Well at the moment im working my way painfully through the appeals system. I had an Interview on the far side of Wales on a tuesday morning. The letter telling me about this arrived on a  Friday Lunchtime. Now there is supposed to be a rail strike early the next week on part of the network, so instead of travelling down on Monday, I travel down on Sunday. end up staying several miles up in the hills with no mobile reception On Monday travel to the local jobcentre, and find that since I last went there, about ten years ago, it has been closed down and now involves a 25 mile bus journey. so don't go and visit them (The remaining cash needs to get me to the interview)

Now there is this scheme called the travel to interview scheme, which will pay your costs in attending interviews. so I go straight from the interview, to the jobcentre, talk to the people there about this who say that I actually have to go to my own office to claim, but it should be no problem.

I get back the next day, fill the forms in, only to get a phone call a couple of days later  saying that I don't qualify seeing as I havent handed in the form ahead of the time of the interview. On the first appeal I was told that as the rail strike had been cancelled after i'd travelled, I should have stayed and visited my home office instead of travelling a day early.

the second appeal is working its way slowly through the system as we speak.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.