I’m very steadily progressing through a Universal Credit application.

The Help to Claim Lady - I'm calling her HTCL - is still helping me, a day at a time, traverse the Universal Credit application process. Normally, due to hours worked and some other issues, I’d be ineligible, but as I’ve been asked to apply through Managed Migration – moving across from Working Tax Credits – I am eligible.

This week HTCL put me in touch with the people at UC, having explained my circumstances. HTCL stayed on in the background, ready to step in if needs be. The UC lady – we’ll call her UCL – asked me a lot of questions to which I’m sure HMRC should already know ,but then I repeatedly find that they never seem to. Hours worked, employer, grosse earnings, take home pay, etc. etc. They give me that information, surely?

The first stumbling block was about conditions restricting ability to work. The first confusion was that I am in work already. I really needed someone to speak for me at this moment. There was some confusion, then the line was disconnected. I got back to HTCL, who explained that UC isn’t great to reflect when people are working with a health condition. I am working enough hours, she reassured me. However, my claim will end in 12 months if I’m still above £16K savings threshold.

There’s every possibility of this.

HTCL explained she’d send me a link about speaking with a ‘work coach,’ which set off some alarm bells, to be honest. This was the first sign that my current employment situation – which had been the same since 2008 – might not be good enough.

Help to Claim can support me until I receive the first UC payment (early September), but they’ll give me one follow-up call just after that.

I’ve got a phone call booked with HTCL in September to review how things went. All seemed to be going well…

Until a spanner was thrown into the works. I’ve got an HMRC online account in which I can view diary entries and ask questions. This is a pretty good system and people at Help to Claim can update this too to answer queries. I now have a UC appointment at my local Job Centre. The requirement is that I bring numerous identity documents, bank details from the past 3 months and NI details. There are stern messages about prosecution if I don’t report any changes. What exactly they want to know that I haven’t already told them, I’m not sure. That’s not necessarily the issue…

I’m looking through the dashboard on my UC account online. I could have sworn I’d seen somewhere that part of my responsibility was to look for more work. I had to agree to this. This is different to what HTCL had said. I can’t find this in any of my notes. I think it was a phone call yesterday. Who did I speak to then? Sadly, as much as I try to make notes on these things, I just haven’t made enough to be sure of what’s going on.

Jobseeking in itself will be difficult for several reasons. First, my current public sector job takes precedence. I’ve worked for them for 15 years. I need flexibility to work different hours should they need me to. Second, the very condition that makes me eligible for such benefits – short term memory difficulties – means that any new job I take on will require an extended training period so I can pick up the work. It means a new manager who’ll need to be informed on my condition. It means a new team, and learning everyone’s names. And it’ll doubtlessly mean I’m slapped on emergency tax, which I’ll then have to fight to get off. And of course, it means less time for doctors appointments, other memory / Mental Health related meetings, and for following the advice that I’ve received from said professionals. It also means organising my week, and the second job may not have set hours. I’ve done ad hoc work before and it’s an extra strain, checking your diary every morning to check where you’re supposed to be and for what employer. I used to miss shifts due to this.

I predict more confusion. I expect if I put a foot wrong with this meeting – I forget one identification item or misdescribe anything – they’ll pull the rug out from under me and I’ll be denied UC.

Of course, today I’ve received an HMRC reminder letter to claim UC, dated 2nd August, as if they’ve not noticed I’ve literally been in the process of this for weeks.

Let’s see what happens at this appointment this week.