I spoke to Help To Claim Lady – HTCL – this week, and we looked at the Universal Credit situation. I started the process at the start of July. The claim went in in early August, when phone calls to Help To Claim began.
I got the first payment this week. HTCL agrees it’s ‘about the right amount.’ When we were calling HMRC my claim was probably already being processed, but now things are set for the next 12 months. I’m due another payment in a few days, and I’m advised to contact HTCL to update her. It’s a new system, she explained, so there are bound to be mistakes. (The main one being the staff didn’t understand I was under transitional protection – being asked to move from Working Tax Credit – which made me eligible, when I otherwise wouldn’t be.)
I’ll update HTCL whatever happens. HTCL has been brilliant, always fighting my corner, explaining to HMRC what they really should already know. Otherwise, I’d have been flatly refused. Who knows what will happen in 12 months’ time, though.
When you have memory difficulties, the important thing is to make these notes straight onto a word doc as the conversations are happening, so that there’s evidence, and more importantly, reminders to yourself, of where you’re up to and how things happened. Formal issues like anything related to HMRC I always find insanely difficult, so I couldn’t have written this blog post without note taking. HTCL and other HMRC staff knew I had memory difficulties, which is the main reason I’m on these benefits in the first place, so they knew I’d be making notes anyway.
Some positivity. I can now get back to blogging about recipes, psychology books and new scientific discoveries!
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