Lea I have just looked for walk in center and we dont have one of those either... I have started to put together the n244 I will keep going with that, I will make the payment to them tomorrow just to show that I eventually got it sorted... also I will include all of the documentation from the last 8 weeks of hassle with the DWP to show that why I couldnt pay...

Hi Ruby Tell me about the nightmares, but I am still just about standing.. I am just so tired of the whole process, I seriously wish I could just go back to work all over again and stop all of the hassle in every part of my life at the moment. Everything seems like its a fight, and its getting worse not better. I really need to get a handle on a lot of things but cant... never mind keep going Im going to have to do

Lea would I have to fill out a N440 form...

Lea, I have just looked at the information for a Time order, can I submit both the time order and the N244 to stop the eviction taking place. there is so much more going on. I own a 1/6 of a property that is in the process of being sold, however it should have been completed by Christmas, then it was supposed to be completed by march but the buyer has run into other problems over the last 6 weeks and its been delayed again. The money from this sale was going to pay off all of the arrears (not the charges). I also inherited a house with my two sisters, we have tried to sell this through one of the fast sales people we had an offer, but then at the last min they withdrew it and offered us significantly less for it.. My two sisters at this point decided to stop the sale of the property. The amount was enough to cover and pay off my 1st mortgage completely, we are putting the property up for sale though an estate agent but again its going to take time to sell it.... I am going to have money in the near future and I need time to sort this all out... I have been onto the national debtline site to look for information on time orders, but at the moment have no idea how to complete one. I have tried to get an appointment with the cab but its going to be next week which is too late

I am getting pretty used to this, I have had massive problems with my main mortgage, but regular payments have sorted that out, its this one, but the last 8 weeks have been a nightmare... never mind thanks for your reply

Hi Stevlynd, I am reading at the moment, I think I know what I have to do but help would be appreciated, this is a nightmare... lol onwards...

Hi STarryeyes I have no idea what on earth to do with ATOS at the moment, I have been told I need to fill out another ESA50 form for them, so the appointment time will take a little longer, but so far, I have recieved letters to my house and my Mums house over the last five days, so they have updated their database, so this should be fun I still need to sort out problems that have come up, checked my bank statement to see if I actually got money and I did... but its got JSA on the payment not ESA and I really need to pick up the mail from my mams tomorrow to see if its different to whats been sent here.. i really cant believe what a mess the whole system is in and OH YES I want the interview recorded, because the last time I had an assessment and read the results I honestly thought that I had somebody elses results... if it had not been so serious then it would have been funny... won that tribunal on appeal, but it took over 12 months to sort it all out

Hi need some advice here just received an eviction notice for te 10th May, it came on Thursday... Ok was in court two months ago and had it suspended. However I had not realised at that time my whole life was about to fall apart. My ESA was stopped and for the last 8 weeks I have had no money to live on at all.. I was supposed to pay the loan company £480 then the monthly payments + and extra £25 I couldnt pay the £500 because not only was the ESA stopped but also the mortgage help I got, so the day after I went to court my entire balance was wiped out by my normal mortgage payment + the extra that the mortgage assistance would have paid. for the last 7 weeks I have been fighting the DWP to reinstate my ESA which they finally dd and I got a payment on Friday and all of the money owed, there are still complications with all of this, but they did say they would get my mortage help sorted as well asap.. The loan company want me to pay them £11k for a loan that has 3 yrs to go and has arrears iof £2600 on it They said last time that the MCOB did not apply to the secured loan because its governed by the Credit consumer act.. which I have ijust pulled out my copy of...and they are right... So I am stuck as to what on earth to do.. The loan was taken out in 2005 I do actually have the £500 I said I would pay now and the monthly payment, but I think its all too late to say that now.. can anyone help know I have to fill in the n223 form etc... its just what on earth do I put in my statement I have tried all over reading to figure out what to do and I am stumped

Hi Starryeyes I know the feeling about the thread getting too big, the help has been so good though and so much to think about. I have been lucky to get it reconsidered there are quite a few that will have to go to appeal. Saying that, I have had 12 letters now in the last two days, including my P45 and even more conflicting stuff, I am just hoping to get it solved, another day on teh phone planned for tomorrow. But I am still really happy its happened. It just goes to show that if you keep going with them they do eventually listen... I honestly think there is a bug in the ATOS system, I am not the only one that is having problems with their mail from them, and ok I can prove that I am having some problems with my mail, but the appointment letters did not arrive long before my problems with my mail, I have sent in a sar so hopefully when it arrives I might get further information. Basically its going to be entertaining to look through what they send out. I would like to say though that people that are having the same problems to keep going, its a nightmare and you end up stressed but its better than the alternative, having nothing at all to live on. This is one of the reasons that I have continued to update this thread, and its been combined with others I have started as well.. Hopefully somebody might just get some benefit from it...

Well things are still mucked up, but thank god may just be able to sort it out today.. at least I have money to live on this week I revieved 11 letters yesterday yes you read it right, I have no idea if they were lost in the post or what, but I really need to sort it all out... so the saga continues I had a letter from the Independent Case Examiner.. (ICE) I emailed them because I really coudlnt find who to complain to about all of the misleading info I have been given They have passed on my email to the DWP who actually phoned me yesterday to say that they have recieved my complaint... lets see what happens next ho hum off to phone I go..

HI Heckler and Ruby_Tuesday its going to be really hard to get them to pay anything at all, they will put it all on you to prove that you did not get the letters, I know from experience. they will say that you have got all the rest full stop. I went 6 weeks without any money and they are messing me round now... I was lucky, I had reported my missing letters a while ago and they finally accepted that there was proof that I was not getting all of my mail. However, if you dont have proof, what there said to me was that the quickest way to get any money was to sign for JSA because you will get money but you have to be actively looking for work, and if your ill and awaiting surgery then your not going to be able to look for work. Opening a new claim for ESA means that you will HAVE to wait for a medical and they will NOT pay you anything while you wait for the medical. You can demand them to fast track it but you are still looking at weeks before you get your appointment and then have to wait for the decision.. which in my case was looking at the end of June. at this point if they have not phoned you back you need to phone them again and tell them you really need to talk to a decision maker and find out if there is any way at all they will reconsider the decision, I went through everything with the decision maker and he said if I can prove that Atos did not send the letters or I had a problem with my post he would consider... Have you had anything else go missing? have you looked at through my thread there is a link there that will give you more information Have you submitted your appeal form Have you contacted your local council and email your local MP or councilor they may be able to help. you really need to find out what they need from you to change the decision, its the only way your going to get anything at all. The short term benefit advance would normally be the place to start, however, because your claim was stopped for failing to attend your not entitled to that either. Im really sorry to give you little hope, but there are ways to get round this, you really need to try to get to figure out what they need to get the decision over turned. It may be worth your while trying to contact the delivery office to ask them if there have been any known problems with your post or if your letters are there. or if anything has changed on the delivery route. I know this is all wrong that they should prove the letters were sent and you received them, and they will put it all back on you.. if it goes to an appeal you will win but that does not help you in the short term I will try to help if I can, I have just sorted this out as well, and its really hard to get people to talk to you from the DWP but you need to get to talk to somebody that iwll help

Thanks everyone for you help and support on this one still happy that my bank balance is no long in the minus column for now.. I actually went shopping last night and could buy more than just the bare essentials.. its felt so nice //

I just really upset with the whole thing, i worked from 16 to four years ago, I worked full time as my daughter was growing up and because I earned £4 more than the limited for working tax credits I got no help what so ever with child care or anything else, my friend at the time worked 18 hrs a week on minimum wage and after we both added up exactly how much she got, with benefits, wages help with her rent and council tax and child care she actually got £8k a year more than me. at that point I really wondered what I was doing, but got through it. I hit a seriously bad time 4 yrs ago, I worked in IT and had major problems with my boss, he decided that he did not like women working in IT and in the two years that he worked there he managed to get all of the women to leave. I actually put in a formal complaint against him when he offered the "lads" on the team with the job description as me the training I had been denied for the two years previous, that he then declared all out war on me when HR upheld my complaint... the stress nearly killed me, its not a good way to work, and in the end I had a nervous breakdown and ended up finishing because I just could not do the job any more. The head of HR knew what was going on and tried everything to get me to stay, even offering me a job in a different department, but I really did not want to do that.. In the end I was diagnosed as being Bipolar which actually made a lot of sense to my family, and even though I get wobbly head occasionally now I know how to cope and get my meds upped.. my biggest thing though has been trying to keep my house, its been bad it gets better but after I was on top of things for months its ended up that this has wrecked what the keeping it together, so now I am basically back to square one.. i was one payment away from loosing it over the last year. I am going to try to do damage limitation again, its been a nightmare but at least with money in the bank and the DWP sorting out the mortgage payments I might be able to avoid disaster... However tonight I am not going to think about it, thats going to be the job for tomorrow and the weekend, I need to change heads so to speak. I really just want to go back to work, go work pay my bills and plod through life again... but the medication I am on makes it really difficult to do.. that and the fact my spine is crumbling... not good if I go back into IT and try to lug round the equipment. Sigh it never stops, but tonight I am celebrating the fact that I got the decision overturned and I just cant believe it...

Hi Swlabr9 and Ruby_Tuesday. intend to keep everyone informed, its a joke the call center after talking to the DM he was telling me a whole load of rubbish, but he passed on my query to completely the wrong person in completely the wrong department, he passed it onto new claims.. Hillarious especially when I gave him the name of the person to pass on the information to... And then to get a call back telling me I could not have any money until I had a medical after they had done the bank transfer is just a farce. The last woman was adamant that I was completely wrong and did not know what I was talking about until she double checked. It would save a whole lot of time and money and stress if everyone double checked the situation before spouting off what they think is going on.. sigh Well this battle over and done with i now have to fight to save my house... cos got problems there, but at least its starting to get sorted which is a step in the right direction. What a mess all because I did not receive a flaming appointment letter in the first place.

It doesn't look like I will be getting any help from the local authority... because My ESA has just been put in my bank.....

I was also told that dont take pain killers etc if you are in pain, you need to be at your worst while you are there... I am diagnosed with bipolar disorder and I have a arthritis in my lower back and hands and a trapped nerve in my leg.. the assessment I attended I took painkillers before going in, and failed with 0 points because i could get up and down.. I also scored 0 on the mental health bit as well. I didn't take anyone into the interview with me, but I had my sister with me to get there and back, she left me there and went off somewhere on her own. next time I am taking her in with me... Oh and request to have your interview recorded. On my last assessment, when i got the report I honestly believed that it was somebody elses... I won at tribunal, it took 7 mins for the decision to be over turned... good luck though what ever you do...

I never in a million years thought that I would be updating this again as soon... I was happy for a little while but thought i would just show you how bad this has got.. At 16.56pm yesterday I was called by the decision maker, we discussed things as per above, and I felt happier that something might actually be done... At 14.47 pm today I was called by the DM and told me that he had revised his decision, that he was happy with the proof I had given him At 15.57 today I was called by the DWP and told everything was sorted out, new claim closed, that they had made a payment into my bank, and that once that had gone into my bank they would sort out the missing mortgage help At 16.12 pm today I was called by the DWP to tell me that they got asked to call me, (numpty from this mornings call got it all wrong) and proceeded to tell me that because I had failed to attend a medical that no payment would be issued until I attended the medical. Also they would make sure that the appointment was fast tracked so I should her from ATOS within 4 weeks.... There was stunned silence on the phone when after she had told me this I told her... I am very sorry but you have this wrong, my appeal had been heard, the decision has been overturned and they have allready issued a payment.. she said I am sorry but you are wrong... then she said... oh I dont know whats happened by your claim has just been updated, your new claim has been closed... Its getting more and more unbelievable by the hour....

I am just so happy nearly 6 weeks fighting this and it happened today, but only because i kept on phoning and phoning and phoning... hopefully the OP will not get too put off my the call center staff and keep going... It takes so much work and stress to get there though...

I had my decision overturned...

I still want to complain about the misinformation... and I will update my MP, and to be honest I still need to go through the stuff from the SAR now do I go back to the LA and ask for my 3 days of food ?

Hi Ruby_Tuesday... :whoo::whoo: Im so happy so so happy.... I have just had a phone call from the DM He has received my fax, and has reopened my claim Basically what he said is that he will now take the emails from royal mail into account, it shows that I have been proactive about sorting out the problems with the mail and that I was dealing with it before the last set of letters was sent out. He is happy that there is a reason for not getting the mail. I am still convinced that ATOS has a problem at their end but we shall see what happens next. So he has reopened my claim, I will get a payment tomorrow... he is closing the second case because I cant have two open at once he has all ready contacted the mortgage people to sort that mess out and get me sorted there he has all ready notified the appeals section to tell them that he has over ruled the decision and he was shocked when I told him what the call center staff had said on the phone, and even more shocked when I told him the JCP was not going to send the fax.... so for now I have a result, I think :whoo:

So went for my 10 min appointment with the JCP... I took all of the information that I had, including a cover note, The nice lady I saw told me that she would send the information over, when I asked her to fax the information straight away because the DM would be expecting it by then she told me she couldnt do that. after arguing for the full 10 mins appointment she went and faxed it over and put a copy into their mail system. The appointment sheet stated that i was there to fax documents over because this is what the reception asked ... and I know the DM had put his fax number on the appointment sheet so they would go directly to him so what on earth was her problem. I asked if she could email over a question that I had with the documents and was told no you will have to use the phones to get the benefits center to do it for you.... Ok so phoned the call center again... and if I did not have I copy of what I was told last night I would seriously doubt that anything was going to get done. Seemingly this is only the call center script merchants version of this... I have my original case opened and the new will have to be closed because i cant have two claims open at the same time and that I should not have made another claim for ESA when it was open in the appeal stage.. but it was closed on teh 15th of march I tell him... no it wasnt and you should not have been advised to open another case until you appeal was heard... erm no thats not what I have been told. Oh you wont get paid until you go for a medical... oh and its not good enough that you have emails from royal mail we have to investigate them and contact royal mail to see if there is any problem with your mail or if you have reported problems...If this was the case why did the DM not start the investigation 6 weeks ago, why did I have to prove that I have had dealings with the royal mail, if they are going to investigate and its going to take 6-8 weeks why hasnt it been done before closing my case, or when I asked for reconsideration??? reading between the lines, I think my claim might have been reopened all ready, because he also said that an enquiry has been sent to the mortgage team... erm I havent asked for that, thats what I was going to do after the claim had been reopened.. Is it just me?

DD I totally agree about phoning them costs a fortune. one of the things I have done is stop my landline phone, it got to the stage where I never used it and it was an expense that I could not afford especially when I used my mobile for everything. The thing that hacks me off is the fact the only numbers you can dial are 0845 numbers, on most plans with free mins (and yes my payg plan has free mins) you can not call these numbers without being charged. The HMRC has an 0300 number and the number you call when you first register for benefits is an 0800 number which all come under my plan as free calls. The calls to the 0845 number cost 12p per min.. not a lot I thought when I first started to phone them, however spend 20 mins on hold before you even start to talk to somebody and theres "2.50 gone... I know there are a lot of people that only have mobiles its either one or the other, and having to pay to sort out a mess just adds salt to your injury. I have used the job center phones for the last couple of times, and would you believe it, I was put straight through, I dont know if this is just coincidence but why couldnt that happen when I phoned the 20 or so times from home... I also agree that more training would be good, but to be honest thats not going to happen, it will take people out of the call centers and leave them even shorter staffed... ahhhh I know everyone says its not personal, they are working within their rules etc, but its hard to keep it not personal when you are just shunted from pillar to post and back again, and after you have been told so many different versions of whats going on. It gets very personal very fast. I honestly have no idea how people do the job, maybe this is why the people they actually get to do it are the way they are, it must be hard to cut off from it all after a while, because everyone that calls has a different set of circumstances... it cant be easy... never mind I will rant forever on this and it just doesn't do any good I have a meeting at my JCP to see if I can get a decision overturned so wish me luck

Hi Mr. P. I had no idea that this is what goes on, I will give the delivery office a ring and ask if they can send them out to me. Do you know how far this will go back, I have had problems for a while now, and if it would go back 12 months or so would be a great help Thanks for your reply you have given me more to do

Hi DD I have been amazed at the level of misinformation I have been given. I put in an appeal and 9 call center members of staff told me that the they had the appeal, that it had been validated and passed and the decision overturned. In fact after talking to the appeals section and the DM that had made the decision what in fact had happened was they had received my appeal by post. It had been entered onto the system, it had been validated as a valid appeal, and it was going to be passed to the appeals department who would contact me about the next stage. Which is not what I had been told at all..they all interpreted what was on screen in their own way. i was told also that because I had won my appeal that I would get a payment, then told that I would not get a payment until I went to a medical, then told my old claim had been reopened and merged with my new claim, that my new claim had been closed down the list goes on and on and on. It seems like the new rules etc have left everyone in the DWP struggling, I don't think its because of not caring, or that time is going by quickly I think its more to do with the fact that they have not been trained well enough on the new regs, and that they are snowed under with work both of which mean that it takes weeks to sort stuff out. However that just does not help when you are the one left sitting with nothing at all to live on, no electric or heating and having to rely on the help of others to feed you and make it through the time it takes them to sort it out. Ok they will backdate payments, but that is not the point when you are struggling to live on nothing. You get the bare minimum to live on you don't have enough to be actually able to save in case something happens... if you do save then they take that into account... so your stuck in a catch 22 situation. Good luck in getting things sorted as fast as possible, but you have to keep going back to them, it seems that its the only way things get done quicker than if you just sat back and did nothing. if you are in their face all of the time then they have to sort things out. Not a lot of use to you at the moment, and I know my advice is only based on what I have going on but if anything helps at all I am pleased Truly hope its sorted sooner rather than later..