Would this scheme work for me?

Unfortunately, as far as I remember, I only found this site on the same day as my assessment with Atos [removed]. This means I had very little chance to get any advice from it and I think I just stuck to my original plan on how to deal with them, which was to give more details about the very true story of how employment discrimination has excluded me from the job market. This is due to sex discrimination of types not recognised by law, as well as lack of law enforcement for types of sex discrimination which are recognised by law, such as "waitress wanted" signs. In my case, I've been discriminated against due to gender based dress codes and attitudes. My attempts to try and comply with these have been thrown back in my face. This is now called transgendered. I've also been asked illegal or unlawful questions such as "How are you going to get on with all these strange women?" (British Telecom interview for switchboard operator). I was eventually harassed half to death on JSA, then I became unfit for work, and claimed Income Support. After 13 months I automatically got Disability Premium on top of this.

After my Atos interview, I was told it would take months rather than weeks to get a decision, but only about 2 weeks later I got a thick brown envelope from the DWP. I dreaded what it might say, but managed to open it the same day, and read the first few lines, which told me that I'd won and would get ESA! I read further and found out I'd be on the Support Group instead of the WRAG. After this, I could hardly believe it when I read that my income would actually increase instead of just staying the same. I got an increase from £205.40 per fortnight to £243.30 per fortnight! This is called EESA on my bank statements. I assume this means Enhanced ESA. I was told in February that my benefits would be capped at £350 per week, which included my £250 Housing Benefit, but I got an increase in April, as in previous years.

Now for my question. For some time now, a friend of mine has been telling me about his scheme which he says has enabled him to claim Working Tax Credit, which as well as his DLA, he says gives him a total income of about £250 per week. He keeps telling me about this and won't shut up about it. Unfortunately, I have to keep telling him that I don't dare to attempt claiming Working Tax Credit, because his circumstances are totally different to mine. I have pointed out that he's not an expert on the benefits system, he only knows how it works for him and that he's not qualified to say what would work for me. His circumstances are that he's schizophrenic, has been forced to take medication for a number of years and also has to go for appointments for injections. He says he would be sectioned if he came off the medication. He says that he has filed various patents which he tries to market to companies, but doesn't seem to have got any company to buy any of them. He told me that he filled in the claim form for Working Tax Credits as follows. He said that he was working for over 30 hours per week, which I think was 37 hours per week. He said that the work was thinking up, then filing patents and marketing them. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to fit in with his statement later on in the form that he wanted to claim Working Tax Credit on a nil income. I've heard elsewhere that Working Tax Credit is only for people doing paid work. He also wrote on the form that he is limited in his marketing, due to not qualifying for Legal Aid. In spite of this, he's told me that he got an immediate decision and is receiving Working Tax Credit. He has also told me that he has one or more other friends who are trying to make the same claim, but he doesn't know their circumstances and they're "waiting to hear" about it. He has filed a patent in my name and says that I would get not only Working Tax Credit, but Enhanced JSA. I said that based on my research, if I got Working Tax Credit, I would end up with even less money, due to becoming fit for work, I would have had my Income Support (now ESA) stopped and starved to death unless I claimed JSA again. I would then have been harassed completely to death on JSA instead of only half to death like I was last time. BTW, this friend has recently had a letter about ESA and been awarded EESA without a medical assessment. He says his income has stayed about the same or even increased to about £250 per week and that he's still getting Working Tax Credit.

So, my question is, would the scheme my friend has done to claim Working Tax Credit work for me, or not? Would I lose money, possibly all my benefits, if I tried to claim it?

Of course, in my case, which also applies to any males reading this, a good idea would be to claim sex discrimination against any employer who dares to display a sign saying “waitress wanted”, or any sign that specifies a female only, except in a few cases of exemption under the Equality Act 2010, which amends and replaces the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. I've been advised that I could get as much as £25,000 per claim, but I've never managed to get a solicitor to deal with this.

This subject is actually the only reason I've subscribed to this forum. As for my future posts, at the moment I have no plans to make any posts about any other subjects.

I think that what my friend has done may be a totally dodgy scheme and it may also be just a fluke that it's worked for him. He hasn't told me anything that makes me think it would work for me. I think he's contradicted himself on the form, by saying he's doing paid work, but then later on saying that he's "claiming Working Tax Credits on a nil income". He has also told me that he now thinks I've been awarded EESA because he thinks the DWP and Atos [removed] knew that I had a patent registered in my name. I told him I'm convinced that I've been awarded EESA because I've proved even to those morons that employers not workers decide whether workers can work or not! In my case it's because of their detailed and obsessive dress codes and attitudes to try and prove that men are totally different from women, as well as my inability to conform with these ideas. I haven't told them I've got a patent registered in my name, so how would they have found out? Why didn't they mention it?

I hope to get more replies to this topic, from various people, possibly giving me some other way of increasing my income instead of attempting to claim Working Tax Credits.

Zybyszek

I have read your post several times before making a decision not to allow it in the forum on the basis that the content is not appropriate.

Gordon

All I want to know is how I've managed to get EESA, as well as if or how I could claim Working Tax Credit, which my friend/volunteer next of kin claims to have done.

I have read the pages you linked to, but I still don't know the answers.