Hello from the helpline team

I hope that you are all enjoying the lovely weather which has at last arrived, and perhaps, looking forward to your holidays. We hear from lots of callers prior to taking a holiday with concerns about travel insurance and how they should manage their medication or who need information about vaccinations. We have a list of travel insurance providers, all of which have been recommended to us by our Members, so if you are struggling to get insurance give the helpline a call! Likewise we have information and help to offer if you need to travel with medication or need vaccinations.

Calls vary incredibly to the helpline but it is becoming increasingly evident that people are experiencing difficulty with benefit applications, particularly the one for Employment Support Allowance (ESA), if you have found yourself in this situation then get in contact with us and we will do our best to help or, if we cannot, we can direct you to other agencies who specialise in benefits help. With the help of the Disability Alliance we have just revised the Benefits and RA and DLA booklets and they should be in the office and ready to order by Friday 5th August.

People struggling to stay in employment or to get back to work also make up quite a lot of our calls. The 2 work booklets, originally published in 2007 have been updated recently and are a huge resource for those of you experiencing work issues. The booklets entitled ‘I want to work’ and ‘When an employee has RA’ can also be ordered online. Clare, NRAS External Affairs Director has been responsible for developing a new work resource based on the very successful WorkWise Workshops which were held throughout England and Wales in 2010. The materials are now available on the NRAS website and feature videos of the presenters:- an OT with RA, an Occupational Health Advisor, an employment lawyer and an introduction by Sarah Wallace, one of our Members. There are also all of the written materials developed for the workshops, featuring a very useful sheet of frequently asked questions, available to download form the website. You can view all the resources on this link www.nras.org.uk/workwise/de... .

Well, it is lovely and sunny outside so I am off to soak up some of the rays. I wish you all a happy and healthy summer and, whilst it is lovely speaking to you, hope that you won’t need our services!!

Best wishes

Lorraine