Let the blog see the rabbit...

I mentioned on Friday that I needed to get hold of the Job Centre regarding my Incapacity Benefit/Income Support claim. I had tried calling them on Thursday afternoon and the phone had just rung and rung.

When I called on Friday, I got an answer from a switchboard operator who then transferred me, that number rang and rang and then returned to him. He put it through another few times then just stuck me on hold and left me there. :-/ I tried a couple more times with the same result, then asked for the appropriate department's email address instead, which he refused to give me.

This morning, I called again and was transferred by a rather more helpful-sounding operator and actually got an answer! I was put through to the Income Support department and had to wait while she hunted through their computer system and failed to find my claim, but she is now getting someone to investigate and they will call me back within three hours.

Also this morning, I went to the Pharmacy to collect the outstanding mycophenolate they owe me. They didn't have it, despite the fact that I gave them the prescription last Tuesday. Apparently, there is a manufacturing problem and they simply can't get hold of it. So I called the Pharmacy at Southend Hospital, who claimed there wasn't a manufacturing problem, just a local wholesaler's issue and as such they couldn't give me any themselves. I then had to call my Pharmacy back and let them know this (the pharmacist at the hospital had told me to tell them to try the manufacturer directly instead of the wholesaler), which I did. They then offered to order some 250mg tablets instead (I take the 500mg ones) so I at least had some to tide me over. That does rather beg the question "Why didn't you do that before when you discovered you couldn't get the 500mg tablets?".

The upshot of all this is that I have missed my dose of mycophenolate this morning. I'm waiting for a call back from the Royal London to find out what I should do about this.

Update

Just as I finished writing this entry, I had the return call from the Income Support people. Only it was from someone in the wrong building, so she couldn't find my form. She transferred me to the switchboard in the right building, who then put me through to another number that just rang and rang again. After she'd done this twice, I told her I'd come in in person.

So that's what I did. The man who met me at reception took my details and went off to look for my claim. It took him about 20 minutes, but he eventually found it and passed it to the manager to be dealt with today and assured me that it should all be sorted out by the end of the week.