Oh I so feel for her. I take the same pills I think (at least based on the cost) and my insurer won't cover them often enough so I often have to buy my own. I've gone without other things to pay for those pills just because being without them is so awful. I really hope she feels better soon.

This is great news - he sounds like my hubby - it just takes him a while to start seeing the positives in a new idea and looking forward to it. I hope his change of mind continues

That's awful if people take advantage that way. But not the case here. One is an elderly lady recovering from hip surgery - at the time she was immobile and got an unrelated infection that needed treatment. The other has a serious brain disease - some days she can get about fine and then other days she is bedridden. On one of her bad days, she had to call the doctor.

The only other home visits I experienced were with my dying father - he most definitely couldn't get to the surgery, but thanks to home visits, he was able to die at home with dignity.

Seriously???

Impossible. He wouldn't have been allowed CBJSA (Contribution Based Job Seekers Allowance) as he wasn't paying into the UK welfare system.

To be able to receive CBJSA (Contribution Based Job Seekers Allowance) you have to have contributed for the previous two tax years before the claim and have paid enough National Insurance contributions. You said you and he were living in the US before you came to the UK and that you claimed as soon as you arrived in the UK, so he would not have qualified for CBJSA

Monetary determinations are only used for IBJSA (Income Based Job seekers Allowance) and it will have been a joint claim, in both of your names, based on your joint savings and joint lack of any income. You would have been required to produce evidence of all your joint savings and spendings, as evidence for needing this benefit.

If your husband had been claiming contribution based job seekers allowance, then you would not have had to sign on. On CBJSA, your income as his wife, would not have mattered, no matter how much you earned and the total amount of your savings would not have mattered either. Contribution based welfare is for those that have contributed to the UK system.

The reason you had to sign on too, is because you were jointly claiming income based job seekers allowance. You had to show that you too were trying to get off benefits and were actively looking for work. Your claim was based on your joint income, joint savings and joint job seeking efforts. i.e. If either of you had a job that paid over £102 per week, then the job seekers claim would have stopped for both of you. If either of you refused to take a job you were offered, then you both would have had a sanction (no money) for up to 26 weeks as you can't pick and choose jobs when claiming welfare; unless someone falsely signs the declaration when they sign on every fortnight for their JSA, (but that becomes a different matter as it then becomes benefit fraud).

You are right formula and I made a mistake in saying he was drawing contributions-based JSA however .... when we signed on the young man working up our claim told us that the first 'x' amount of weeks (I can't remember what he said) benefit would be contributions-based and when those 'x' weeks ran out - and if we were still unemployed - then income-based JSA would kick in.

We never paid any attention to what was said as we didn't understand the whys and wherefores. All we knew was that we showed up with our paperwork (bank statements, etc.) and then waited for an adjudication to be made which - initially - was declined (residency questions) until we produced evidence that proved we were indeed intending on living back in the UK permanently. They reversed their decision and we drew JSA for a few months until my husband was offered a job.

So obviously we were mis-informed which led to my sharing of incorrect information. My apologies.

That is entirely possible. From personal experience, I could think of a dozen reasons why that might be suggested. And it might well be a case of someone just trying to be helpful too.

Anyone can be aware of something (anything) that happened to someone - not knowing why it happened and that circumstances might appear similar but are not - and think it applies in other cases.