Benefits or Entitelments?

Living with Parkinson's Work, benefits and money
1

Like many who use this forum I worked 40 odd years and payed tax and stamp , I do not claim benefits I claim Entitelments as am only getting what Iv already paid for , there's a good chance that my pd was caused through work related activities as I'm the only member of my family who has it, so I will not let anyone say I receive benefits and go out of my way to correct misinformed people , may be if we all started putting that across to the powers that be we can change the negative stigma of being " on benefits" as it stands now.

 Anyway that's my take on it  so live well.  Cc

2

 

Hi CC


I look back to my teens i hadn't even left school and i was working on a farm, i left school and started working as a working life , it was hard work, 80+ hours a week for £2 a hour, i was paying 40% tax on that, it doesn't take too much to work out what i took home after tax & national insurance.

But I was really paying a higher price for being employed, Agriculture is/was/is Chemical intensive, there was a million quids worth of chemicals stored about the farm  to ensure crops grew just as the housewife wanted them to pick off the super market shelves.

I off course didn't figure much in costs, there was no health n safety, you could either do the job or someone else would, part of my 80+ hours a week was spraying off potato dumps with what is a nerve agent, the plants i was spraying would die off before my eyes(what was it doing too me?) around the farm to ensure disease (the irony) was kept at bay. the chemicals ran down my back, i breathed it in, i ingested it through the pores of my skin, on the hot sunny days of my youth.

When elections come round every 5 yrs or so, We are told do the right thing, work hard, and the government will look after You from the cradle to the grave, So when we arrive at the point we are , we do the right thing, we visit the Doctor that's the right place to go, to get Answers, maybe we will get a fix, a cure, and are able to continue to do the right thing, work hard, we got the answer that we cant work hard anymore eventually the illness becomes hard work, we don.t get a break from it, its a 24 hr 365 days a year Job.

So we do the right thing in applying for help to help us, it's what we worked for so many years before.

And then as you know from experience we are Judged,labelled, put in a group,made out to be frauds, stigmatised & demonised.

 

3

Hi SA,

What an emotive, honest piece!  It highlights what I think most of us face and feel each day, whilst trying to 'carry on regardless'.  Of course we all want that  'cure'.....I personally don't think it will happen in my lifetime....but I would like to see a better understanding of this disease and its implications on daily life and financial predicaments.  Applying for any entitlements when a diagnosis has been confirmed, should be a simple procedure.

wishing you well

ali

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Very well put Cc, I think even your government pension is classed as a benefit when we have paid into it by our contributions through the years, but the government seem to forget that!

Hi SA - We have all been through working with chemicals most of our lives at some time or other, not knowing how they have effected us, all cleaning spray, pesticides, garden sprays, etc., all passed through the powers that be as 'safe', but it beggars belief at the amount of people who are suffering so many different diseases and being deprived of any financial help. News has it they are going to make harder to put in for a tribunal if you get turned down for PIP ect.,

Sheila

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Hi Ali & Sheff

All we can be from the moment we think something is wrong is be Honest as we have to be honest with ourselves that this is such a big change in our lives even if everyday we try too achieve Normality in the eyes of those who see us, I find myself a few times each week  explaining i have this and i need a bit of extra time or help in what ever im doing, i may look a big strapping lad but in reality i am as weak as a kitten.

So typical of the government to move the goal posts when many were winning on appeal after being awarded zero points.

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Hi sea angler

Was born into the farming community spent all my childhood through the sixtes helping on the farms my father worked on, when I left school I went into Engeneering  and worked with all types of chemicals in factory's and garages , often worked seven days a week and hardly ever taking a holiday or time off sick,  it was the work ethic I was brought up with and often came before family and friends , I continued to work long after the Drs said I should only giving up after collapsing twice at work,, now I'm made to feel like a scrounger every time I apply for what's rightfully mine and payed for all the years I was working.

    I'm wandering of track now as I'm starting to shut down

   So live well.   Cc

7

Talking about benefits.  My husband has recently been diagnosed with PD.  I wont go into detail but night times are very difficult.  As his carer I have to get up several times a night for toilets, confused state, hallucinations etc.   Does anyone know if I would be entitled to night time attendance allowance.  

 

 

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hi Patient 99 - I should phone the helpline, the number is at the top of this page, they have someone who can give you some advice on what you can claim in the way of benefits

All the best - Sheila

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The attendance allowance is a benefit for the patient and so is applied for in their name.  I would have thought he/you would definitely be entitled.. I expect others will post who can bring you up to date.

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                 Hello Patient 99

                                  You may  well be entitled to help Im not  sure  if  savings  affect  any  payments ?

    Also a very well written post SA we have had a very similar working life , I remember crop spraying  one lovely spring  day  and  watched in  horror as butterflies bees  and any other hapless insect  perished as they  flew through the deadly spray, and  also thought  bu???r  if  its  killing  them whats  it  doing  to me, and  this  poison  accumalates in  the  soil, I could  smell it  when  ploughing and  working  land  then of  course  it  runs  off  into  the  ditches  streams  and  rivers killing  all  life,  we  are  all responsible for this crime,  and  will  or  in  our  case we  are   paying  the  deadly  price  for  our  stupidity. 

                                              Regards  Cc SA Sheila Ali  Eileenpatricia

                                                                       FED

11

Does anyone know anything about Parkinson's disease patients not having to pay council tax

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In our area all you get is a reduction to one below your  normal band IF you have any adaptations in the home.

13

Benji is right...If you have a downstairs bathroom, toilet or bedroom , foe example, necessary because of your disability you can apply to have your council tax reduced by one band.

What is rarely publicised is that if you have a severe mental impairment you can be discounted for council tax.

You download the form from the Council's council tax page found under discounts, fill in your details which don't ask for any info on the mental impairment, attach proof that you get moderate or high DLA or PIP and have the form signed by your GP.

The reduction  is made and backdated to when you first were awarded the payment.

Try to find the letter awarding it for the first time...as proof of when you started getting the benefit.

We got the reduction and 3 years back pay. I wish PDUK  made people aware of this benefit...I found out from a friend whose husband has dementia....the Altzheimers society told her.

Good luck with claiming!

GG