I am not receiving any benefits whatsoever, and not received any ESA since end of March. This is because I am told that we, my wife and I, receive more than what DWP deem as the bottom limit, ie more than say £200 per week. Do you think it is worth contacting my MP about my situation, or would there be no change as it were. From your previous message, on the decision notice it says: 5. No Schedule 3 descriptor applied. Regulation 35 of the ESA Regulations 2008 did not apply. Is there anything I can do at all to get any further ESA payments, or have I come to the end of the line now?

Apologies for the late response here, but I have been giving DWP a chance to let me know what is happening. Last Monday gone, I ended up phoning DWP about my claim as I still have not had anything in writing. The person who I spoke to told me that as I am in a work related activity component, and as any previous payments were based on NI contributions and only paid for a year, I have now ran out of, or don't have anything left to be paid any further ESA. In other words my payments have stopped and will not be elegible to be paid anything else. So, even though I have now got 15 points, it means nothing as far as receiving any benefit is concerned. Also it would seem that I have wasted time and effort in persuing my ESA claim, as well as other peoples time. I have thought about contacting my MP about this, and the fact that I have not had anything in writing from DWP, but as what has been pointed out to me, that might be a waste of time also. The thing is, I only have another 8 months to wait before I get my State Pension, and even if I did receive ESA now, I probably would not be able to claim it when I am been paid my State Pension.

I'll give DWP until the middle of next week, and if I don't hear anything from them, I think that I will ring them, and see what they say.

Ok, I went for my ESA appeal this morning, and it was heard by a qualified female doctor and a male judge. After they asked me some questions about my disablement, I can now say that I have been awarded an extra 6 points on top of the 9 points I already have. So I now have 15 points and can get ESA payments now, I hope! The appeal took about 25 minutes or so, and I was asked to wait in the waiting room. After about 5 minutes I was called back into see both the doctor and judge, who gave me the good news. I have this in writing now, and see that the other side will also get the same decision. So hopefully it shouldn't be too long before I start receiving payments again. Just on that, do or should I have to do anything, like tell DWP , apply for esa again etc.

I also am awaiting a decision on my Mandatory Reconsideration, when I sent in a dpctors letter and a letter from myself. That was back at the beginning of April, and like the op, when I ring up I get either: a: we don't know what is happening, and we will get someone to call you back within 5 days to tell you what the delay is, OR b: we have sent the form back to the assessor, and are waiting for them to return it. So I also got my local MP involved, and he has written the DWP on my behalf , so we will wait and see if they do in fact say what the delay is.

I have been waiting for a mandatory reassessment since early April, and I have recently rang DWP, to ask what is happening, and guess what: they don't know! The guy said he will get someone to call me back in the next 5 working days.

I have had my dealings with both ATOS and DWP as I wanted to claim ESA. I am now at the appeal stage, but don't have a date yet, and after I went through the bundle paperwork I was sent, they have based their case on conjecture (lies)and assertions. No real facts at all.

Your last sentence says it all. My dad always told me that to be a liar you have to have a good memory. I caught someone at DWP telling me porkies, and then I proved what I said she back tracked.

Yes I have an appointment with CAB in about 2 weeks, and I have updated them with how DWP have treated me. I received a letter from Welfare Rights this morning saying they had also received the same bundle as I had. I have now an appointment with one of their appeal people next Wednesday.

It would NOT open as an audio recording and that is I wanted but did not get.

If it was an actual audio recording, then there would be a file probably a .wav or.flac or even .mp3 of a particular size. The said xml opened up in my webpages building program, and was only very small in size, about 3 lines if I remember right

Well all that was on the cd was an xml file, no recording whatsoever. I first tried on my computer then on my music cd player, nothing, no audio at all.

When I went for my assessment, audio recorded, after the assessment, the nurse went to give me a copy, but guess what, when I got home the disc was blank.

I received a second Doctors letter this morning and I scanned onto my PC as a copy. I then finished an introduction letter to the courts and tribunal service saying what what I was enclosing: 2 doctors letters, proof of receipt of the first letter and 5 pages of contradiction notes where I disagreed with the assertions in the bundle I received. I then went into town and hand delivered them to a security guy behind a desk, and telling him who they were for. So at least now I know for sure that the courts have all the required documentation from me.

I received all the Appeal documentation the other day, and I have spent a good few hours going through it. And its a good job I have done. From page 1 I have found assertions and conjecture relating to my disability. Some of the answers to my specific questions are straight out of a text book or manual, and do not go anywhere to answer my questions. I have typed up 5 pages of notes relating to the assertions etc, which I will use when the case goes to court.

I ended up phoning DWP to ask them why I was not getting a continued ESA payment whilst waiting for my Appeal. I was told that I had to fill in a ESA 3 form and send in sick notes from my GP. When my ESA was stopped, I was not not told about the above (to the best of my knowledge anyway). Also yesterday I received all the documentation for my appeal, and after going through it, I see that there is no mention of the doctors letter which I sent but was not received and the fact I chased it up twice, as well as no mention of any notes that the person at the DWP office I spoke said that they were taking. I rang the local courts office where my appeal will be heard, and was told to send in any othe medical evidence/Drs' letters, which I will be doing.

Just out of interest, would or should I still be getting the ESA payment while waiting for my appeal.

A bit of an update here. Following my letter of complaint to ATOS about the disputed points I raised where DWP would not take into account nor answer, I received a 3 page reply or update from Medical Services. (Is that the new name for ATOS, lol) Anyway, the said letter basically backs up the assessor in everything he wrote or said. No surprise there then. Where I asked what was 'normal' , they say " I can advise that the ESA85 contains benefit terminology, which the DWP's Decision Makers are trained to interpret (how so?) The letter says that the term 'normal' means not sufficiently abnormal as to meet any of the DWP specific criteria" I actually went to see my GP recently and spoke to him about my worsening condition and my ESA Appeal. He supplied my with a letter, which I sent to DWP. Actually I sent it to a specific person marked for their ATTN and confidential. That was 2 weeks ago, and by yesterday they had not received it when I rang them to ask about it. Strangely though, the person I spoke to asked me what was in the letter, and when did I send it. I read it out to her and gave her the date I sent it. From that she said that she had taken notes when I asked what I should do about the letter.. So now I await their decision or for the stack of papers to arrive from the court for my appeal, which I am told should receive.

I emailed my formal letter of complaint to ATOS, and received a written reply last Friday. They basically said they were sorry I was treated that way, and would look into it. I phoned the Sheffield benefit center to say I was going to appeal and asked for the relevant form. I eventually got them from the net on the gov.uk site somewhere, and have just had an appointment with the local welfare rights people, who filled in the appeal form for me. They also told me that there should not be any problem getting the extra 6 points, based on what my limited capabilities are. I was told that the appeal could take about 6 months before I would be seen, but he, welfare rights person, also said that in some cases if there is enough information it may not go to an appeal. I took with me, the letters I had sent to the Sheffield benefit center, and the one where I disputed what the assessor had said, and he just smiled and shook his head as he read it. So now I just wait for ESA or whoever to get in touch with me.

I have just come off the phone to a lady at DWP after asking about my complaint I sent , and was told in no uncertain terms that the letter of complaint should be sent to ATOS, and they DWP, will not change anything regarding their decision, and the only way forward form me is to make an Appeal against the decision. The person I spoke to was not in any way interested to listen to me about what happened etc regarding a phonecall I got last week. In fact she said that I did not get a phonecall from anyone on the day I said I did. So now, I will send the said letter to Atos and also start on my appeal. Is there a specific address for ATOS to email the Letter of Complaint to, and where can I get an appeal form.

Just as a matter of interest, how long should I reasonably expect to wait for a reply to my letter of complaint.

The person I spoke to yesterday afternoon, at the end of a 60 minute call told me she was going to send out 2 letters, one of which will tell me about appealing, which I said I would be doing. So I will wait for that letter to arrive before I do anything else, although not too long.

Thanks, I have sent it just

Thanks, but who do I email the complaint to? Atos or the benefit centre.

I was telephoned by a lady at the Sheffield benifit center to discuss my Mandatory Reconsideration. She said that I telephoned to make the MR, and then sent in a letter dated 26th March, to which I said that I wanted to put it in writing. And this is what I wrote: And to that, she said that I said my condition had got worse since or from 26th March, and they could not take that into account, as it would have to be prior or at the time of the assessment. I then repeated the letter back to her word for word, and then asked her where it says I said from 26th March. She then got a bit annoyed with me and went back on what she said. So,now because I cannot walk more than 100 meters without stopping etc she has given me 9 points. Further to that I sent in another letter in support of the MR on 12th April, which listed all the points I disagreed with from the written ESA50 report I had received. I asked the lady if she had that, and as we went through it, she just said we can't give you any more points, and even when I asked her the question about what is defined as normal, she did not answer and told me to ask ATOS. So it seems that I have wasted several hours of my time preparing the second letter for her to tell me send it to Atos. She went on to say I could appeal against the decision, but it would seem that 'we have our conditions to which we have to work to' attitude wont get me anywhere fast. Is there anything else I can do get them to listen to what I said in my supporting letter, as the lady I spoke to just didn't want to know.l