The Huntley - where has she gone ?

[stratobuddy]

When I worked at the CAB one of my regular tasks was appealing on behalf of people who had been turned down for AA, and I had a high success rate.

One example which I've never forgotten was a woman with very obvious mobility issues who had been turned down.

When we went throught the form together, one question was "do you have any problems going up and down stairs at home" to which she had replied NO.

When I queried this, she said it was because she lived in a bungalow. But her answer made it look as if she had no problems with stairs, which was totally wrong.

 

[ohnonotshoppingagain]

When I worked at the CAB one of my regular tasks was appealing on behalf of people who had been turned down for AA, and I had a high success rate.

One example which I've never forgotten was a woman with very obvious mobility issues who had been turned down.

When we went throught the form together, one question was "do you have any problems going up and down stairs at home" to which she had replied NO.

When I queried this, she said it was because she lived in a bungalow. But her answer made it look as if she had no problems with stairs, which was totally wrong.

my answer would have been “no because I have a stairlift” LoL

 

[WinnieWhippet]

According to the letter from the DWP my pension is a benefit.
My husband has an NHS pension,that figure is deducted from his state pension and he is taxed on his NHS pension as I'm sure every person who has an occupational pension is.
It does need means testing,surely MP's,many Civil Service personnel etc don't need a state pension as well.
A friend had to retire in his mid fifties due to a star burst stroke in his brain stem,his pension is index linked and started at £75k pa. He is in his mid sixties now and I doubt he needs a state pension.

What is the increase in the NHS pension this year? Is it falling behind other occupational schemes?

 

[Cashers]

What is the increase in the NHS pension this year? Is it falling behind other occupational schemes?

It's just over 10%!

 

[donna255]

Yes, 10.1%!

 

[SusieSue]

I had my first job aged 15, and I've always worked.
I reached 66 in January and I cannot afford to retire so I work on average 34 hours a week on my feet all day, on Friday we had two pallets of stock delivered, mostly boxes of books.
The pallets measure approximately 5'x5' and are stacked about 7' high, I hand hauled all the boxes into the store and a lot of the delivery went up a flite of stairs into a stock room, by the time I finished even my hair ached.

My home is too big for one person, is damp and cold, it does not have central heating or double glazing. I enquired about social housing but I am not eligible because I'm working.

I know someone who fried his brains with drugs, he is now in his mid 40's has never worked or contributed and is in a very nice council flat, rent and council tax free with carers visiting twice a day, I know someone else, he has just turned 40 and has been 'on the sick' for years, playing the system like a violin and recently moved to a new-build housing association home, rent and council tax free.

They both have more disposable income than I do and they will both probably live a lot longer than I will because they wont be worn out by hard graft or frozen by living in a cold home!

 

[WinnieWhippet]

Yes, 10.1%!

Amazing how that part of the information was missing from the post! If you only give half of the facts then it is easy to tell the story that you want to give!

 

[Patsy]

Amazing how that part of the information was missing from the post! If you only give half of the facts then it is easy to tell the story that you want to give!

??

I had my first job aged 15, and I've always worked.
I reached 66 in January and I cannot afford to retire so I work on average 34 hours a week on my feet all day, on Friday we had two pallets of stock delivered, mostly boxes of books.
The pallets measure approximately 5'x5' and are stacked about 7' high, I hand hauled all the boxes into the store and a lot of the delivery went up a flite of stairs into a stock room, by the time I finished even my hair ached.

My home is too big for one person, is damp and cold, it does not have central heating or double glazing. I enquired about social housing but I am not eligible because I'm working.

I know someone who fried his brains with drugs, he is now in his mid 40's has never worked or contributed and is in a very nice council flat, rent and council tax free with carers visiting twice a day, I know someone else, he has just turned 40 and has been 'on the sick' for years, playing the system like a violin and recently moved to a new-build housing association home, rent and council tax free.

They both have more disposable income than I do and they will both probably live a lot longer than I will because they wont be worn out by hard graft or frozen by living in a cold home!

Oh Susie that is unbelievable. Hope things get better for you.

 

[Turandot]

Amazing how that part of the information was missing from the post! If you only give half of the facts then it is easy to tell the story that you want to give!

meaning?
My local government pension has not increased by that amount . It is on a sliding scale so the longer you get it the increase gets less each year.

 

[rubia]

What I don't understand is why all our working lives we paid NI contributions and why,as in compension schemes, a percentage couldn't have been set aside to pay or at least, go towards the state pension.

You will get no argument regarding that from me. We will always have know alls & do gooders running out benefits.

 

[donna255]

A friend is on the basic old age pension as she lives with a partner, cannot claim pension credits. He is from the Republic of Ireland, so gets a pension from there and a smaller pension in the UK for working here. She swears last year she only got 70p increase each week.

My big brother who lives in Canada gets a pension for working in the UK before moving to Canada in his late 20s. He does not get an increase of any sort yet if he lived in the US he would each year. Of course, he does have his work pension and pension of Canada as well.

 

[rubia]

A friend is on the basic old age pension as she lives with a partner, cannot claim pension credits. He is from the Republic of Ireland, so gets a pension from there and a smaller pension in the UK for working here. She swears last year she only got 70p increase each week.

My big brother who lives in Canada gets a pension for working in the UK before moving to Canada in his late 20s. He does not get an increase of any sort yet if he lived in the US he would each year. Of course, he does have his work pension and pension of Canada as well.

I believe her as each time they said we would get ever so much increase I like your friend did not! Only a few extra pence a week.

 

[Deleted member 21838]

Key with getting AA is to base the form around your worst day. I should know, because I used to be paid to support people to do the forms. You will be surprised how people who clearly needed the benefit would make out to me and others that they were actually a lot better and fitter than they were. I think it’s a case, in particular, of older people having too much pride and putting that first over their actual needs. There are plenty of skilled volunteers and paid employees from charitable sector type organisations offering benefits rights information and support, who are well-versed in supporting people to fill the form out in the ‘correct way‘. It really is worth having another look at the situation, and then taking some advice and guidance from somebody in that aforementioned sector.

 

[miss molly]

Key with getting AA is to base the form around your worst day. I should know, because I used to be paid to support people to do the forms. You will be surprised how people who clearly needed the benefit would make out to me and others that they were actually a lot better and fitter than they were. I think it’s a case, in particular, of older people having too much pride and putting that first over their actual needs. There are plenty of skilled volunteers and paid employees from charitable sector type organisations offering benefits rights information and support, who are well-versed in supporting people to fill the form out in the ‘correct way‘. It really is worth having another look at the situation, and then taking some advice and guidance from somebody in that aforementioned sector.

I have just completed the AA form for my mother wish I had known this. It took me hours to complete they don't make it easy and she is in complete denial she has dementia and every question was a struggle.

 

[Patsy]

I have just completed the AA form for my mother wish I had known this. It took me hours to complete they don't make it easy and she is in complete denial she has dementia and every question was a struggle.

No they don't make it easy probably hoping people will think "stuff it" or similar and not bother.
If I had to do it I would make sure I got some help.

 

[mediastar]

If you receive a State Pension, it is entirely separate from any Occupational Pension and, being contribution-based, should not be reduced in anyway by income nor capital. Pension Credit, being means tested, IS affected by both income and capital.

 

[maymorganlondon]

It’s always been off-putting filling in these forms. Back in the late 1970s my parents and gran were ploughing through a mountain of guidelines for various benefits to apply for. The info my mum had picked up following her MS diagnosis. They read through everything and ruled most of it out. I was totally addicted to reading, and read every page, footnote and appendix, and with my more literal child’s brain I came to different conclusions to the adults in my life. They decided to believe me and, happily for my mum, I was right about the main one they had dismissed. It was the one that kept my mum mobile and independent. I am so glad I was able to do something to help in a family crisis… just reading can sometimes be vital. Sometimes as adults we over-think, under-play or flat out dismiss things a child won’t. I hope if ever I need help and have to read through bureaucratic jargon again, I can be as clear-sighted as I was when I was a child.
It is a shame when people desperately need assistance, and really deserve it, that so many obstacles are put in their way.

 

[donna255]

Not sure how it works in the rest of the UK? But here in Northern Ireland as well as CAB we have independent advice centres, and you go to them, and they will fill in all benefit forms. They do them 5 days a week and know how to word answers to the questions, if you are turned down they will appeal and even go with you to the formal appeal. I know someone who has gone a number of times over the years and had AA forms etc filled in. She said they just talk, ask simple questions and fill in the form, making it casual and stress-free.

 

[candycane]

No they don't make it easy probably hoping people will think "stuff it" or similar and not bother.
If I had to do it I would make sure I got some help.

Try going through the assessment, it's downright humiliating. Every single question the assessor goes through with you it seems as if they are trying to catch you out up to the point they are almost suggesting you are lying. The whole process is definitely designed to put people off having to go through it. I know they have to weed out the fraudsters but unfortunately the fraudsters sail through it whilst the genuine people get declined.

CC

 

[Patsy]

Try going through the assessment, it's downright humiliating. Every single question the assessor goes through with you it seems as if they are trying to catch you out up to the point they are almost suggesting you are lying. The whole process is definitely designed to put people off having to go through it. I know they have to weed out the fraudsters but unfortunately the fraudsters sail through it whilst the genuine people get declined.

CC

It's because the fraudsters know how to work the system.
Our neighbour was badly injured many years ago in a car accident. According to another neighbour he manages to get everything.
I have to laugh sometimes when the ambulance comes to fetch him for hospital appointments he comes limping out with calipers on both legs regardless that an hour or so earlier he was pottering round the garden weeding!
A few years ago he was held up at the hospital and the pharmacist came to the door as he had rung him to ask if I could take his medication in. It was a massive bag and I had to give my name and sign as one was a controlled drug,I assume it was morphine.