Incapacity benefit: personal capability assessment (PCA)

Ok, to start with, some disclaimers.  Please don’t treat anything I say as gospel truth.  If I say something in this, then as far as I’m aware it’s true, but I could be wrong.
If you’re applying for Incapacity Benefit (IB), or facing a re-assessment, then the single most important piece of advice is this: go [...]

Incapacity benefit update no. 1

I seem to remember that I said I would keep you up to date with the progress of my re-assessment for Incapacity Benefit, so this is the first progress report.  You can imagine some sort of exciting fanfare if you’re the sort of person who likes imagining exciting fanfares, or you can just go for [...]

Theme tune

At last! This blog has what it’s always been missing – a theme tune.

Exam results & the ‘dumbing down’ of educational standards

Well, now, here’s a thing – two posts within a week inspired by something the Jobbing Doctor has said.  This one is related to a post about the recent record results in A level and GCSE exams.  The Jobbing Doctor worries that there is some truth to the old argument that more candidates getting good [...]

Sometimes the good die old

Leo Abse, the former Welsh MP who steered through the 1967 legislation to partially decriminalise male homosexuality in England and Wales, has died at the age of 91.  Most people think that the 1967 Sexual Offences Act was a piece of government sponsored legislation, but actually it was a private member’s Bill (although, like all private [...]

Irrational dread

Well, this post was initially inspired by a comment made by the Jobbing Doctor on my last post.  (By the way, such thoughtful and thought-inspiring words are not in the least uncommon on his blog – you really should check it out, if you don’t already.)  In that last post, I was writing about a [...]

I can never go home

As I mentioned away back at the beginning of this blog, my mum died in January.  My dad died about 5½ years before that.  That means two things.  One is that I don’t have my parents around any longer.  I’m actually ok with that – it’s sad, but they both had health problems that meant [...]

ohshitohshitohshit

That was my reaction this morning when I saw a fat brown A5 envelope lying on the doormat.  I knew from the shape and thickness of the envelope that it contained the standard questionnaire that gets sent out to evil, malingering scum like me when the DWP feel that it’s time to harass us a [...]

Memo to the BBC

Attention, BBC management.
I really REALLY really REALLY REALLY don’t care about the Olympics.  Unless and until all the athletes become: (a) seventeen times more attractive, and; (b) start competing in the nude again I’m not going to be interested.  Ok?
Now, I realise there are people out there who are interested in such things.  Personally, I [...]

Ok, now it’s personal

First of all, thanks for all the lovely and supportive comments on the last post – they mean a lot, not least because supportive comments have been in rather short supply in real life.  (That’s aimed at Yvonne, my occasional therapist, and I should probably delete it cos it’s not really fair – but she [...]