Finally!

I haven't written in this blog for a few weeks because I didn't feel there was anything significant that I really wanted to write about, that is till last week, but then 'life' intervened and so I haven't got round to this blog till today! We finally got some good news after months of high stress and worry about our financial situation. Richard has been approved for a Disability Pension! It's only taken them three years to finally agree that he qualifies for it! (Insert a huge slice of sarcasm here! lol) In late January we went to a Tribunal as his application had been rejected twice and after that it automatically goes to Tribunal unless you decide to drop the whole thing. Three independant people sat and asked us questions and Richard had his turn to present his case as to why he thought he qualified. Another guy was there who represented the Government, but he only asked us one question, which we fervently hoped was a good sign! On the day that the registered package arrived almost two months later (we were told it would take that long) we were both very nervous and took turns passing it back and forth wanting the other one to open it....eventually Richard did and I sat and waited with baited breath as he read the letter, and flipped through pages of transcript. Then there was a huge yell of "YES!" .....and he kissed me and handed me the pile of pages. Of course we won't see any money for at least three months, as according to Government rules, they have to have the option to appeal the Tribunal's decision, but if they don't, then he should get the first payment a few weeks later, so we are looking at some time in July! The good part though, is that he will get a lump sum with retroactive payments going back three years to the first time he applied! This lump sum will help us to pay off some outstanding debt and will bring a huge relief to both of us. We still don't know how much his monthly payment will be, but we have heard that most people get somewhere in the region of $800 to $900 a month! Not huge, but not insignificant either at this point in our lives! In the meantime, we wait.