As you may know I can’t get ESA or UC so I live on PIP at £300 a month which isn’t enough for me to get by.
I need National Insurance credits or I won’t get a pension when I am older.
I don’t have enough to get the money on ESA as I couldn’t work full time so don’t qualify so all I can get is NI credits.
To get them you have to apply for ESA which if you have done it you will know is difficult! I have to get “fit forms” which are like the old sick forms from your doctor.
I have to fill in a small book of questions (quite literally) to apply for ESA, which killed me to do as I can’t write for long and this is just for NI credits remember!
Then the doctor had to fill in a form saying what I can or can’t do and he did a great job as I chose to see it before they sent it off.
This for many is enough to get ESA. They can do paper based evaluations. But they chose not to even though I get PIP and the doctor sent this brilliant form in.
Now I have to do a medical assessment over the phone!
How they can see my issues over the phone I will never know! I can’t walk far, stand long or talk for too long and talking for a while makes me need a day to recover from it as it is so hard!
From me getting PIP, the doctors letter and my mini book filled in they could have just said “ok here are your credits”, but they chose to drag it out and make me have a phone assessment for mobility and fatigue issues…
All this for NI credits!!!
Then after a while you can apply for the money on ESA which means I have to do all of this AGAIN, plus you have to do it all again when it expires as they usually make you have to do reassessments after a few years, the same with PIP I will have to do all this again for that too as they don’t take the assessment for PIP and carry it through to ESA so you have to do them all again many times.
This is utterly ridiculous.
This is the disability care in England in 2021.
Disabled person living on £300 a month, unable to buy anything as that much isn’t even enough for rent anywhere on it’s own, plus I have to pay for prescriptions as well!!
Now I have to do all this which is very hard for me to do and kills me in the process and I don’t even get money for it.
The government is a joke. Doesn’t care for disabled people at all!
