UC the Beginning

So ive waited till we have finally got the Universal Credit sorted to tell you the story . Did the application online with the help of daughter , so that Himself didnt throw the laptop through the window , hes much better behaved when shes around.  We then had to await a letter so we could speak to someone , they wouldnt speak to me , it had to be himself . Lovely and sexist of them !! anyway i was telling him the questions he had to ask and then he had to repeat them to the dweeb on the phone . He managed to get it so that they would pay my carers allowance direct to me . A small victory because of his mental health difficulties and we asked them also to pay direct housing costs to the local council .  We were then sent a letter to attend the local Job Centre for an identification interview and to produce our paperwork , we had to contact them to ask for the appointment at the local office because it has proper disabled parking and access, the one in Lincoln has turned over the disabled parking to EV stations !!! . We finally got this sorted out and attended , himself only managed to hit one room divider on his buggy so he did well , hes struggling with the controls at the moment so taking him anywhere can be interesting. He was also having a shouty day due to his hearing going yet again . Once theyve decided  its you , not being made easier by the fact you dont have a passport , but have fetched every other document on the list , though you only need 3. I did suggest they could always get the security guard to confirm it . Well he is one of our sons..lol  They then print out what applies to your claim you sign it and they witness it .  I think the lad  was baffled when i proceeded to read it before signing it and i pointed out i wouldnt trust the DWP with anything . So far so good . This all takes around 3 weeks .

Then i hear himself shouting , hes had a phone call to tell us we will need to move because they wont meet housing costs if you have a spare room ? i managed to get the phone off him before they hung up and tried to explain that i was his carer and wife at which point the dweeb on the phone goes "hes disabled? " Oh be joyful there is no communication between Universal Credit and DWP  it would seem . Anyway they wanted to speak to him again and i explained that he cant control the shouting its due to a brain injury and they asked a quite reasonable question about why we had a spare room and he shouted that i sleep in there so it isnt spare , because he has night terrors and has tried to kill me on a couple of occasions . Well that was a conversation stopper !!  Anyway theyve now decided we are allowed a spare room!! 

In all the process took the full 5 weeks, we were well prepared , they did keep asking if we needed foodbank vouchers , but then we started to get the letters from the council threatening to evict us because they still hadnt paid their share of the housing costs!!! thats taken 3 months to sort out because they basically kept the money and didnt bother to give it to the council .

Now the other strange thing its that from the day you apply you will be bombarded  online on whatever social media you use, with endless posts about fraud and how errors are all your fault and you will be punished . Talk about paranoia inducing , this is everyday!!  Im immune, but if you had problems mentally this could tip you over the edge. 

Overall we are are about £30 a week worse off  which is what we expected , personally im £12.50 a week better off because i dont have to pay for the privilege of my not spare room