A Concerning Detail

I received a weird response from the benefits advisor after emailing him this week to double-check that he’s still ok to come to the Work Capability Assessment next Tuesday morning. Considering the fact that he wasn’t able to come to my first one back in February 2020 (which went against me), and his subsequent emphatic statements towards the importance of him being there with me at the next assessment, the cavalier tone with this message surprised me:

Yes. I will need to leave if we are severely delayed though. My partners horse is being put down…

It then went into further detail about the devastation of losing such a young horse. So many things there:

• Why is such important news (him needing to leave me there!?) stated so off-handedly?
• Why has this horse come up again lol. The horse was a thing several months ago too, when we had to rearrange our last appointment in case it died.
• I’ve already had to re-arrange this appointment from the initial date because he couldn’t make that one, so it’s an extra punch to think about the potential difficulty of re-arranging it again.
• Why is such a thing scheduled a week ahead of time? I guess for a horse it might be, as it must be a whole logistical operation. Actually that makes sense. Does it? An extra week of suffering, bit weird.
• Why does it come across like a python-esque old-boy’s excuse?

Good sir old chap my boy! My apologies! I should be most gladdened to join you on the Tuesday morn, however I must confess that should perchance we become delayed then I may need to take leave of your fine company. Mi good lady’s horse is due to be shot that afternoon! Terrible, terrible business it is to lose a horse so young, especially such a prized racing stead as he! Tally ho!!

Good grief, didn’t you lose a horse just two months ago!?

Oh, er, I say…

In the end I’ve suspected that he’s just catastrophising again, as he actually usually does. As competent as he is at the job, this just seems to be a quirk of his. Most likely it’ll just be fine so I told him I’ll just meet him there. It’s possible to appeal these things in the worst case. But yeah, these benefits things always find a way to cause heightened stress! And I feel like I just keep finding myself in absurd situations through no fault of my own. It would just be absolutely insane after all of this organisation to somehow go through a second of these assessments without an advocate…anyway that’s why I felt the need to document it.

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