Helping Hand.

Something very nice happened today.
You may recall the hassle I had in September switching back from Illness Benefit to Unemployment Allowance and how a very nice girl in the Welfare Office smoothed out the difficulties for me.
Last week I got a handwritten letter from her. She said that although I wasn't entitled to Fuel Allowance (20 quid a week) due to me being on Illness Benefit at the time (I knew that), my son, who lives with us, would be. 
So, if he could fill in the enclosed form and send it back to her personally she would see what she could do.
Well, there are only six weeks left to run on the scheme but 20 quid a week is not to be sneezed at; so we did as she suggested.

To my great delight, today we received a payment of 320 euro, backdated to last October.
You could have knocked me down with a feather.
A totally unsolicited and unexpected act of kindness from a government department that does not always get good press.

My unshakable faith in human nature has been boosted considerably.