BENEFIT SYSTEM

I’ve been away from the blog for a few days. Not long ago I helped someone locally fill-in some forms and housing applications, spoke to some people on their behalf and they were successful with their applications, they were very grateful and thanked me for my assistance. So happy were they that they told their friend who had had his DLA (Disability Living Allowance) stopped. He was receiving it for over 12 months when it suddenly stopped and he was put on a Job Seekers Allowance, the person involved is so severely disabled and would be unable to walk never mind “Jobseek”. It transpires that they sent him a letter that was so full of official terminology he couldn’t understand its contents and so discarded it; the wrong thing to do I know; but they didn’t. After speaking to the people at the DLA and filling in the relevant paperwork they are now reinstating it so all’s well there. Another person has been having problems with his housing, another was a Crisis loan and another was an application for a grant.
Most of the people I helped for one reason or another had originally been turned-down or refused their application because they didn’t understand the system and, I have to admit, neither did I. It wasn’t without speaking to people and asking them to explain the question that I was fully able to understand. Not everybody will do this, they maybe to embarrassed or they may not know you can do it. It showed to me, and gave me a better understanding of, our benefit system, it’s not without its flaws and genuine people do slip through the cracks. There are also those who I would call “Professional Benefit Claimants” they DO know the system and they know how to milk it and they are making it harder for those who do have genuine problems.
My advice to anybody making a claim is DO NOT ignore letters that are sent to you and if you don’t understand phone up and ask them to explain, I found them very helpful and they even told me of other things these people were entitled to.