An update of sorts

I haven't blogged here in a while.  Partly because so much else has been going on.  Partly because I am feeling too rotten and just turning over in bed is all I can cope with.  But my brain is still active, rest assured of that. 

Anyway... to update on the shower.  They win.  I cannot keep it up any longer.  At one point I thought I had won, only to encounter workmen who believed I had concrete floors upstairs (any fool can see they're made of wood) and that it would be okay to saw through a few joists.  It won't .  Trust me.  I don't want to find one side of the house down in the garden.  

But I did have a win of sorts, with the DWP.  I finally won an  appeal for DLA that has been rumbling on for YEARS.  After several tribunals, I finally got what I wanted, which is great.  I wish I could say that I've been celebrating, but I haven't.  Because although I've 'won' in some respects, it isn't over....

Let me explain.  Firstly, the DWP now appear to have lost the entire appeal.  They have no record of my first claim, nor the appeals that followed,and they certainly have no record whatsoever of me winning anything.  So actually getting some back-pay is a long way off.

Also, I now have to tackle HMRC to get my tax credits amended for the appropriate period.  After all, if I was entitled to DLA for that period, I was also entitled to slightly higher tax credits.  But no.  The leviathon that is HMRC says it is only obliged to refund back to the start of the present financial year.  And my claim - thanks to inept tribunals and the idiots at the DWP rumbled on for years in spite of all the evidence. 

'Well,' I said, trying to sound reasonable, although in truth I was tearing my hair out, 'Surely there's something I can do?  I must be able to appeal?'
'Oh yes,' they said, 'but.... you might have to attend a tribunal.'
I took a deep breath and counted to ten.  'Fine,' I said.  'I'm used to those.  Put me down for a tribunal then.'