Enduring: when suffering doesn't lead to growth
“The word we might use most commonly next to "suffering" is "season." But what if your experience of suffering is your life's climate?...
top of page
Search
- Feb 13
- 2 min
Stories that challenge: Alan and Ben
I currently have a series of blog posts being hosted by Church Action on Poverty. The first one tells the stories of Alan and Ben, two...
- Jan 15
- 10 min
Living in a hostile environment with chronic illness
I actually wrote this blog post back in November - still autumn - but forgot about it so never reviewed and posted it. Here it is, a...
- Dec 4, 2023
- 5 min
Finding joy when you're in poverty
I had the pleasure recently of speaking at my church about poverty and my experience of it. At the end, one lady asked a question about...
- Oct 30, 2023
- 7 min
Using food clubs: visit #2
Today was my second visit to a food club. This time, I’d swapped to one nearer to me, though still a mile away. That’s fine with my...
- Jul 17, 2023
- 9 min
Accepting charity is hard: using a food club in the UK
I went to a food club recently. A food club is where you pay a small-ish amount of money for food that is about to go out-of-date, or...
- Feb 14, 2023
- 10 min
SAS: who dares illness?
I recently started watching the series SAS: Who Dares Wins, right from the first series. I’ve found it quite addictive, possibly in part...
- May 23, 2022
- 10 min
The Least, the Last and the Lost should include the long-term unemployed
I was recently recommended Mez McConnell’s latest book, The Least, The Last and The Lost (I think that’s the right order!). Church Action...
- Jan 17, 2022
- 2 min
Ramblings following loss
It used to be that I was part of a team of people with chronic illness who researched and wrote about the government’s actions on social...
- Apr 26, 2021
- 4 min
Reflections on gardening: sin and relationship
I love gardening. I love sitting on the ground in the sun removing weeds, dead-heading flowers or re-training a clematis. I love pruning...
- May 11, 2020
- 3 min
Your life or my luxury?
It is, when I get down to it, fear. Fear because the people who need to care don’t care. Fear because I can’t get them to care. I can’t...
- Feb 1, 2020
- 2 min
Sometimes science is frighteningly wrong: the history of autoimmune disease
Historically, women suffering from multiple sclerosis were told that it was all in their heads. Then researchers discovered that people...
- Dec 11, 2019
- 4 min
PIP: locking chronically ill people out of disabled benefits
PIP isn’t supposed to be about diagnoses. But even with my diagnoses, I have major difficulties getting benefits assessors from a range...
- Dec 11, 2019
- 5 min
Learning to live with chronic illness without independence
Recently I failed a PIP appeal. I get standard rate mobility - which at one point the Tribunal were minded to take away - but was...
- Dec 11, 2019
- 4 min
PIP: maintaining poverty, removing choice
The point of extra-costs disability benefits is to meet some of the costs experienced by people with disability, in order to raise them...
- Mar 18, 2019
- 5 min
Where does all the money go?
I haven’t blogged in a while, though I’ve been meaning to. I’ve been meaning to write about the unexpected expenditures that make a big...
- Nov 22, 2018
- 2 min
UC budgeting nightmares
I logged in to my UC journal today to see where DWP-UC is up to with paying me the right amount of money. They’ve made one correction –...
- Nov 12, 2018
- 6 min
PIP appeal – overprepared fraud?
I had a PIP appeal today. I’ve been waiting for it for ten months. I don’t think it went well. There are some points in my favour: the...
- Oct 23, 2018
- 3 min
Missed telephone appointment – might I be sanctioned?
Some moments of sick apprehension today. I remembered, some time after the appointment time, that today was the day for my monthly UC...
- Oct 18, 2018
- 2 min
Some good news – I think
I’ve received some good news. My UC journal today had an letter added to it saying that they have decided that I have limited capability...
bottom of page