My daughter and her partner claimed jobseekers allowance at the beginning of November, 2012 when their seasonal employment came to an end. They were entitled to £111 a week. In that time my daughter got some part time employment up to 8 hours a week and declared this. She has now found that this has been deducted from her benefits even though technically she earnt nothing. (The two hour shifts did not even cover transport costs). Her partner now has employment even though first pay will not be until the end of January and they are struggling to pay their bills. Housing benefit has not been forthcoming. I was sat with my daughter and she spent over 3 hours on the phone to the housing benefits (they put her on hold, said they could not speak to her without her partner's permission, which he gave. Then they told her they had lost her file. Then she was cut off and had to start again and after having hung on another 50 minutes was told that she would have to have his permission to speak to her. She said he had already given permission but had been cut off so she had to start the whole process again. Then after another 50 minutes the line was cut off again because the office had closed. All of these phone calls cost her in excess of 10p a minute and she is now getting to the end of her tether with all the aggravation and the worry of how they are to pay their bills. They have had approximately £300 to live on since the beginning of November, less the amount it has cost her to work and will receive no other payments until the end of January. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi, myself & my partner have just moved back to the UK from Spain along with our 1 year old daughter as my partner was made redundant. We have an appointment with the local Jobcentre tomorrow but before I go I wanted to be up to speed on what we might be entitled to. 1. We have been in Spain for 7 years, prior to that both of us worked in the UK. Would we be entitled to contribution based JSA or do your contributions have to be recent and if so, would we be entitled to income based JSA. 2. I have a flat that is currently rented. It was purchased in 2005 and there's a mortgage on it of £60K and I think it's currently worth about £90K - would that render us ineligible on capital grounds? We are staying with my parents just now as the property is rented. Any info/advice anyone has on this would be greatly appreciated. lisestar

Hi, I am new to the forum and desperate for some advice or views. I was migrated from IB to Esa Contribution based last October 2011 and placed in the Wrag Group, my payments have just recently been stopped because of the 365 day rule, I do not meet the criteria for Income based Esa. . I asked for a reconsideration on the decision as I felt I qualified for the Support Group. The decision was to remain the same, Wrag group. I then appealed the reconsidered decision in May of 2012, as part of the appeal they firstly reconcidered the decision again to no satisfaction, still to remain in the Wrag Group and appeal papers sent to Tribunal. I have just recently one year on from the original decision received appeal pack from Dwp which has also been sent to the Tribunal. Amongst other things there is guidance notes to help the Tribunal with its decision. One of the guidance notes states:- A claimant has Limited Capability for Work Relatied Activity ( Support Group) if they satisfy at least one of the Support Group Descriptors. A discriptor is satisfied if it applies for the majority of the time ( Majority is the key word) or, as the case maybe, for the majority of the occasions on which the claimant undertakes or attempts to undertake the activity described by that descriptor. The reference:- The Employment and Support Allowance regulations 2008 34 (1), (2). When I received my Esa85 medical report from Atos one of the descriptors I satisfied was, Engagement in social contact with someone unfamiliar to the claimant is not possible for the majority ( again key word Majority) of the time due to difficulty relating to others or significant distress experienced by the claimant. My questions are, do I satisfy this descriptor in your opinion taking into consideration the wording of the Esa regulation 2008, should I have been placed in the Support Group? if I should have been in Support Group what is my next step as the Support Group does not apply to the 365 day rule and my payments have already stopped. I have telephoned Dwp to discuss this several times and request a call back but no one has bothered to phone me back, I have just recently emailed my MP to ask for his help. Advice or your views would be much appreciated.

Hi, Got a bit of an issue here with an employer. My employer isn't allowing me to take my accrued entitlement and will loose them as of December 31st! I started working for them on the 18th September 2012 as a door supervisor working average 4-5 nights a week (roughly 20 - 30 hours a week) and have accrued just over a weeks holiday. Thing is, I'm on week 11 of my 12 week probationary period which means I cannot take holidays until after the 11th December. Due to the nature of the business and it being Christmas time, my employer has a strict NO Holidays after the 10th December and is in effect until the new year. Our holiday year runs from January to December and holidays cannot be carried over, nor will the be paid in lieu. So I'm basically being denied my statutory entitlement. There are a handful of us in this situation, what are our options?

Hi, I have worked at the same place for almost 4 years, but over a year ago, i reduced my hours to start university. I now do 11 hours a week. Our financial year runs from april to april, and within april 2012 until now, i have had 22 hours of holiday time off. I have recently been told by my manager that i have no more holiday time until the next financial year (which starts in april), but im struggling to see how this is right. It is not unusual for my manager to make mistakes like this, as he has done so before. Does anyone know how many hours i should be entitled to? Thanks

This is a tough 1. August I left my job (long story mentioned in another thread). I was hoping to claim carers allowance to look after a family member, until they told me they would take half this family members money off them if I claimed. Was planning to find a new job but then had an accident (that I mentioned in another thread). The accident happened at the start of September. My tendons and nerve in my arm had been damaged and so I was referred to a hospital out of town to have an operation. During that time my arm was bandaged up and of course I would of been unable to work. Due to it being a cut tendon I was not allowed to move my arm or put strain on it, otherwise the tendon would fully snap and I could lose use of my fingers. Had the operation at the end of September, they planned physio and again I was told not to move it (It even says in NHS documents that you cant go back to work until 6 weeks or more after the op). I was given DR's note to give to my GP.... This was my means of claiming benefits. My doctor would know whats wrong with my arm from the notes... sign me off and I could claim some money... I get back to my home town and realise they have given me someone else's dr's notes. A complete mistake by them... I posted here and a few other people told me to put a complaint through PALS... There were many other issues to so a complaint seemed the way to do things... I also mentioned about ESA due to their mistake in not handing me my correct drs notes (Such as if I went to my GP... they will see my arm in a plaster cast and for all they know iv done something as minor as spraining it... They were not to know I had an operation for a serious injury). They said investigation will be complete at the middle of this month. Iv got 2 concerns... Because they have been taking that long to investigate... Since then I have had the cast removed. When it gets to that point where they get back to me the 6 week period that they say im not allowed to work for will be over... and my arm will be fine again. Can I be entitled to benefits for the 2 months of the hospitals mistakes? Will PALS help with that? How would I go about claiming it?? Been a nightmare having no money for 2 months and not knowing what to do

My employer has recently decided to change the holiday entitlement yearly period to the normal Jan - Dec 25 days. previously it was 25 days from April to April. However, because of the changes they have told us that our allowance pro rata for this year, will now be less (works out at 16 days), as it will be end of year in December not April. So I'm 8 days over my "new" allowance and have been told I need to pay back one day per month from sept to Dec, and then they will take the other 3.5 days from next years allowance. This is costing me nearly £100 per month, that i cannot afford. My question is, can they do this? Do I have to pay it back? this is their decision and they ahven't offered any goodwill gesture, they've just "told" us that we have to pay back or lose it out of next years allowance?? Any advice greatly appreciated? Moantime - i seem to pay something off then another debt rears its head. I got a pay rise followed the next day by a letter from HMRC saying I owe tax which they're taking direct form my salary. I book a holiday and now this happens? End of my tether! Just when you think u can see the light at the end of the tunnel....

Hi Everyone, I've read loads of threads/posts where the above muppets have been reported to Trading Standards and the Office Of Fair Trading etc. Has anyone ever received notice that action has been taken against them, I know they are still upto their old tricks cos they are still sending me letters. Cheers Wooks001

My daughter is a stylist at a local hairdressing salon and has been employed there for nearly seven years. Her normal hours of work are 9am - 6pm Tuesday, 9am - 5pm Wednesday and Thursday, 9am - 6pm Friday and 8am to 3pm on Saturday - all with allegedly one hour for a lunch break! She does not work Bank Holidays (bearing in mind that most of these are actually on a Monday when the salon is closed!). Her holiday entitlement in her contract reads "You are entitled to 24 days holiday with full pay inclusive of Statutory and Customary holidays (including Bank Holidays) in each year". I'm not entirely sure that this is correct or in fact what it actually REALLY means! Is anyone clued up on employment law able to shed some light please?? Many thanks in advance.

Long story but basically in August 2010 we were called to attend an IUC, they decided we did not declare a change in circumstances and we accepted a caution. We appealed against the overpayments of HB and CTC using Underlying Entitlement (I was self employed and was not making any money at all for the 5 months I was working) which was accepted. DWP said we had been overpaid by over £5000, I checked the amounts and wrote back because they had included my husband's IB in their qualifications; this was duly accepted and reduced to a tad over £2000. It took them 12 months to write to us telling us of this decision, that was in February this year but we appealed again citing Underlying Entitlement - this was turned down. We then applied to be heard at Tribunal - my solicitor by now had not returned any calls (probably due to not being paid by Legal Aid any more) and my husband's mental ill health has been so poor particularly since this whole damned thing started that there was no way he could attend so we opted for hearing without us being there. The letter, dated 19/05 asked us to respond within 14 days but to send on details of any adviser later; it also stated there was a long delay in our tribunal being heard, I have been going through the papers with a fine tooth comb and sorting out mistakes they have made, gathering different information including my accounts which clearly state no profit was made at any time, and trying to get legal advice - our local (20 miles away) CAB is only open for appointments one day a week. I presented my accounts to the IUC yet these werent included in the papers. I was rather shocked today then to receive a letter stating it had been heard and the decision would not be reversed. I dont know how to proceed now, my husband is in pieces, we are already involved in a Debt Management Plan to clear debts on credit cards largely amassed when the DWP stopped almost all of our benefits for 3 months and now it looks like Ive missed the boat with this one too. I cant believe that DWP can have different rules to Local Authorities, it all seems so wrong to me, and had we have been aware of procedures at the time, the money I should have claimed through Working Tax Credit would have cost the public purse far more than what DWP now claim is over paid. Can anybody offer any advice to me please. Thank you

Hello could someone calculate mmy holiday entitlement please I am no good with numbers and it all seems so complicated I work 32 weeks a year (term time only) and work 18 hours a week (although sometimes I do more but my boss is fly and does not take that into consideration!) She says holiday pay is now done by hours and not days...I worked it out it was 16 days a year but could be wrong. Many thanks in advance