Diary of a benefit claimant.

It is.
I was so dreading having to deal with it all, but people like this woman are so warm and friendly.

Sounds positive ??

Yes.. small steps.
It's a long haul but that is a huge positive.

I have had 4 separately posted lots of A4 sheets arrive today, about working tax credits.
All amended, all different amounts.
I will deal with them later.

That’s good news, a step forward.?

There are!
I never get my "theres" mixed up usually.

She didn't mention me popping anywhere to attend courses, or training, either.
Proof that their are definitely some good eggs in "the system".

Phone appointment done.
The young woman was very, very, very kind.
The poor soul, it turned into almost a counselling session.

She was so lovely that I forgot to ask any of the questions I had.
I did tell her that I do not want to hear from "troubled family" man again.

It's ok to say whatever you want, you won't offend me.
I'm waiting for some energy to spark up, then I will have to move.
Soon, I hope.
I do get up for essential things anyway, and regularly fidget around.
I'm hoping that's enough.
I have to get uniform ready for school tomorrow anyway, even if I can only take 2 steps without resting.

MissAdventure

At the moment though, the main issue is to sort out some money.
All of the other stuff can wait, but I am in no fit state to work now.
I haven't left my bed for 2 days.

I hope that you are aware that a long time continually in bed may lead to blood clots.

If somone is in that situation in hospital they may be given an injecion to prevent that happening.

I am not a doctor or clinician but it might be advisible to ring 111 and tell them that you are in bed and you will probably get a call handler first but they can arrange for a nurse or doctor to ring you back fairly quickly as they are there 24 hours a day.

Perhaps the doctor or nurse is working from home so they call them and then they call you.

I hope I have not said the wrong thing but I thought it better to say than not.

Someone once told me, in the context of Local Government, that if one is having aggravation of unanswered letters and so on that the thing to do is to send a letter through the Royal Mail addressed to the Chief Executive and pay for the recorded delivery service.

I was told that this has the effect of it being logged centrally and top level monitoring taking place so that if someone complains to an MP about getting no answer to correspondence that denial of having received it and knowing nothing about it is not possible.

Someone else told me that if one writes to a government minister oneself then the civil service deal with it but if one writes to one's MP and the MP forwards it to the minister, while the civil service might draft the reply, a minister has to personally sign it to send it to the MP who may well send it to the constituent.

So for example if someone complains to an MP about administration being erratic in a particular hospital and it is forwarded to a minister then the Sir Humphrey will want to make sure that it cannot later be found that the minister had been told of the problem but did nothing about it, because it could be that your complaint is just the tip of the iceberg of what is going on in a disfunctional hospital administration. So enquiries will be made.

These days, if writing to your MP state your name and full postal address even if emailing so that the MPs staff know tht you are one of the MPs constituents and I think it can save time if you also put that you are happy for your email or letter to be forwarded to the minister, this being due to current data protection rules.

At the moment though, the main issue is to sort out some money.
All of the other stuff can wait, but I am in no fit state to work now.
I haven't left my bed for 2 days.

Throw into the mix 2 different hospitals, a gp who sees me as a nuisance, phones that aren't manned, letters that have gone adrift (I apparently missed the appointment with the specialist, so they said) messages not answered and emails not responded to.

As I have said, there is no one person to blame.
I have had tests galore...

And still, that is only part of the whole sorry tale..

During this time I have been seeing a rheumatologist, on the strength of the idea that nobody knows what's wrong (bearing in mind there are scan results in the hospital all this time)
Last time I tried to make my own way home after seeing the rheumatologist I collapsed in Iceland and was taken off to hospital, where they queried what on earth is wrong with my eyes.
I told them they are "just dry" but they made me an emergency appt for the next day at the eye clinic.
I was told that they are extremely dry, and because they have been treated with the mildest of drops they are now scarred and I had as ulcer at the back of my eyeball.
This is now ongoing...

This is awful but not uncommon, I'd guess, as my relative has had similar experiences.

And that's just the half of it..

Dear God.

So, I went and had a further scan as an outpatient, and a gastroscopy, which again, showed up the problem.

I then waited at home for a couple of weeks, then phoned my gp to ask if anything was going to be done or planned....
He had no knowledge that I had been in for another scan, and after much puffing and huffing sent me off for another scan.
On the strength of those results showing up my problem, I was put on a waiting list - waited months, then found out it was at the totally wrong department.
So... had to beg to be changed onto the relevant one, when I again was sent for a scan (which showed up the same problem)

Waited months again, then got a letter for another scan!!!!
I phoned PALS and told them I needed to be seen by a person, a specialist, not a scan.
Told them they were breaching their practice guidelines and I had to be seen.
Finally saw someone over a year after first scan was done.

StarDreamer

Had you actually been told or did it just say you had been told even though you had not been told?

Oops, pardon me please, you had already said you were not told.

> MissAdventure ..., being discharged from hospital without being told what is wrong.

I hadn't been told.
A scan had showed up a (the?) problem.
I was sent home though, with a letter to say I had dry eyes and fatigue, and both could be managed by my gp.
In fact, a scan had shown a definite reason for me feeling so unwell.
I was sent home, and then was taken very ill.

It is a flaw in the system for both local government and national government that a report about someone's situation or what was said or agreed is not always seen by the person and that often other staff members take everything written by a staff member as if it is established fact.

Had you actually been told or did it just say you had been told even though you had not been told?

It was on my records.
The next time I was taken ill they looked up scan results and there it was.
The cause of all the problems I had been told were stress.

MissAdventure wrote Then one department not knowing what the other said, being discharged from hospital without being told what is wrong.

Whilst recognising that the theory of what should be happening may not be what is actually happening, as I understand it all hospital records should be stored electronically using the Snomed CT Clinical Terminology system. Snomed CT is international and NHS is one of the members.

digital.nhs.uk/services/terminology-and-classifications/snomed-ct

www.snomed.org/

Neither suggesting you should nor should not contact your MP, but just providing as information.

www.parliament.uk/business/commons/

There is a search facility upper right on that page.