Thanks. The latest is that I was promised that a named person would call me back on Tuesday afternoon. I never received the call. So I called around 4:30 and was told that unfortunately she had to go home early. However, she would definitely be in on Wednesday and that she would call me with an update. Her manager had even been cced in. Wednesday came and went without a call. So, I called this morning. Apparently she was on another call but would call me back within the hour. This time I did get a call back. Not from the rep as she had to go home as she was unwell again but a specialist who said he had taken personal charge of the case to get it resolved adn he will be back in touch with me by the end of the day. I also mentioned to him that in the meantime I had had a reply from Sir Adrian Montague's office who said that he had asked for the relevant department to look into this as a matter of urgency! ( I emailed both him and Andy Briggs late on Monday) Hopefully, this will get the wheels moving. I will take your advice though and record the phone call. I am fearing though that it will be another holding message i.e. "thsi will take 10=15 days to resolve etc, etc." I will update though!

Ok, thanks. I'll give them a try.

Thanks. Yes, I made one complaint but I am guessing they marked it as resolved when they paid me the £100 compensation after they thought the policy encashment money had been sent out earlier this month. I have put in another complaint since the encashment money went missing though.

I have an ex Friends Life with profits investment bond now under the ownership of Aviva. This was transferred to me by my mother. Over the past three years I have made a number of successful partial withdrawals on the policy without issue. This all changed when in early September of this year, I submitted another partial encashment for £3000. After not receiving the money within 10 days I contacted Aviva and was told that due to a technical issue sufficient units could not be cancelled to action a payout. Therefore, the process was delayed. To exacerbate, the issue, I had a building project which was underway and tradesman and materials need to be covered. Towards the end of September I decided to encash and cancel the whole policy. I was reliably assured that this would not be hindered by ‘the technical issue as it was a full encashment. I submitted a claim for a full encashment for £28000. Once again, after 10 days I still had not received my funds I contacted Aviva. This time it was claimed that I needed to submit certified copies of my passport and bank statement despite Aviva having paid out in the past from the policy to my bank account, Aviva suddenly needed to check my documents. I had these stamped by the bank on Friday 12th October and sent them off. On Friday 19th October, I was assured that all was fine and that the payment was on the way. Having not heard further I again phoned on Wednesday 24th October only to be told that actually the payment was delayed again as they needed on the verification documents, the contact details of the person at the bank who stamped the documents. I would therefore have to resubmit new verification documents again. Even at that stage I felt that the handling of the matter was unacceptable especially with different customer agents giving confusing and contradictory assurances and information. However, I resubmitted new verification documents this time stamped with contact details of the person verifying them. On Wednesday 31st October, I was informed that the documents had now been verified and payment would now be authorised the next day and sent out. On Tuesday 6th November I phoned Aviva again to check on the progress of this payment. I was told that the payment had just been authorised but it would be with me in “3-5 working days” By Tuesday 13th November I still had not received any money I contact Aviva, yet again. I was informed that the payment was definitely on the way and I should contact my bank to see if it was coming through. On Friday 16th November, Aviva finally admitted that there may be a problem and that my money could be missing. My bank told me not to worry and that they could trace it if given a payment reference number. Despite requesting this on both Friday and today, the Aviva/Friends Life call centre have been extremely reluctant to furnish me with this simple information which would help Barclays easily trace the money. Today it is Monday 19th November and a payment that I was due to originally receive on September 15th is still delayed with no one seemingly knowing where it is. Any suggestions would be most appreciated as I have lost all faith in the ex-Friends life branch of Aviva and am starting to suspect there has been a misappropriation of funds. Two weeks ago, I was offered and given £100 compensation for the stress and inconvenience caused by the initial delays but I think any objective person would agree that in the circumstances, £100 is extremely paltry compensation. In short, you have to remember that the original request was submitted in early September. We are now in late November and I still have not received any of the money from the policy (apart from the £100 compensation!) Also, I needed that money to pay bills and tradesmen as soon as possible. The two-month payment delay has led to me having to resort instead to credit cards to pay for my £50000 renovation project as the builders became fed up with my excuses as to why their labour and materials had still not been paid for. The cost of this interest has been astronomical. This has been so stressful, but I believe I can’t take this to the financial ombudsman until Aviva close the matter (?) so any suggestions would be very much welcome.

Hi, Thanks for the advice above. The insurance company (Sun Alliance it turns out AA are just the broker) have confirmed that the independent investigator concluded that there was no damage on my car and the scratches on their car could not have been caused by me. He also has digital photos to prove this. However, they have been in touch with the 3rd party's insurer again and apparently the claimant has sent in a USB stick with other evidence purporting to show their damage was caused by me. However, Directline have not looked at the USB stick yet! From SA's point of view unless they have CCTV evidence it would never override that of an independent investigator. However, until they look at the USB stick my file unfortunately has to remain open and I have to renew at the increased rate. Any further advice would be most welcome as they renewal date is 28th May!

Thanks, I will follow your advice and update you!

Hi, I was wondering if anyone can help. Last August, I was rung by The AA my insurance company and informed that a 3rd party had alleged that I had driven into their parked car in our cul-de-sac and then driven off having caused damage to their car. The 3rd party also had an independent witness to the incident. After they mentioned the car in question, I knew the house that had made the claim and also realised that the 3rd party and the independent witness were at the same address! I knew that this incident had not occurred and that essentially they were trying to find a cheap way to replace their battered old car (which incidentally has not been replaced and is still full of dents and scratches all over it) I told the insurance company that no such incident had taken place. They sent out an independent investigator who looked at my car and verbally agreed he could see no damage. I then heard nothing more until I received my astronomical renewal quote. I then contacted The AA and they said it was because the claim was still outstanding on my file. They woman I spoke to assured me that they would do their best to get it closed asap. My question is essentially: What can I do? The insurance is due for renewal at the end of this month and unless this is resolved by then, I guess I could be held to ransom to renew at this eyewatering figure? It all seems very unfair and as I hear nothing more since last August, I thought the matter had been resolved and the AA had realised that this was a [problem]. Any advice would be most welcome Thanks

The reason given is that some of our activity is not aligned to the future targets of the company and also some activities are not meeting the organisation's KPIs. We are in a Union but it is not very effective!

Thanks for the replies, Yes, I was more concerned about the indirect consequences. It is interesting Becky that you say there is no protection against poor treatment. Surely, the employee would be protected fro many direct consequences such as being treated inferiorly to someone who did not sign the petition?

Hi, I work in a large organisation of 500 employees where management is planning to reduce activity in our section and half the work force of our section from 20 members to 10. As a result, someone has decided to organise a petition of all 500 of the workers in the organisation asking management for an end to job losses and instead to negotiate an alternative plan with our section. I have argued that anybody who signs such a petition could find themselves in trouble with management but other people seem to think that any direct consequences such as dismissal or maltreatment would be illegal. I would be interested for any thoughts on this matter!

Ok, I will do. Thanks

Th\nks for that advice. Much appreciated. What kind of time limit should I give it? It has been 3 weeks now since I cancelled the booking.

I did it by mastercard credit card? Is there hope? Thanks for any advice

Hi, I booked a reasonably expensive hotel in the Maldives via ebookers which required a refundable deposit. Unfortunately, plans have changed and I had to cancel the hotel booking. They have promised a refund of my deposit but 3 weeks later no deposit has yet appeared on my credit card statement despite me emailing them repeatedly. What are my options?

Thanks for the comments and I appreciate the points made. I haven't made the application to HR yet so no nothing is official and yes I take your point EmployLaw about wording it carefully. Luckily, it would seem from other colleagues reports that HR don't necessarily back management blindly and so I might get some good advise from them prior to making the application. Ultimately, I have a young family so if they do force me I will do as they say. I just hope they don't seek retribution in future.

I currently work for a further educationinstitute where in addition to our teaching duties we have administrativeduties too. In 2011 we had a new line manager who introduced a policy of a workfrom home day and I managed to secure a Monday as my work from home day toassist with childcare. This was a scheduled work from home day agreed andtimetabled by the line manager as part of self-managed time but not arrangedvia HR. In late 2012 we had a new HR manager whodeemed that self-maanged time was not a right. The operational needs of theinstitution needed to be put first. I mentioned flexible working arrangementsand was told that this needed to go through HR but I quote " I do not knowthat much about HR policy" and "In twenty years I have not heard ofpeople having time off for childcare" The timetabling for this term was then donein late December and it seemed that I had Monday free so I felt that there wasno need to apply for the flexible working especially since other peoples'requests seemed to have been met too. I then went on annual leave in mid-Decemberand came back to work yesterday (Tuesday). Luckily, I had checked my email atthe weekend and discovered that I had been timetabled for admin duties on theMonday. I emailed the line manager immediately and was told that I should makean official application via HR. I was due to have a meeting regarding courseplanning with the line manager today. However, she needed to postpone it andsuggested next Monday as an alternative date. I reminded her about my application for flexible working. She respondedby saying that the assumption was that until I received official permissionfrom HR that I would come in on a Monday. In the meantime someone else applying forflexible working on childcare grounds has not been told that. Also, otherpeople have had the timetable work out in their favour due to health issues, orthe fact that they work elsewhere on particular evenings even though they arealso on full-time contracts. I feel slightly miffed by the situation buthave I got any grounds to complain about any of this treatment. Unfortunately,I suspect the answer may be no!

Yes, it looks like I am in a no win situation!

Hi, I would be very grateful for any advice. I have been working recently for a college on a zero hours contract. Before Xmas they offered me in writing 10 hours work from January-March. to which I agreed. They are now saying that as there are insufficient student numbers that work can no longer be given to me and full time staff will be doing the work. Is this legal? As far as I was aware, the zero hours contract doesn't guarantee any hours but in turn an employer shouldn't promise you any hours either in advance. Am I right? Any help would be most welcome!

Any ideas anyone? I am quite stuck at the moment!

Hi, I hope I have posted in the right forum. I have basically received a demand for £2100 in unpaid income tax from Inland Revenue under their P800 tax calculation. Essentially, I have paid all my tax for 2009-2010 at Basic rate when I should have paid higher rate on about £5000. No real arguments about this except that I pay everything via PAYE. I think the problem stems from the fact I had three jobs simultaneously so two of them deducted tax at basic rate and the other one used the BR code. My question is: How much of this is my fault? Should I have informed the taxman that I think I am not paying enough tax? For me £2000 is a lot of money to pay back in one go! Any advice would be most appreciated!

Hi, I was wondering about the flat we live in at the moment. It is on an AST for 1 year having been renewed already once so we are now in the second year. Our next move will probably be in 2011 when we plan to buy a property. However our current contract is vague on required notice and only states: Strictly with the Landlord’s or his Agent’s prior consent and subject to certain conditions that may include the Landlord’s reasonable costs associated with the re-letting of the Property, the Tenant may be allowed to surrender or give up this tenancy before it could otherwise lawfully be ended. There is no mention of any specific notice period. This is very different to other contracts I have signed in the past where a notice period is mentioned. Does this mean that strictly speaking we can only leave the property at the end of the one year agreement in August? If for example we found a property in April, would we have to pay rent until the end of July or can we ask the landlord to accept 1 month’s notice? Or conversely if we found something in October could we not stay on for another 2 months?

Sorry, my mistake. Rule 8.3 not 8.2 Anyway, that's the letter I received. Having appealed successfully against parking fines and traffic violations where the usual line is "We were right but are letting you off", this letter seems unusual in so much as they seem to actually be suggesting that a mistake was made by the ticket inspector......

Thank you for your correspondence, received by this office on 01-Jun-2010 The Penalty Fares Rules work in conjunction with the National Rail Conditions of Carriage (NRCOC). Both state that where the facility exists at the origin station passengers must buy the correct ticket for their entire journey before joining the train. Penalty Fare warning notices are displayed at all Penalty Fare stations advising rail users of the necessity to produce a valid ticket for inspection on request and of the consequences for failing to do so. A penalty fare is an enhanced fare issued in accordance with those Rules and Regulations - it is not an implication of any intent to avoid payment of the fare due. Appeal decisions are made in accordance with a Government approved Code of Practice. A copy of the Penalty Fare Rules, NRCOC and approved Code of Practice leaflet are available online at https://www.penaltyfares.co. uk. It is a requirement of the Penalty Fares Rules 2002 that the penalty fare notice should be completed in accordance with all parts of Rule 8.3. Whilst strict liability to pay a penalty fare would have been decided by the authorised collector at the time of issue, it has been concluded on this occasion that the notice is not wholly compliant with Rule 8.3. With that in mind, I am pleased to inform you that your appeal has been successful. There is, however, a fare due of £3.70 for the journey in line with the National Rail Conditions of Carriage and attached is a statement provided by the Debt Collection Agency (RPSS). A refund of £16.30 has been calculated by the Debt Recovery Agents (RPSS) and a cheque will be sent under separate cover from the train company that issued the penalty fare. If there are any queries regarding the statement please contact RPSS direct on 0871 559 2997, Monday-Friday, between 6am and 10pm, rather than IPFAS. Jason Saunders Appeals Assessor RPSS Statement Of Account for reference Fare Due: £3.70 Administration Fee: £0.00 Notice Amount Paid: £3.70 Admin Amount Paid: £0.00 Already Refunded: £0.00 . Amount Outstanding: £0.00 London & South Eastern Railway Limited trading as IPFAS Registered Office: 3rd Floor, 41-51 Grey Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6EE Registered in England No. 04860660

An update to this. I received a letter from the IPFAS saying why they had penalty fares, where they had penalty fares posters etc, etc. Then surprisingly.... The revenue collector must follow rule 8.2. However it is felt that he did not adhere to rule 8.2 on this occassion and therefore I am due a refund for the penalty!!! I was over the moon and feel totally vindicated!

Thanks for the frank advice and assessment of the situation. One thing I also forgot to mention was that the revenue collector refused to give me his name and looking now on the receipt he gave me, his name is not on there. Any case for complaint there? From what I have read about IPFAS, people very rarely get their money back. It is called the Independent Appeal Service but is it seems a subsidiary of Southeastern Trains. What a [problem]!!!