BENEFITS

Hello Rocky12

That is a long time to wait when you need to be focussing on your health. I applied for PIP in May last year and it was paid from July and backdated. Can I suggest that you give the support line a call and speak to one of the financial advisors. They were a great help to me last year and I think they would be able to help you. There may also be other things that you can claim while you are waiting and they will know all the up to date information that you need.

Jane

I got no help anywhere. I was expected to live on £99 per week. I did it for 30 weeks and cudnt do it any longer. My sick pay ended after 28 weeks and then I shud have been getting ESA. They look back at ur previous two years national insurance contributions but one of those years was over covid and contributions were not where they needed to be, it didnt matter that I had 39 years previous to this. I then qualified for UC and they paid me a grand total of approx £22 paid in two instalments ( just in case I went on a spending spree!). So I had no choice but to go back to work. It will b a year on Friday since my surgery and I spent my whole recovery filling out forms and making phonecalls for money. I applied for PIP and was turned down - apparently not sick enough - I submitted a mandatory appeal, was turned down again and have now lodged an appeal with an independent assessor. According to Macmillan Benefits Advice - there r alot of people like me.

I am so sorry that you were unable to get any help I really think that the government need to look at the system for supporting people with cancer and other serious illnesses. Its a time that we need to be focussing on our health and not worrying about money. I was one of the lucky ones in that I did get support but it took 4 months to all come through and I struggled in those 4 months and it was through my chemo. SSP is no where near enough to pay the bills.