Lucille Franks' Story

“RNIB has helped me out with benefits, finding the cane I wanted and various other things over the years. Around the same time I was diagnosed with RP, I also became a single mother. So I was fairly good at finding out what I was entitled to, but I did check with RNIB that I had it all covered. Then I was registered severely sight impaired, which meant that you're entitled to more benefits.

Crucial help from RNIB’s benefits team

I did my own research, but checked with RNIB. Then I made the big decision to try and transfer from DLA to PIP. I was only claiming minimal DLA, the first stage, when I was entitled to more.

I got paperwork from RNIB that helped me fill out the form. The problem with PIP forms is they're geared more toward people with physical disabilities, you have to think outside the box if you've got a sensory or other disability. I went through every single question looking at what RNIB said about it. It took me the best part of a week, but I received full PIP straight away. There were some questions that I would definitely not have answered in the correct way, without the right advice.

I think RNIB’s benefits team is invaluable, as there are certain benefits that are specific to blind and partially sighted people. It's crucial that there's somewhere we can go, where they’ll understand and help us fill out the forms in a way that's correct.

Challenge of moving to universal credit

I’m now trying to find the time to ring RNIB for help with changing to universal credit. I'm still on the old benefits system with tax credits. I’ve done a brief check online on the government site, that says it won’t be much different, but I know that RNIB has more knowledge on the situation.

The problem is, you have to wait five weeks to get any money. We haven't got any money spare to cover that time. Anything extra, where we're going out or it's someone's birthday, we have to find that money from somewhere, which usually ends up coming off the food money.

Managing rising living costs at home

There's just the three of us at home full time – myself, my husband and my teenage daughter. I have another daughter at university.

We’re not yet at the stage where we have to choose between electric or food. But we are having to really consider what we spend our money on. We don’t go out anywhere near the amount we might have done before - it's not just the prices going up, our benefits have gone down. Thankfully, I'm very good at managing money, otherwise I'm not sure where we'd be.

The challenge of researching for good deals with sight loss

I'm lucky that I do still have some vision, so I’m still able to use a computer to find out information for myself. That is still possible, even if you have no vision, but it's the amount of time it takes to find things out. If you’re using voiceover, it's a much slower process and harder to find the information. Also, I can't be on the computer all day to find out everything I need to know - my eyes just can't cope. My husband works, so I'm the one that tends to deal with all the paperwork and finances.

Saving on rising food costs

I'm lucky that my husband's a chef. He's very good at looking for bargains and managing to cook meals with the money we've got. I've noticed we are buying less expensive things like meat and fish, herbs and spices. So it has dramatically affected the way he cooks, but at least we’re able to choose cheaper options and come up with something that’s still reasonable to eat.

Watching electricity costs

We had a smart meter fitted this year and we’re using it a lot. We now turn everything off overnight, but also during the day - as we’ve discovered that our electricity is three times the price during the day than it is at night.

I now try to put on a clothes wash and the dishwasher after 9pm or at weekends, as it’s much cheaper then. I’ve also asked the children to charge their devices overnight as much as possible and to try using them less. Our direct debit is now over twice what it was for electricity and gas. I’m just hoping this will be enough and it doesn’t go up anymore.

Thinking of ways to cut back and save

We don't go out as much as we used to, because we've got to factor in the cost of fuel. I've even been thinking about things like trying to use less washing powder, and just using a bit less of everything.

There's two activities that my husband and I do regularly, that we agreed to keep doing as they help our mental wellbeing. We go ballroom dancing once a week, as we have ever since we got together, and indoor bouldering.

So those two things we're really trying to hold onto, but we did have the conversation - we either keep doing these things and literally have no money for anything else unless we take off the food bill, or we don't do those things anymore. We decided to keep those things going, but that does impact.

Finding things to do with the kids

There’s no money to do those ad hoc things you'd go out and do – like deciding to drive somewhere and have a walk around, or pop somewhere and have a coffee. This does mean we’re doing less with the kids. I have to think about what I can do to spend quality time with my daughter that doesn't cost money.

My daughter comes back from university this weekend for summer holidays, and of course, that's going to impact things because we'll be eating at home most of the time. We're going to have to really think about what food we have, though we will get meal vouchers. That's not enough to cover the fact that we've got two children at home, who eat most of their meals there all the time.”