Work

Good Morning JohnT2

I am sorry to hear of your recent diagnosis of Follicular Lymphoma. 

I hope you do not mind me replying as I had a different type of cancer to you but I did have similar issues with work.

My work were very supportive and I had been working 40 hours a week for years but I was only entitled to SSP like yourself and that is not enough to live on. While having treatment for cancer the last thing you need to be worrying about is finances.

What I did was contact one of the advisors on Macmillan- I did this through online chat but you can also phone them (support line number at the bottom of this) or use the Ask an Expert section on here.

Ask an Expert - Macmillan Online Community

However if you are able to I would recommend that it is best to call them directly. They can then give you very specific advice to your own circumstances.

An advisor went through all my financial situation and was able to give me actual figures of what support I was able to have. He was also able to help give me contact details and support with forms. It was such a relief. In the end I came away with a grant from Macmillan, which helped greatly with the immediate expenses, a claim for some universal credit, support re housing, council tax discount, advise and details how to claim Personal Independence Payment. He also gave me advise on how long SSP could be paid for and what would happen when it stopped. He advised me also that some payments could be back dated and gave me advise on how to claim limited capability for work element of universal credit. He also explained about how cancer patients are able to claim free prescriptions for 5 years and details of free hospital transport for appointments. 

It certainly put my mind at rest and enabled me to concentrate on my cancer treatment without worrying about finances. 

Jane