I’m actually half thankful that this benefit screw up has happened.

OK, because I have no paperwork covering the dates they claim I owe from that could prove I do not owe the money, I have to suck it up and pay it. However,after speaking to the welfare rights people it appears I can at least get the sum they take from me each fortnight significantly reduced.

The thing is, once I had explained the details of my problem, the duty officer not only got the ball rolling to sort all that out (rather than waiting a month or so for an adjustment form i’ll be getting it straight away) he’s also arranged for someone to come round to my flat in order to make a new claim for DLA (disability living allowance) and sorted out a claim form for Income support and has advised me not to listen to the people at the benefits office when they try to dissuade me from making a claim because i’m not eligible – apparently once I get DLA I will be and the claim would then be backdated to this one to coincide with the DLA award.
I’ve gone from feeling helpless wrath to buoyant and hopeful – all from one call.

It just shows how ridiculous the system is though, talk about a house of cards! This is how it works:

At present my only income is incapacity benefit, I’m not eligible for full housing or council tax benefit because this is my sole income.

Once I receive DLA on top of my incapacity benefit, I will be eligible for full housing benefits, income support, the blue badge scheme (basically means I can nominate a car that becomes exempt from car tax and I can park in disabled spots) and will basically be hundreds of pounds better off each month.

It really is true in this country, the more you have the more you get, the less you have the more they take away from you.
It makes no sense to me, but then I am viewing the system in a logical fashion (IE poorer people need more help)
I wonder how the government view things? The reasoning behind all this must be quite complex to create such an end result.

Anyhow, as a direct result of my panicking and screaming for help it looks as though I may end up financially much better off than I am now (not that it could possibly get any worse without me being homeless lol) so I guess things really do happen for a reason, I would never have known about the ‘underlying entitlement’ to income support I have once the DLA award is in place, I would have been making the DLA claim on my own and worrying about the outcome until the decision came through and if it failed it’s unlikely I’d pursue an appeal – this time the Welfare rights officer will do all that for me should it become necessary.

Fate gave me the kick up the behind I needed to better my circumstances. While the debt thing does sting because I’m pretty certain I don’t actually owe the money, without that happening I would not now be sitting here with the largest smile on my face and a complete lack of the (usually) ever present tension headache – even with them taking that money from me – if all these claims go through successfully (and logically there’s no reason they shouldn’t even without the WR officers help) I will be a couple hundred pounds the richer each month – which means I can finally afford to try some of the treatment suggestions other cfs sufferers have made to help with my recovery.