Met Sir Edward Davey, MP.

[Clodhopper]

One of my lodgers has been really badly messed around by the benefits system, a situation that I have been involved with since October but which got serious much earlier, August at least. It's the usual tale of lost paperwork, left hand not knowing what the right is doing and bureaucratic overstretch but made worse because of my lodger having to reapply for all benefits (Universal Credit...) and being of limited mobility owing to botched recovery from operations 20 or so years ago and owing to other issues, having a nervous breakdown.

Last week they said they'd found the paperwork which had been sent internally to the wrong department and told her that her Housing Benefit was suspended because her claim was under Jobseekers not Employment Support and it would be restarted if her claim under Employment Support was upheld and to apply for a crisis loan meantime (nb her Housing and Benefits had been suspended when they sent her from Jobseekers to Employment Support in the first place, which only happened because I picked up a call meant for her. Turned out they didn't know she was registered disabled despite her being a Blue Badge holder and having given them the proof!)



There's a whole lot more but that gives a flavour. Anyway the crisis loan was supposed to be there for definite on Friday last and wasn't. I phoned up my local Lib Dems to ask for advice on who to see and was fast tracked to see Edward Davey the next day when they heard some of the story. I didn't expect that quick a reaction.



Next day (Saturday last) we went in and explained what had happened on the benefits side. They were horrified and are on the case. Davey had already arranged for one of the local ward Councillors to be in on the meeting which gave me a great feeling of satisfaction because I had been leafletting for him in the local elections. Turned out he'd dropped off some of the leaflets I'd delivered and we recognised eachother which was nice. I should perhaps add that I hadn't mentioned I was a paid up Lib Dem until this point.



We haven't yet even got to the issue of why she's in my house at all, that's for later. But what really triggered me was that the lack of payments she has received have meant that I'm now struggling day to day (I can cope but it's annoying and interfering with other plans) and her garage was repossessed by the Council because she was way behind on payments and her possessions are mostly now in my house, another friend's house, and being stolen from outside the garage.

Funny thing is, she never realised she was seeing an MP until after it was all over and I commented that I thought he seemed a decent bloke, when it came out. She thought she was just seeing another official...

Anyway, hopefully something good will come of all this.

The Ombudsman has also been informed and is apparently tracking the situation. Information for appeals only arriving after the appeal date has passed is relevant here, that sort of thing.

[gmc]

I realise most peoiple in these positions are OK but some would not be able top keep a job in the "outside" world. I was unemployed for a while and signed on, not entitled to anything as I'd been self employed but I was after the NIC credit. Had to go in everyfortnight to tell them what you are doing to get a job and one week I was getting an HGV licence on a course I paid for. Told them what I was doing did the course the week after different women, who because I had not been available for work - because I was on a course and if they had found something I woul;d not have been able to attend the interview - signed me off i.e sanctioned me. I appealed ands got it sorted but she was sitting ubder one of the signs stating they will not tolerate abusive langiage or violence towards staff. I really felt like using abusive language I can tell you. Some of them really are nasty vindictive human beings.

Can't believe you8 are still with the libdems. Used to vote for them but after the frace of the coalition I would trust a libdem as far as I could throw them. Clegg could have forced another election and probably got more seats as it was he could have made PR a precondition of his support and they had a real chance to make a differnce but no he blew it. The libdems in scotlkand are finished, carmichael should have been fired from the party as an acknowledged liar and crook.

[Clodhopper]

Well, it's either the Lib Dems or sit around bitching...

Actually, rephrase that. I'm going to sit around bitching anyway. At least with the Lib Dems I'm actually doing something as well as bitching. Couldn't act for the Conservatives or Corbyn's Labour on brexit alone. Heck, I don't agree with all of Davey's decisions but he's a remarkably coherent thinker and goes where the logic takes him. I suppose Green would have been an option but I can be a fairly green Lib Dem. Has to be a pro European Party, obviously. I'm in broad agreement with Liberal principles but can live with the Social Democrat side, at least as I understand it. There's talk of some new centrist party but so far it's just talk. I'll look at it if it happens.

I've supported the Lib Dems since student days. Only joined them after brexit. Agree that the quality ain't what it was when eg Paddy was leader but now I've joined so things are looking up on that front .

Hell, put it at its lowest and at least I've got some trousers to go with the mouth.

edit: I suspect that one person involved in this whole Housing/Benefits issue has been power tripping. Hopefully it will come out.

[Bruv]

OK now my story with Social security, after being made redundant about 20 years ago, I survived on the pay in lieu of notice and holiday pay plus a few weeks with the promise of redundancy pay before I asked when any payment would be coming my way at the Job Centre. They sent me to the Social security office with a note.

I sat in there for some time before getting called up and then was told that if I had a bank card with credit they couldn't or wouldn't pay me anything. I asked to see the manager who came and told me the same, even when I told him that drawing on an overdraft without the prospect of paying it back was stupidity, he apologised but told me that was the way it worked. I may have raised my voice at this point, and got hot under the collar.

Anyway as I left a young fellow I knew fairly well came through the door, greeted me with beer laden breath and said with a laugh he was there to collect his money. He had never worked since leaving school, done time for drink and drugs and other antisocial type nonsense. A few years earlier he used to visit a girl in the shared house I lived in and keep me awake with alternating nights of arguments and wild passionate sex, sometimes both.

[FourPart]

Ironic that this is an MP who has consistently voted for cuts to Housing Benefit & other Welfare Benefits.

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/10155 ... iton/votes

[Clodhopper]

He was a supporter of Austerity and more than anyone else responsible for the Hinckley Point Nuclear power station. Also supports fracking. Or did, anyway, as Minister for Energy and Climate Change. His remit including sorting out the issue that we would run out of power from existing sources soon and he didn't want us dependent on Russian gas. And Austerity did at least stop the country as a whole getting more in debt every day, which is a big deal. It even helps your beloved brexit, that the country's debt problem is not as bad as it would have been.

My fear of course is that the damage brexit does renders the whole Austerity program irrelevant - improving the drains doesn't help much when hit by a tsunami.

edit: One of the things I'm finding, dealing with Housing and Benefits for the first time in at least 20 years, is that any idea it is like the system of 20 years ago is just wrong. There are some good people but there are a lot of people who should not be there, there's a target driven culture that dehumanises all involved with it on either side of the desk and if you go into it thinking it IS like the system of 20 years ago you'll be totally buggered. (Actually it's not quite the first time in 20 years thinking about it but the previous time I was more moral support than anything else).

[Clodhopper]

This morning we discovered my lodger's Disability Mobility Allowance hadn't been paid. She spoke to them just yesterday to make sure it was coming through only to discover they were making a deduction, I think based on her non-existent pension which they cannot stop themselves believing she has. Nonetheless they promised that apart from the deduction it would be there.

The deduction is apparently 100%.

Last week we had a letter dated 30th May 2018 asking for a sick note by the 29th of May 2018 or they would stop her Employment Support Allowance (Yes, I have got the dates the right way round). Not surprisingly compliance with this request



I phoned up the Lib Dems again to ask how things were progressing and got through to the case worker. He told me they had written to the Department of Work and Pensions but hadn't yet received a reply, commenting hopefully that the DWP was usually quicker than the Home Office. Cold comfort but better than none I suppose. I explained a few things had happened since we'd spoken to the MP and sent an email giving the details with ref no's etc.



update: after about 2hrs on hold she got through to the people she needed to speak to about her Disability Mobility Allowance. It has been stopped. They seem to be agreeing there's been a mistake somewhere and said reassuringly that it would be reinstated. However, this takes 6 weeks because it has to go through the whole process again. And I'm sure they won't back date it unless forced. It also means no money while the process happens.

[gmc]

tsk tsk Don't you read your daily mail? don't you know most people on disability are playing the system and are getting £25,000 a year plus.

https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... 20&bih=938

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/re ... 4/benefits

By this point many a landlord would have turfed your lodger out so good for you. Many a landlord would not be able to carry a non paying bladger no matter how much they might want to



Aneurin Bevan

What is Toryism but organised spivvery? ¦ No amount of cajolery can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party ¦ So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.

the same speech at Manchester, 4 July 1948


Wonder what he would have thought bof tony blair?

[Clodhopper]

I've been torturing her dog and cats but so far no sign of the £25,000

Children next, I think. Working on the gingerbread fascia board. Also, since they are modern kids and probably wouldn't recognise gingerbread, cutting internet access. Bwahahahaha.



We disagree about Tony Blair. I made the same mistake as him - I believed the dodgy dossier. He has less excuse (check your sources, dammit) but I can't piss on him for that one.

edit: no way I'm turfing her out. I took her in. She was sleeping in the car with dog and two cats trying to get a house so she could be with her kids. Pissed off about the whole situation. (I knew her before but we'd had a row and weren't talking {short version - she was best mates with the woman who'd just dumped me. I missed the eviction}. This is a different order of magnitude)

[Bruv]

You are a friend Indeed...

[Clodhopper]

Thank you.

She was someone I knew before, but not that well. I'm sure you know what I mean if I say that if I had told her to get lost I'd still have had to face the bathroom mirror...

And I'm not sure you can be friends when the power imbalance is as great as it is currently. After the dust has settled, then, hopefully, we will be friends.

chuckle. Thankfully there is no attraction there. Either way.

[Clodhopper]

Well, still no sign of any money, though Employment Support seem to be saying they will pay something, sometime. The latest development appears to be that while both Employment Support and Jobseekers agree she is owed money for the time they have been messing up her claim (I'm just talking backdated, not compensation) both are saying it is the other who owes.



Yesterday she spent the whole morning on hold (literally - I could hear the hold music since she had it on speakerphone so she could at least do some other things) and getting put through to the wrong department (ie buck passing). Eventually at 1:37 she was told there was nothing the person she was speaking to could do but she had arranged for the right people to call her and it would be in the next 3 hours absolutely definitely for sure certainly, the time being noted by all and phone numbers checked. 4:37 came and went and no sign of these mystery people. The lack of surprise here was truly stunning in its beige blandness.

The sort of problem this has created is that now she has no money for car insurance and I have no off-street parking. All parking round here is on a 3 hour limit 8:30am to 6 pm. Because they cancelled her Mobility Allowance as well somewhere in all this (the letter was sent to her old address) she has no free parking until her application as a resident here goes through. So she must illegally move her car every three hours or face a fine each time. We are less than 5 mins walk from the Traffic Warden office. They are like hawks and have already got her once.

edit: She's practically in tears at he prospect of dealing with it again today and her feet are playing up. Going to try to get a doctor's appointment - she's really struggling to cope at present.

[Clodhopper]

There has been progress - she is now getting ESA at about £40/week and I think Housing are paying something. She's had some emails from Sir Edward explaining what is going on and he is moving on to look at housing. This is still far from satisfactory but a lot better than things were.



As can be imagined she is a lot calmer and more able to deal with things as well.

[Clodhopper]

Unbelievable. It seems that the last payment of ESA is now overdue and no sign. The payment is not £40 a week as I said above, it's about £90 a fortnight so she's had a single payment and now...nothing. There's apparently a possibility they might have sent it to another bank account but honestly it feels like it's back on the merry-go-round from hell.

It seems my lodger is not the only one in this situation. I wonder how many people are on the streets because of it? Ian Duncan-Smith's work.

[gmc]

Quite a lot actually.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/ ... ccounter=1

Your tenant would be one of them were you not her landlord she would be homeless by now most landlords cannot afford to carry someone not paying their rent.

[Clodhopper]

I can't. If everything was sorted out now, it would take me a while to get back to 0.

[gmc]

Most people are within three months of not being able to pay their rent or mortgage losing a job, being downsized or long-term illness and losing benefits can lead to homelessness so easily for so many people.

[Clodhopper]

I was hoping to get up to the Borders for a recce this summer...



Hey ho. At least the vibration isn't too bad at the moment. The rpm, or frequency, or whatever it is has gone up to levels where it has less physical effect on me. The hum element of it has got louder correspondingly, but isn't as bad to live with.

edit: chuckle. And if I'm looking at moving there long term, February isn't a bad time to visit. See it at it's worst...the real down side is that I do want to be getting on with this. If doing it, the sooner the better.

Oh, and when my lodger got in touch with the ESA after the usual 2hrs on hold what she was told indicated that nothing done or said since March had registered on their system. They still thought she was getting a pension and were deducting for it, and somehow hadn't paid anyway. The payment, with deduction because they can't do anything about that if she wants the money now, was promised. hohoho.



This has been forwarded to Sir Edward.



And I suppose yes, I can afford it in the sense that I can run at a loss for a while but it is not a long term sustainable situation and basically my spending is essentials only.

[gmc]

Where in the borders are you thinking of?

[Clodhopper]

Hawick, Kelso, round there was my initial aiming point. The idea of the first visit is literally reconnaissance and that seems a good base.

[Clodhopper]

I'm now a little out of touch with how she's going with all of this, which could mean she's coping better or could mean she's closed down completely. I theeeenk it is the former because she seems reasonably chirpy all things considered. But she's very good at putting up a front so I could be wrong.

There is still stuff going on and hours spent on hold and I keep reminding her to forward stuff to Sir Edward. I hope she is.

[Clodhopper]

Something of a disaster. There has been a phone interview arranged for over a month where they would call her and yesterday she received a reminder that it was due to happen today. This morning she'd lost her mobile. No sign of it anywhere and the time for the phone call has come and gone. She needs to phone them on the landline asap but can't face it at present.



sigh