I'm also a fan emmzzi / sidewinder, but unfortunately he has taken us to a point of the letter of law due to this and all of his is other antics. Even though my relative agreed to remove the items on one the days he has requested him to, he has now sent correspondence back to him, which is threatening violence, due to this, the police are now having to attend to ensure his safety. He has informed the owner of the company of the police attending and his response to the the email is some what of a concern to both of my family member and the police. All he wants is what he is entitled to, and it to be sorted amicably, he has been in contact with ACAS and they are advising him that the owner is unlawfully with holding his redundancy and no deductions can be made out of his redundancy payment in respect the owners cost for removing these items, and that's if he had to ,they also said that he should have been paid in lieu of notice, in which he hasn't. It is far from easy, he is on the verge of a breakdown and even receiving counselling, no company however big should be allowed to treat people this way. He's collecting the items tomorrow so hopefully it can be all over with, but something tells me its far from over.

Hi All One of my family members is currently experiencing some employment issues and hope someone could give us advice on the following and some guidance on how to deal with the issue. While there have many issues leading up to the point of redundancy i will try and keep with the current issue. He has been off sick for several weeks since Early October with stress and palpitations brought on mainly by his employment problems, specifically being informed by the company of the risk of redundancy and him having to apply for the only position available to keep is job as well as the owners son applying for the position.(which he thought was a no Win). He was given notice of his redundancy and was given a date of 17th Nov 2014, with the date passing he was expecting his redundancy Friday 21st Nov which is when the usual pay date is. He contacted the owner today to ask when he would be receiving his payment only to be told that the owner was busy and that he would contact him later. The owner made contact a little later via email. The owner alleges to have sent him a letter dated the 4th November stating that he had to remove some items that have been stored there for several months (owners consent)Apparently this is causing an environmental issue, and in the event that this was not removed in a certain time frame, he would arrange the items to be removed at the cost of nearly £500 and that this cost would be deducted from his redundancy payment. Please keep in mind that the owner has kept in contact throughout the consultation period and sickness period via either email or recorded letter. The owner hasn't got rid of any of the items and given him until next week to remove these items and stipulated he needs to remove these items and inform him of the time and who is collecting the items, so basically he is withholding his redundancy payment until this is done. To say the owner is being awkward is a understatement to everything that has happened with him recently. Your thoughts and advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Bridgykoi.

I had a claim put in against me in 2003 for 1 child, arrears went back to 1998 and i didn't know anything about this prior to 2003,what I find odd is that I had 2 children with my ex but only 1 was claimed for in jan 2003. I paid maintenance plus extra £13 per week to clear arrears up up until 2006, I was then notified by the CSA in 2006 about the other child. I was reassessed and was assessed at £65 a week but to keep paying the original amount I was assessed at in 2003, with no arrears to pay, I was told to keep paying what I had always paid which was £13 per week over the assessed amount Around this time I changed employment and informed the agency of this,which is on record. I was then contacted again out of the blue and asked how much I was earning, in which I was again told to keep paying the same and was told it Would be 20% of my net income which relates to csa2. Fast forward 5 years, I start receiving giro's for the amount I was over paying without contact. I contacted the agency in 2011 and asked what these payments were for, i was told it was for overpayments to the Pwc between 2 specific dates. Fast forward a year, I received a breakdown of what i paid against what I should have paid and it showed i had over paid nearly £3000 with a new payment schedule to recover over payments from the pwc. Again the odd thing is that first sentence in the letter thanked me for requesting the form which I never did, the form also showed a date of assessment in which I never had a assessment on this date. I then receive an assessment form with no cover letter or pre paid envelope, I started to fill the form in, 1 of the questions was which children in the enclosed letter do you accept you are the parent of? But didn't receive any cover letter? So I contacted the agency and explained the above, I was informed that the pwc had put a complaint in about the second child being missing from the assessment, I told that I had proof that the child was in fact added in and I had an assessment which I faxed off to them. The agency was happy with evidence I provided and wanted to know about my employer from this time and what my income was,they even contacted my employer to find out what I was earning which I told them to do. A few days had past and i decided to contact them again to find out what was happening, I was told that they were happy with evidence I provided, however they informed me that they did see on record that I contacted them about my new employer and a new effective date was was entered from the date I told them about my new employer and it was now with a finance worker. I contacted the finance worker and was told that I should have been paying around £20 short of what I should have been paying from 5 years ago, which was about £8000 in arrears, this included all the back payments I had been given back by the pwc, due it not being my fault they said i could just up my assessment to pay my arrears off. The case worker then told me her work had to be checked and she would be back in contact with me in a few days time. No contact, I decided to contact her again she said that she was looking into missing payments from 2004 and I explained that I had never missed a payment since April 2003 and she told me I know you have been fully compliant. I My questions are: is it legal for them to go back 5 years and make changes that should have been done and which they acknowledge I told them about. If another case prior to this one appeared with a different pwc,would this change the assessment amount of what should be paid or should the money just have been split between pwc's. Thanks in advance. Jonny

Understanding that a lot of things have changed over 10 years since i took out the MPPI, i have tried calculating the % difference being 10 years younger with a different provider. Life insurance & critical health insurance (cover £21.950 over 25 years = premium of £24.24 per month (Fixed) based on us being 10 years younger. Life insurance & critical health insurance (cover £21.950 over 14 years = Premium of £13.42 per Month (Decreasing) Based on us being 10 years younger. This is a 44% difference of premiums. We have been paying £31.08 per month over 110 months Totaling = £3418.80 (44% = £1503.92 + 8% = £1624.23) Does this look to be a fair but rough calculation.

Hi all Wonder if anyone can give me any advice on my MPPI claim. I am currently at the final stages of settlement, i have had to go through the ombudsman route due to the bank not upholding our complaint. The adjudicator at the ombudsman have made a decision and here are the details: Back in 2002 we arranged a mortgage for £21950 over 14 years, we was sold a Protection insurance to cover this amount over 25years on a repayment basis, so basically the cover wasn't suitable due to the duration. The ombudsman Adjudicators decision: Mr ? & Miss ? do not appear to have any particular experience in financial/Mortgage matters and it is therefore to suggest they were reliant on the expertise of the mortgage advisor to ensure their protection requirements were appropriately met. A recommendation for life and critical illness cover for mortgage protection is by no means unusual and given my understanding of Mr ? and Miss ? circumstances i am minded to conclude such recommendation was reasonable,however it is clear the policy they were sold did not match their mortgage and it can therefore be said this is unsuitable. I believe MR ? and Miss ? should have been recommended/sold a decreasing term assurance,providing life and critical illness benefit over a term of 14years and with a sum assured of £21,950. Therefore in order to resolve this complaint i recommend (Bank) ascertain what the monthly premium for the policy described above would have been,based on the original underwriting and compare this with the premium of MR ? and Miss ? actual policy. In the event the premium for the proposed policy is less ,then (BANK) should look to refund the difference on each premium paid up to date of settlement , with additional interest of 8% Simple. In addition (BANK) should also look to pay a sum equal to the difference in premium from date of settlement up to might otherwise have been the final premium payment date of the policy I.E September 2016. Should the premium for the proposed policy prove to be more expensive than what MR ? and Miss ? are paying then i would conclude they have not been financially disadvantaged up to this point by the advice they received and whilst upholding their complaint, no redress is due. The bank have accepted the Adjudicators decision and i need to accept this decision by March 12th, or if i don't agree with the decision gets escalated to an ombudsman. How do i compare different policies from nearly 10 years ago for myself, i also don't know whether to accept this decision when i don't know if i am going to get any return or not. £21950 cover over 25 years repayment premium of £31.08 per month £21950 cover over 14 years decreasing premium = ?( how do i find this information) Your thoughts Thanks Bridgykoi

Hi thanks for your responses. I have now asked a few questions regarding this matter to the operations manager that issued the letter, and here are the questions and responses. 1. Why do we need have a meeting prior to our start time? To recieve an adequate handover from previous shift.(which we already do). 2. How long will this provision last for? Ongoing. 3.Do all Team managers at the same grade including transport and admin have to attend the meeting? No just warehouse. 4.Will this be over and above the normal 40 hr week? You are paid yearly not hourly.(im currently on a phased return to work and having to make my hours up using holidays)? 5.Can Team managers do this on rotation basis? No all Team managers on shift have to attend. I feel there is a couple of issues here! Double standards Breach of contract Would i be correct in saying this? do we follow the internal grievance procedure now which would be collective? In addition the same guy is saying that Team managers will now have to assemble a certain amount of volume, but this is not in our job description, we are ther to manager operatives and the operation? Would this be classed as a reasonable management request? Thanks In advance Bridgykoi

Buisness is massive, Employee's at our site approximately 500, around 50 at my grade split over various areas. Approximately 28 of us from warehouse are being told to come in 20 minutes early, majority of the same grades are from transport aren't being told to come in early. Warehouse and transport run side by side, the 20 minutes is basically for a brief for the days events, i.e volumes E.T.C. In addition some of us currently travel upto a 70 mile round trip to and from work, approximately 1.5 hrs in total, hence the reason we don't like the 20 mins at the start of a 06.00 start.

That must be the first post ive seen from you where you need to have a think or shufty! lol

Thanks for your help Rachel. Just one last thing: If a employee with the same grade as me, but with a different title (transport / warehouse),with the same terms and conditions isn't made to do these extra hours, where do i stand?

Hi Rachel thanks for the response. Is this a permanent new provision, that you work an extra 20 minutes a shift? I assume its for everyshift all of the time. How many shifts do you work a week/How many extra hours a week would this new provision mean? Any 5 shifts from 7, currently running on a 3 week rolling rota 06.00-14.00 & 14.00 -22.00 Have you been 'asked' or 'told' to do these new hours? Letter just states "managers meeting will take place prior to a managers start time" How long have you worked on your old hours? Coming upto 5 years ,the rota is continously changing but the hours have always been the same. We do go to debriefs at the end of our shifts that last upto 20 minutes, which we don't mind.

Hi All I have been asked to start work 20 mins early before every shift no later, this has been told to me via an internal letter from a manager. Contract states: 40hrs per week including half an hours paid break per day.For the saisfactory performance of your job shift and weekend working will be required.night shift working will attract a premium, you may be required to work additional hours to be agreed with your manager. I haven't got an issue with working over 20 mins or so and that is what i have been doing,but do have issues in starting 20 mins early. Certain positions have a grade, should these additional hours be the same for everyone in that grade regardless of where they work in the company. Could i be disciplined for failing to do this instruction or being late i.e 10 mins before my original shift start time? Your thoughts/knowledge would be appreicated. Bridgykoi

FOS have sent me the standard complaint forms about the MPPI sickness & unemployment and sent letters off to the bank themselves regarding the complaint. Ive completed those and sent them off recorded delivery today. They have also sent me a further complaint pack with regards to MPPI life assurance and critical illness. Feel a little daft now i have read between the lines: The policy for the Life assurance & critical illness is for £19,650 and expires in 2027 (25 years) this for joint cover for me and my partner and is paid at £31 per month. I only have a mortgage over 13 years, so why would i need protection till 2027? This again was sold to us thinking we needed it and we was lead into a false sense of security. Is there anything else i should be putting into the complaint?

Yes, spoke to them on the phone,gave them policy numbers and dates etc, explained to them that i thought i needed them to secure the mortgage, and didn't know i could cancel them within the duration of the mortgage. Obviously we were first time buyers at this time and didn't fully understand what we needed. Anyway they have given me 2 referenece numbers and sending letters off to the companies involved. They have 8 weeks to respond,FOS are also going to write to me to confirm my complaint is being dealt with.

I have been in contact with FOS via telephone, explained what insurances was taken out when we got the mortgage. She is dealing with both issues and the main compliant is that we thought that both insurances had to be in place for the duration of the mortgage agreement,so basically the cancellation of both polices wasn't clear. FOS are now going to be issuing complaint letters to the bank in question and ive been given 2 reference numbers for either case. So fingers crossed!

Due this issue being all over the news / net E.T.C, i decided to look into my own MPPI and life insurance. We took a small mortgage out for £22,000 in october 2002, at the same time we took out a tailored mortgage and repay protection as well as life assurance and critical illness cover on the same date, this was sold to us thinking that we needed it to secure the mortgage. Looking at it now i didn't need the mppi this is due to me being paid in full by my employer if i became sick and the policy not paying out in such cases,and the mortgage could have also been covered by my partners earnings due to the repayments being so small. In April 2010 i recieve a letter from my MPPI insurer stating important changes to tailored mortgage protection: Over the past few months we have been ppi providers across the industry and have been engaged with the FSA regarding how clear MPPI policy terms and conditions are expressed.As a result of the engagement the FSA and MPPI industry have agreed measures to provide clarification to customers surrounding their policies. We have agreed to make the terms and conditions of your policy clearer, in particular the section(S) which outline how and when we can make changes to your cover and how your policy can be cancelled. You policy is entirely optional and can be cancelled at anytime, you also have the right to complain to us in the relation to the matters covered bt this letter. Their are quite a number of changes,one of which is when your policy ends: (Set my alarm bells off) Policy will end immediately if any of the following happen: There is any dishonest,intentionally exaggerated or fraudulent behaviour by you or anyone acting for you in relation to a claim under this policy in such cases you may have to return any benefits already paid and you may forfeit any future rights under this policy,with no refund of premium. The cost of both Life assurance/critical ilness cover and MPPI is more than our mortgage repayment. Obviously they have put a scare tactic in there to try and avoid any claims. Can i reclaim any of money i have paid for these services,due to not fully understanding at the time i took them out, and for the amount of changes they have made to the terms and conditions, which is evidence they wasn't clear enough when i took it out? Thanks Bridgykoi

Hi Yes, it seems there is no law to suggest they must pay me sick pay or S.S.P whilst on a phased return to work. My problem is that i contacted work and asked if they was some how i could return to work even though i wasnt fully recovered. I was invited to a welfare meeting and adjustments to my salary wasn't mentioned from both sides, and it was agreed that i would return on a 4 week phase starting at 4 hrs per day (5 shifts), this was to increase 1 hr every week. I f i knew what i know now, i wouldn't have agreed to my normal 5 days from 7 working on a phased return, because i would have been recognised as being sick for days i didn't work. I am now going to be totally out of pocket for doing this even though it was an accident at work, if i wouldn't have mentioned returning to work, i would have still been off with full pay and no fuel costs ( which is costing approximately £40 per week) on top of what ive got to lose. Many of the higher management and the Health & safety manager find the reponse from H.R to be unfair in my situation. The physiotherapy sessions which i am still continuing with was referred to me and paid for by my employer, i will need to use annual leave or authorised absence to attend any further appointments now ive returned.

Hi All I have been off work due to an accident at work for approximately 9 weeks. Im on salary and entitled to 13 weeks sick at full pay, and 13 weeks at half pay. All the sickness was covered by doctors notes and all the notifications were followed. I am still under a physio refered to me by my employer and occupational health are also involved. Occupational health have advised my employer on a phased return to work for me. I contacted my employer and told them that i would like to return to work due to me wanting to get back to normality, a welfare meeting was held with H.R and manager. We agreed that i would speak to my doctor and discuss a possible phased return to work and that i would explain to him what was agreed. We agreed that i would be on a phased return to work for 4 weeks, working to start 4hrs per shift, and increase 1hr per week until i was upto the normal 8hrs a day., with no lifting. I have now been told that to make the hours up, i need to either, take authorised unpaid leave or use my holidays? ( This was not discussed at the meeting, due to me thinking i was still unfit for work and sickness benefit would cover it)? In addition i have also been off over bank holidays, am i still entitled to these bank holiday days even tho i was on sick leave? Within my phased return to work i still have physio sessions to attend , does my employer need to honour these appointments and should i be paid? Thanks in advance.

HI Been back to doctors today, explained everything about physio etc. Doctor is happy for me to be in the care of the physio at the moment. I have also been back to the physio, she states i still have problems with 2 disc's. and my back is in spasm, Physio is happy that the doctor has gave me a further 2 week fit note due to this problem. Physio tells me she did send a report off to the rehabilitation company and maybe this is why A.T.O.S are now being involved?? I have a further appointment in just over a weeks time at physio. Will CAB be able to direct me on what to do about a injury claim and who to avoid ETC, or do i speak to my company direct, problem is my injury was sustained mainly due to a 3rd party.

Thanks again postjj

Thanks postJJ How would you approach the company if you were in my position? Thanks

The company First Assist arranged my physio appointments, thats after i spoke to my doctor about rehabilitation which he said any help that my company offer to take it. Its the physio thats found the true problem with my back, after manipulating my back for half hour she found 2 disc problems, which im going to speak to my doctor about on Monday.

Hi PostJJ thanks for your response. They use A.T.O.S all the time not sure if they have experience in my line of work, and apparently its all done via telephone, but they have already refered me to company called "first Assist" and thats who is arranging all the physiotherapy for me, they will speak between me and my employer and give the best solution to get me back to work. I can't for the life of me understand why they are now referring me to A.T.O.S. when im already going through first assist. Thanks Bridgykoi

HI All Need urgent info if possible. I am still off sick due to the accident at work,supplied doctors notes ETC. (on to my 5th week) I have also responded and accepted the rehabilitation offered by my company.(NOT A.T.O.S) I have had a consultation and treatment from a physiotherapist who states i have problems with 2 discs in my back,and further appointments have been made. A full report from the physio is being sent to the people that sent me through this process. Im due back at doctors and Physiotherapist in 3 days. I was unfortunate to lose my Mother inlaw last week and we cremated her today which my company is fully aware of. I returned back home this evening to find yet another letter from work stating they have now referred me to A.T.O.S. and want to facilitate my return to work and if i have any issues to contact H.R immediately. I have contacted work again and spoke to a operations manager due to H.R not at work and don't return till Monday? He told me he's doesn't know anything about it and will get back to me on Monday. I am totally stressed out at the minute, im i doing something wrong? 1. Is this bordering on harrasment? 2. I have agreed to a rehabilitation program which involves physio which im still doing, im still under a doctor, why now refer me to A.T.O.S? Thanks in advance.

Appreciate your advice thanks.

its not ATOS they want me to go through strangely, its a separate organisation.