Why do you think you've lost out? You paid £1 for an item, sold it for £39.99 which you refunded then Royal Mail will give you back your £1. You are in exactly the same position as you were before the sale & unless the item was the very last one of your bulk purchase, just send your customer a repalcement for the agreed price of £39.99. Royal Mail's terms & conditions are very clear that they don't pay out for consequential losses. You should consider yourself very lucky if you are able to sell items which cost £1 for £40!!!! Especially if you buy in bulk. Anyone in business would be pleased to have such a mark up.

Just going back to the mortage advisor's comment in your first post, I think you need to find out EXACTLY what he meant. What exactly was the purpose of the loan that your husband declared on his mortgage application? Was it " to purchase property for elderly parents to live in rent free" or was it " to purchase main residence". Could it be that the "negative impact" was that the lender is unaware that your husband doesn't live in the property as his main residence & that the property has effectively long term sitting tennats, and that possibly your husband may be in breach of the terms of the loan? You should check this very carefully as this could be a far bigger problem than having unusual circumstances for your tax credit claim.

I have to disagree with the comments about the effectiveness of the FOS, although I realise that not everyone will get the same result Have a read of my thread Elmo & Lucy v Lloyds again!! As I explain in my thread it did take a long time & was stressfull but Lucy ended up with £18,000 & is now debt free. Just think how long it would take to earn £18,000 net of tax, nationa insurance etc etc. The important thing to remember is to prepare well & expalin everything to the Nth degree and provide your own calculations if you think the bank is wrong. Good luck Elmo

Just something for you to think about - you said the tax and National Insurance was unpaid for 2009/10. Have you contacted HM Revenue & Customs to tell them this? If you have proof you suffered deductions, your NAtional insurance contributions can be deeemed to your NI record. Additionally there is a chance that the company owes HMRC far more than just your tax & NI & that they may want to pursue the company & wind them up ( which would save you the cost) or that if HMRC start action, the director may be forced to wind the company up. Additionally if you look at this link on the Employment tribunal website http://www.employmenttribunals.gov.uk/FAQ/faqs.htm you will see that you can go to court to obtain a CCj against the company for your outstanding award - although this would cost, it will reflect on the company's credit record & whoever has lent the business loan would be very interetsed to see this on their credit record. Another thing that occurs to me is that if there is a loan, it must be being paid or the lender would be taking action to take posession of the director's house so the company must have some income. If you obtained aCCj you could also ask for an Oral Examination in Court & the director will have to answer questions & provide evidence about the comapny finances ( under oath if necessary). And finally!! You say there are no assets, but have you gone on to Companies House & obtained copies of the company accounts? They will only cost a couple of pounds but may show there are assets in which case you may have something to secure against. What they may also show is how much money has gone in & out of the company & the director's remuneration. If the director has caused the finacial problems by being reckless, a Receiver will be very interetsed if the company is liquidated & the director may be made persoanally liable for the company debts or forced to repay money they have extracted. Happy hunting. Elmo

Firstly, my condolences on your sad loss. I'm very surprised that no one could help you. You will need an account in the name of the administrators, its quite simple - the account would be in the names "AAAA and BBBB as Administrators of CCCC deceased" - all transactions should be done through this account & there should be no problems at all. I suggest going to the bank where your late sister had her account as this will be simplest. You are quiite correct in thinking the money will not be yours - you would hold it as a trustee on behalf of the beneficiaries of the estate. Can I suggest that it is worth taking some legal advice as this can save you a lot of work and worry in the long run especially as there are absentee beneficiaries & a minor to deal with. The estate will obvioulsy have to pay for this, but my experience is that some of the paperwork which would take you an age is what probate solicitors do day in & day out. i hope everything runs smoothly.

The other thing you may want to do is actually contact HMRC about your National Minimum Wage - if your mileage expenses are reducing your pay below the NMW rate, your employer may be committing an offence by not paying you sufficient.

Honeybee, you are incorrect. National Insurance is not agregated across employments - the lower limit applies to each spearate employment. So in this case Zararh is earning £90 pw from one job - below the lower limit & £177 per fortnight from the other, again below the lower limit. Zararh, you may want to make enquiries about paying voluntary contributions to your NI record. As regards the tax, there is something wrong with this - on your total income you should be liable for tax on about £2100 per anum @20% ie about £8 per week in TOTAL. The easiste thing is to find your nearest HMRC enquiry centre & arrange to go in there to get things sorted out. Also, with the level of your income 2 other things occur to me - firstly are you getting paid at least NAtional Minimum Wage and secondly are you entitled to income based TAx Credits? Again HMRC enquiry centre could help you with this. Elmosouth

I'm very surprised that no one from the union would accompany or represent him. My experience is when union reps are in situations such as this, it is very common for a senior union rep to be sent. One reason is to ensure that the employer is not using the matter as a way to start pushing the union around or to try & show that the union is powerless. Its always best to have another rep present. The employer wouldn't need your OH's permission to advise the union that there was a disciplinary matter involving a union rep. - they would probably need permission to divulge anything more than this, but would expect that the rep had asked for assistance from the union & had already told them everything. Playing devil's avocate: I still find it extremely difficult to beleive that a union is not supporting one of its reps. Has you OH actually asked them for help? And in your post of 3rd August, you also said you were going to "come clean" - to me this means that either the truth hasn't been told or a relevant part of the story hasn't been told. Is there anything else that may be relevant as people can only give advice based on what you say & if there is something missing, the advice may not be of any use or may be counter productive. Being very blunt it means that people who are trying to help are actually wasting their time. Quite simply if I was in your OH's position I would immediately contact he union for assistance & if I got no joy would go to the highest level & ask for a written explanation as to why I was being "thrown to the wolves". Situations like this not only harm the indivdual but also hamper TU reps in any future actions they may take on behalf of their memebers.

Have I missed somerthing in this? You said in your post of 3rd August that your OH was a union rep, but you have not at any point mentioned approaching the union for any assistance, nor has anyone else suggested this. Can he not get any help from his union? There is specific legislation relating to the disciplining of union reps by employers, esepcially if there may be any link to their genuine union activities. As a union rep I would be appaled if my union did not support any of its memebers, let alone its reps, who had these sort of problems.

On the top of your FIL's P45 there will be a reference number for his employer's PAYE scheme. If you need to check who employs him, get him to go to his local tax office & ask them to check their records. Interesting that you also mention about using "agency" doorstaff. I wouldn't mind betting that the reason they may be cheaper is because they are treated as self-employed, This means the agency that engages them will not be paying Employers National insurance it also means the doorstaff aren't entitled to holiday pay, sick pay, or any other employment rights at all - making it much easier & cheaper for the agency. Of course the big problems occur if one of the doorstaff is injured or injures somneone - then claims for liability start flying. I think your FIL is well out of this situation. As for meeting with the employer, my persoanl opinion would be for FIL to go and at least hear what she has to say. I would suggest that he does not go alone, & takes someone who can give him moral support & can also write notes of what is actually said. As for amounts of money -i would see what the employer has to say - there is no reason he can't listen then ask for a day or so to consider, then arrange a second meeting to agree or negotiate.

I have to say, like any organisation, it will depend on who is dealing with your case. i made 2 complaints - one was dealt with poorly, but Lloyds still made an ex-gratia payment. The other was dealt with superbly and ended up with an £18K refund covering a period of over 8 years. What the FOS don't make clear is that they don't operate like a court where both sides put their evidence & someone looks at the balance of probabilities (civil law). The FOS can be asking both sides different things & not telling the other side what was asked or answered. The way I worked my case was to provide all the information and more; My own opinions as to why things were wrong as well as quoting legislation and to do my own calculations for the amouNTS i thought were due back. Yes it took several years & that was 3 years ago when they weren't dealing with so many cases. Be aware, the banks always say they are right; so look for ways to pick holes in their story - if the FOS says they're right & you aren't, query it, put forward your evidence & ask the FOS for a written explanation of why they believe the bank is right - The banks will be doing the same thing in querying everything you say. In my case the bank spent more time critisising me & my actions than defending itself. I was lucky in that the ombudsman got fed up with their behaviour & accepted my calculations. It was very stressful even though I was doing it for a friend - but I got the result i wanted. Elmo & Lucy I'm not sure how to post a link to my thread but have a read as it is a success story.

One tip if you are preparing your own notes is to send them to your manager and ask them to agree the content or, if they disagree, let you have any amendments/comments on a separate sheet of paper, signed & dated by them. This will force them to state their position. You may find there are genuine misunderstandings that need to be resolved - or you may find they agree your notes. Personally I would never agree notes that are read out by someone. I would want to read them in my own time and then either agree them or make my own comments. If you can't get a copy, does your employer have any policies relating to DDA & related matters - if so have they complied with these. If not that may be worth highlighting. Also you could make a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act as the notes would preseumably be held in your personnel file. Anything relating to the DDA can be complex and even upsetting. It can also feel humiliating if you aren't being treated in a compassionate way. You may find it best to take a friend/colleauge with you to help in any further meetings; or, are you a member of or have you considered joining a union? They can be a great help (I speak from experience both as a union rep & someone who has conditions that fall under the DDA) The important thing for you to remeber is that the employer has obligations under the DDA & they have to demonstarte they have met these in respect of yourself.

If he is an employee, then that's fine - I just thought it worth checking - I agree with Sidewinder - its a very complex issue and consulting an employment lawyer would be the best thing to do. As regards the terms of the pub's licence, this is information in the public domain. If you ring your local council and ask to speak to the licencing department/officer they should be able to give you all the information. They may also have it on their webiste - a lot of councils do. From this you could check whether its a condition of their licence to have door staff.

Caledfwlch makes a very good point. A lot of companies set up in this way are done so to avoid & evade tax & natioanl insurance. Are you positive your husband was an employee? Does he have a contract of employment - my experience is that most companies operating in this way will provide a contrcat for the worker, but on reading it you may find that it is not what you expect. i have seen many which state that the worker (also possibly called a sub-contractor) and the company specifically have no employee/employer relationship.

You say your F-I-L works as a "doorman" at a pub -A couple of questions based on experience: Does he have an SIA licence? Is he actually an employee of the pub? The reason I ask is that many doorstaff claim to be self-employed in order to avoid PAYE tax & national insurance being deducted from their pay. This also saves the "engager" (the pub) having to pay Employers National Insurance & makes it cheaper to engage them in this way. The problem is, if you claim to be self employed and the enegaer is treating you as such, you don't get any protection from employemt legislation - as obviously you are not employed!! Hopefully your F_I_L will not be in this position & will have evidence that he is an employee. What is the position with other door staff? It would be unusual to have only one doorman as most licenced premises taht have them have the numebr specified in their licence, or have it specified that the must have door staff & there has to be more than one in case one needs to go to the toilet/ is taken ill/ doesn't turn up/ is dealing with an incident etc