“The word we might use most commonly next to "suffering" is "season." But what if your experience of suffering is your life's climate?...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 A food club is where you pay a small-ish amount of money for food that is about to go out-of-date, or...

I recently started watching the series SAS: Who Dares Wins, right from the first series. I’ve found it quite addictive, possibly in part...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Historically, women suffering from multiple sclerosis were told that it was all in their heads. Then researchers discovered that people...

PIP isn’t supposed to be about diagnoses. But even with my diagnoses, I have major difficulties getting benefits assessors from a range...

Recently I failed a PIP appeal. I get standard rate mobility - which at one point the Tribunal were minded to take away - but was...

The point of extra-costs disability benefits is to meet some of the costs experienced by people with disability, in order to raise them...

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...

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 –...

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...

Some moments of sick apprehension today. I remembered, some time after the appointment time, that today was the day for my monthly UC...

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...