Breifish history of when my health began to deteriorate and financial impact advice on benefits available

[Toowoo]

Hi I have currently been if work since June 2015 when my employer said I can no longer work from home

My health first started to deteriorate in Dec 2011 i was in agony when i walked my knee hip thigh and groin throbbed i was tired all the time was freezing cold all the time this also caused pain my hands and feet and nose seem to get the coldest and my hands go white the sharp pains in my feet and hands are awful my sleep was poor i kept and still keep getting lumps in my groin and neck which i am told is my lymph nodes swelling

I feel like someone is sat on my chest crushing me and have hot sweats constantly day and night have spasm's in my legs during the night

2012 i had surgery on my knee to repair a torn muscle despite this my health continued to get worse in 2014 I had a operation on my hip to repair a labral tear and hip re impingement but this operation left me in more agony and unable to walk stand sit without crutches I was by now taking and still am taking a lot of pain

medication but to be honest it only took the edge of my pain i has countless x-rays and scans

By this stage my Gp positive there was more to my health deterioration and pain than just my compromised hip In December 2015 i was diagnosed with fibromyalgia by the rhumotoidologist specialist I saw who told me she had no booklets so she wrote a website address. So i could read about it it she recommended my gabopentin and amytriplyne were increased and that i should chase my orthopedic specialists to look at my hip as it is definitely compromised and the cause if some if my pain but the other symptoms and pains are due to fibromyalgia she wrote to my GP he contacted when he got the letter from the rhumatoidoloist and adviced me he had been adviced that I had fibromyalgia and adviced to increase my my gabopentin and amytriplyne so currently i am slowly increasing the gabopentin hoping they help ease this widespread crippling pain but like the rhumatoidoloist did not discuss my diagnosis or ask me if there was anything I was not sure about

My Gp did say that I was still unfit to work and in previous sick notes he had signed me off sick just for my compromised hip and the pain in my hip groin thigh and behind my knee was caused by my hip all my other pains aches coldness tiredness ect were fibromyalgia so he has to sign me off for both conditions however my sick pay runs out in march my does work but rightly he pays child maintenance this was set up by the csa and its a third if his wage so we are dependent on my earnings to pay our rent unless I am entitled to any financial support for being off sick long term I am waiting for a pip form to claim pip but is there any other benefits fr someone who is too sick to work

[rosewine]

If you look on our mother site there is good information on benefits but have you investigated ESA which is called Employment Support Allowance which is for people of working age who cannot work through illness? Good luck with the PIP remember to fill in your form as though it is your worse day and outline exactly how your illnesses afext you and what help is required and what you find difficult to do e.g. bathing, washing hair, getting in and out of bed/chair etc.x

[Hidden]

I agree with rosewine. have a look at the mothersite as there is some good info on there with regards benefits and they will help you with any questions. Maybe also check out benefits and work site I have found this invaluable. I was in a similar position to you last year and my employer stopped ssp after 26 weeks but was still paying occ sick pay and deducting what I should have received from esa which reduced my income considerably. So I applied for esa and received esa contribution based backdated to when ssp ended. I had to keep sending fit notes to DWP but this was no problem. I have since lost my job through ill health and it is a struggle going from full time pay to benefits. Good luck Joolz.x

[Toowoo in reply to Hidden]

Thanks very much for taking time out to reply I'm not too sure how to get on to the mother site

[littleeffie]

As for benefits as others have replied Esa .Have a look on a benefit calculator site .There is one called turn2us .

The one thing that I did notice was your cold hands,nose etc.Have you looked up Raynauds syndrome which can go hand in hand with fibro?

There is a HU raynauds forum as well.Just a thought as you may find help with some of the symptoms.

[Toowoo in reply to littleeffie]

Thanks ver much

[TheAuthor]

I am so genuinely sorry to read this and I sincerely hope that you can find the answers that you are looking for. I have pasted you below a link to our dedicated benefit advice cache on our mother site, FMA UK.

fmauk.org/contactsmenu/help...

You could also be eligible for a rent and council tax rebate from your local authority if your income drops below a certain level. So it may be beneficial to contact your local council office and discuss this with them.

I want to genuinely and sincerely wish you all the best of luck.

All my hopes and dreams for you

Ken