christmasoompa

Yep, see edit above. That means they can't appeal either though if the application is refused.

atlascakes

Thank you again for all your kind responses.

I have contacted a lawyer referral service who can put us in touch with a lawyer who can give us a 1/2 hour free consultation.

We don't qualify for Legal Aid - I made $28K last year, 1K over the limit for 2-person families. (I'm surprised there isn't some sort of scaled assistance for people close to the limit in a shared pay option - but that is another issue entirely.)

Hopefully we can get some good advice in 1/2 hour. The letter said we have 30 days to respond so we have a little bit of time to wait for a response.

If not, we will call the person who signed the letter and ask to speak to them directly. We'll fall on our proverbial sword and hope for the best.

If you like, I will let you know what happens and at the very least I hope someone else can learn from our stupidity.

Thanks again for all your kindness and advice.

james.mc

By all means drop in and let us know how it goes. It's always good to receive feedback on issues such as this. Like you say others may learn from it.

I hope it works out for the better though.

Good luck