I have been unable to work since November last year and went on sick leave from my company, I am improving at a good rate now and my doctor has stated that I can do a phased return to work if I feel ready. I have discussed this with my manager and have agreed to do 2-8 hours a week for the first 6 week and then 16 hours thereafter... I started claming esa in April and now have my new sick/fit note to say i can do a phased return will i still get esa while I am doing this as 2-8 hours paid is not enough to survive on? Also will I be entitled to the return to work credit if I am going back to my previous job role in the company or does it have to be a new job to be entitled to this? I assume if my esa continues while i do my phased return for 6 weeks this time still under a fit/sick note still contributes to time on the benefit which will end up being over 13 weeks which is the criteria for this return to work credit? I find the whole thing so confusing and a lot of hassle, be glad when i'm fully back at work! Would be grateful if anyone could advise. Thanks for reading.

Hi all, Just a quick question, I was issued with a sick-note by my GP (or fit-note, whatever you want to call it) last Monday 13th February, stating that I was unfit for work from that date to the 20th February. When should I return to work? 21st? Your advice is greatly appreciated! Regards.

Hello, I need a bit of a sanity check and some advice, as I have received two lots of advice for a problem I'm having, both of which are valid. The background: I bought a musical instrument in May, and within 2 weeks it stopped working properly. I took it back to the shop and they repaired it. The same fault occurred to a lesser extent several more times, but after leaving the instrument for a while (20-30 minutes usually) it would start working again. The quality of the tone was noticeably reducing, however. In September I was playing the instrument in a performance and it stopped working halfway through, with the same problem as before - this was extremely embarrassing, as you can imagine. I took the instrument back to the shop where I bought it and asked for a refund. The shop said they didn't know what caused the problem so couldn't give me a refund, and would send it off to the manufacturers to have it investigated. I was a bit upset and just wanted my money back - I paid nearly £1000 for it (a brand new instrument), and had lost faith in it completely. Eventually I agreed to the shop sending it back to the manufacturer for investigation. I spoke to Consumer Direct when I got home, and they advised me to write a letter referring to the Sale of Goods Act and saying I rejected the instrument because it was faulty, and had already been repaired by them once. That letter was sent last week. I received a phone call from the shop last Friday to say they had received my letter, and their engineer had had a look at the instrument and wanted to meet me in person. I agreed to this, and visited the shop yesterday afternoon. The engineer explained the cause of the problem - there were two factors, one of which could be resolved by a simple workaround and the other he couldn't identify the cause of, although the result of the problem was clear. He watched me put the instrument together and I played it a bit, and he said that, based on my handling and playing of it there, he could pretty much rule out my handling of the instrument as a cause of either problem (which was gratifying to hear - I know I don't manhandle it, but it's nice that someone else saw that and agreed). The engineer, who turned out to be the shop owner, proposed that he do the quick fix to solve one of the problems there and then, and for me to take the instrument away and play it as normal and try to recreate the second problem. I would then take it back into them as soon as it occurred, or even before it occurred if I didn't feel happy with how the instrument was performing, and they would spend as much time as was needed investigating it and fixing it until the cause of the problem was found. He said I could take it in as many times as I liked until either the problem was fixed permanently, or a conclusion was reached that the instrument was faulty and they would replace it. I spoke to Consumer Direct while I was in the shop to get some more advice, and they suggested how to deal with it. I returned to the shop owner and said that I'd like to go away and think about it. He said that was fine, but if I decided not to work with him then it would result in a court case to get my money back. He said this a couple of times, and talked about the value of the instrument seeing as it is effectively now second-hand. I phoned his shop this morning and asked him to send me a letter with a description of the cause of the problem and the work they had done, and his proposal about fixing the instrument, as I forgot to ask yesterday. The advice: I spoke to Consumer Direct again this morning and explained how things had been left. Their advice was to write back to him and say that if the fix provided was a long-term one then I would accept it, but if it wasn't a long-term fix then I would require a replacement or refund. My mum has a slightly different take on it: that he has already acknowledged that the fix probably won't be long term by saying he'd be willing to spend as much time on it as necessary and that I could take it back as many times as was needed. Her opinion is that I request the refund again and take the company to court if they refuse. My dilemma On one hand I don't want to be going back to the shop once every 2-3 weeks (which was the approximate frequency of the instrument going wrong between the end of May and the beginning of September) for the next year or more. On the other hand, it is a lovely instrument when it works properly and as Consumer Direct said it's all about being reasonable - it's reasonable for them to try and fix the problem. I am asking myself a few questions: - over what time-period is it reasonable for them to expect me to keep going back to the shop so that they can try and fix the instrument? Could I specify this time period if I write back to them accepting their proposal? - if it then goes wrong after this time period, could they force me to have a replacement? - if I decide not to accept their proposal, is it worth pursuing through the court? The shop owner kept mentioning the figure £500 as the value of the second-hand instrument, but as I haven't had the full use of it and have had it for less than 6 months is this likely to be all I would get? I guess the million-dollar question is how do you work out the value of it 6 months after it was purchased brand new? - I don't know if I will get my faith in the instrument back, so would the easy option be to accept their offer and just sell it as a second-hand instrument, if that's the value I would get if I pursued it through the court? What would Woody do? (I haven't named the shop or the instrument because I'd rather it didn't show up in searches for the moment)