I'm back! After almost 4 years since the original complaint was posted, a couple of things have since happened. Following HSBC's removal of the disputed data from my credit files, I spent 2012/13 working for another high street bank. Firstly, as a call-centre customer service agent for a few months, then I landed a job as a Complaints Investigator (Most of that was down to what I had learned here at CAG) and made sure that wherever possible, I decided complaints in the customer's favour and awarded them as much compensation as I could justify in giving away...call it karma Back to the complaint.. I'm thinking that this would amply illustrate that the incorrect recording of the adverse credit data was the significant factor in the termination of the recruitment process with First Direct. That, following it's removal, and with no material changes to my credit records or financial status in the intervening time, I was able to secure an FSA-regulated job in that field of employment. I'm guessing that, as this is within the 6 year Statue of Limitations time period, I could have another swing at HSBC

I'm not advocating violence, rather sharing a person experience. After being subject to attempted fraud and threats of sanctions on National Insurance contributions by the previous advisor (all recorded and submitted as evidence to Jobcentre & Ingeus regional management) it was the last straw, and to be perfectly honest, very cathartic to be able to finally utter such words directly to them without any fear

I signed-off in Sept' 2012 without declaring any reason on the returned JSA book (I'd started a job) and didn't attend the arranged appointment with Ingeus as there was no point. I didn't hear anything from them until Jan 2013 when I received an appointment by text with details of a new advisor. I rang the number in the message and politely told them that I was no longer a JSA claimant, and that if I ever received another letter, phonecall, text message or otherwise from them, I would happily attend their office to smash their face in with a brick. I've not heard a squeak from them ever since

I thought the Statute of Limitations restricted that to 6 years maximum?

When you sign-off, if you write across the pages of your sign-off form "I do not consent to any of the employer information stated to be shared with any Work Programme organisation or other third party" The DWP processing office will not share that information and enable you to receive the £100 job grant. I've had this confirmed by DWP managers at the 'In-work Team' and also by Ingeus who have contacted me several times to find out why I have disappeared

If I were in your position, I'd have walked into HMV, chosen goods to the value of the voucher, left it on the counter in front of the cashier regardless that they are declining to accept them, and exited with the merchandise. They've already had payment in advance.

Have you registered your volunteering work with the jobcentre? If not, doing so would limit the sorts of work-related activities that Ingeus could mandate you to attend. If the organisation you volunteer with is a registered charity, you need to ask for a VOLWORK1 form. If they're not a registered charity, you'll need a J15C form. Tip: When you hand in the completed form to the jobcentre, ask them to stamp & sign it as recieved and get a photocopy (tell them your adviser has asked for a copy) and keep it to hand. In addition, if you have signed the employer contact consent form, send a letter of withdrawal to Ingeus. That way, they can't pester the organisation you're volunteering at, or try and claim any payments for your 'work-related placement' I've used volunteering as both a CV enhancer and a sanity-saver whilst I was on JSA, plus it effectively parked me with the WP. Your Ingeus advisor may try and challenge you and say that you have to give up your position, or threaten sanctions if you don't, but as long as you can stand your ground and tell them by doing so, makes you more employable (and it does) they'll likely leave you alone to get on with it. Hope that helps

It's not only utter rubbish, it's also attempted fraud. I've got a master CD of all the meetings that I recorded, including that one, and have posted a transcript of the meeting on this thread (about 30 or so pages back) Seven months and many letters into their complaints process, and am at the level of the Regional Director who refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing and make a formal investigation.

I was threatened with various forms of sanctions for refusing to provide job details or sign the employer contact consent when I told my former Ingeus advisor I had been offered an internship post, and later led to a job. I was also offered bribes of £100 and then £200 to give them the details they required to secure the outcome payment.

Perhaps an ideal opportunity to hit two birds with one SAR, I mean stone. I bet there must be all sorts of email communications between them as they fight for the profits they intend to make from you, that you could get a hold of under the Data Protection Act

Thankyou for the replies The entire details of the contract (that was sent to me by email) is as follows: "Hi, To save you coming in it stands as: [company] employ a subcontractor to undertake modelling on their behalf. This is paid at £x.xx per model. Work is allocated on a weekly basis. The subcontractor will be expected to complete any works they indicate they can complete in the week. Payment will be made 30 days from receipt of a valid invoice which can be issued by the sub contractor for work completed in the month at the end of the month" The company insist that they have the right to make payments after 30 days have passed on the following week's payroll, and most of the time it has been two weeks after the 30 days have expired after sending them overdue notices, and having 'Please make payment within 30 days of date of issue' stated on the invoice. I know they have received each and every invoice/reminder to their accounts email address so they cannot claim they didn't get it on time. An LBA has already been sent and expires this coming Tuesday. As for the administration fees, I read on a 'sticky thread' here that the fees a L.I.P. can charge have been increased from £9.25 to £18.00 p/hr, so the £15 p/hr (my current hourly rate) would fall under the maximum, and the 8 hours charged for would be for spending 1hr per month over 4 months having to chase outstanding bills, and the remaining 4hrs spent having to prepare the forms & admin to bring the claim against them. Their reply to the LBA was that they refused to acknowledge the Late Payment Commercial Contracts regulations. I'm assuming this will be a straightforward process to claim. Are there any templates that someone could kindly provide a link to, to help complete the forms to set the claim process in motion?

I recently made a post enquiring what I could charge for bringing a claim against a business to recover outstanding payments: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?375176-Freelance-supplier-amp-contractor-refusing-to-pay-on-time-help-required-on-court-action I've not had to go down this route before and will need to take action to recover the debt if full payment has not been recieved, as stated in a Letter Before Action that will expire on Tuesday. The details are straightforward enough, It's the matter of whether I can include any further charges for my time, and what would be considered reasonable costs by the court. Any suggestions, and any links to examples to complete the MCOL form, would be greatly appreciated

I've just had a quick look at the site you mention, and what strikes me as being in particularly poor taste are the 4-5 links to payday loan companies that came up. I wonder what percentage cut Ingeus get for referrals?

I've recently taken the plunge into self-employment for the first time and have been working as a freelance CAD designer for the last 4 months for a company under a very basic contract stating payment within 30 days of receipt of invoice. During that time, the company has consistently been late paying invoices and has required me to continually chase them. They've used all manner of excuses and now the business relationship has ended after the current invoice became yet again overdue (due date 1st December) and leaving me with no option but to get somewhat shirty with them. I sent an Overdue Payment Notice via email on the 4th Dec after they refused to explain why I had not been paid on time yet again, and stated that the company now had 7 days to pay £132 for services supplied, plus 4x statutory late-payment charges of £40 for every late payment (plus £2.32 in interest for the first invoice that was over 60 days late in payment), giving a total due of £294.26. The reply from them, also by email on the 4th Dec was that they only made 1 payroll run a week and that they 'explained' that they made payments after 30 days on the following payroll, and that they confirmed that I would receive the final payment of £132 on 7th December - today. Having just checked my account balances online, there is no sign of any payment into my account. I'm now at the point of taking a small claims action against the company for debt recovery, and to include the £40 charges as stated in the Late Payments Of Commercial Debts Regulations. I've not had to pursue this course of action before, and would like to know if the court would consider it to be reasonable if I include a figure of £120 (8hrs @£15 p/hr - standard industry rate) in business administration costs to cover time & effort spent in chasing them and processing the paperwork to bring the claim against them? I've had a search through the site but can't find any examples on how to best complete the Particulars of Claim for the MCOL document. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

If Ingeus have phoned/emailed/SMS messaged/written to you, there should be a record of it (I was shown on-screen details of phone & SMS communication notes during a WP meeting where the advisor was trying to refute a complaint) If you've sent any correspondence such as withdrawal of consent letters, or provided any documents such as CV, attended any courses along with any results from any tests such as the Basic Literacy & Numeracy, etc, the information should be in the records you have recieved. Could you give an idea of what you managed to get back from Ingeus? Chances are that they won't have sent you everything you asked for and may need a kick up the letterbox..

I've adapted a Subject Access Request template used for bank charges to make it appplicable to the DWP & WP [Your Name, Address, & NI Number] [Your Jobcentre Address} Dear Sir/Madam In accordance with the Data Protection Act (1998) I require you to supply me with all personal data held by the Jobcentre - the Data Controller, and every third-party Data Processor appointed by you including any Work Programme prime contractor, their subcontractors, or any other employment training or similar organisation in any way related to my claim for benefits This data is to include, but is not limited to - Records and documents relating to my history of benefit claim/s or National Insurance number. LMS, PRaP or other system documents or records, whether held on paper, digital, or other storage format. Emails, postal correspondences or telephone logs; including those with any third-party to my benefit claim. Records of all Jobcentre, Work Programme provider, or other advisor notes and details of meetings attended. Details of all past, present, or prospective employers contacted in any capacity, and by what means the contact was made, and the reason for contact. You have 40 days in which to comply with this legally enforceable request under The Data Protection Act If there is specific information which you require in order to satisfy yourself as to my identity, please let me know by return. However, please note that the above address is the one which you normally use to communicate my private business to me and which you have hitherto found to be acceptable. Yours faithfully, [signature] Please feel free to adapt the format or content to improve the chances of getting all the information requested, and as Bakatcha pointed out, this can be sent to the DWP Free of charge Make sure you send your letter via recorded delivery and track/print a copy of the recipient's signature via the Royal Mail website as evidence of postage in case you need to threaten them with a court order to disclose. *Edited to include specific mention of PRaP system records in SAR letter*

If a sanction was raised and then upheld by a DWP Decision Maker whilst a person had an active JSA claim, and then the claimant signed off before it could take effect, then there is the possibility that it could still stand if that person then made a new claim later. (within 6 months of signing off I think) If the claimant signed off from JSA, and then a sanction by a Work Programme advisor was made, then no sanction could be later applied, as there was no active claim at the time it was made. In my case, I was threatened with a sanction of National Insurance contributions by my former WP advisor as I refused to give employment details after I had signed off, but was a baseless threat by an advisor desperate to meet their targets and secure an outcome payment for the company.

As you have signed off, you are under no legal or contractual obligation to attend any appointment, inform them of any changes in personal details or circumstances, or indeed let them have any form of control over any aspect of your life whatsoever. You cannot be sanctioned retrospectively if you find yourself having to reclaim in the future, so the threats of sanction for 'not engaging' even though have signed off are nothing more than hot air by a WP pimp fighting to hold on to their job by their fingertipe If you have not already done so, send the WP company a Withdrawal Of Consent letter to deny them any opportunity to distribute your CV or other personal information, and to prevent them attempting to contact any past/present/future employer. Secondly, send your Jobcentre a formal letter stating that you want any record of your landline/mobile telephone numbers and any email address to be removed from their records, and that as they are a Data Controller, they are to instruct any Data Processor they have authorised to do the same, in accordance with the Data Protection Act. Thirdly, as for the unwanted & repeated contact by the WP company, have a look at Bakatcha's post on page 105 (http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?309173-Ingeus&p=4062344&viewfull=1#post4062344) on how to send a 'cease & desist' letter under threat of legal action

As you have signed off from JSA to take up your employed position, you are no longer bound by any of the conditions set by either the DWP or Ingeus. Their system can generate appointments for you 'til the cows come home, but you are under no obligation to attend any of them anymore. If you have declined your Data Protection Act consent then Ingeus have no legal grounds, under threat of lawsuit, to contact your employer, and it sounds as if they are trying every trick in teh book to get that information from you to enable them to claim a few thousand pounds in outcome payment (regardless of how little time you spent with them, or how little input they had into getting you into employment) I'd suggest sending your old Job Centre Plus office a sharp letter demanding they and any other Data Processer remove all email addresses, landline, and mobile telephone numbers, and that if they wish to contact you, you will only accept written postal communication - that should stop them in their tracks. If the worst should happen and you find yourself sat back in front of one of their advisers, they CANNOT impose any form of sanction or penalty for withdrawing your DPA consent or refusing to provide employment details. Hope that helps

Is there any way I can find out, whether through a SAR, FOI or other method to the DWP, if my former WP provider has made a claim for an outcome payment against my name?

That is a disgusting attitude toward someone who is striving to do what they can to change their situation. The only way to fight back is to make sure that all meetings with the provider from now-on are covertly recorded. That way, if ever a complaint over bullying or other conduct needs be raised against the provider, you have irrefutable evidence as to what really happened. Once you reveal that you have been recording all meetings, their attitude will change considerably, and (hopefully) for the better!

After 5 months of letter-tennis, trying to get a serious complaint investigated and travel expenses reimbursed, I've taken a new tack on complaint-letter writing after their latest denial. Can you spot the hidden message?

I wonder if they're using the Work Programme as a recruiting tool, as the last person who declined their offer of a job was stripped of their British Nationality and is currently in a prison in Djibouti. And you thought Ingeus sanctions were bad!

Regarding text-messaging. They have a system that records the mobile number, the content of the message, and most importantly, a delivery status summary that shows a 'ping-back' record of whether the text was recieved to that number or there was delivery failure. If you recieve a text message from them, it in effect has the status of a recorded delivery letter, regerdless of whether your read it or deleted it unread. You may be able to deny knowledge of a message left verbally on a landline answer machine, but mobile textx now cannot be claimed as not recieved.

They know EXACTLY what they're doing. They're milking the European Social Fund for every penny of profit they can get their greedy corporate hands on.