Requesting a review with additional information

Apologies for the long post...mine is a pretty complicated situation so will put down in point form what has happened to date:

• Prior to applying for the HSMP, my partner rang the Home Office to clarify a few issues we had, mainly around past earnings as we had been travelling for 3 months and not worked a full year. He was told:

1. Earnings potential in the HSMP is based on pro-rated salary
2. We could supplement this by proving our earnings potential by supplying contracts from current employers or, quote: “something from an agency showing that you earn X amount per hour”
3. Originals are preferred but if copies are sent then we would be contacted to provide further information/originals at a later date.

• Suffice to say, based on the information supplied we applied for the HSMP in Dec 04 and which was rejected in Jan 05 on the basis of both insufficient evidence and past earnings.

• On 7th February I sent a letter of complaint to Customer Service asking that my application fee be refunded as I would have never applied for the HSMP at the time if I was given the correct information and known that salary is not pro-rated.

• Sent an email on 18 March to a Customer Service Manager after contacting HSMP and finding out that they either had not received my complaint letter or could not find it. Received a letter on 13 April from another Customer Relations Manager who acknowledged the misleading information and said that the HSMP team had arranged for my application to be "reviewed and the possibility of earnings prorated to be explored"

• Suffice to say, due to insufficient evidence my reviewed application was rejected as I was not awarded any points for earnings. I had emailed the CRM to ask whether or not HSMP would request additional information as there was no point in my application being reviewed when I did not have sufficient documentation. Response: "When conducting a review the HSMP team will request any further information as required. In other words they wouldn't award the points for earnings and bring you within reach of the 65 points without giving full consideration to whether you deserve more points in the other categories also". I was not contacted for further information.

I am considering requesting another review, asking that my past earnings are prorated and considered along with additional supporting evidence. I know that in general, a review does not take into consideration additional evidence but my argument is that aside from being given incorrect information on prorated salary I was also told that all I needed was to prove earnings potential earnings potential by supplying contracts from current employers or, quote: “something from an agency showing that you earn X amount per hour” – which is what I did.

What do you think my chances are? I feel like I have been fighting the HSMP on this for so long that I almost ready to give up.

Also, it states that you must ask for a review within 28 days of the decision on your application being made. It is now 28 days – I emailed the same CRM two weeks ago to ask if I could submit additional information and he did not get back to me until Monday. Could HSMP decide not to review my application on this basis?

Thanks in advance...I really wish I had found this forum earlier.

And something that may be of interest….when I spoke to my original caseworker and explained that I was given wrong information on prorated salary but didn’t have a name she told me it was too bad and that I couldn’t prove anything. I rang HSMP customer service in March and asked the same question. Got the same response. The guy I spoke to even explained to me (an accountant) how proratering works.