Money, money, money..

So, on Monday I received a call from the Housing Benefits office to discuss my appeal against them not back dating my claim. They wanted proof that I have had depression from the time I claimed, 'No problem,' I say, 'I have a photocopy of the initial sick note. No good. 'We need a letter from your doctor or therapist. Oh.

So, I contact the therapist's office. We can certainly send a letter stating we've been seeing you, and the dates your therapy started, but we might not be able to put 'depression' on the letter - you'd have to talk to your GP about that. Letter arrived two days later, they are very efficient about things like that and I know it's not their fault that they can't do 'labels'. I call my current doctors. 'this pre-dates your time with us, you need to contact your previous GP' so, I do... 'oh, yes, we can do that' great! 'that'll be £20' ... um, I'll leave it for now.

So I've contacted the appeals team again to see what they say about my therapist's letter. I can't afford to pay £20 when the amount I'm claiming may not be awarded, and isn't exactly for lot of money anyway (my claim was processed on 12th April, I asked for it to be back-dated to the 8th March). That's like a week's food shopping. We'll see.

In other financial news, I have been awarded working tax credit (based on my full wage) of £36/week .. between that and housing benefit I can now pay rent.. I managed it last month without having to borrow from my sis, I was so happy!