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I have been chundling, as I do, over the issues for people on incapacity benefit.
I recently spoke at public meetings and having shared this experience with other learned people with mental illness, I have been warned that I could become the acceptable face of mental illness and used to promote a variety of ideas and options. Before I talk about my experiences on this benefit, I would just like to confirm that I am not the acceptable face of mental illness but one person with mental illness and speaking as an individual. An individual with empathy for others who suffer mental distress but not experiencing all of what they experience.
I started suffering from mental health problems in my teens, although it didn’t seriously affect me until my mid twenties when I had several life crisis which pushed me beyond coping.
From 16 onwards I was either in full time education or working. I worked in between going to college and also went on a couple of youth training schemes. Pretty fruitless ventures and went back to college to train as a secretary. From there I got a job at a college and remained there, although the job roles changed until just over 3 years ago.
I was pretty successful, despite having to take periods of time off work due to acute mental states, as I started off as an examinations clerk went on to be a site secretary and finally ended up running a training department. Despite my employer being willing to keep me in employment, there was no real acknowledgement of why I got ill, how to help me maintain a balance or an understanding that the pressures of work would often trigger episodes. I ended up running the training department because my boss left and wasn’t replaced. Don’t get me wrong I got to learn lots of new things, and developed new skills but without any real support. I felt very alone and it got much too much for me. After a long battle with my illness I resigned, with very mixed feelings, but realistically I just couldn’t carry on as I was.
In a variety of ways.
The first, and for most people, the most important issue is finance. My finances have changed dramatically. From being on a salary nearing £20,000 to being on a benefit, which is 4 and a half thousand pounds. The first year of being on this benefit was savage and since then it has become an art form of budgeting and robbing Peter to pay Paul.
The benefit itself, although a bit mean, is not such a problem as the additional problems that go with being on it.
After another year of feeling poorly, because of my disposition and change in finances, things started to get better. I started to feel motivated to return to work., but had also found being able to spend more time with my daughter therapeutic. I got to really learn who she was. So, informed by a DWP leaflet that I could do permitted work, part time, I duly got a job, through a DWP programme. The good news was that I was doing well, and getting on with the job. The bad news was that I notified the local council offices of the job and promptly received a bill for over £260 council tax and lost ¾ of my housing benefit. On top of this the Inland Revenue charged me £10 per week tax. I ended up being worse off (by about £15) by working. I wasn’t exactly flush before but was not able to live on £65 per week, particularly as I had to pay travel costs to and from work as well. Needless to say I resigned and sent a rather angry letter to the local DSS office asking them why they didn’t tell me my housing and council tax benefits would be affected. The reply back was that some people are financially worse off by working, but they couldn’t say for sure who these people were. I could..it was me and all because I was claiming incapacity benefit.
Another example of how being on incapacity benefit has affected me, is when I wanted to join a follow on course. I had previously got free course fees and transport but due to cuts in Further Education budgets, the follow on course did not guarantee free fees for people on benefits (people in incapacity benefit were not exempt from paying) and transport was stopped. The bus fares to attend the course would have been £18 normally or £10 with a weekly travel card. It might not sound a lot but from £85 per week it is a lot. Needless to say, I am not attending the course.
I may be looking at things bleakly but not only was I prevented from continuing on a supportive work programme but I was also prevented from returning to college. That really doesn’t leave many options for social inclusion or for doing the things that are good for me.
I would like to see inacapacity benefit reforms that reform other benefits along the way, so that people do not gain in one way and lose in another.
I am not a greedy person but want a decent amount of money to live on. Every time, since having to give up full-time employment, I try to make progress I find myself excluded, and usually due to financial restrictions.
There is nothing more soul destroying for me than continually trying to be included, only to find myself excluded.
I have a name for the sort of benefit I would like to be on and that would be called ‘Enabling Benefit’, and hopefully, with a bit more support and less financial punishment I would end up where I want to be and that is back in employment.
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