Maximum Resolve

The council person can never finish an email,
Without putting me down with pessimistic tones—

“To be eligible for a self-contained accommodation, you would need medical banding (your housing allowance is currently affordable for shared houses as you are under 35 years old). To change this, you will need to show Universal Credit you need a larger housing allowance to pay for self-contained due to medical reasons – the letter from the GP/any other supporting evidence which say you need self-contained will be essential.  I strongly believe being awarded the appropriate level of PIP¹ is essential too.”

From their guidelines document:
“Under 35 year olds, single customers over 35² or couples who have no dependent children and who have the Severe Disability Premium included in their benefit assessment, will have their benefit allowance based on the one bedroom LHA rate whether or not they share accommodation and regardless of its size.”

I did point out that that sentence is only saying those people by default would get the required allowance,
But to get PIP itself, requires the intensive help of my benefits advisor (whom I met through Sarah),
Who already discussed the plan of going to a tribunal,
In order to get the PIP allowance awarded;

Getting the PIP allowance is insanely difficult,
With many stressful hurdles to get over;
The stress from that, with everything else,
Lead me into a few crisis points this year;

My assistance with it slowed down and went silent,
Shortly before the lockdown,
And not having the scooter working,
Was also a great hindrance and stress-maker (since the testing centre is in the city center);

I dropped the PIP application,
Allowed myself to forget about it,
Focused on the basics, which I had been struggling with,
—And that’s really helped me³;

But none of that is worrying me,
Because I have the important key—
I know what I need,
And I will apply maximum resolve 😄.

¹ Personal Independence Payment for people with disabilities.

² I would be 35 by the time I ever got PIP awarded… (I’m almost 33 now). That would be a fantastic irony, though!

³ E.g. I would never have got my scooter fixed with that hanging over me, nor a load of other great things that I’ve since accomplished, even with the added stress of lockdown and all that I subsequently lost. Now I am extra proud :), and to hell with any discouraging comments.

🌪