Not always what you expect

Right now I’m right in the middle of moving from Employment Support Allowance (ESA) to Universal Credit (UC). Don’t ask me why this has to happen, it’s just another government driven change I think for changes sake. But it’s happening and I have to go along with it.

For many complicated reasons, I don’t cope all that well with changes like this and it can be very triggering and it can send me in to a huge mental decline. That’s exactly what was happening, I tried to find information about what my UC package will be but every bit of information I found was surrounded with so many caveats like “could be” and “should do” and “may be” that it just made things worst. I need solid facts.

On top of this I’m very aware of nightmare stories about how people have lost out and been treated terribly by the UC staff and system.

Anyway, I decided to go to the DWP and ask if they can give me a little bit of time to just explain what’s happening and how my new UC benefits package will be worked out.

To my amazement I got a call back from my case manager within a few hours and she was so incredibly helpful and explained what will happen and how everything will work out for me. This has, in tern helped me manage my thoughts and hopefully avoid a mental health “mini crisis”. What she has told be is also very positive and makes complete sense.

To anyone out there who is going through this move themselves I say this, don’t believe all the nightmare stories you hear and seen on the news and online. I’m not saying they are not all true but I think you need to take it as YOU find it rather than how everyone reports it. Like me, you might be surprised.