HELP

I am writing this blog because I am angry and upset. I will not lower myself to name names publicly, that is best done in private. In short I have been screwed over.

I went to the CAB for benefits advice, but because of their complete lack of funding I decided to go elsewhere for help. I found somewhere that represents people at appeal and had a proven track record at winning appeals and a website full of useful and relevant information. There was no indication of anything wrong at all. I am sure they are who they say they are, theres nothing wrong with fraud or anything like that. However, there is a dark side to them, a very dark side.

Having sucessfully requested their services they sent me a letter, which included a contract which I had to sign to state that I would give them 200 pounds from the appeal winnings. Unfortunately I didn't keep a copy of this one. They also demanded 30 pounds up front for admin costs. Remember, I haven't had an income since april, thats a lot of money.

The appeal pack came a week or so ago and the date for the appeal shortly afterwards. I immediately informed them as it was four weeks notice of the appeal date. This is the email correspondance that ensued:

 It might look a bit bitty but then I am only screengrabbing the conversation. I can provide further proof of this if anyone needs it.I responded to the email then:

The response i got from this was shocking and just plain horrible:

My response to this was pretty level and appropiate:

So today on facebook I notice that they post a status saying that it was lovely that one of their clients, on winning their appeal had "given" them 200 pounds. I merely pointed out that this was a contractual obligation and this was the response I got ( as it seems I can no longer see their facebook posts I assume I have been blocked and I am still waiting a response from them by email regarding all of this) This is the facebook notification of their post:

and this too:

So here is me, with little over 3 weeks to my appeal now having to try and find someone else to represent me, because even if they still will, I dont trust them anymore and feel sick about this whole thing.

The CAB are going to try and do their best, but they can't promise anything with such short notice. I feel like crying, giving up, but I need to remind myself that I can do this, even if I am forced to on my own. I just hope I don't have to.

Please, if you are going to engage with advice services be very careful because they can be good and bad ones out there. if you are worried feel free to contact me on twitter @allbigideas and I can help you.