You will not be paid whilst appealing against a failed to attend decision. The letter you have is probably a standard one for appeals against failed medical assessments - so not applicable to you. Medical Certificates are not required either, they are only required for payments.

On a seperate note - they would also be happy to take your complement

When you call the person should offer you a standard greeting, that would include their first name. If that person accessed your record then their staff number would be logged to your record, if they didn't then obviously not. If you want to make a complaint - call them enquiry line again tell the person you speak to. They can send you a complaints form or pass you to a team leader who will take your complaint from you.

You partner may be entitled to Working Tax Credit. Check the directgov website for eligibilty etc. Its worth noting that your ESA claim will still remain open, its the just money side that stops. You will still get your NI credits paid and be entitled to help from your local JC etc.

Quixotic, the 6 month review date is meant to be when the WCA decision is available. So the ESA50 would be sent out X amount of weeks in advance of that - with a 4 week timescale to return it. They then decide if a WCA appointment is required and arrange that shortly after so that the report is available to a Decision Maker by the time the 6 months has elapsed. Thats the theory anyway... eliotnpt, not sure which letter the date is mentioned but one should have been sent to you. DWP can send you a duplicate but it won't make much difference, you will still need to go through the review if you wish to continue with your claim. Make sure you read all the advice on the WCA process and hopefully it will go a but better for you this time!!

You just need to write a letter asking for all the information that is held about you - state you are making a subject access request. It may be helpful if you could specify what information you need i.e the address held on all relevant systems.

You can fill in the ESA50 from the Directgov website, no problem. If you think the form may be returned late then there is a space at the back to explain why - make sure you do so. Make sure you make reference to the letters you sent in about going away, put a copy of it in with the ESA50, just to cover yourself. If you can - send it recorded delivery. You then have proof of postage - your choice though.

No, all enquiries about benefits have to be through an 0845 number. Though you can use the phones in the jobentre if you can make it. Or if you ring them and ask the person to call you back straight away they will generally do this - just explain you have spent a lot of money on phone calls to them.

Decision Makers dont take incoming calls as there job is to make decisions - not answer general queries. If they had a direct number they would be inundated with calls from people that they probably wouldnt be able to help. They can take reasons from you over the phone as to why you didn't attend the appointment- you just need to ask for the benefit centre staff to call you back.

If you want peace of mind then the best thing to do is call the IB enq line and ask to be put through to the Incapacity reasessment team - let them know whats happened and give them the reference number of the special delivery item. Ask they note the conversation down - you can even ask that the benefit centre call you back. They can check with ATOS and see if the esa50 is logged on their systems. Its always best to take a pro-active approach to avoid any problems.

The ESA1 does cover both C and IR parts of the benefit - but you have to tick the box and complete all the parts of the form for this. You can just fill in the ESA C bit without having to go into details of savings etc. They should be sending you whats called an ESA3 form to see if you qualify for the IR...

its worth noting that Aberdeen only deal with people who are based in Wales. there are various benefit centre around the country...so it depends where you live...

Post is always sent to a Mail Opening Unit. Yes, for security and also to try and ensure post is sent to the correct office. They must receive hundreds if not thousands of letters everyday - one mail opening unit can take post for 3/4 benefit centres and loads of jobcentre in the area. It does take time. You can in theory get a DM to call you back, but as you have found it can be difficult. Your situation is not uncommon - a DM will usually assume that letters were sent on time and to the correct place. They may assume that you have just ignored it and are now trying to avoid your benefit stopping by playing the system - I'm not saying you are - but plenty of people do. So if you can send a copy of the letter showing the wrong postcode then you will undoubtably get the decision reversed in your favour. When you say 3 weeks isnt a lot - you are actually quite fortunate that you have time to sort this out before your benefit stops - people currently on ESA are just written to and the benefit stops straight away - often left without money for a couple of weeks until its sorted.

If you have further evidence then send it in. It will be looked at by a Decision Maker from within DWP in a process called a Reconsideration. this is the stage before the Tribunal appeal. If they think your reason for appeal and (more importantly) your further evidence can change the decision then they will. Make sure everything you send is as detailed as possible. Basically, spell it out to them how you're affected every day etc.

I think the maximum time limit is 3 years, minimum of 3 months.