I've absolutely no doubt that you've been thinking, to the point of an obsessive tendency "Hmmmm...I do wonder when Gary, aka klahanie, will finally put up another post. He's been way off the blogging radar...."
Well, I'm still mostly off the blogging radar. This year has been a momentous struggle that has left me emotionally and physically exhausted. It has been one farcical, stressful situation that, just as I thought I was about to see a resolution, baffling bureaucracy scuppered the obvious resolutions I visualised.
I've filled in a questionnaire that dredged up pain I wanted to move on from. I've been to a face to face assessment that deemed me, a man deeply traumatised from workplace bullying, fit to go back to paid work. Yep, back to work, a few months before my retirement age. And yep, I went and saw a "work coach" twice.
It has transpired, that in actuality, I didn't need to see a work coach. I have been subjected to needless, panic-inducing stress for no reason at all. Nobody in the government bothered to tell me, that based on my age, I didn't need to go through the past few months of total hell. Thank goodness I'd done some research.
I will, starting on November 6, be receiving the proper money I'm entitled to, without going through anymore crap from our government. Yes, I'm nearly back with the exception of one idiotic situation that should be rectified in the next few days.
Because I was about to have a change of circumstances, I knew I had to inform my local council of the changes. I phoned the council and asked if I could see someone in person in regards to the changes that needed to be reported. That's what you could do in the good old days.
The lady I spoke to told me I had to report everything online. I switched on my computer last Tuesday and proceeded to try and report everything online. Trouble is, the online form had some sort of software error. I tried several times on Tuesday, on Wednesday, on Thursday and on Friday. I finally gave up and phoned the local council, yet again. This was now late Friday afternoon.
Somewhat laughably, I got a message stating that all their operators were busy and it was quicker to go online, or if I wanted to wait to talk to somebody, then please stay on the line. You bet I stayed on the line!
Finally, after several minutes, I actually talked to a human. I told her that I couldn't report my changes online. Turns out that she was aware of this and asked me to bring in any evidence as soon as I had it.
This past Monday morning, I received a letter in the post in regards to my new benefit. On Monday afternoon, I took the letter to the council office. The lady at reception was also aware of the software error. She asked if I had my reference code with me that I'd been using on the online form that wouldn't work. I didn't but I did tell her I remembered the last three letters in the code were "FLU" and that the whole process had made me feel ill. I now wait a confirmation letter from the council stating that they realise I have a change of circumstance. And so it goes.
I've missed blogging. Should be back with a fresh outlook very soon. Oh, for one more time, the comments are switched off.
Oh my, did I get sick of staring at this.
