I was on my way out this afternoon to get an injection done, when I saw a brown envelope by the door. It was urgent, from the DSS people, and so I opened it. It appears that they wanted to inform me that they had to stop paying me any benefits since August, and that I cannot get them to reconsider until I do what they want… Oh and they wanted be to know this would affect any housing benefit I claim and also that I am no longer entitled to free NHS prescriptions until it’s sorted out.
So I called them, and it seems I haven’t sent them some paperwork back, about savings… And I can’t get another one sent… I have to ask when I next sign on. Assuming I live that long.
The prescription is important. The medicine keeps me alive, or at least semi-sane, and now without hope of DSS there’s no point in my even looking for a place to go.
I know they’ll backdate it once we work out what exactly they want this time. They’ve done this to me every year, the week before my birthday, as if to say “have a drink on us… not”, and it takes about a month to get it sorted out. A month where I have to live on literally nothing.
And no, I’ve not mislaid anything… they never sent it… It turns out my advisor in the job centre was supposed to give me the forms a month ago, but as usual, it never happened.
F.M.L.