Never rains but it pours. ESA stopped.

Not_Me

Local tennants alliance have a drop in centre, told to arrive at 10am and wait in turn. Arrived at 9:40 and all slots had been taken.

Another session at 1pm, so i arrived at noon and i got the last but one slot, some guy arrived after and they told him to come back next week at 10am.. I wanted to tell him to get there much earlier but i couldnt get over there quick enough.

Had a quick chat where i was told they cannot do the forms in the drop in session because it takes too long. She marked it down as very very urgent and that i could come at any time.

Received a call yesterday for an appointment on Monday. Yipee.

I will work on the form over the weekend, so hopefully they will just read it and say perfect or add a few changes and i will send it 1st class recorded the same day.

Just inside the 28 days so fingers crossed.

Thanks

PS. i got passed the CAB start message by accidently mistyping the phone number and got through to a call centre in south wales.
But they were unable to make an appointment for me.

Seems like the CAB are becoming an underground secret operation, one rule for CAB do not mention CAB?

Not been paid JSA yet either, seems this week is my sign on week so i should get paid next week. What happened to the payment from 2 weeks ago though?
Letter arrived on the 12th to say what i would get.

Thanks for the help.

Not_Me

Update and its not good.

MR rejected in December. Emailed the people helping me, no reply, phoned a couple of times and he was busy/out. Thought its being xmas there will be people with worse issues than me so regrettably I left it until after xmas.

I then managed to contact the guy who said your past the appeal date why didn't i contact him, check your emails on x dates you will see i did.
And I called a few times, did they not notify you? Seems not. He found my emails sitting unread.
He says he will look into it and call me back. Then he calls me back and blames me for not contacting him sooner, I stay calm thinking he is looking for an excuse. Seems he was upset at having to do the late appeal and says he will get back to me.

Next day he informs me he will do the late appeal and that is it, he is washing his hands of me. Cannot help any further. I am on my own.

I have a feeling that in this case I may have been better doing the MR myself. He sent me copies of the MR before he submitted them and it was short and sweet and missed out a lot of information. He even got my details wrong, wrong address and even part of my name.

I received a letter to say a late appeal had been lodged and if i did not hear back within 28 days then the late appeal would not be contested.
Still another week and a bit to go on that one.

Bogalot

Do you have a copy of the appeal letter he has sent? If he's let you down up to now I wouldn't be trusting him going forward.

I haven't read the whole thread but you do write very well, even if the late appeal request is accepted I'd be sending in your own statement of appeal in case he has missed anything.

Tommo1980

I would second that. It is far better to do the bulk of your own benefit applications/research if you have the basic capacity.

By all means seek advice, but I so often see people posting about how they weren't satisfied with the form filling done on their behalf.

Tom

Not_Me

Thank you, I thought my paperwork covered all bases for the MR. But putting my trust in them, thinking they will know more about what is relevant and what is OTT and not required.

I should have thought twice when he sent me his draft MR letter with my name and address wrong and incorrectly spelt.

Then the fact he denied asking me to get a copy of my medical records, he insisted he said a letter from the Doctor. So now i have both which has cost me £40 that I could have done without having to spend out unless absolutely essential to my appeal.

Doctors letter is so vague and just agreed with some points that I sent detailing how my condition affects me.

Thanks.

When_the_going_gets_tough

Op in my experience appeals usually go forward to the tribunal even though the DWP can change their minds beforehand. The two crucial elements to the appeal are:
1) Medical evidence
2) A careful explanation by you with examples that show how you are entitled to the points on each descriptor - so you need to get hold of the descriptors and argue your case point by point. Remember that if you cannot complete a task reliably and in good time then you cant complete it.
Good luck

Not_Me

Thanks for the tips. Not heard back from the DWP to say they have declined my late appeal. From what I gather that is how it works?

No news = good news, have I got that right?

If that is the case what happens about my ESA / JSA now? Currently still having to sign on which is not doing me any good at all. I have asked the questions of what if my appeal fails. But the people at the job centre do not know, other than they presume I keep signing on and because I have already used up my extended sickness I maybe sanctioned for missing a sign on date or even being late?

If they move me back to ESA, which is what I was told would happen will that reset the clock at the Job Centre if that appeal fails?

The stupid thing is that the money they are paying me is exactly the same. I do not think it is even a penny different.

I did seek advice from the same place regarding my PIP and I did succeed in medium rate care, I was going to appeal the mobility part but my FIL got taken ill and then passed away and it got forgotten. More important things in life.

This is the problem with the forms in my situation, nowhere does it ask for information on how I nearly did not make it to the FIL's funeral. Or where I got up at 4am to go for a No.1 and ended up doing a No.2

Sorry if that is TMI.

A few people have mentioned another place to try for assistance, a walk in centre with a 2 hour timeslot, that gets very busy and most of the parking is only for 1 hour.

Not_Me

Quick update. Appeal paperwork arrived, wow so much paperwork.

Just signed off JSA and back onto ESA whilst the appeal process goes through. So one less problem. Just need to provide sick notes which i did not have to do before. The one I handed in has almost expired. I nearly handed that into the job centre until I read up that they would have signed me off JSA and leave me with no money.

The job centre sent me to a company that helped me with my CV etc. But nothing went by the book. The initial induction was supposed to be 2 hours or more. I was there less than 30 minutes, they could see I was struggling and rushed me through. Booked me in to see someone about creating a CV and he said why are you here.

I had a quick pop in to the centre that others have mentioned and they didn't seem that keen. They do not offer support for the actual appeal, from what i gather they do not send someone to the appeal where other places may offer that. But there appears to be very little locally unless i travel into the City. I have not been to the City since my illness started.

Does anyone know where the appeal is likely to be? Would it be in Birmingham City Centre?

Someone mentioned about getting my partner to claim instead of me having to sign on, how would that work? Currently its a joint claim in my name. She gets carers allowance.


If you read all that or even some of it a big Thank You.