So the brown envelope from the DWP landed on the doormat , this time addressed to me . It would seem i am to be subjected to a Carer Review , Tom from the DWP is going to ring me between 9-11 Monday , then comes a long list of penalties for not being stood by the phone waiting . It then proceeds to explain that this is merely a government information gathering exercise and to check page 5 for more information..errr theres only 4 pages ?
My point is that the whole thing is menacing, theres a whole page of warnings of the consequences of fraud another page of if you fail to answer the questions with replies that match exactly what they have on file you will lose all your benefits . Its a threatening letter called a review .
So i may have to get himself up at 5am to make sure hes safely toileted and ready for the day , just in case he needs help during this hour long telephone debacle.
At least its took my mind off the other debacle we are all about to witness .
My heart goes out to you Kate. Try to keep calm and positive, the review is supposed to help you and assess if other help can be given both financial and other services. I am not naive and also know how threatening a review can be. Hope it all goes well.
ReplyDeletethanks hun
Delete'The review is supposed to hep you and assess if other help can be given both financial and other services' - really ? ha ha , forgive me if laugh !
ReplyDeleteKate has it right, it's just another (disguised) way that the powers that be give themselves authority to poke their noses into everyones daily lives, and see what they can take back - not give out more !
George Orwell got it right - Big Brother is watching you !!
My apologies if I have caused any offence I was trying to be supportive with what clearly can be a very stressful situation.
DeleteSorry, but as someone who cared for a very very very disabled person of course these reviews happen ! Because there ARE fraudsters who think cos they make a coffee/look up from their iPad and say " don't forget to take your med love. " makes them a CARER deserving of cold hard cash.
ReplyDeleteAnd please do not say the amount of cold hard cash one receives as Carers Allowance is unrepresentative of the " care" you provide. If you think it is too little then get a job that earns more.
I know many carer IRL as well as having been one myself and they just get on and do it, it is always the ones who barely qualify for the title who moan the most. Its a phone call, its a box ticking exercise, I wish that was MY biggest problem with my disabled family member.
Signed. A Carer.
Agree A Carer. Too many people fight really hard to qualify as disabled. Exagerate everything!. Then sit back with free housing with extra bedrooms they dont need, free heat, food and spending money. Yep that is fraud. They have no intention of ever working again, both disabled and carer. Conditions and illnesses can improve. Those that protest too much are those who know they may not qualify anymore. I get up at 5am for work . My heart bleeds that you feel you need to once. 4 hours to get someone washed dresses n toileted utter rubbish!. 30 mins max .Jen A
DeleteJen A, I don't know where you get your information about what a Carer is but I assume you have never been one.
DeleteI'm a Carer for my husband, not my choice - I'm his wife and I didn't apply for this job which I've not trained for and I'm certainly not qualified for. To have put aside my own life to look after my husband. This 24 hours a day job, looking after a man with Alzeimers Disease who no longer recognises me as his wife. No paid annual leave, no time off, on duty 24 hours a day, up in the night at least twice every night without fail, to guide him back to bed after he's out of bed and disorientated, changing his soiled sheets first. To soothe and settle him in bed all the while assuring him that I'm not a stranger who has come to steal his urinal bottle (for example)Doing this while feeling nauseous with tiredness. To get him dressed can easily take more than an hour and end up with him then soiling his clothes because he's refused to wear an incontinence pad again. What has taken an hour has to be repeated. To help him throughout the day and endure ear splitting shouting and yelling that I shouldn't be in his house because I've come to steal his cutlery (for example) To clean up after him many times during the day because he's either missed the toilet or just forgotten where it is. Or removed his pad when I wasn't looking. To feed him food that he's very specifically asked for that he then decides is poisonous and throws it on the floor. Of course there's only me that will clean it up, when I'm feeling sick and tired and haven't had a chance to eat myself.
I could go on but I'll stop here by saying please don't criticise someone who could be a genuine carer, you don't know all the facts and it isn't your place to criticise anyway. I hope for your sake that you don't end up as a carer for a loved one.
Jan my heart goes out to you , the level of poo and pee wars you are suffering put mine into context , nobody unless they have had to deal with the onslaught that one person can make gets it . Sadly many who care in homes and hospitals full time dont get that we cant in a home environment have those we care for drugged up to the eyeballs just to make them easy to care for
DeleteHi Kate, thank you for your reply. I rarely comment on blogs, my time doing unproductive things on the laptop is limited due to the circumstances. But I was annoyed by the hateful comments you had.
DeleteGood luck with your review.
Ive had a fair few hateful and nasty comments down the years, but im of the view that everyone has an opinion and wont just block and sanitize the comments ....that is apart from James of the Willy Pictures...lol
DeleteTry and keep a hard copy (photocopy) of any questionnaires you complete and send back. It does help with keeping information
ReplyDeleteI well remember those dreaded brown envelopes when Tom was unemployed. I also remember when the cheque did not arrive on time and we had zilch. Good luck with the 'interview'
ReplyDeleteBriony
x
Just read the previous comments. NOBODY can comment until they have been in your shoes. We lost most of our so called friends when we didn't have money and were called scroungers. Tom had medical problems and no matter how many interviews he had there was no one out there who wanted to employ him, even the incapacity man told him to lie to get a job, how's that!
ReplyDeleteTom's brother-in-law slated us but when he lost his job he realised just what was what. TOO LATE. Am I bitter over these people? YES I am.
much the same im grateful that my brother in law takes him fishing for a few hours its my only break . Even he has remarked that MR is getting worse mentally , the dots dont quite join and it will only get worse. Its the aggression thats proving hard to deal with at the moment
DeleteOh Kate I feel for you and all the unpaid dutiful, loyal, hardworking carers out there, without them the people they look after and our country would suffer because paid carers cost a fortune and don't have the time to do the job properly thanks to money grabbing care companies who schedule ridiculous time slots for the care needed.
ReplyDeleteThere's always haters out there and people who comment without knowing the full details, just as there will always be fraudsters. But one size doesn't fit all and these underqualified companies employed by the Government are driven by results regardless of the true situation. Good luck with the interview, if you have means of recording it, I would do that.