I have just received notice of the annual rent increase from my (Housing Trust) landlord. Whilst the rent increase is within the legal guidelines, in this case 2.7%, the increase in service charge is closer to 70%. This increase is due to the previously £0.28 per week charge for fire alarm/safety maintenance being increased to £6.04 per week. As there are 24 flats in the building this comes to £144.96 per week or £7537.92 per annum to "maintain" 3 low maintenance communal alarm systems (each group of 8 flats has a separate hallway and alarm panel). This rise of over £7000 per annum from the previous £349 seems to me to be a backdoor attempt to raise the rent beyond the amount allowed. A friend who is a tenant of a different local Housing trust is also facing a similar huge hike in service charge in this case for communal electricity, the 6 flats in his building are being expected to pay collectively £42 + per week for communal lighting that actually works out to about £4-5 per week @12 hours per day average. Any suggestions with regard challenging these increase's would be greatly appreciated. Also if anyone has any info on the actual maintenance requirements/costs of a modern (about 18 months old) fire alarm system (central panel, smoke and heat detectors in flats, smoke detectors in hall) it would be helpful.

After passing a Fork lift course in November last year I am now being "offered" the "opportunity to attend an open day run by Staffline DHl at a local college who are offering a training course specific to the local Land rover/Jaguar plant with a guaranteed interview with JLR at the end. The bait being the "Good wages" and secure job etc. However, a little research shows that 80% off the staff at JLR (Halewood) are Temps provided by Staffline DHL and are not paid anything like the rate JLR staff are. This company exploits a loophole in the regulations regarding temp workers and equal pay after 12 weeks, known as the "Swedish derogatory", this basically means the temps are contracted to the agency as employees and then subcontracted at a rate set by their "employers" What is troubling me is the fact that only 300 of the 800 current "temps" at JLR "Halewood" are on 5 shifts a week contracts and 200 are only guaranteed 1 shift's payment if laid off (zero hours) but according to my advisor they are looking for a further 500 ? Given the recent industrial unrest both at JLR Halewood and JLR's two plants in the midlands, with strike action being threatened unless wage parity is introduced, this makes me a bit suspicious particularly when JLR and DHL have stated they have a contingency plan in case off industrial action ! Any thoughts on this? am I just being a bit paranoid?

I have also been informed that it is to become mandatory to allow DWP access to my UJM. In my case I was given a load of nonsense about "the Government winning a court case" (?) and all UJM data now being stored behind a "government firewall not at Monster.com which makes everything all legal and ok". Non compliance will apparently mean having to come into the JC daily to use one of their 3 "soon to be 15" computers (along with about 1000 other people). When asked about some kind of user guide to UJM he very kindly pointed me in the direction of...... The UJM toolkit ! talk about shooting yourself in the foot. To be fair my advisor has till now been good and not tried to B.S. me, so I assume he is being pressured from above. other posts on this topic would indicate it is widespread. Annoyingly as he had been (till then) Ok with me I had already agreed to allow him access, now he is going to have to apologise for lying to me and ask me again, nicely !

You say they have your phone number and email adress, can you remember if they asked you how you prefered to be contacted ?. They are supposed to use your "prefered contact method" to contact you, even if you have specified otherwise they usually use the phone. You have good grounds to question why they have sent you a letter if they have your phone number and your prefered method of contact is the phone. I have just finished WP but got the date wrong on my last appointment, Ingeus had "tried to Phone" me ( I've no phone, told them 3 times the number they have is unknown to me), my new JCP advisor (nice chap) pointed out they had not used my prefered method of email and he would "make a note" of that giving me the impression this was of some relevance.

Hi all, I had an appointment with my pimp at Ingeus today, when he noticed that the majority of my job applications had been made via email, he demanded that I log on to my Email Sight and show him the contents of my "sent" folder (allegedly "mandatory"). My sent folder was EMPTY:oops:, this of course led to a demand to know why and a thinly veiled accusation of not telling the truth, my answer at the time was "dont know, maybe the settings?". Having now checked I can confirm, (for Yahoo users at least), that copies of sent Emails ARE kept by default, but this setting is optional. You could save a copy of every Email you send if you wish, but considering the potential for Identity Theft that this poses if your Email is "hacked" I personally would think twice. Which leads me to the question can the WP pimps "mandate" that you enable the "save sent Email" folder?, it seems to me this would be contrary to our rights to privacy and the protection of personal data, as defined by the Data Protection Act.

Hi all. Bit more on my earlier post on e-mail and passwords, Ive just noticed the changes to the DWP jobsearch website. A lot of the jobs on there now have an "apply" tag this takes you to a registration page where you create a Login and Password, I'm assuming this is what was being refered to and not as I first thought E-mail passwords, sorry, getting paraniod in my dotage:oops:

G4C... It was the Liverpool City centre office, but as I said, it was a conversation between two clients, no advisors names where mentioned. It was obvious from the short conversation I had with them that they were "new" to I.T. and one at least had been "pursuaded" that it was necessary to create an E-mail account and give the password to his advisor. A previous poster made referance to their "advisor" looking over their shoulder when using the computers and suspected them off looking for their password ? As Nimitz say's, the idea that you have to give your password to anyone is male bovine droppings.

Hi All. I was in Ingeus Liverpool today and overheard a conversation (between two"clients") about "HAVING to give your E-mail PASSWORD" to Ingeus ! I pointed out to them that this was a breach of their right to privacy under Data protection laws and aked if it was anything to do with the Universal job search, which as far as I'm aware is presently optional, but was told they had just been told they "Had To" under "New Rules" IF Ingeus are asking for E-mail passwords be aware that if they access your email address they also have access to :......... Your Private communications and address book ( you have a duty under law to protect other peoples Data, and it is illegal to open other peoples mail (surely this also applies to E-mail) Access to your "profile" (both public and private) which can also give direct access to your Facebook, Twitter, Etc. accounts if you have them linked. IF and I stress the word If, this is the case (possible) and it is a Legal requirement (Unlikely), then i strongly suggest opening a second E-mail account just for this purpose, Inform them you will do this, but refuse to give them the password for your Private (original) E-mail and DO NOT use the same password for both. And of course insist that they remove your Private E-mail address from their system.

Hi all, Has anyone got any Info on Fork lift courses run by "The Retail Academy" in Liverpool? I have been offered "Fork lift training" By Ingeus, But, AFTER agreeing (and the initial "mandatory" appointment being made) I was informed that I first had to do a four week Retail course. Before I could attend unfortunately, I had an accident resulting in me being on ESA for a few months. I'm now back with Ingeus and waiting to be put on this course, BUT a friend is in the final week of it and informs me NO Fork Lift training is available due to "lack of funding". I was originally offered this back in early Summer, was there funding then or is this another lie by Ingeus ?, Has anyone done this course AND the fork lift training?. If the training "offered" (mandated) is not actually available then surely this is fraud, and one that we could possibly prove.

I have added this to the bottom of my cv, Data protection act 1998. This document is provided for administrative purposes only. No permission to reproduce, distribute, share, or disseminate the information contained within is granted or implied by its submission. Any violation of these conditions will be reported to the Office of the Information Commissioner and may result in criminal prosecution And this to my application letter template. Feel free to cut and paste! This email transmission including any attachments is confidential and may also contain information that is legally privileged and copyright material. It is intended solely for the addressee. . You must not disclose or use in any way the information in the email.If you receive this email by mistake please promptly inform me by reply email and then delete the email and destroy any printed copy. Any use, interference with, disclosure or copying of this email transmission, or action taken in reliance on this email transmission, is unauthorised and prohibited under the Data Protection Act 1998