I could try again), as our area everything is now this universal credit which caters for signing on or those who are off sick from work, and those like me who are not working and are off sick.
I started to try the online thingie. It is not easy as I don't take naturally to things like this. It had taken me two days to find out what I should be claiming. I started. Severaltimes I had to ask my Mum what they eant by this or that... Then I reached a thing which said "How much do you have in your bank account". (I personally believe this is an infringement of my privacy). They said they needed the exact amount. So after an 8 mile drive to a cash machine to get a look (As I knew how manypounds I have but not the pennies)... And I came back and carried on with the online claim... Then I reached the point where they said I needed to sign up again to a new third party thing to varify who I am... Well. I reached a point where it had a list of four PRIVATE COMPANIES and I had to choose one. I have no accounts with any of these. Companies like Experian. I backed up the pages as I refuse ro do this. Why should I give my personal information to any of these companies? They are NOT the government. They are PRIVATE COMPANIES.
Then I saw a thing after backinb up several pages where there was an option to... (Wait for it!) Phone the number I was trying to avoid phoning all this time to make an appointment with the jobcentre... The verynplace I have a phobia about and why for all these years I have gone with out claiming any benefits or signing on because I could not cope with the stress!

WHY OH WHY WHEN ONE IS SAID TO HAVE A DOCTORS NOTE SAYING "ANXIETY, AWAITING AUTISM ASSESSMENT" DOES THE SYSTEM NOT HAVE A WAY TO LET PEOPLE LIKE ME MAKE A CLAIM?

So I also noticed many sections I habe not filled out of the online form. I started to fill one in then realized that because it was an universal online form, I have just filled in one part by accident that people who need to sign on for work should fill in... I was soo frustrated I signed out and I have abandoned the process. I do not have a clue where I am with it.

Luckily next week my Mums friend said she can help if I get stuck. I will have to ask her. If we didn't know such a person, there is NO WAY I could get any help. Our Citizens Advice is so fully booked up that I was told the aaiting list to see them was many months long.

How on earth do people cope? Why could I not have a simple address to send the form and let someone sort it all out? Why with all this technology can't the governemt simply check ones bank account and ones other details... They do this without ones permission anyaay if they only slightly believe there is a slight possibility one could possibly be classed as a terrorist. Why can't they, with all this technology have someone to use it for the good... So all we have to do is send a form in and tick so they can get permission from us to ake the checks?

All this stress! I am thinking. I may not claim this afterall. I am fine for a while as I still have money after I last worked. I can't believe how difficult life is these days.

Why can't we go back to the paperwork system? At lwast I had the chance to write by the side of a yes or no answer and write a note about my circumstance... So I would not have to take a guess and then see "If you answer wrongly criminal proceedings can be used against you". I feel like giving up and just going back to the way I was before... But I can no longer work if I wanted to. GRRR!

Have you checked out this site ? https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/

Thanks Firemonkey. That looks useful!

This is why I don't get benefits. I sponge off my mother's pension. I know I shouldn't especially as I can't even speak to her most days but I can only get hold of enough money to buy food not pay rent and bills even if I could cope with actually finding a place to live. If she ever throws me out I will join a climate change protest and get myself arrested killing two birds with one stone. Get a place to live and possibly achieve something. And presumably they would feed me too. Maybe even get me some mental health care? Or maybe I won't have the guts to do that and I will just sleep in a shed somewhere and scavenge off people's allotments...

I am fully convinced the benefits system excludes most people with serious problems as it is completely impossible to access. And it is so negative. I have to work hard to keep myself out of the pit of despair. The benefits system just digs it deeper.

Sorry, not helpful I know. But it isn't you, it is the system. The media show the jolly face of good quality help when getting that is as likely as winning the lottery. The government has gutted the welfare system in the UK with the help of these American companies they keep hiring to do their dirty work. Those will be the beneficiaries of Brexit as they will take over more and more of our services.

With disability benefits it's less about how much help you need than how good you or someone else(for you) is at filling out the forms.

Some people plan their claims like military campaigns. I remember years ago posting on a disability newsgroup after my second rejection for DLA. It was really stressful/upsetting to read someone saying they used their DLA for skiing holidays. That person openly admitted they had planned their claim like a military campaign.

I eventually got DLA at the3rd attempt. With the move to PIP I lost the mobility component and went from high to medium care. This being when there had been no great change to how I was.

Yes, as MG said; Grrrrr!

I only managed to get through the disability benefits process because I had an advocate from a disability resource centre at the time; there's absolutely no way that I'd have coped with it otherwise (I'd already lived off my savings until they ran out as it was). My ESA claim didn't go too badly (aside from having to go twice for the medical assessment because they messed up their paperwork). My PIP claim was a complete nightmare; it took two medical assessments, two appeal tribunal hearings, and nearly two years. My initial assessment awarding me zero points was eventually revised to nearly twenty points - which shows just how unfit for purpose the routine assessments are (as also ruled by the High Court multiple times - the Gov't responded by extending the contractors contracts for another two years, of course).

But they only awarded it for four years (including the two that I'd already waited), so I have to go through the whole thing again in a few months - and this time, I'll have to do it without an advocate, because, without the central Gov't support that local authorities have lost over the last decade, a whole bunch of disability support organisations lost their grants and had to shut down. If you have to take your claim to appeal and don't have family or friends who can help, there is literally no organisation that will help any more, because the few that are left don't have the resources.

It's probably no consolation, but even the United Nations agrees that the changes to the welfare system of the last decade are unfairly punitive and punish disabled people far more than any other group. There is no recognition at all that the process itself is discriminatory against people with cognitive deficits and communication difficulties, so people with neuro-developmental conditions often get the shortest straw of all.

I don't know about anyone else , but I find filling in the forms very anxiety provoking . With my executive functioning difficulties planning the perfect claim is a pipe dream . I think a major help re those with cognitive and communication difficulties would be relying on the input of the people treating them as the primary factor in making a decision about a claimant. That would be much better than a health worker who's chosen to work for ATOS etc, but whose knowledge of a claimant's condition could be written on a postage stamp.

That would be a far more accurate and honest approach than the current one .

^ There have now been so many High Court rulings against unfit assessments and discriminatory rules, evidence presented of correlations with suicide rates, even censure by Parliament's own Work and Pensions Committee, etc., etc., ad nauseum, that I find it unbelievable that any of this is either accidental or merely unintended side effects. The a$$holes at the top know perfectly well that the system strikes fear into people like us, and count frightening us out of claiming what we're legally entitled to as "success". The recently appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Therese Coffey, has voted over 50 times for welfare cuts, as well as for mass surveillance of claimants, for the "bedroom tax", and against reforms to ensure that rented housing is "fit for habitation" (conflict of interests; she's a landlord herself) [source]. Her record on equality for minorities is just as egregious. Much the same could be said of her predecessor, Amber Rudd.

It makes me think just how many people need help, and this is not just those on the spectrum, but it could be anyone who just does not cope with the modern online system.

There's definitely a high percentage of sociopathy within the Conservative party .

So how can we correct the system without it costing too much to sort it all out?

You Brits complaining about your benefits system should just be happy to not be living in the USA where we have no such system. You guys are extremely lucky to have what you have.