Basically I've appealed against ATOS, because the nurse lied on the question sheet and I am pretty mad about it....

I got told by a solicitor, I will get my ESA reinstated and backdated [i've had no money since 31st March]

Can someone tell me how long it took for their ESA to be re-instated?

Thanks

Hi, sorry to hear you are another Atos victim.

You should be receiving ESA at the assessment rate until your appeal reaches tribunal.

You need to ring the jobcentre about this and they will ask for medical certificates to be sent in while

you wait the 9 months to a year it takes to get to the appeal tribunal.

- dj

Yeah, I see I'm one of many victims

My solicitor is pretty confident though, which is good. He told me he would fax over my appeal and get my ESA re-instated with backpay. Just wish I knew how long would that be.

My dad's worked with jobcentre plus in the past [he knows how **** they are] and he said don't count on getting it anytime soon

Just could do with the money asap, as I'm sure many others are like me, got their benefit stopped and need it.....

Appeals need to made within 1 month of the date of decision, though late appeals can be accepted. When did your solicitor fax the appeal over?

Sometimes even though an appeal is lodged, the appeals team forgets to put the award back into payment, so chase up that the appeal's been received.

I'm sure there are good benefit solicitors out there, but in our area they are notorious for being overly confident, having poor knowledge of benefits and doing as little work on the case as possible. Keep an eye an him, and make sure he's doing the work.

You will need to provide as much supportive evidence as possible, from professionals if possible, and diary evidence if applicable to your condition, related to the descriptors you think you score on if possible. Your solicitor should write a detailed submission pointing out the errors in the atos report and putting your case forward for the descriptors you fulfill.

I appealed last monday, I went with my father who's worked with the job centre for over 25 years and he said he certainly knows what DWP are like.

The solicitor is going to get the nurse's report and highlight things, also do a general appeal letter, because he said if you are too specific and slightly change your story, the appeal goes against you.

I phoned up DWP today and they said they would transfer the money today, just I need another sick note as my last one ran out the 29th april. So I really hope he does do that and the money comes through early next week!

He did seem to have a good knowledge of benefits, he said I couldn't go on income support while appealing, they had got it wrong and basically job centre call staff don't have a clue about things really - my dad totally agrees with that.

what we are generally going to do, is try avoid a tribunal and he said DWP lately are backing down if it has to go to a tirbunal because of costs and will actually try to find evidence to support you [which i was slightly surprised at].

He just knew so much and I was kinda overwhelmed

I feel a hell of a lot better about my appeal now, he made everything seem so much better. I suffer with pretty bad anxiety, so it's gotten a bit better now as he's made things much clearer

Oh yeah he also said about me getting assessed with a pyshcatrist [i suffer with depression, anxiety, agrophobia, eating disorder mainly] they would recommend as evidence and advised I go to my doctor and have them base their report around the question sheet which has points next to it, otherwise it would be pretty useless if they didn't. So he seems to know what he is doing.

It's not a case of backing down due to costs I'm afraid, what happens is you request an appeal due to failing your medical and your case is then passed to a further DM in the processing office to look at if the decision is likely to be upheld or if there is any information that has been missed (only applicable to the appeal not looking at the whole claim) and if there is then the decision is reconsidered.