FAQ - Benefits information - Start here

[desquinn]

We understand the difficulties you face trying to claim the benefits you may be entitled to living with Fibromyalgia as a chronic fluctuating illness with pain & fatigue which can be extremely debilitating.

It can therefore be a stressful time and you may need advice for the following benefits; Universal Credit (UC), Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Employment Support Allowance (ESA). Everyone's situation will be different and benefits rules change frequently so getting specific advice can be crucial.

If you need any benefits advice then please contact our benefits advisors on [e-mail] or call our Benefits Line on 0300 999 0055.

The FMA UK Benefits Helpline is available Mon, Wed and Fri 10am - 12noon but emails are monitored outside of phone schedule.

Janet or one of the team will be happy to assist you with all your queries and can provide you with information guides which may help. Please do get in touch

Any other recent changes regarding benefits can usually be found on our website as well as other helpful information, here is the link;

fmauk.org/information-packs...

Please do email us at Head Office if you do not receive a reply after 4-7 days + and we will endeavour to provide you with any information you need.

Email Hazel FMAUK Administrator using [e-mail]

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Other helpful links include:

Benefits & Work

Benefits & Work is a completely independent organisation that produces some of the best guides around on benefits and how to deal with the application and appeals process. Their website also has news on welfare reform. We are a professional member of Benefits & Work and can provide their guides to enquirers.

benefitsandwork.co.uk

DIAL UK

DIAL UK is a national organisation for a network of approximately 120 local Disability Information and Advice Line services (DIALs) run by and for disabled people.

dialuk.info

Disability Rights UK

Disability Rights UK, a registered charity led, run and controlled by disabled people. Their website provides a lot of advice on benefits and welfare reform.

disabilityrightsuk.org/

Citizens Advice Bureau

The Citizens Advice service helps people resolve their legal, money and other problems by providing free, independent and confidential advice, both online and in-person at a network of local bureaux across the UK.

citizensadvice.org.uk

Turn2Us

Turn2us helps people in financial need gain access to welfare benefits, charitable grants and other financial help – online, by phone and face to face through our partner organisations. The website includes an online Benefits calculator to help you see what you may be entitled to plus you can ring the free number for help with the calculator from an advisor using 0808 802 2000 (9am-8pm Monday-Friday).

turn2us.org.uk

Fightback

A registered as a non profit Community Interest Company that has assisted with hundreds of successful PIP/ESA claims, Appeals and Advocated in Court, supporting in 800 plus assessments and over 1000 court hearings since inception in 2013. We also offer face to face assistance in completing Disability Benefits Forms, Appeals Advocacy, Over payments, and allegations of Benefit Fraud.

Fightback consists of 5 wonderful volunteers, 3 part time staff and 4 full time advocates who all work tirelessly in order to bring you daily help and man the advice line as best we can, some of whom are qualified in their own right.

fightback4justice.co.uk

Hope this helps

fmauk.org

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Updated - 19/07/23

[CM1EDSUK]

May I also suggest Scope, which is a charity for disabled people & their families. Here's a link to their online forum:

[desquinn Partner Volunteer FMAUK Trustee in reply to CM1EDSUK]

Thanks for the pointer. I have removed the link as we do not tend to link to other forums but if they have a benefits page / service then I would add the link in the main article. I had a quick check and could not see something like that.

Also for anyone adding updates they are really appreciated but we may keep this post clean by removing replies after adding content to the main post.

[CM1EDSUK in reply to desquinn]

Apologies, as I didn't know you tend not to link to other online forums. They do have a 'benefits' section under 'Categories,' as well as those to PIP, ESA & UC.

Scope's benefits pages can be found here: scope.org.uk/advice-and-sup...

Scope also have a helpline which is open daily: scope.org.uk/helpline/ & this includes benefits advice.

For anyone needing help local to themselves, there's also Advicelocal: advicelocal.uk/ if 'Welfare benefits' is chosen from the drop down menu. As well as Citizens Advice, a Welfare Rights Office for example may be able to help.

As far as PIP goes, pipinfo is also a good resource: pipinfo.net/ &, if possible, a thorough read of the the following will give a good idea about the activities/descriptors; the concept of 'reliability;' 'fluctuating conditions,' etc. that are looked at with PIP: gov.uk/government/publicati...

[Gulfstream_Maggie]

Thanks Ajay

[Entela15]

This is such useful information. Thank you for providing it.