IB50 and Incapacity Benefit

IB50

My last blog was on applying for the IB. So finally after five months my reply came. What a relief! I had been quietly stressing that it wouldn't come through. You have to see one of these letters to believe it though. It's four pages of typed information in a non-proportional font (ie probably printed on a very old fashioned line printer) with headings in block capitals, and very little in the way of helpful formatting. All you want to know is approved or denied!! So you do a quick scan of the four pages but nothing stands out - it's just blah blah blah.

So you have to start reading from the beginning and it starts be describing the process which you've just sweated blood completing in case you could possibly forget it! It tells you who gets this kind of benefit. It tells you that you recently (strange definition of recent, but let's not lose focus) filled in an IB50 form and that they have also potentially looked at other kinds of information and what that information is. Then they tell you how they assess your claim, about the points system and how they work out the points system. Then they spell out all the criteria under which you might have met the threshold (physical, mental, both) and then halfway down page two come the blessed words:

THIS MEANS YOUR AWARD OF BENEFIT WILL CONTINUE.

I see now why I missed it the first time - it looks identical to a heading. However there are a further two pages of type to read through. At this point it seems important to at least glance through them because there might be some time bomb in there. Looks like I'm clear of further entanglements till April 2011 which is a relief.

Part of the reason for the extra verbiage is that this is a standard letter for everyone whether or not you've had the benefit before - a lot of the info is only relevant to first timers. Such as several paragraphs on not needing to send medical certificates (I stopped over a year ago) and contacting people about needing to confirm incapacity with employers, unions or insurance companies.

Most of page three is about if you start to feel better you must tell them. Then this, which is classic:

CHANGES YOU MUST TELL US ABOUT

There are certain changes that you must tell us about because they might affect the amount of money you get.

Then it moves right on to the next section. So just 'certain' changes, nothing that needs to be spelled out ;-). Page four is only half used by the MORE INFORMATION section which is about how to contact them (the information is that the information is on the front page), and then how to get general information on this benefit.

Incidentally I notice something on this form which makes me think that my housing benefit got all mucked up because they weren't taking into account my being ill - people on IB and DLA qualify for a higher level of support than others.

For me the benefits rigmarole becomes a full-time job and I can't seem to cope with anything else while that is up in the air. I think it's because I'm totally reliant on it to live and I'm a fucking long way from home or any kind of non-governmental support. When that is uncertain my whole life seems to go to pieces. So I can now focus on rebuilding my shattered life and thinking about how I can participate in society and my community in a positive way. I'm doing some volunteer work - just three hours a week at present - and enjoying it. Perhaps I'll be able to build up to doing more. We'll see.

Applying for Incapacity Benefit

After I had to stop working was a lean period because I did not immediately qualify for Incapacity Benefit (IB). What happened was this. As an acolyte to a religious order I was invited to be ordained on a four month retreat in the mountains in Spain. Yes! The business is run by members of the order and in return for a certain number of years service, and some other minor conditions they not only gave me leave but paid the cost of the retreat. So far so good. I should say that for the five years I worked for them I did so as a volunteer receiving board and lodging and a small stipend – so the retreat was the big payoff. But while I was away they did not pay National Insurance contributions for me and though I could top them up for the purposes of my pension, there was nothing I could do about the IB, and just had to wait until I qualified – about 6 months it was.

Applying for the IB is a nightmare. One fills in an IB50 form in which they want to know every little detail of one’s illness and disability – no detail of your affliction is too small. When one is “mentally ill” (how I hate that term, but that is my designation) one must supply details just as though it were a physical illness. “How does your mental illness affect your life?” they ask. With mental health issues you have to divulge your deepest fears, your darkest moments, your black heart on command to complete strangers in clinical detail in order to be taken seriously – it is grotesque. If I wasn’t suicidal at the start I was by the end. What they don’t tell you, but the Citizen’s Advice Bureau do, is that some drone goes through with a marker and gives you points on the tick boxes – they probably only look at the narrative answers as a last resort and in any case they won’t take your word for it, you have to be examined.

When one is sick it is expected that one will talk openly and frankly about one’s illness to any stranger that the state says one must – they’re paying the bill after all. So I duly showed up for my appointment with the state doctor and the anonymous seventies office block which looked like it had been going cheap. I was anxious to the point of nausea, but I knew that my life depended on this meeting.

When said doctor appeared to call me from the mercifully empty waiting room I was gob-smacked. He was late 50’s and hugely fat. Perspiration ran down a forehead pocked with pimples old and new, and his hair hung limp and oily down the side of his head like a dead fern. This man was going to judge my state of mind and body? Actually this fat and spotty man was very kind and I realised that he had a shitty job that he did with the grace that (older ) English people still often have under difficult circumstances. Don’t get me started on the youth of today.

Anyway he was kind and I am grateful to him. Then after eight months you get a letter with a new IB50 to fill in. Same ordeal all over again. Except that I got my form in by the due date of 27 June, and now it’s October. I’m too terrified to ring them and ask about it because they may well judge me fit to work – this means £25 less per week (which means not being able to afford my psychotherapist) and having to take seriously the idea of finding a job. Who in their right mind, in this performance and youth obsessed world, would employ me? It’s terrifying.

Other perceptions of the IB50 experience

• benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.com

Tips for filling in the IB50.