I finally got my appeal in. Thanks for your help. When I cross-referenced the Atos report with the DWP descriptors it turned out I was already allocated 12 points even though the cover note stated I had none!

I really appreciate your help. At the moment I give up at the slightest difficulty and I don't think I would have found these 'descriptors' had I even tried to look for them. It really isn't on expecting people to jump through all these hoops when they are not themselves. Take a deep breath - I'm going to take it really slowly.

I can't do this on my own. I've had a hard enough time organising a doctor's appointment to get a medical certificate each month and when it is late the money just stops and I get into a downward spiral. I didn't even know anything about ESA until some ladies from a local help group started to come to help me get straight with bills and washing up and stuff like that. I went to the assessment and thought the woman was taking everything in, she seemed very sympathetic, but I scored zero! I'm so scared. When I'm not weeping, I'm sleeping or walking about wondering in a sort of shocked stupor and what I was in the middle of doing. Everything takes a hundred times longer to do than it ever did before. I was so independent, before. It is really hard to ask anyone for help and I desperately need it. Everything is all tangled up. I just want to be left alone and didn't apply for benefits for years until I finally ran out of money and had my home repossessed. I feel like some kind of sponger but before all this I was a high-earner and paid my taxes and there I was thinking that the state provided a safety net, and it doesn't. The processes I have to deal with for the simplest things are beyond me. No one cares about trying to get me back on my feet and paying those desperately-needed taxes again. I can't see where this is leading. How much worse can things get?

Sign my petition... Petition to: install tamper-proof recording of all evidence and make immediate copies available to all parties in a case for a nominal fee. | Number10.gov.uk We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to install tamper-proof recording of all evidence and make immediate copies available to all parties in a case for a nominal fee. In my experience, a single digital recording is made to the Judge's pc. In many cases the judge has access to this digital file after an application for an Appeal has been made, which may show them in a bad light. In this day and age it would be a very simple technical and procedural matter to remove the possibility of tampering with the spoken evidence BEFORE it is sent off to a licensed transcription agent - either by a simultaneous recording to a 'black box' or a copy being made and signed off by all parties at the close of the Hearing. In addition, an immediate electronic copy of the file could be distributed to all parties to reduce, at least, any disagreement about the content of an order which is not written and agreed directly afterwards. So saving further costs.