dwp/atos query

Hi,

Quick query. - I received my letter telling of the changeover from incapacity to esa back in november. My friend phoned them to tell them the telephone number on the letter was no longer in use and that I wish all contact to be done in writing. They said thats fine. Several weeks later after hearing nothing, my family contacted them again where I was told there was no record of the previous phone call and nothing was on my file. They were told again the same information. I asked how long it will be before the esa form is sent out and they said to just wait as it could be anytime. and not to bother phoning up.

I waited again, and finally my friend contacted them again, only to be told there is no record of any of the previous two phone calls and that strangely, there was no record of the initial letter having been sent out all.

They said i should have phoned them, and we told them that we had twice, and that the phone number they had was no good. We also only just noticed that part of my postcode was incorrect and told them this even though the letter still arrived. The whole palaver started again, where she phoned my friend back and said the details on my file had now been changed, and to phone back in two weeks if not heard from them.

My query is this, now that she phoned my friend will there definately be a record of it this time
or should i have just gone straight through to atos (busy when i called)

Sounds like a typical DWP ****up! ATOS will only send out the ESA50 form after your details have been passed to them by DWP, heaven knows whether this has happened in your case! One would hope that there is a record of the call that DWP made to you, but there is no guarantee . We have had a member who knew nothing about a form being sent until their benefit was stopped for not returning it, so it really is worth phoning again if it has not turned up within 2 weeks of the last call.

Edit - this explains how the process is supposed to work

The Transfer Process