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hi there, all good here! Hope you’re well and in good health too!I was diagnosed with Highly Active RRMS in 2012, I had been working as a nurse in the NHS since 2001, so this was all very difficult to come to terms with!! All other treatments had failed me as I was having new breakthrough symptoms and more lesions show up on my MRI’s. It was the last DMT that I had back in 2017 and 2018 – Lemtrada, that knocked me for six, and I found it very hard to make simple decisions, and drive and found that I could not return to work. Amongst other things that were happening in my life at that time, i.e. removing myself from a toxic relationship, trying to find a solicitor for a divorce, applying for benefits. This was my first time being on benefits ever, I found the whole process, very intimidating and frustrating. At the time of applying for benefits, I was told that I needed to apply for universal credit, as that was the benefit being rolled out in the borough that I live in, in London. I was eventually deemed suitable after giving much medical evidence, to claim the standard allowance, and after many further appointments that I had to attend physically at the job centre and further assessment from the job centre I was eventually deemed to have limited capacity to work and for work related activity! So, at this point, I was entitled to claim universal credit, and PIP; personal independent payments.An ex-colleague of mine had told me about the ability to claim my pension on the basis of ill health. Which I did. I was paying into my pension from the time I started working as a qualified nurse and had contributed to the pension for 10 years, for six years Thereafter, I worked as an agency nurse and did not contribute to Nhs Pension.I was granted my NHS pension, then given a one-off payment of roughly £1650 (back dated) and also a monthly payment. Your pension is seen as another income, so my universal credit was affected, my housing benefit was also affected, and they deemed all previous benefit payments to be over payments. This is really hard and still is messing around with my benefits to this day. I wish I’d gained some proper legal advice around claiming my NHS pension and how this would affect the benefits that I was receiving. I really recommend that you do that before you apply for anythingIt was not too hard to apply for the NHS pension download and print off an application form, I’d ask all those involved in my care to write a letter on my condition, and I had to provide my Nhs Pensions number. I can’t remember if I’d sent in my previous payslips or not, or whether it was evidence of p 60s and P 45s. I think they really just need to see your earnings and your contribution towards your NHS pension. Hope this helps, but please get advice before you apply for it, if you are on other benefits, this will affect your entitlement to what I know as universal credit. So my entitlement ended up being more than halved when I started to receive my pension, as they see it as an income, and the previous over payments I had to pay back.Let me know if you need any more info, take care and good luck!

Thanks for such a valuable appraisal of your experience. I am not able to claim for any benefits and to be honest wouldn't even know what if any I could have. I am currently working but my quality of work is going down hill, my attendance is very poor and reliability is very poor now. I suffer mostly with cognitive function and fatigue but these don't seem to be deemed an issue my health professionals involved in my care. It's like a vicious circle isn't it?