Denied

Had a letter through the post on Saturday saying that our application for income support had been rejected due to not meeting the conditions for entitlement. However, being a Saturday they weren't open so I had to wait until this morning to find out what the problem was. We suspected it would be due to there being no decision on Disability Living Allowance yet.

We were right. Phoned them up and they told me that there was no DLA or Carers Allowance in place so they could not award income support for me as a carer. Makes sense I guess but the person I spoke to at the Jobcentre just said I needed to have evidence of the claim being in progress for it to go through.

Phoned the Carers Allowance helpline and they told me that they had decided on the 14th that my claim would be cancelled due to no DLA. Again, different to what the Jobcentre told me but it would still have been nice if they told me.

Finally, phoned the department of work and pensions to see if anything was going on with the DLA. I expected the answer to be 'no decision has been made' and I wasn't disappointed. I got told again that their advised timescale is 11 weeks for an appeal on a decision and that the appeal was lodged on the 14th of August so we were only 5 weeks into the appeal and that we would be notified as soon as a decision had been made. I pointed out that until the decision was made I couldn't claim carers allowance and couldn't claim income support as a carer until I had carers allowance. Their response was simply unless Emma was awarded either the middle or higher level of support I couldn't claim carers allowance. Didn't seem bothered that we had no money until this was sorted out. Fingers are tightly crossed now that our housing benefit claim goes through ok.

Contact with our local MP

Seems like ages ago now when we emailed our MP about our plight. They did reply to our email and I finally managed to speak to them (well, their assistant) today. I gave them a few details, particularly Emma's national insurance number and they are going to get to work on it immediately. A light at the end of the tunnel at last. I'm eagerly anticipating hearing back from them.

Need some advice

needs advice on how to get a support group going, found a venue but not sure what to do now...any ideas? Also does anyone know of a trained councillor who would either be willing to help or give me some advice on the best way to lead a group. I have all the passion just need some guidance. I think its very sad how little support there really is out there for people with mental health issues, to join a support group I have to wait 3 months minimum and to get psychological help i have to wait over 3 weeks. I want to start working on this so that others do not have to suffer the way am and have, thinks in a country like England should be better.