Right, so I've had a chat with a friend of mine who works for the DWP. According to him I am correct, I am without a doubt still entitled to ESA as a full time student as I am on DLA and have satisfyed the conditions of the ATOS medical.
What is really annoying me is the ineptitude of the people I have spoken to on the phone at the contact center. Here's how the conversation went yesterday -
Me: I spoke to someone this morning and was told my claim has been suspended because I am enrolled on a course at university. This has never been a problem before and I do not understand this decision. Please explain
Contact center adviser: Ah yes but you're on ESA now and the rules are different from when you were on IB
Me: According to my information I am still permitted to attend university and continue to receive ESA
Contact center adviser: Yes but we don't have proof of your student finance payments which we need to take into account before we can continue to pay you
Me: I'm on contribution based ESA therefore whatever I get from student finance is irrelevant
Contact Center Adviser: Are you? oh yes so you are. Hang on and I'll go and see if I can find the information to advise you.
very long wait
Contact Center Adviser: Sorry I can't find anything about this.Therefore I really can't advise you. Just send us the information we asked for and a decision maker will get back to you in due course. Is there anything else we can help you with today?
according to my friend there are several things wrong here. For a start they have suspended my benefit without sending me out a letter advising me of this (known as a susp.1 letter) I need this letter so that I know exactly why my benefit has been stopped and the steps I need to take to challenge it.
Secondly if the contact centre staff don't know what to do they are supposed to hand over my query to the actual workers at the benefit center who are obligated to ring me back within a 24 hour period. This has not happened.
My friend has assured me that this is just a case of DWP employing people who do not know the ins and outs of the benefit system and once my file reaches a decision maker I should be O.K. But after going through the ordeal of the ATOS medical last year this is very frustrating. I'm trying not to think about it too much but I can't wait till Monday morning when I will ring them up and have a go at them again....
half hoping the stories about atos delays still hold, otoh i'd rather get it over and done with - as long as i get notice and chance to prepare etc..
moment. They don't make it easy on themselves, do they? Bloody Atossers! 
, (although not sure incapacity is much better) I don't remember there being medicals at all, not in my case anyway. When I started having them they weren't very often, every few years I think (and then there were some years I was working and out of the benefits system). I think, as you say, ATOS haven't done this with me now, I think it's more with the backlog, reassessments were put on hold (was it anybody not already in the assessment process on some date in Jan/Feb '14?). It's probably anybody's guess when the backlog will be cleared, and reassessments will resume, the whole thing is such a mess, although they did give a time period they expected them to be on hold, one year? I don't think it's safe to assume anything really, they can make up the rules as they go along. And I don't know how it ties in with Maximus taking over, I think I read ATOS have to clear their backlog before they are let out of their contract.
