Financial help for son with mental health issues

[Marisatring]

Please can anyone offer me some advice, I have a 22 year old son who is unemployed because of mental health and substance misuse issues. His doctor has signed him off as unfit for work for the next 2 months . He is attending Spectrum and I am paying for private therapy (on my credit card, which I struggle paying the minimum back per month) as a desperate attempt to try and help him. However I cannot afford to continue supporting him on my low wages. My Ex husband, his father says he can’t help us.

Can anyone please advise me as to what benefits I should be applying for him? Should we be filling in the ESA50 capability for work form and if so where do we send this too? It appears I need to talk to them and they either don’t pick up or direct me else where.

I live in a part of Hertfordshire which is deemed to be a ‘live serviced area’, which seems to mean that we cannot apply for universal credit. I have made several calls to the 0800 055 6688, this week, but no one seems to answer? I have got through after 1hr 20min to be told go online by a very irritable member of staff. I think they hope i’ll give up and just be more in debt.

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated!

[Marisatring]

Please can anyone offer me some advice, I have a 22 year old son who is unemployed because of mental health and substance misuse issues. His doctor has signed him off as unfit for work for the next 2 months . He is attending Spectrum and I am paying for private therapy (on my credit card, which I struggle paying the minimum back per month) as a desperate attempt to try and help him. However I cannot afford to continue supporting him on my low wages. My Ex husband, his father says he can’t help us.

Can anyone please advise me as to what benefits I should be applying for him? Should we be filling in the ESA50 capability for work form and if so where do we send this too? It appears I need to talk to them and they either don’t pick up or direct me else where.

I live in a part of Hertfordshire which is deemed to be a ‘live serviced area’, which seems to mean that we cannot apply for universal credit. I have made several calls to the 0800 055 6688, this week, but no one seems to answer? I have got through after 1hr 20min to be told go online by a very irritable member of staff. I think they hope i’ll give up and just be more in debt.

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated!

[Littleguggi]

Citizens advice?

[ArnoldBee]

Apply for universal credit online us ijng the medical certificate from the doctor.

[Marisatring]

Thank you both for your advice , when I put my postcode in for applying for universal credit, it said it’s not available at the moment. (In my area) However after calling the Helpline (and holding on for nearly 50 minutes each time, and getting cut off and no one ringing me back) I finally got to speak to someone who said my son is able to apply for employment support allowance. So if anyone else has had trouble getting through or being put through to wrong departments, keep trying. It took me 3 days of phoning, popping into jobcentre plus and talking to countless people on the helplines before I finally got some help. You may want to bang the phone down but persevere!!