8 years in my own flat and I'm now filling my 12th lever arch file. The less support for memory difficulties I actually receive, the more mail i get. #psychologysaturday pic.twitter.com/Vqykx8cI95— Matt Tuckey (@matthewtuckey) May 26, 2018
I
moved into this flat in 2010, during a period when I was dubiously
placed under Social Services care. I had no clue how to decorate,
organise bill payments, cook, shop for food, apply for benefits or
even do my job. Throughout the following 12 months I had meetings with
Supported Employment Advisors, a Social Worker, her manager, a
Housing Support Officer and had a few difficult appointments with my
GP.
After all of this, I went back into neurospychology in mid 2011, and I focussed on career, organising the flat, cooking and social life. Most
of this did help to move me forward, and to learn how to do all of
the things that I, at the time, couldn't. The learning process
produced, along with my own development, mountains of paperwork. It
seemed the more chaotic my life was, the more mail I received. I was
filling a lever-arch file every month.
Once
my life started to settle, and I applied for paperless billing, the
mail seemed to reduce. There wasn't as much NHS correspondence, or
other extraneous updates, as I wasn't involved with as many support
professionals. The files didn't fill anywhere near as quickly, and I
didn't have to keep going to Ryman's to buy another. I had a quick
flip through the files some years ago and recycled a fair chunk of
the paperwork, but I wasn't risking it with the vast majority.
In
recent years, though, things have changed again. DLA ending at the
end of 2016 and the subsequent PIP application process produced
swathes of information, including doctors notes (that I had to source
myself) and various application forms for the different stages of
applying.
You'd
think that, at this point, most government departments and other
services would be happy to email me instead of spewing my hallway
with mail every morning, but it's 2018 and I'm still organising piles
of paperwork a few times a week. A lot of this should not be
destroyed. As a result, the cupboard I was storing all of this has
very nearly collapsed. The shelf it was stored on has bent beyond
repair, so I've moved everything to the floor of my wardrobe. There's
a little more space and it's always easily accessible, as opposed to
drowning under a pile of ironing. The floor of the cupboard isn't
going to fall through, despite it being Ikea and the sliding doors
steadily (and inexplicably) bending as the years go by.
I'm
expecting more stacks of paper over the next 12 months. HMRC are
still not bending on the £416 they think I owe them, I'm on a wait
list for therapy and I'm receiving some support from Get Oldham Working. Question is, what happens
when the new storage place is full...?
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