Have UNUM issued you with a "Final Decision". This is a letter that should state at the top Final Decision. If not then you need to request a final decision as part of the complaints procedure. They have eight weeks to reply with the decision. If you are not happy with the decision then you can take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. They will expect you to have gone through Unum's compliant procedure and been issued with the final decision letter. You fill in their complaint form available on the FOS web site to start the process. I would expect a minimum of six months and up to 18 months for the FOS to issue a Final decision. I don't know your situation but if you believe that you have a good claim then you will need to fight it, it may take a lot of letters and and lot of time and it may not be successful in the end. The FOS can change Unum's decision and instruct them to pay out if they find in your favour. I have had the FOS issue a decision in my favour and the insurance company complied with the decision.

I think you should except that you flat mate probably lied to you when they said the bill was all paid up, it happens. The amount they are asking for seems to be for a third of the bill. You could carry on trying to ignore them and send the standard replies to the debt collectors but it does seem to be a legitimate request for payment, if you assume that your flat mate didn't pay the bill. You have to be careful that they don't make you libel for the whole amount though if you do decide to pay and I wouldn't pay any additional costs.

I think that the FOS would want to hear your compliant in your own words. If you know which clause in the policy you are challenging then I don't see that a solicitor is needed. Really if a solicitor was needed they would have to have some specialty in medical cases and insurance and then would only be needed if you didn't know how to make a challenge against the policy. I can't see the point in employing one just to word your compliant in a better way. The FOS will look at your compliant and compare it with the policy. They may ask your wife's doctors for their opinion. They may possible ask for an Independent Medical Examination although I think this only happens in complex medical problems. They should be able to rely on your wife's doctors opinions. If the insurance company has not conducted a medical examination then the adjudicator has a simpler job as they only have to look at one lot of medical evidence. All of this is done without any meetings, so you won't have to argue your point face to face with the adjudicator or the insurance company. The compliant form gives the FOS the right to access your wife's case file with the insurance company and her medical records.

Actually I find your comment belittling. Why should the person stress themselves out reading what is obviously someone elses mail and someone elses debt. Either send it back unopended or chuck it in the bin. It's the telehone calls that are the problem that needs dealing with.

You shouldn't open letters not addressed to you. You should put RTS on the front and "Not at this Address" and stick them back in the postal system. Also how could they not only have your address, your landline but also your mobile number?

Hi, First of all, although the lady said she would send the report to you, I think it is right that she sent it to your employer but you have a right to request a copy. She was probably mistaken when she said "I will send it to you". Was this examination classed as an Independent Medical Examination? I'm assuming that Royal Mail are using the Atos Sickness Absence Management service, the main aim being to reduce sickness absenteeism for Royal Mail. If this is the case then I feel that you have the right to ask your employer for an Independent Medical Examination. It is probably the normal way Atos does this type of examination, to not consult your GP but to draw it's own conclusions. You could also ask your employer to request that Atos examine your own doctors records, if they haven't done so. Are you a member of a union, as they should help?

I have been down the path of having a claim stopped by an insurance company and having to go to the FOS. The adjudicator upheld my complaint but the insurance company didn't except the decision so an Ombudsman decision was asked for and the Ombudsman upheld my complaint and ruled that the insurance company should continue to pay out. This process took a year and you should expect a similar length of time to complete this complaint. You now have six months from the date of the final decision to lodge your complaint with the FOS. You can download the form from there web site. You shouldn't need any help in filling this out, just use plain English and your own words and include any documentation you have on the matter. Funny thing is, the insurance company sent the final decision to my company (they have to send it to the policyholder) and my company seem to sit on it for a month. Personally I think that under Contracts (Third Party Rights) Act 1999, you have the right to be informed directly of anything relating to you if you are a named member of the contract i.e named on the policy, not just the policyholder. You should also send Unum a request for all data held by them under the Data Protection Act along with a cheque for £10.00, there is a template on this site for that. What you will get will be lots of paper, some of which is their internal communications on this matter. You can study this and see if you find any inconsistencies in their process and highlight it to the FOS. You do not have to do this before filling in the complaint form, you can update them later on. They are very good at acknowledging your correspondence. Did Unum perform any medical examination before they first denied the claim. If they did the examination afterwards as part of your complaint, this will work against them as it did in my case, and was highlighted my the Ombudsman. Good luck.

I don't know how effective this is but if you have online banking you can set up a one off payment to the council or go into your bank and try and get them to set it up. That way the money gets credited to your Council Tax account and the council can't decline acceptance of it. You will need your council tax account number and the bank account number and sort code of the council account. This maybe found on the forms they provide with payment details or available on the council web site, or someone on here may know if they are from your area. But if this is a court appointed baliff and there has been a court case, it is probably not a good idea to ignore them. You should be able to go to the court and pay the money there directly.

SRJ Debt Recovery This is all that "Trace Confirmation" means. SRJ offer a service to trace people who may have mean moved since their clients last had contact with them.

I had a dispute with LA Fitness. Basicly they sent me a letter increasing my membership cost with two options and 20 days to decide. Neither option allowed me to cancel my membership, it was past the original 12 months contract. I wrote to them giving them 20 days to come up with a better offer or I would cancel my membership they never answered so I cancelled. I get two letters from them telling me I owe a month plus a late payment fee, which I replied to but that was ignored. Then get letters from ARC, which I ignored, then got letter from Trevor Munn about 10 days or I would be taken to court, I ignored them. I then get a letter from Scotcall saying that they would be sending a collector around, so I replied to this with the stock letter from this site about not giving them permission to visit. I've not heard anything for six months.

This maybe to late to point this out but might help others. I don't think your assumption above is correct. I think you are assuming that the £100,000 limit that the FOS has, applies to your claim. It doesn't, it applies to the amount of compensation that they can award. I am assuming the amount you mention above refers to the total amount of monthly payments that Unum would have to pay out until you retired if you were unable to work again. If you complain to the FOS and win then the FOS would simply instruct Unum to pay out on the claim on a monthly basis and this would have nothing to do with the FOS awarding any compensation. The FOS compliant form asks what you would want to put thinks right and this maybe; for Unum to pay out on the claim and to back date the payments. You may also ask for compensation but that would be a separate decision and the FOS could only award upto £100,000.