There's not much information out there on what help us cancer troopers can get when we make the decision to still work and fight for our lives. I’ve never claimed a benefit in my life so had a little look around all the cancer websites and forums and found very little that helped.
I’ve got such a good sickness policy at work and never in my life would I ever have thought I would need 26 weeks full paid sick in a 12 month period, but looking at it won’t cover the time I need off with all of my treatments and surgeries. Government only pay 28 weeks SSP. I’m also lucky that my employee offers income protection insurance that I can apply for which pays 50% that needs to be applied for and they have benevolent fund which offer grants which also can be applied for. I know everyone now is muttering about my over spending and under saving but I like to live on the edge.
If you have any kind of life insurance or critical care check these out and the detail. So many cancers are not classed as critical! As if they can even justify this but the bastards will obviously do anything not to pay out. Then once you have cancer, no one will further insure you for anything (including holidays) for 5 years so cancel what you have.
Thank goodness for a friend who told me about some things that can be claimed. If you're working or not you can claim for PIP (Personal Independence Payment) which is the old Government Disability Living Allowance scheme. You have to ring them to start the claim and they will send you out the forms in the post. The forms look daunting and I sat with them for a week picking the 40 page pack up and putting it down again but actually when I started with pen to paper it wasn’t bad at all. it looked like a lot of questions but they weren’t tasking. I wasn’t sure what ‘supporting evidence’ they wanted so sent copies of my diagnosis and my chemo treatment book.
If you're successful for this, and working, you can also claim working tax credit, carer allowance, blue badges, council tax discounts and so much more. There's loads of things listed on the Citizens Advice website and this mental health and money advice website.
If your SSP is up, you can also claim Employment Support Allowance whilst working. You can do this up to 3 months before your SSP is coming to an end
I’ve hyperlinked the government pages on this post to help anyone who may need it. I have only just sent it all of my forms off so have no idea what is right or wrong or if there is such a thing with these applications. Any outcome or feedback I get I will update on this post for anyone else looking to apply. If you're not working or retired there is so much more information out there and more benefits to be able to claim.
If anyone has any information on this please add any information or links in the comments for others to see.
