I have been scouring the net looking for info on this issue but i literally cant find anything so hope someone can help! The NMW increase to 6.70 on 1st Oct is not being paid by my employer untill November, it seems wrong to me. So I asked for an explanation from them last year and the reason i got was ' we are midway through a payment cycle and it cant be changed' I wasnt happy but i did let it slide, however the same thing is happening this year and Im not letting it slide again. To clarify, the effective date is 1 Oct, i get paid 4 weekly, i am due to get paid tomorow (26th) and the cut off date was 18th October, so should I receive the increase for shifts done between the 1st and the 18th? Is this a legal requirement or a guide for employers? Hey i know its not a great deal of money but its not a small company (500 employees) and if they have pocketed a few quid from each and everyone of us it sharp mounts up! It irks me to get shafted especially when they themselves are penny pinchers. Thanks in advance.

hi all, Today I received a letter from Virgin Media broadband telling me that my bill will be increased by £1.75 from 1st of November. I install this broadband about three months ago. I choose the plan which will be unchanged for 24 months. Not the one which is half price and then jump into £30 per month after 12 months. So my question is can Virgin media do this? I heard in past that offcom change its law so mobile phone comapnies can't charge more mid-contract. Is this the case with Broadband also? I have 50MB broadband and I am paying £28.50 already for it. thanks in advance.

Hi I'll break it down as I have a few queries. SITUATION On 3/12/2013 I signed a Subject to Contract form at the letting agents, and paid the deposit, first months rent etc before moving in on 6th January 2014 on a 6 month AST. at the end it then rolled onto a periodic rental, which I then signed up for 12 months fixed contract in December 2014. I received a leaflet called "What is the Tenancy Deposit Scheme" and in my tenancy contract it says "It is protected by the following scheme - The Dispute Service www.tds.gb.com" I do not hold any further information on the deposit. 3-4 weeks ago, the letting agents telephoned me saying I needed to come in to sign up again, and that my landlady is increasing my rent (about 9% per month extra) I explained that as I was looking to buy my first home, I cannot commit to a new 6/12 month tenancy. He said that I had to sign up, and I explained that last year I had been on a periodic contract for 6 months, before renewing for a further 12 months, and my landlady had previously had no problem with this. He then called me back after speaking to my landlady and informed me that she was not happy with this as her financial situation had changed, and she cannot rely on me giving 1 months notice on a periodic tenancy. I explained very politely that I had already given my reason why I am not committing, and he became very pushy saying that house sales take on average 12 weeks to complete, so if I was to start looking in February, then I would be able to move out after the 6 months AST expires in early June. (Ok, no one tells me what to do!) I briefly explained that I'm a first time buyer, and there are plenty of houses in the area with no forward chain, so the sale could be a lot quicker. He then said that if I don't sign up then I would not have much choice, and finding another property for a short-term let whilst waiting for my house purchase to go through would be very difficult, as most agents sign for a minimum of 6 months. I panicked (all bravado went out the window) and offered to give my landlady 2 months notice to quit if she let me stay on a periodic tenancy, and I also agreed to the rent increase. He has phoned me twice, asking me to confirm this. I returned his call after his first voicemail, confirming this with his colleague, and when he called me again and left another message asking me to confirm, I didn't bother returning his call as I was pretty fed up with him by now. Question 1. I emailed the letting agents to ask about the deposit, and they said that they hold a copy of the certificate - would I like to see it? Is this a breach of any law by not automatically providing it to me? TDS website says it cannot find any record of my deposit using the information I provide - name, postcode, deposit amount. Question 2. Even though I have verbally accepted the rent increase, should I receive proper and legal notification of rent increase, before I pay the higher amount in December? Question 3. As I agreed verbally to provide 2 months notice to quit when I go onto a periodic rental tenancy, to avoid my landlady serving me a Section 21, do I have to do this by law? Question 4. My copy of the initial 6 month AST has not been signed by the Landlord/Agent - should it have been? From memory, I think they signed the copy they kept (they had printed off 2 copies, as opposed to giving me a photocopy of the original one). Question 2 and 3 relate to that I really did panic, as I don't want to have to move out for maybe 2 months before moving into the place I hope to buy, as I'm worried how the mortgage lender will view this in terms of credit scoring, making sure I'm on the electoral roll etc. If I do have to commit to the rent increase, and 2 months NTQ then fair enough, I've learnt my lesson for agreeing anything under pressure. It's since I've tried to locate my deposit, that alarm bells are ringing. It took my landlady 6 months last year to replace broken fence panels, which really peeved my neighbours off. They understood it wasn't my fault and that I had chased it up 3 times. When the fence was finally replaced, it was a 3 foot wire one provided by the council (the landlady had bought an ex local authority house conversion flat). Why it took so long, I have no idea. We were all laughing when it was fitted, as had we of known, we would've spent £20 purchasing it ourselves, rather than waiting for the council maintenance department to fit it. The tenant downstairs is a local authority tenant and asked me to contact my landlady as the guttering at the back of the property is leaking badly every time it rains. This was 3.5 weeks ago, and we've heard nothing. Any information is greatly appreciated. Thank you

So I entered into a fixed 12 month contract with Eon in January this year, at a very reasonable £32.50 a month, all going swimmingly until yesterday when they emailed me to say that my direct debit would be increasing to £43 a month! Have just emailed them, and tweeted them, to say that there is absolutely no chance of paying this increase as I am on a fixed income, and their quote of £32.50 a month has been used in my budget each month, and there is zero wriggle room. I am hoping that they can continue to take £32.50 a month, like they agreed in January, or I shall pull the direct debit and either set up a standing order, regardless of their threat of adding their penalty fees for not paying via DD, or vote with my feet and go elsewhere all together, and deal with the deforestation of begging letters for 'breaking' the contract early. If I could be bothered to read the small print in the contract, I am pretty certain that it is all weighted in their favour, and no doubt it will say that they can change the rules and move the goal posts as and when they choose, but as a customer you're not able to. But we'll see.

From November the government will increase Insurance premium tax from 6% to 9.5%, meaning that people will notice a significant increase, when the Insurers have added any increase to the premium as well. I would think that Insurance will at some point incur 20% tax, the same as current VAT. Politically governments don't like increasing income tax rates, but they tinker with indirect taxes.

In our local paper last week Single mum Alison Turner is taking one of the country's biggest banks to court for allegedly harassing her about her overdraft.In what is expected to be a ground-breaking case, Ms... Hope link works Enjoy

Scottish Power is the most complained about energy supplier in Britain, the latest figures from Citizens Advice reveal. The national charity and consumer advocate has released its latest quarterly complaints league table, which reveals: There were 1,163 complaints about Scottish Power per 100,000 customers in the last quarter of 2014: the latest period for which data is available. This is the highest number of complaints ever recorded about one energy firm. Complaints about Scottish Power increased 588% throughout 2014. The new figures also show that SSE retained top spot as the least complained about company. In the last quarter, the number of complaints about SSE, British Gas, EDF Energy and npower decreased. Npower has made improvements, but is still performing poorly relative to most other firms, with more than five times as many complaints as the next worst company. Complaints about Scottish Power are due to its new billing system, which meant some people didn’t receive a bill and others struggled to have their problems resolved. Scottish Power was banned from selling energy for 12 days in March 2015 after failing to meet Ofgem targets for resolving customer complaints. The investigation behind the ban found that the firm had not made necessary customer service improvements to respond to complaints. Citizens Advice has worked with Scottish Power to help resolve the problems its customers are experiencing. As a result it has now taken steps to deal with its backlog of complaints. These include hiring new customer service staff, extending call centre hours, and setting up a special phone line for vulnerable customers. Tips for energy customers Complain to your energy supplier as soon as you experience a problem. If you have not received a bill but are expecting one, try to put money aside so you are able to pay when you do eventually get the bill. Energy companies are only allowed to back bill for energy you used in the last 12 months, anything older than that should be written-off where the supplier is at fault. Ask for some sort of compensation for the time you spent on trying to sort out problems and the financial impact of late billing for example reduce the balance of the bill and cover the cost of phone calls. Npower customers who have received a late bill can contact the supplier on 0800 9759065 Scottish Power has increased the opening hours of its call centre to 10pm to help deal with customer queries. Suppliers must take into account ability to pay when setting debt repayment levels. You can get advice from the Citizens Advice energy consumer line on 03454 04 05 06. If you are struggling to resolve your complaint you can raise it with the energy ombudsman on 0330 440 1624.

I left Sky last year and re-joined a couple of months after, which saved me roughly 50% of the monthly cost, fixed price for 12 months. I've just had a price increase letter from them - increasing the price by about 10%. Can they do this half way through a fixed price deal which they gave me to win me back?

I received a retention offer via email so I had to speak to the live chat team to accept it. I was quote the price and all was good. I then received a confirmation email a day later that noted there was a price increase of £3 per month. Yeah it's only £3 but it's the principle. I got onto the live chat and was told recontract offers are immediate and there is no cooling off period and the misinformation I was given was not a valid reason to 'nullify' the contract. I'm absolutely livid at how sneaky they were!

Has anyone noticed that since OFCOM has mentioned more fines being applied to those making unsolicited marketing calls, that there has been an increased number of 'witheld number calls' ? When you do 1471, it says that the last person who called you witheld their number, when in the past, there was a telephone number, which if it was real, you could have used in a complaint. I have my phone always on answerphone and I only pick up if I know the person calling. People I know leave a message or know I will only pick up, if I hear a voice when the answerphone recording starts. Most people I know do the same, as they cannot be bothered with answering marketing calls. I am on TPS, but still get phone calls most days. Companies making these marketing calls will continue, but they will now be more careful.

I currently rent my home from Home group in the North East. I have received my annual rent increase letter. However it has been brought to my attention we are paying a higher band of rent than a friend of mine who lives in the same size house just 10 houses away, on the same estate but different street. Now I'm not talking a few quid difference I'm talking £30 per week difference which i think is extortionate. With this in mind I did a bit of searching and found a valuation office agency electronic rent register and found tenancies in my street moving in after us where the rent is shown as £20-30 less than what we pay. Can anyone advise if I should query this and how I should do so? thanks for your time!

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/improved-help-for-people-struggling-with-problem-debt

I'm currently on the receiving end of a S21 notice, and I'm trying to find out if I have grounds to contest this. I moved into a flat in 2001. The landlord wasn't really bothered about being a landlord, so he didn't do any of the expected things, like gas certificates or maintenance. TBH this wasn't a problem as the rent was very low, and I'm a pretty practical guy, so I was happy to look after the place, and renovated it from top to bottom. The place is an awful lot nicer than when I moved in. I could go literally 5 years without so much as speaking to him on the phone. He's moved several times without notifying me of a new address, all I've ever had is a mobile phone number. This was the days before deposits had to be protected, so I didn't worry about that. This was a periodic tenancy from the start, not a fixed term that rolled into a statutory periodic tenancy. In 2009 we met and he put the rent up by a small amount. I agreed to this as it was a pretty modest increase. Nothing was written down, definitely no Section 13 notice, but I started paying the higher amount straight away. There was nothing in the original AST about varying the rent. My question is whether this should be regarded as a variation of the old tenancy agreement, or a new agreement. This is significant as if it is a new agreement, then he needed to put the deposit into a protection scheme. If not, then I can't defend the S21 on that basis. At the time I was unaware of the distinction between the two and the implications if our arrangement all went south - as it has done now. What would the characteristics be of a new agreement versus a variation of an old one? How strong is my argument that he should have protected the deposit as we effectively had a new agreement post-2009? Thanks for the help.

This is a new forum for me. Post arrived today usual bumph including a letter from VM stating that from 01/02/2015 they will be increasing their fees by £3.00pm. Called VM to state not interested any more to have services that go up so much with no extra value same channels not better service, just more costs. Stated this and said that I would rather leave VM for services else where. The result was a £30.00 good will gesture to account for this increase for the next year. My question is now how many people will blindly accept the increase in fees without questioning them. Also they like to state a brand new contract is entered into if you change your service package for another year why?

My mother in law works part-time for a supermarket in England, an has worked there for over 2 years. In July there was a store meeting where everyone was advised that they will be requiring people to offer more availability for the times/days they can work due to business requirements, and that redundancies were on the cards. On the way out of the meeting they were given generic letters for them to fill in with their new availability. Mother in law extended her hours of availability even though she didn't want to and she cannot commit to much more (she cares for my 2 year old a few days a week whilst i am at work). A few weeks later in August there were some redundancies in the store, seemingly for those who didn't offer the flexibility/availability required. Mother in law's new availability was accepted and her shifts she has been given has been based on that new availability since. Last week she was hand delivered a letter inviting her to a meeting with her manager tomorrow to discuss further availability that the store needs their staff to commit to, and that if this is not achieved then the outcome for the staff who cannot fit in with their requirements will be a new contract offered under the new hours the store demand, and failure to sign the contract would mean they are dismissed. I will be going to the meeting with her tomorrow as support. A few points i wonder if anyone could advise me on?: I have advised her to give some further offer of availability to show willing, and to draw a line and no futher. But can they ask for further offers of availability despite seemingly accepting what she offered when looking at initial redundancies? Can they make redundancies in the first step, and then in phase 2 (i.e. now) threaten dismall with no redundancy? In my mind there's nothing different to when asking people to change their hours to suit the business in July and doing it again a second time now. I have suggested she writes a flexible working request as she is unavailble 3 days a week due to caring for my child and hand it to her manager in the meeting tomorrow. Is this worth her doing or likely to cause problems? Basically, if she refuses to say she's available for all of the store opening times/dates and they dismiss her for this (as in give her a new contract which she doesn't accept) is this legal and does she have any avenues of recourse? Any advice appreciated.

At first glance the letter I just received was a simply change of conditions to a basic Co-Op Cashminder account I've had for years. Then alarm bells started ringing. Back in 2006 the OFT decided that £12 was a MAXIMUM charge for standard bank charges like unpaid DD, overlimit and so on. The banks decided that £12 was the new rate, not a maximum, and have yet to prove the actual cost - hence people still reclaiming unlawful charges. Look at the copy letter and you'll see that the Co-Op intend to increase their unpaid item fee to £15. The seem to say that this is because the FCA is now responsible for consumer credit business, not the OFT. I don't go overdrawn and don't have any direct debits that would cause me personally to incur the revised fee, but how do they justify the price hike? The ruling obtained by the OFT is still in place - isn't it ? Or did I miss something... ? [ATTACH=CONFIG]51792[/ATTACH]

I'm not sure how much I can do on this but I need to ask if there is something I can do. In February this year I was caught speeding on a motorway that had a restricted 50mph speed limit on it. I was caught at the end of the restricted zone doing +-62mph. Documents were sent to me that I duly completed admitting my guilt and these were returned in time apart from my licence and counterpart that I couldn't find at the time. As I was due to go on holiday the following day I felt that it could wait till I returned before I sent it. The fine of £100 was paid electronically. In about June, I received a cheque for £100 from the court whom I contacted to be informed that the money was returned as they had not received my Licence and counterpart and that I must now wait for more papers. As you can see I forgot about the licence when I returned from holiday. After searching again I couldn't find the offending items and so I asked for duplicates from the DVLA which I received. The next set of documents arrived which were duly completed along with a statement of my mitigating circumstances as above and I enclosed the new licence and counterpart. A couple of days ago I received notice from the court that my fine was now £700 with a £70 victim surcharge and £85 costs a total of £855!! This is a large increase from the original fine of £100 and all because I failed to send in my licence. I had completed the original documents, I had paid the fine, I had completed the next set of documents, I sent in my licence and now I have a fine that is, in my opinion, out of context with the original offence. I have spoken to and now written to the court to ask why this has happened and the reasons for it and have asked for that fine to be reviewed. I have also asked the court to hold the Enforcement Notice. The fine was due to be paid on the 1st. October. Does anyone have any other way that I can appeal this vast increase for something which is fairly easy to have been resolved. All they had to do was to send me a reminder for the licence and it would have been done. Thank you in advance. Alan.

BT has warned millions of customers it is increasing its prices by up to 6.5% from December this year. It will increase the line rental for direct debit customers by 6.25% to £16.99, and the rate for calling UK landlines by 6.44%, while the pence per minute (ppm) rate for calls to UK landlines and 0870 numbers will go up 6.44% from 9p a minute to 9.58p. The set-up fee for landline calls will increase from 15p to 15.97p, residential calls to the Timeline speaking clock will go up from 36.6p to 38.97p and call return will increase from 19.9p to 21.19p. Broadband prices are going up by as much as 6.49% http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28902300

Hi Guys, Sorry I got a letter from aqua a week ago saying they are going to increase my credit limit to £1750 from £1000. As my car has just badly failed the MOT i thought this was ideal. The letter stated contact them if I do not wish to increase my limit. So I looked at the beginning of the week, and sure enough my limit was £1750 I then paid off a bill onto it. Today, i came to pay for some car repairs and it got declined twice. On checking my balance, not only has my limit miraculously been put back to £1000, I have been charged an over limit fee!!! Before I call them, what rights do I have? Surely I needed some notice before a decrease? I haven't spent on the card since I got the letter until I checked my balance was increased at which point I paid the debt (put me £20 or so over £1000). Any help would be much appreciated.

Can the Open University increase its fees after a module has started. Student finance has just sent me a letter saying they have and my loan adjusted accordingly

JTI are increasing prices on some brands again, B & H, Silk Cut to mention two brands. No idea what size increase it will be but suspect at least 25p per 20. Date of increase 8 May 2014. Notification also received some brands will be reducing in size to 19's - Sterling for one, keeps them in line with JPS & Richmond brands by Imperial. More & more will be reducing in size.

HI everyone, I couldn't find anything similar to this, so apologies if this has been answered before. We are currently living in a private rented house where we rent through a letting agent. We have been in the house almost 3 years now with no problems at all until the end of last year when the letting agent tried to get us to sign a renewal and pay them £120 for the privelege. We refused to pay the charges and told the landlord, they were quite happy as they didnt agree with the charges either. UNfortunately things went downhill. The agents became increasingly insistent and when I sent them an email asking them for an explanation as to why their charges were so high they didn't give us an answer. The contract renewal went unsigned and we started into a SPT until the landlady asked us if we could at least return the renewal for the sake of her mortgage or she would have to evict. We sent off the forms but now some months later the letting agents are saying that they didn't receive them and now they want to issue a new renewal with a rent increase. They say because we haven't got a signed contract then they are at liberty to put the rent up even if the original renewal had no rent increase. I have a copy of the original renewal they sent through last year on email and I think they are trying to use an increase in rent to get their renewal fee that we refused to pay. I'm also considering whether we should use the legislation of superstrike v Rodrigues to try and show the landlady that if she tries to get a rent increase with the letting agents that we may take action against her for not issuing us with new details regarding the security deposit when the Stautory periodic tenancy began. All we really want is to carry on renting the house and maintain a good relationship with the owners but we refuse to be ripped off by them or the letting agents. Can anyone offer some advice?

Hello, My landlord has asked for increase in rent now that my 6 month fix term has come to a end. My questions is how much notice does he need to give me? https://www.gov.uk/private-renting/rent-increases "Your landlord must give you a minimum of one month’s notice (if you pay rent weekly or monthly). If you have a yearly tenancy, they must give you 6 months’ notice. " I can see from gov.uk but I paid for my rent upfront so how much notice do i need?

Hi, I currently pay £775 a month in rent to my landlord, they are a property company and own lots of houses. My tenancy is due to end the 24th January. I completely forgot and first call I get about it is today from one of the admin girls at my landlords office. She says to me they need to increase the rent by 4% to £806 a month. This seems like a massive increase to me, I understand and will accept an inflationary increase but I just want to understand my rights as a tenant and wether I just ave to grin and bear it or if I can negotiate. I've had a look on right move and in my area 2 bed properties similar to mine are going for £795 a month. I'd be happy to pay this. How can I negotiate this with the landlord? I've returfed the lawn as well out of my own pocket, surely this could be taken into account? Also I think I read somewhere they have to give me a months notice in writing before increasing the rent, this hasn't happened as they want to get me to sign paperwork this wednesday? Many thanks in advance Blinky

Hello, I moved property 3 months ago. When I chose this location, there were several factors which were very important to me. 1) A NTL connection had to be available, which the estate agent told me was available, and they even showed me the NTL connection. 2) That there was CCTV around the entire property, which there appears to be by various cameras placed around the property. Since I have moved there, I have found out that: 1) The NTL connection is infact a dummy and does not work. I approached the letting agent about this and got the following response: ********** Response: With regards to the NTL. This is the first ive heard about it. And as far as i am aware if you are in a non serviceable area then NTL would'nt install a connection point. If there is a connection point Joseph would assume like anybody else would, that NTL would supply a connection there. ********** 2) The CCTV camera's are ALSO dummies... I also approached them about this and they came back with the following: ********** Response: With regard to the CCTV this would be down to the Managment Company (SLM) TEL: 01482 328068. ********** Now why do I feel like I'm being fobbed off here and that the buck is being passed on. What options do I have to sort this out? Also in light of this, can I dispute the £120.00 administration cost which they said was for 'administration and credit checking'? Thanks and Regards Adrian