What's making you happy today?

[glatt]

So often you hear bad news. It's very nice to hear good news. I'm very happy for them.

[BigV]

Wonderful!!!

[monster]

fanbloodytastic

[orthodoc]

Great to hear this!

[DanaC]

Preamble: Just after Christmas I got two letters. One was from the Housing Benefit office telling me they'd overpaid me on rent assistance.

At full rate, the payment used to be £30 per month less than the rent. With my earnings taken into account that comes down. My earnings have been a tad eratic for first few months of work - first month included training days, but was a short month on shifts. Third month and fifth month earned a small bonus. Prior to Christmas they suspended payments on my claim until I provided wage slips for three months and a couple of weeks later, they reinstated my claim, and as the figure they were prepared to pay was £40 less than before I foolishly assumed they'd recalculated (right?) .

The letter that came after Christmas showed they'd recalculated again and come up with a figure £70 less than before (so, £100 less than rent) retrospectively applied tothree months and they're taking back the overpayment at just under £54 per month. So, basically pretty fucked on the rent :p

The second letter was from the NHS telling me the dental treatment I recently had and wasclassed as free as a JSA claimant, was not free, as the treatment occurred when iwas not a JSA claimant. Except, the treatment was started whilst i was on JSA - and I deliberately stayed on JSA enduring all the indignities of the fucking 'work programme' for almost four months longer than I had toin order to get that dental treatment because I know I'd be unable to afford the NHS charges once I signed off. The dentists cancelled my appointment three times, across three of those months because theyhad equipment thatbroke down and they had tosend off to the US for a replacement - whic then was difficult to get set upand theyhad to get someone in to sort it out, and then the anaesthetist was ill - etc.

When they cancelled that third time, I'd been near to tears and had explained to the receptionist that I was coming under a lot of pressure to sign off from unemployment but didn't dare until I'd had the treatment, which was necessary but wholly unafforable even at NHS rates to someone working 15 hours a week. They said not to worry, because it would all go through as part of the original treatment plan which began when I was a claimant and therefore continues on that basis.

So - after a week or so of trying to work myself up to make a call I spoke to the dentists and the lass I spoke to said she'd look into it. I then took another week to work up to ringing them again to find out what was what, before I would have to start trying to gather the mental energy to phone the NHS repayments people.

This is the happy bit:

I spoke to the dentists just now. The receptionist wasn'tthe one who'd originally agreed to look into it, so I had to explain the situation again. She went off to see what was what and I was expecting, I dunno - that I was going to start having to write letters or make calls to the NHS, or that there wasn't anything they could do once it's been dated as that date for treatment. She instead came back and said XXX is actually dealing with this now. She's in email communication with the NHS peeps, and is trying to sort it out at their end, so not to worry.

I then phoned the Housing Benefit repayment people and explaine dthe situation to a nice chap who assured me that if I put that in an email to the assessment office they would take my circumstances into account and reduce the repayment rate. It's still going to sting my finances, but not by as much.

Now I just have the traditional January-oh-shit-I-may-not-have-busfares-for-the-last-week-of-work panic to contend with and hell, I'm almost there on that... just need to get to the end of next week.

I'm feeling quite relieved. The next month or so won't be easy, but I don't think I'm looking at the castostrophe I thought I was.

[glatt]

I'm glad it's working out better than you thought, Dana.

Sounds like a real pain to deal with. Good job dealing with it anyway.

[DanaC]

Thanks I'm feeling quite chuffed with myself for doing it. I was a whisker away from putting it off again.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Thanks I'm feeling quite chuffed with myself for doing it. I was a whisker away from putting it off again.

You should, you done good.

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

From my cousin's wife:

I get email updates on Glenn's gofundme page. Reading the comments, from people who worked with Glenn, and people who just met him working, he sounds like someone I'd like to know and have for a friend. Of course if he'd been killed people would fall all over themselves to eulogize him, but these people sound genuinely happy he's improving. I'm sure he must kick kittens when nobody's looking.

[glatt]

Huh.

Just got a call from my wife. Looks like I'm going to see Springsteen tonight. We have the option of getting tickets in the "press box" for $110 each. Why not? I've never seen Springsteen. I understand he puts on a good show.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Press box? I'm green with envy.

[limey]

Hell, Springsteen! I'm green with envy!

[Undertoad]

Dang...! Awright now!

wager he does jefferson airplane and/or bowie covers, the band is known to pull that sort of thing off quickly and make it work...

[glatt]

I'm keeping my reaction under control until I'm actually in the place. Seems too good to be true. Cheapest tickets on StubHub right now in the nosebleeds are around $500 each. And is anyone going to ask to see my press ID? Or is the ticket the ID?

We'll see.

But it will be sweet if it works!

[lumberjim]

Win

[xoxoxoBruce]

Press ID? Cellar.org.