Mental Health Support Society Mk X

Lovely evening in with someone awesome.



Much icecream was had.

if anyone needs me ill be hiding in the corner behind the arm chair crying

If in doubt, apply for everything!

That, or I'm on ESA, DLA, housing benefit and council tax reduction if that helps. Can try and help out with a bit of form-filling-in over skype if you like as well.

Pretty much. Earlier today, SW has told that while you can get ESA as a Student, there is no law backing them doing so, so they do it sometimes when the decision maker thinks they should.

So, they said themselves, that they make it up as they go along!

I can offer advice based on what I know if you want, although despite this generally being from the government website, it may not actually be true or true in all cases.

why is the benefits system so confusing?

so confused, every website seems to say different things and I don't know what I can and can't claim or what I do or don't count as and such at all

can anyone help????

If in doubt, apply for everything!

That, or I'm on ESA, DLA, housing benefit and council tax reduction if that helps. Can try and help out with a bit of form-filling-in over skype if you like as well.

PRSOM to wolf. I'm on ESA, housing benefit and council tax reduction myself. From what i remember being told, incapacity benefit is now a part of ESA.

I would ring up the ESA people, instead of contacting them via email or something, they are friendly and helpful more often than not. You may find yourself being asked to call a different number, or they may transfer your call to a different advisor, but you'll get the right person eventually, so don't worry about that. You could also ask them if they could point you in the right direction with the tax reduction and housing benefit stuff, they should be happy to give you the contact details you need.

I also recommend ringing any of the benefits services in the morning, since in the evenings you can be stuck on the line for a looooong time.

When i applied for ESA, i think i was just asked to give quite a few details, but don't remember needing to do a phone interview or anything. As long as you can get medical certificates from your GP as proof of you being too sick for work, they will give you the equivalent of JSA money, which is around £53 a week for me. Hope this helps ^^

The thing is though, it was defined as a rant in the first instance. By definition, that means the argument may well end up being personalised.

Far better to rant here and to let it all out than to have it all build up inside until it explodes in the real world.

I thought that is what this thread is all about - to let your thoughts and feelings out WITHOUT being judged.

Is there anyone else u can contact in order to make them get their **** together? Surely if you take photos and past correspondence as proof of their failure to adhere to a contract, you can do something about it?

It is sad how far you have to go nowadays to get people to do what they say they are going to do. I think almost everyone has had a lot of grief from some company or group of people, where u do the best you can, be as nice as possible, but you just get ignored. Over, and over, and over again. In the end they basically force you to be nasty, because otherwise they won't do anything,

As you can tell, me and some of my family have had a similar situation recently, where due to some peoples incompetence they have been put under ridiculous stress and have lost a LOT of money, simply because people are being seriously awkward and hard to deal with.

I'd disagree to an extent - yes people can and should rant about stuff when they've got something they need to get off their chest. However that doesn't mean they shouldn't take other members into consideration - this is a society after all, and if you post something on here then you're accepting that people will read it and not always agree with it, sometimes even taking offence. In the past I've had the occasional disagreement on this thread when I've felt someone was being inconsiderate (and vice versa, people are free to take issue with what I say), and as a general rule the problems have been sorted amicably. You do sometimes get someone having a go at another member, which I'd say is unacceptable (except maybe if it's Saber ), or saying stuff that's needlessly triggering/not appropriately spoilered. In this case I'm guessing Sultana thought avhhs was being a bit misogynistic, and decided to call him out about it. In an ideal world she might have done it more politely, but I still wouldn't say she was in the wrong.

I disagree with most of your assertions. However, I don't think this is the right place for this debate as it will derail the thread and makes a mountain out of molehill.

Therefore, I agree that both perspectives have equal value and truth.

Defining something as a rant doesn't mran people aren't allowed to say anything remotely negative about it. I know that I hate hate hate people being referred to as a bitch. Sultana is allowed to have an opinion on what is said, pointing out that insulting names isn't a great thing to do isn't a personal attack. Commenting negatively doesn't mean that you're judging somebody, and sayong that people shouldn't is surely just silencing and not supporting them?


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I'm sorry my last comment was so tetchy, that's not on. However, I'd say my point still stands - just as the phrase 'no offense but...' means sod all, prefacing a paragraph with the word rant doesn't mean you can then go on to say whatever you like and not be called up on it. In my opinion it is never appropriate to call anyone a bitch, no matter how much you may dislike them and I don't think it's helpful to go about life using these misogynistic gendered slurs wherever, and particuarly not in a place like this which is meant to be a 'safe' environment.

Anyway, I won't clog up the thread anymore and I'll try and think before I let my irratibility out on here again.

PRSOM.

I must say, im kinda suprised the word isn't censored, i didn't know myself it could trigger people here, so thanks to you and Sultana for letting us know.

This thread is a lovely environment like 99% of the time, but some of us get easily worked up and really need to vent, and at that point our feelings will come out too... I just wanna say that because i could of easily done it myself, and i would never want to hurt anyone on this forum because you guys are awesome

Thanks for the reply - just wanted to explain a few things because sometimes people come at things so consistently from different perspectives and it becomes hard to see where the other person is coming from. For example, a disabled person recently pointed out to me that describing something as "lame" meaning bad could be taken as a slur against people with physical disabilities of some kind. It just hadn't even crossed my mind.. I heard the word 'lame' and used it, without even thinking about the connotations it had. It's so easy to do, so when I point out things that people say which could be upsetting in a "hey, did you know that might upset someone?" way, I'm not actually being passive aggressive (most of the time). It's just sometimes people don't realise the connotations of the words they use.

For an explanation of why I personally find the word 'bitch' really upsetting, see below. Could be triggering to people who have experienced sexual violence or anything else degrading which made them feel dehumanised in some sense.

I fully understand what you are saying. I have previously been triggered by stuff on this thread (when it was Depression Society) and would prefer if people sometimes took greater care in their wording, wherever possible. However, I also want to people to express themselves freely, without hindrance. I therefore find myself sitting on the fence.

What is PRSOM????

It's 'please rate some other members' - the message you get when someone is SO awesome they have been repped by you in the recent past.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for free speech. I'm also for people learning what is upsetting to others and self-checking to ensure that we don't risk alienating a particular set of people. Because of my experiences (possible/suspected autistic spectrum disorder) of not picking up on what offends people easily, I find it easiest for people to be upfront about the things that really upset them, so that I am aware and can self-censor. So pointing offending stuff out to others comes under "treat other people as you would like to be treated," which seems fair enough.

I agree that there are certainly two sides, both with equal amounts of validity. On the flip side though regarding discussion, I think it is important that we as a thread are in general agreement with what is ok, and what should be kept off the thread (or spoilered). Obviously, we have the site rules we need to stick to, but we don't want people being made upset but posts which are within the rules (and if it had of been spoilered or reworded would not have caused issue).



See above point - I think this is something that is important to be discussed. I doubt anyone on here wants to be upsetting others.


P.s. I need to rep more people, I have hit PRSOM on like 5 or 6 different posts on the last two pages!

If you never express how you feel, people may never know! That's why i like to be open too, it just helps all parties involved :P More harm comes from being quiet, as opposed to speaking out. At least, that's what i would say from my experience

lol. Tell me about it. It's so frustrating. Sometimes, I just flip around the site looking for a couple of other good posts to rep so that I can return to the original one, only to find out that I cannot give out any more rep as I have exceeded my limit for the day

The downside of all this is well, being left in no-mans land.

I can rep you.

Good advice, just want to add that if you go to the job centre you can use their phones for free.

PRSOM to wolf. I'm on ESA, housing benefit and council tax reduction myself. From what i remember being told, incapacity benefit is now a part of ESA.

I would ring up the ESA people, instead of contacting them via email or something, they are friendly and helpful more often than not. You may find yourself being asked to call a different number, or they may transfer your call to a different advisor, but you'll get the right person eventually, so don't worry about that. You could also ask them if they could point you in the right direction with the tax reduction and housing benefit stuff, they should be happy to give you the contact details you need.

I also recommend ringing any of the benefits services in the morning, since in the evenings you can be stuck on the line for a looooong time.

When i applied for ESA, i think i was just asked to give quite a few details, but don't remember needing to do a phone interview or anything. As long as you can get medical certificates from your GP as proof of you being too sick for work, they will give you the equivalent of JSA money, which is around £53 a week for me. Hope this helps ^^

haha, im half tempted to!

yeah I think ESA I can definitely get, need to get my support worker to help with the forms though I expect the council told me and Poncho we could get this LHA thing instead of housing benefit which would like pay all the rent for us to the landlord (cause I don't classify as responsible enough to pay it myself ), council tax is definitely the confusing one for us, though I found a website that says we can apply for a 78% discount now and if I get the support thing of ESA we can get 100%.

were gonna go speak to the council again tomorrow I think, and seeing CAB on Wednesday anyway (have to give them a load of bills so I can get this debt relief thing)



ah okay, I wish they would just make it clear and easy! you should be okay though I expect cause they let me get housing benefit when I was at Uni even though I lived in halls!

thank you both! may definitely have to take you guys up on the offer of help! hope you are both okay!

lol. Tell me about it. It's so frustrating. Sometimes, I just flip around the site looking for a couple of other good posts to rep so that I can return to the original one, only to find out that I cannot give out any more rep as I have exceeded my limit for the day

The downside of all this is well, being left in no-mans land.

so i just PMed myself. i give up

That isn't something to give up about! You are a great person, and everyone makes mistakes!

Was deffo not meant for me
I give up so bad atm life is stressful!


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Just a letter thing I wrote in my notebook just now A mix of blah and just I don't know. So confused. I guess embarrassed about it Hence spoiler. Not sure what's happening up in my head.

*sigh*

Looks like another night of no sleep


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text me if you like

love your sister from another mister