DISABILITY BENEFIT (or living allowance) -
Noun: If you have aplastic anaemia or myelodysplasia and you are not able to work, you may be eligible for both Disability Living Allowance and/or Incapacity Benefit (if you are living in England). You may also be eligible for Income Support, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit. There will be someone at the hospital who will be able to give you the Benefit Agency's telephone number for your area. Phone them and they will send you the relevant forms. You will need form DLA1 and need to complete this. Also form SC1 if you are self-employed, unemployed or non-employed. You will need form SSP1 if you are an employee.

You must have a medical certificate (Med form 3) signed by your Doctor with the hospitals stamp on it . Without the stamp, they will send it back to you which will delay processing. Also, ensure the Doctor notes that you were not able to work from __(first day at hospital and not able to work)___ date until the current date or a future date. Future date is better as you will need to get another certificate filled in to cover dates not covered. Don't expect much, as the Disability Benefit currently pays only £52.60 per week as its basic. The Incapacity Benefit pays the same. You may get more if you need someone to care for you.

Also if you are paying National Insurance, you must get in touch with your local Inland Revenue office and have them sort this out. You should not be paying National Insurance if you are not working.

Also, as a word of advice, it is important to keep thorough records. Get a diary and write in the date you went into the hospital, make a copy of the medical certificates you get from the doctors and keep them in a file along with all correspondence with the Benefit agency. If you have hospital insurance, get in touch with them and get their forms filled in. Copy them all first and then send them off. People and organisations are not always as competent as we would like to believe and having backup records could save hassle.

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